"Ready..."

As the riders in the van neared, Mykel watched closely, trying to pick out the captain of the first company. Finally, he could see a taller man with insignia on his tunic collar, and a silver shoulder braid-the kind Cadmians only wore on ceremonial occasions or in staff capacities at headquarters. He sighted, waiting, until the middle of the company was opposite him.

"Fire!" Mykel concentrated on the captain, aiming and willing the bullet toward the target. His shot was true, and the officer sagged, then slumped out of the saddle.The shots of the first volley were nearly simultaneous, and deadly.

Bluecoats were falling and flailing everywhere.

Mykel looked for a squad leader, but couldn't find one. So he just kept seeking clear shots. By the time he reloaded, a good third of the leading rebel company was down, either wounded or dead, and the remaining riders were still half-milling around. Only one or two of the riders on the road even seemed to know from where the shots were coming.

After reloading, Mykel fired one more shot.

Thump! Needles cascaded around him. A sharp pain shot along the side of his neck just behind his ear, then subsided.

Mykel flattened himself and touched his neck. He couldn't feel anything, except a fragment of wood-a long splinter. He pulled it out, and raised his rifle again, running through another magazine, then reloading.

Horns sounded, the handful of riders still in their saddles turned their mounts and dashed toward the mining road. There, the riders of the second bluecoat company were galloping northward, toward the mine. He frowned as he saw them slow, close to a vingt farther north, and turn westward, moving through the fields at a quick walk, well out of range.

Should he have his men mount up and follow? Mykel shook his head.

He had no idea what might be waiting to the west, and it wouldn't be that long before it was dark.

"Cease fire! Cease fire!" He stood and stepped away from the pine to get a better view. Blue tunics lay strewn everywhere. Some men moaned. A horse was screaming somewhere.

"Bhoral! Get a quick count of the bodies, and get someone to round up all their weapons and ammunition. Send one of the scouts west, a half vingt or so, to make sure no one's headed back toward us. Get all the mounts clear of the woods and ready to ride."

"The bodies, sir?"

The last thing Mykel wanted to do was to deal with scores of bodies. He didn't have the manpower or the time-and there was at least one company of rebels on the road west of them. "Lay them out on the side ofthe road for now." Mykel turned to get the chestnut, but a ranker was leading his mount toward him.

"Squad leader said you'd be needing him, sir."

"Thank you, Rykyt." Mykel mounted and rode west, coming up on Vhanyr and fifth squad. "Take the road, and set up, just in case someone turns and comes back from the west. Second, third, and fourth squads are gathering weapons and ammunition"

"Yes, sir."

"Any casualties?"

"No, sir. Not a one."

"Good." When Mykel reached the western road, the surviving bluecoats were out of sight, somewhere to the west, and a clouded twilight had fallen.

After letting his mount pick his way back along the packed-dirt surface, he reined up just where the western road turned off the mine road, so that he could see both roads. There were but a handful of bluecoats lying on the graystones of the mine road.

He watched as his men stripped weapons and ammunition and dragged bodies to the side of the road. He said nothing about the quick searches of wallets. He doubted if many of the dead had jewelry of value.

Bhoral rode slowly toward Mykel, reining up.

"Do you know how many we lost?"

"Just one, sir. Trooper from first squad-Onstyt. Three wounded, two from first squad, and one from third. What about their wounded?"

"Put them on mounts. We'll take them back to Dramuria with us."

"Some are hurt pretty bad."

"Do what you can." Mykel stopped. A single rider was headed toward them from the west. After a moment, he recognized the scout, and raised his hand. "Jasakyt! Here!"The third squad scout reined up short of Mykel. "Sir!"

"Is someone coming after us?"

"Not right yet, sir, but the riders that circled round Fifteenth Company, they got back on the road a vingt or so west of here. Thought I'd follow and watch for a time." The scout paused, then went on. "They joined a bunch more rebels, maybe close to half a battalion's worth. They're all heading west. Not in a hurry, I'd say."

"You think they have a camp somewhere here?"

"Hard to say, but if I had to guess, sir..."

"You'd wager that way, and so would I," Mykel con-eluded, turning to Bhoral. "Have them finish up as quickly as they can. We need to get back to Dramuria. The overcap-tain needs to know. The men and their mounts need quarters and decent food and beds."

Most of all, Mykel needed to talk to Dohark-if he even happened to be there.

For all Mykel's urging, twilight was giving way to night before Fifteenth Company finally began to ride southward. The captives rode at the rear, with captured mounts carrying all the captured rifles and ammunition behind them.

"Getting to be a bloody mess," Bhoral said quietly from where he rode beside Mykel.

"Likely to get bloodier," Mykel replied. "I worry about Seventeenth Company. They were supposed to be patrolling that road."

"Maybe the westerners just avoided them."

"With half a battalion? Be pretty hard to do that on such a narrow road."

"Could have lured them north. Wasn't there a message about that?"

"That was days ago." It could have happened, but that was another reason why Fifteenth Company was riding back to the compound. The local Cadmians at the mine compound had walls and plenty ofammunition. Third Battalion's companies were scattered across all of eastern Dra-mur, without that much ammunition, little warning, and no walls.

Less than a vingt south of the battle site, Mykel began to smell the smoke-thick and acrid. Through the growing dusk that was almost night, he could see reddish embers ahead. Only because the wind was at his back had they not smelled the odors of burning cots and huts.

He turned. "Bhoral! Get those prisoners and their guards up front here.

Right now!"

Even before he had finished the order, Mykel could feel the unasked question and answered, "They burned people's huts and stables. I want whoever's around to know that they didn't all get away. Bring them up right behind the outriders and me-with the rankers guarding them."

