Once more Mykel could sense that her words were not bravado, but more like a statement of fact. "No. You might find yourself forced, but you would never sell yourself."

"You know me so well?"

"No. I don't know you at all. I can tell some things about you, and that's one that was obvious from the time I saw you driving that cart. Why were you carrying that rifle? Had someone just left it there, and you didn't want to be bothered by taking it back?"The moment of silence was enough for Mykel to judge that he was close to the truth. He laughed, ruefully. "And you wouldn't give anyone the satisfaction of knowing that. I should have guessed."

As he looked at her, he thought he saw, despite the darkness, a trace of brightness in and around her eyes. "I'm sorry. I wish it had been otherwise. I imagine you do as well."

"I don't need pity, Captain. Or false sympathy. Or anything else."

"Did you know your father was stockpiling so many weapons?" Mykel really didn't want to ask the question, but he needed to ask some, just in case Vaclyn inquired.

Rachyla didn't answer.

"You said he was betrayed? Who betrayed him? The smugglers who brought the weapons?"

"Do you think my father would ever have trusted a smuggler to keep his word, Captain?" Rachyla laughed, a full but bitter sound.

'Then who was it? The local council?"

"The council is nothing. Neither are your alectors. The true and rightful rulers of Dramur are its seltyrs."

"The true and rightful rulers? You deny the Duarches?"

Rachyla looked straight at Mykel, but said nothing, offering what might have been a faint and sad smile.

"You truly believe that?"

She remained mute.

"If you did escape, what would you do?"

There was no answer.

Mykel laughed, gently and stepped back. "Good night, Lady Rachyla."

Then he rapped on the door. "I'm finished here."When the door opened, all six Cadmians had rifles trained on the doorway.

Rachyla's brief laughter filled the courtyard, cut off as one of the local Cadmian rankers closed the door, shoved both the heavy iron bolts into place, then snapped the lock shut.

"Thank you." Mykel inclined his head to the guards.

"You find out anything, sir?"

"A little. Not as much as I'd like, but she wasn't about to say more now."

"She will in time. They all do. Every one."

That might have been, but Mykel was convinced that Rachyla was anything but everyone.

He looked at his own rankers. "Let's go."

As he crossed the courtyard, he thought about his brief interaction with the seltyr's daughter. Rachyla didn't care for him, and she shouldn't have, given what he had been forced to do, but she had also been giving him a message, and that message was most clear. Someone in the Cadmians, or in the government of the Duarchy, had been involved. Who or why-those were questions whose answers were the merest speculation.

If what she had intimated happened to be true, Mykel and Fifteenth Company, indeed, the entire Third Battalion, faced a much more complicated situation than anyone could have known-and there was nothing Mykel could say about it. The majer wouldn't listen, and there was no one above him, not within hundreds of vingts, to whom Mykel dared entrust such information. Not until he knew more.

He did wish that he'd met Rachyla under other circumstances, but that wouldn't have made any difference. She was wealthy-and he was a crafter's son and a city boy, and now she was likely to spend years in confinement, or even be executed, and it was largely Mykel's doing. All he'd had to do would have been to ignore the rifle.He laughed, ironically. That was the one thing he couldn't have done unless he wanted to be responsible for scores of Cadmian deaths.

29.

After a short early-morning flight on Octdi with Falyna-a flight that revealed nothing, including in the area around the ancient tunnel-Dainyl was walking across the Cadmian courtyard when Captain Meryst hurried up to him.

"Colonel, sir... Majer Herryf would beg your indulgence to join him in his study at your earliest convenience."

"Thank you, Captain." Dainyl smiled politely. "Did he say what might be so urgent?"

"He said that a large cache of contraband weapons had been discovered in an unanticipated location, sir. That is all he said, except that I was to tell no one that, save you."

"I will be there shortly, then." Dainyl debated making the arrogant majer wait, but such tactics would be lost on the majer and only make his own day longer. He turned and followed the captain, shortening his stride to match steps with the much smaller Cadmian officer.

