“To your companies,” Lerial says quietly.
Two Afritan outriders take a position at the head of the column, with the remaining squad members forming up two abreast behind Rhamuel, with the banner bearer directly behind the arms-commander. Valatyr takes a position to the arms-commander’s left, leaving the position on the right to Lerial, who eases the gelding into place. Once the Afritan Guards are in place behind the senior officers, Lerial looks to Rhamuel.
The arms-commander nods.
“Column! Forward!” Lerial orders.
The sun is just above the east bank of the river when Lerial and the others ride out through the north gate of Lubana. Lerial has not spoken since giving the order to move out, deciding to leave any initiation of conversation to Rhamuel.
They are still south of the piers at Luba when Rhamuel says, “Young Norstaan is not used to gentle suggestions, Overcaptain. I had to point out a few things to him.”
“You are the arms-commander,” replies Lerial, “and I offered what I thought was the best arrangement as a suggestion.”
“It is the best arrangement, and I would have suggested something similar if you had not.”
“Which you gently pointed out to him, and then assigned him to the rear guard.”
“He needed to be reminded that you are not only his superior in rank, but far more than that in terms of actual power.”
“I would suggest … only suggest, that we rotate the rear-guard officer among my three and the undercaptain.”
Rhamuel nods. “I agree … but Norstaan’s first rotation there should be a bit longer.” He grins. “He needs a bit of time to think.”
From his words and his reactions, more time may not be that helpful. “We were all inexperienced once. Some of us still aren’t as experienced as we need to be.”
“No one is as experienced as they need to be unless they’ve stopped trying to do better,” replies Rhamuel.
Lerial can’t argue with that. He just smiles.
“I notice that all your officers appear to be former rankers. Is that so?”
“It is. Kusyl will likely be promoted to captain when we return to Cigoerne.”
“Is that true of all junior officers?” Rhamuel’s voice contains more than a modicum of doubt.
“Not of all. I’d say that about two in three junior officers have experience as rankers. About one in three would appear to come from backgrounds similar to Undercaptain Norstaan.”
“What would you say his background might be?”
“It’s only a guess, but I’d say he comes from a well-off family, most likely is the third or fourth son of a merchanter, or the second son of a successful senior officer.”
Valatyr laughs softly.
Even Rhamuel smiles before he asks, “How did you decide that?”
“He acts exactly the way I felt before Majer Altyrn decided to set me straight.”
“And your father let him?”
For a moment, Lerial is puzzled, because there is no real curiosity behind Rhamuel’s words, but then he understands that the answer is not for the arms-commander. “Let him? He was the one who decided it was necessary. I saw my parents and my brother and sister only once in more than a year.”
“Your point is made, Arms-Commander,” says Valatyr dryly. “But you can’t make it that way with those who need to understand it. Even faced with proof in person, they’ll deny what they see.”
“Perhaps. We’ll see.” Rhamuel turns toward Lerial. “Has your family told you much about Swartheld?”
“Not that much. Only that Cigoerne is far, far more modest than Swartheld, and that the grandest dwellings in the duchy are less than those of merchanters who are considered only well-off.”
Rhamuel laughs again, more humorously. “That’s a bit of an overstatement. The only truly grand thing about Swartheld is the harbor. It is truly magnificent…”
As the arms-commander begins to talk about Swartheld, the column reaches the paved section of the river road adjoining the Luba piers where Lerial and the Mirror Lancers had repulsed the last Heldyan attack. Lerial can see that no attempt has been made to replace the shattered paving stones or to clean away the black streaks from the stone.
Nor do any of the people on the side of the road pay much attention to the passing riders.
XVII