"Yes, sir." Bhoral turned his mount and rode toward the rear of the column. "Prisoners forward! Captain's orders! Quick as you can."

Before that long, the eight surviving captives lurched along in their saddles behind Mykel and the outriders. Even under the cloud cover, the night didn't seem all that dark to Mykel as they neared the rows of burning cots and barns ahead. He could see figures trying to salvage goods, struggling to tie up animals that had escaped.

"Riders!" called someone.

"Cadmians! Headed back with captives!" Mykel called back.

The first person he saw was a graying woman. She knelt by an open gate between two stone pillars, then looked up from an animal-a dog that had been shot-toward the oncoming riders. Then her eyes took in the captives in blue, and she sprang to her feet. She took one step forward before a wiry man appeared and laid a hand on her arm. Both watched silently as Mykel rode past. He listened as he rode past them and the smoldering remains of the cots and huts.

"... Cadmians... didn't stop them..."

"... killed a lot of 'em... captured some... you saw...""... won't rebuild my cot and barn..."

The raiders had fired close to a score of dwellings and outbuildings, but they hadn't fired anything else along the road. Mykel had to wonder what they had done in two days.

When he finally turned his mount off the mine road and onto the spur road leading to the compound, through a break in the clouds he could see the small green disc of Asterta. "Warrior goddess," he murmured under his breath, "we did you proud today. Lots of bodies." Not that he be-lieved that the smaller moon was a goddess, but it helped to vent some of his frustration.

The compound gates were open, but there was a full squad of local Cadmians stationed in the towers and just outside.

"Fifteenth Company!" Mykel called. "Returning with captives for resupply."

"Hold there!"

"Send someone out and check, and make it quick!" snapped Mykel.

"We've got wounded men and captives, and it's been a long ride."

A squad leader and two rankers advanced gingerly, holding rifles.

Mykel snorted. "If we'd meant trouble, you'd all be dead, and we'd already be inside the gates. If you'd stand aside..."

The squad leader looked up at Mykel. He swallowed. "Yes, sir."

Mykel heard more low comments as he rode through the gates.

"... captives... westerners..."

"... knew they were up to no good..."

If everyone knew that, Mykel reflected, why hadn't anyone told them?

Then, Rachyla had, in a way. He wondered if she were still all right.

The sound of hoofs on stone echoed through the night. There were few words between the Cadmians, a sign that most were exhausted.As they neared the stables, Mykel turned to Bhoral. "Have Alendyr and second squad take the captives over to the prisoner's barracks. We'll let the locals sort that out."

"Good idea, sir."

Mykel hadn't even dismounted when a ranker hurried through the darkness toward Fifteenth Company, stopping short of the column.

"Captain Mykel, sir? Are you there?"

Mykel could see the ranker plainly. Why couldn't the man see him?

"Right here."

The ranker turned. "Sir. The overcaptain would like to see you right now."

Mykel glanced toward Bhoral. "More calls of duty. I'll check back with you. Make sure that all the men get their weapons cleaned and they get washed up before they sack out."

Bhoral chuckled. "They'll love that."

"Tell them I'm meeting with the overcaptain, and that I'll be in a piss-poor mood by the time he gets through with me. Tell them whatever you have to..." Mykel dismounted, handing the chestnut's reins to Fioryt, the closest Cadmian.

He followed the messenger through the darkness of the courtyard to headquarters. One thing was certain-his night vision hadn't suffered.

Everything else had, though.

Dohark sat behind the desk in the study that had been Majer Herryf's.

Before him was a large map. He looked up tiredly as Mykel stepped through the doorway, then gestured. "Close the door. Might as well use this study. Colonel's gone, and Herryf's not real helpful."

Mykel shut the door, then stepped toward the desk and slumped into a chair across from the battalion commander. Dohark looked more tired than Mykel felt.

"You look like shit, Mykel," offered the overcaptain."So do you, sir."

"Tell me why you're here, when your station is at the mine."

"Two rebel companies attacked the mine compound last night. We drove them off, killed more than thirty. This morning we found a squad spying on us, and we killed something like eighteen of them-"

"I got your reports and the prisoners. They didn't seem to know much."

"No one does." Mykel stifled a yawn. He was tired. "We interrogated the captives, enough to learn where they were going to rejoin their captain.

We set up an ambush. Pretty much wiped out one of the companies. At least, we left seventy bodies on the road. We brought back the rifles and ammunition, and some extra mounts. All the rifles are new Cadmian pieces. My scouts found at least three more companies to the west of the mine road, maybe four. They were riding west. I didn't bother with bodies when I could have been outnumbered five to one. I also thought you ought to know."

"Five to one?"

"Four and one makes five," Mykel said. "There might be more. We didn't finish up until close to dark. Oh... the western bluecoats burned a score of cots north of Dramuria."

"I got word on that when we got here earlier tonight. We got tied up with snipers on the smuggling road. Didn't lose many men, just three, captured a small boatload of ammunition last night. Five cases. Then we started south. It's a long ride back here. It's a long ride anywhere on this frig-gin' island."

"Yes, sir."

"How much of your company do you have left-that can fight?"

"A little less than fourscore. Some of my earlier wounded might be well enough in another week or so to rejoin the company." Mykel paused, then asked, "Have you heard anything from Seventeenth Company?"

"No. Have you?""No. That's why I asked. They were supposed to be patrolling the west road. When I found out there were five-odd companies that came down the road..."

"Could be Heransyr had enough sense not to engage them."

"It could be," Mykel agreed politely.

"You don't think so."

"I don't know. The other thing that really bothers me is that these bluecoats can't fight. Why are they sending them over here to get killed?"