Two Cadmian officers bolted upright as Dainyl strode into Majer Herryf's study. Behind Dainyl, Captain Meryst closed the door, taking care to remain outside and leave the three more senior officers alone. Dainyl repressed a smile of amusement at Meryst's quiet tact, so at odds with Herryf's manner.

"I am sorry to bother you, Colonel." Herryf nodded to the other officer, standing beside him. "Majer Vaclyn has arrived with a... startling report."

Dainyl disliked Herryf's fawning and apologetic tone even more than the majer's arrogance, which remained beneath the subservience. "What might that be?" He turned to the Third Battalion majer, the older of the two Cadmian officers.

"Colonel, you might recall that the Third Battalion has been patrolling the roads north of where the smugglers were detected. On Sexdi, the captain of Fifteenth Company discovered a single rifle in the horse cart ofthe daughter of a local seltyr. The rifle was Cadmian-issue, but without the usual maker's stamped numbers. Because the woman seemed unaware of the rifle, and because the captain decided to proceed cautiously, despite the requirements of the Code, of which he has since been made well aware, I took command of Fifteenth Company yesterday morning, and we proceeded to Stylan Estate, the dwelling of the woman, who turned out to be the daughter of Seltyr Ubarjyr..."

At the seltyr's name, Dainyl noted a certain uneasiness in Majer Herryf, but he merely nodded for the long-winded Vaclyn to continue.

"Fifteenth Company found a closed and locked outer gate, and when we reached the seltyr's villa, we were attacked by more than fivescore uniformed retainers using rifles. The rifles turned out to be Cadmian weapons. Fifteenth Company subdued the insurgents with minimal casualties. There were over fourscore of them killed, including the sel-tyr, and fifteen captured, while Fifteenth Company, under my direction, lost but four rankers and had five wounded. After the skirmish, we inspected the villa and found another five cases of rifles, more than forty cases of ammunition, as well as uniforms and cartridge belts."

"You say that the seltyr was behind this?" asked Dainyl.

"Yes, sir," replied Vaclyn. "The last cases of rifles and ammunition were discovered in a hidden room that opened only into his private study."

"You seem to have been most effective, Majer. You may recall that I am here only as an observer, however."

"Yes, sir," replied Herryf smoothly, "but as an observer, we thought you should be the first to know about this. If you wish, and, of course, only if you wish, you could interrogate the captives. One of them is the seltyr's daughter."

"You brought her here?"

"How could we not, Colonel?" Vaclyn seemed to expand with indignation. "She was the one who had the first contraband rifle, and the one who was trying to delay us while the insurgents tried to get into position to attack.""Under those circumstances, I imagine you could see no other alternative." Dainyl paused. "I suppose it could not hurt to talk to some of them." He didn't like the idea, but if there was information that had not been uncovered, and the marshal found out later... that would not be at all in Dainyl's favor. He smiled at Herryf. "Is there anything else?"

"Ah... no, sir."

"Then, if you would have someone escort me to the captives." He looked to Vaclyn. "My congratulations, Majer."

"Thank you, sir."

Herryf followed Dainyl out of the study, and beckoned to Captain Meryst. "Please take the colonel to the captives."

Meryst half bowed, then turned to Dainyl. "The woman is in a room set aside for officers. It is in a separate building. Would you prefer to see her first or after the others?"

"First, I would think."

Meryst led the way to a building in the middle of those set close to the compound's south wall. The ground-level door at the east end was guarded by a pair of Cadmian rankers.

"Her name is Rachyla. She is the eldest daughter of Sel-tyr Ubarjyr."

Meryst stopped before the pair of guards outside the door. "The colonel will be interrogating the prisoner."

One of the guards took out a large, tarnished, brass key and inserted it into a lock. With a heavy click, the lock opened. Then he retracted both iron bolts. Dainyl had to lower his head to enter the room, and once inside, the top of his head almost touched the low ceiling. The door closed behind him, although he did not hear the click of a lock again.

The woman, her hair as dark and shimmering as that of an alector, was seated on a tall stool at a small desk, writing. She turned to the door as he entered. Her face froze, and she turned away.

"Your name is Rachyla. How did you end up here?"The woman did not look at Dainyl, but he could sense anger. Not fear, but anger.

