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same level.
Stand by to fire ... fire!
The blue skylance beam flashed toward the lead rider, who had turned his mount
before Alynt fired, and missed by less than a yard. The blue beams from the
other pteridons flared among and around the refugee Myrmidons.
Alynt fired again, almost on top of the party.
Break left! Now!
As the pteridon banked southward and down, the thin line of blue-green from
the wagon behind the three riders con
firmed Dainyl s suspicion that the food sortie had been an attempt at a
lure.
Hard right and come up over the slope from the west! Not for the first time
since he d been promoted out of flight status, Dainyl heartily wished he were
the one doing the flying. Be ready to fire as soon as you clear the crest!
Alynt didn t waste time replying, but complied.
Another light-rifle beam flared toward them, slamming into Dainyl s shields,
and jolting him back in the harness, but the shields held at least long enough
for Alynt to drop below the rocky ridge to the southwest.
Dainyl took a deep breath. He couldn t absorb or deflect more than another one
of the light-rifle shots ... if that.
Alynt brought the pteridon back around to the north, then dropped even lower
so that they appeared from the west, behind the refugee alectors. One of the
other Seventh Company Myrmidons had incinerated the small rear guard.
Alynt shifted his lance, getting off two blasts from the skylance and taking
down the remaining two riders slightly ahead of the wagon.
Fire on the wagon! Now! With the wagon and the two-horse team less than
fifty yards away to the left and the alector s compound a good five hundred
yards up the road Dainyl wanted to finish off the diversionary or lure force
and get the Myrmidons back to the patroller post.
As Alynt triggered the lance, Dainyl used his Talent, in an effort to funnel
that force into a needle point not at the alector who held the light-rifle,
but at the weapon itself.
A gout of flame erupted from where the wagon had been, with enough force to
throw the pteridon to the right.
Return to base! Return to base! Dainyl didn t know who would hear it, but it
was more than time to clear the area.
At that instant, a line of deep greenish blue flared above Dainyl clearly the
heaviest lightcannon he d ever encountered, with so much power that he could
feel it sucking lifeforce from somewhere and shaking the air. His shields,
strong as they might be for an alector, would shatter in instants under that
kind of focused lifeforce.
Lower! As low as you can keep us without hitting any
thing! he yelled at Alynt. Straight south and circle the town back to the
patroller station.
The Myrmidon said nothing, but the pteridon dropped even closer to the rocky
and sandy ground, then angled even farther westward to drop behind a ridge
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that Dainyl realized was actually half rock and half sand dune.
Dainyl looked back, squinting to block out the orangish glare from the sun
setting behind the southernmost peaks of the Coast Range. He could see three
pteridons following them, but not the fourth. Although the road descending
from the alector s complex was dotted with wide black splotches, he had no
idea which splotch represented what, except that he was fairly certain that
the large one in the center was what remained of the wagon, the horses, and
the alector with the light-rifle. Whether the fourth pteridon was taking
another route or had been a casualty he wouldn t know until the two squads
returned and landed at the patroller station.
Once Alynt landed, Dainyl scanned the sky, now turning into the purpled dark
green of twilight. He saw no pteridons at all and could only hope that Lyzetta
had seen the massive beam of the green-blue lightcannon and ordered first
squad well away from the weapon.
Rather than wait, hoping Lyzetta would indeed bring first squad back safely,
Dainyl strode past the patroller barracks and began to climb the low hill. He
wanted another look at the alector s complex.
He reached the hilltop, mostly rock, with red sandstone boulders scattered
about, and a kind of dried thornweed in the few places where there was even a
semblance of sandy soil. From there he studied, as well as he could in the
fading light, what lay across Soupat from him.
Abruptly, he sensed Talent, and turned, taking a deep breath as he saw the
first pteridon sweep in from the southeast and settle down. Then another
followed. When they all had landed, there were eight on the ground Lyzetta s
pteridon, and three remaining from first squad joining the four from second
squad.
Dainyl started down the hill.
Losing two pteridons within the first glass or so of arriving in Soupat wasn t
exactly what he had planned, but if he d counted correctly, the Ifryn refugees
had lost more than ten Myrmidons and one light-rifle, and he d managed to keep
them from leaving the compound in large numbers he hoped.
Lyzetta was waiting for him beside her pteridon.
What was that greenish blue beam, some new form of lightcannon? she asked.
I suspect it s something they brought with them from Ifryn. I wouldn t be
surprised if someone hadn t raided an arsenal of forbidden weapons. How
things had changed, reflected Dainyl. Until the past year, there had been no
weapon on Acorus that could destroy a pteridon. Then, Rhelyn or more probably
High Alector Ruvryn s engineers had come up with the lightcannon used at
Hyalt, which had taken out pteridons from both Seventh and Fifth Companies.
Now, the insurgent Myrmidons had something that made both the Myrmidons
skylances and Rhelyn s weapons look childlike in comparison.
Of equal, if not greater, concern to Dainyl was the ravenous use of lifeforce
by the weapon. If the battle for Soupat lasted longer than a few days, the
impact on Acorus would be great enough that the world would be able to support
far fewer alectors. A few weeks, and ... who knew?
You don t think it was used on Ifryn?
Ifryn would already have used all of its lifeforce, and the Master Scepter
would have been Dainyl broke off his words and shook his head.
What?
It s only a guess, but Ifryn was supposed to have lasted years longer than it
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