5.Death of Chaos
XXIX
BEHIND GAIRLOCH, I could hear the sounds of hoofs, harnesses, and the occasional clink of metal on metal. I felt like someone was looking at me, but my senses didn't feel anything like chaos, and I hadn't seen any vulcrows. I turned in the saddle, surveying the rocky walls, the stunted cedars, and the narrow ribbon of water to the right of the road. Nothing.
I looked up, but the sky remained misty, with flat gray clouds hanging over the Lower Easthorns. Nothing flew in the misty drizzle, not even a vulcrow.
My gloved fingers brushed the wood of the staff, but it remained merely wood bound in iron. I wiped the dampness off my forehead with the back of my glove.
Now less than a day behind us, but too far behind for me to hear or sense, followed Krystal and the larger force. I hoped that they stayed far behind-far enough behind that the wizard looked for us-even though that wasn't exactly Krystal's or Kasee's plan.
“How far before we get to this turnoff?” I asked.
Yelena turned in the saddle. “We'll stop here. Let them water their mounts.”
“Hold up! Stand down...”
“Water your mounts by squads...”
“... leave the upper part for drinking...”
The quiet commands still echoed through the dampness and the grayish mist. Almost-freezing mist was worse than snow in some ways. I never got quite warm, and with my order-control I couldn't quite complain about freezing, even to myself.
In the middle of the mist that wasn't quite a drizzle, Yelena spread the rough map on the boulder. “Here is where we are. It's about ten kays up this road from where we entered the Khersis Gorge. If we followed the river, we'd end up at the pass here, and then it's only a few days down to the brimstone springs. We could save some time if we take the cutoff just below the pass rather than the earlier one up ahead.”
“Is that a good idea?” I asked.
“That's closer to where the springs are.”
“That's also closer to where Gerlis is, and he's bound to be waiting for some sort of response to incinerating the commander of Kyphros. I would be. He hasn't shown much respect for boundaries so far.”
“But...” Weldein started to speak, then stopped as both Yelena and I looked at him.
Since riding up the direct road to the valley in which the spring lay was as good as blowing on a loud trumpet to announce our arrival, we were looking for the side road that I had taken on my way back that would provide us with a more roundabout approach.
I studied the map, looking for the trail. It didn't look that far ahead on the gorge road. “We take this trail to this pass here, under these-”
“The Two Thieves, they're called,” interposed Yelena.
“-and then take this road here...”
“That's almost eighty kays, and we'll end up in Hydlen south of Arastia. It's less than ten kays difference if we take the one just below the pass.”
“That's just too close.” I waited, but they all looked blank. It seemed simple enough to me.
“What's the one direction that Gerlis won't expect an attack or scouting force to come from?”
“From inside Hydlen. That's clear enough,” said Yelena. “But do you think his troops are just going to let us ride through Hydlen and do nothing?”
“Probably not.” I forced a smile. “Would you prefer to face the wizard coming up this road?” My finger outlined the road ahead. “Or possibly run into some Hydlenese troopers on this trail? Do the Finest patrol all the back trails in Kyphros?”
“Of course not. The outliers do some of it.”
“And five squads aren't a match for a squad of whatever the Hydlenese use as outliers?”
This time Freyda grinned at Yelena. The force leader, a dubious promotion under the circumstances, shook her head. “We'll still be lucky to get back in one piece.”
“I know. This way there's a chance.” I looked around. “How long before we reach that trail?”
“It should be just a few more kays.”
“It's on the south side,” offered Freyda.
I had to trust their judgment, since I was no scout and had only taken the road once, and then I hadn't been in the best physical or mental shape.
No one said anything else, and Yelena folded up the map and put it into her case. “Mount up!”
“... mount up...”
“... finish up...”
“... not in the water, you idiot!”
I climbed back on Gairloch and turned him to continue up the canyon in a generally eastward direction.
The clink of metal and the sound of hoofs echoed back through the gorge, and the low murmurs of wet troopers underlay it all. I looked back to see if I could hear Shervan or Pendril, but through the drizzle, one outlier looked like another.
Gairloch seemed to have covered a lot more road than a mere two to three kays before I pointed to the left. “Is that it?”
“That looks like it,” admitted Yelena. “It's headed toward the Two Thieves.”
The trail was the same trail-just a trail, but where it left the main road it was still wide enough for two horses abreast.
“It can't be that easy,” mumbled Weldein.
It wasn't. In the first place, the drizzle turned into rain, and then into a light snow that didn't stick. In the second place, the trail hadn't been maintained in a long time, if ever, with pits and potholes everywhere. I had noticed that before, but it was worse with a whole force. Gairloch did fine, and no one said a word after Freyda's mount came up lame from stepping in a puddle that had a pit in it. The injury was more like a sprain, and I managed to infuse it with a little order, but that meant Freyda had to take one of the few spare mounts and lead her mount for the rest of the day.
Then we hit the valley of death, with wet ash and more ash, with the smell of wet fire and death. And with the sense of death and gloom.
“Shit...” mumbled Weldein.
“... hell of the demons of light...”
Yelena looked at me and rode closer. Her voice was low. “You didn't tell me about this.”
“I told the commander and the autarch.” I swallowed. “I'm sorry.”
She surprised me. She just shook her head sadly. “Was this where... Ferrel...”
“Yes, but there's no way to prove it.”
“You came through this, and you're bringing us back through it?” asked Freyda.
“It's the best way.”
“... take the best way through demons' hell...” muttered Jylla, a shade paler.
The talk died into silence when the outliers followed us into the narrow valley. I tried not to think about the power involved, but that didn't really work when I could feel the remnants of chaos creeping out of the rocks.
Gairloch put one foot in front of the other, and I hung on.
When I saw the first clump of grass at the other end, I took a deep breath. Weldein took one as he passed the first scrub cedar on the left side of the trail.
I kept thinking about using order to strengthen chaos to defeat Gerlis, and it almost seemed insane. Maybe it was. Maybe the whole order-chaos conflict was insane. I didn't know. All I did know was that Gerlis was waiting for me in the valley of the brimstone spring.
Not long after we passed the ashes, the rain came down in sheets, just long enough to soak us. Then the sky cleared, and the cold wind picked up.
That night, we camped in a narrow valley with water, and some grass, and it was cold, not chill like in Kyphros, but almost winter-cold, for all that we were in the southern part of the Easthorns that weren't that much more than hills, probably not much taller than the Little Easthorns that divided Kyphros and Gallos.
“No fire?” I asked.
“No fire,” Yelena affirmed.
All of the Finest were bundled up in their riding jackets, and the outliers wrapped themselves in blankets as well. I wore my jacket and cap, but I wasn't huddled into a ball the way most were.
Weldein looked at me. “Aren't you cold, Order-master?”
“No.” I wasn't cold, at least not miserable, freezing cold the way they all were. I supposed that the one advantage of the mist was that the chaos wizard would have a hard time finding us. Even as I thought about it, though, I wondered about the uneasy feeling that had come and gone in the last few days. Was Gerlis somehow watching us?