"You're fortunate that you're a woman," he said mildly.

Rachyla did not answer.

"You were involved in a revolt," said Dainyl quietly. "That was not exactly wise."

"I have nothing to say to you."

"You are angry. Yet we have never met."

"I have nothing to say."

Behind the anger was also a sense of dread and despair, a strange combination.

Although he tried a number of questions and approaches, even with a hint of Talent-projection and -persuasion, she said nothing more. While she did not seem to be Talented, she was resistant to mild Talent-persuasion, and Dainyl decided against using greater Talent, since there was no certainty that it would work and the effects could be detected by a Talented alector, such as the marshal or the Highest. After close to half a glass, he left.

From there, Meryst escorted him to the holding cells in a squat and square building set against the southeast corner of the compound.

The guards brought the first prisoner to the interrogation room, where Dainyl sat in a too-small chair. The man was young. His left arm was bandaged heavily, and he slumped onto the stool. His eyes avoided Dainyl.

"Why did you fire on the Cadmians?"

The rebel did not answer.

Dainyl tried to Talent-project compulsion on the slightest level. After a moment, he asked again, "Why did you fire?"

The young man shivered, then replied, "Squad leader said to fire on them, sir.""Did you hit any of them?"

"I don't know. They shot back so quickly. They killed so many of us. So quickly. Their captain, he shot three or four himself."

"Who commanded you?"

The rebel looked at the colonel blankly.

"Who was in charge of the squad leaders, and who was in charge of that person?"

"Oh, Nurqueyt, he was the captain. His orders came from Seltyr Ubarjyr."

"Who gave orders to the seltyr?"

"No one, sir. No one gives orders to a seltyr." The young man looked appalled, then added quickly, "Except an alector, sir."

"How long had you been training?"

"A season or so, sir. But we only got the rifles three weeks ago, maybe four... it was after Pabolar's birthday."

"Are there other companies training?"

"I don't know, sir."

"What do you think?"

"There might be a few others, but there aren't many. Captain Nurqueyt said that we were fortunate. The rifles were hard to come by..."

Dainyl talked to the young man for another quarter glass. After that, he talked to all the others, and it was well into the afternoon before he returned to his quarters. All of the captives had said variations of the same things.

Two things had stood out. The first was the anger of the lander woman.

She had not only immediately recognized Dainyl as an alector, but his presence had angered her-not frightened her. That alone suggested that she had seen alec-tors or known of their actions. Then there were therifles- and the timing of their arrival in Dramur. The High Alector of Justice-or Marshal Shastylt-had to have learned about the incipient rebellion early, perhaps even while the rifles were on their way to Dramur.

That was likely to be the explanation he received-if he could find a way to ask that question in a fashion that didn't threaten his own future. If he even bothered with the question... because it seemed clear enough to him that somehow the marshal and the Highest had arranged for the rifles to be shipped to the sel-tyr. Why was another question, and one he needed to be more careful in investigating, far more careful, he suspected, than had been Submarshal Tyanylt.

30.

Mykel and Fifteenth Company rode northwest over yet another narrow road, toward the town of Jy-oha. Both sides of the road were without shoulders and bordered by brush olives and other growth, but all of it was just high enough and thick enough so that seeing more than a few yards into the growth was difficult. At the same time, he was following a map about which he had more than a few doubts with orders that he trusted even less. How exactly was he supposed to "capture and subdue rebel forces opposed to the Code of the Duarches" with almost no information on how large such forces might be or where they were.

As he rode and studied the road, rising slowly before him to cross between two low hills more than a vingt ahead, Mykel tried to figure out where he had erred in the mess at Stylan Estate. Should he just have followed the Code blindly, as the majer had demanded? Mykel still thought that his instincts had been right. If he taken Rachyla into custody immediately, Seltyr Ubarjyr would have protested. His daughter would have been returned, either flogged or merely admonished, and at some time in the future, armed attacks would have occurred, either against one of the battalion's companies or against other growers. Certainly, the seltyr had to have been making plans to arm his forces for some time. But why?

And for what purpose?