The Chained Adept (1-2)

Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

With much hollering and confusion the unusual instructions were carried out. In the end, they decided to leave the tents in place but to move as much gear out onto the grass as possible before walking what Penrys hoped was a safe distance away.

She’d examined her driver and the small two-wheeled cart before they hitched up its horse. As with the rest of the loose horse tack, she’d found nothing.

They walked the horse from the back of the encampment to the left and just on the inside of the long lines of sullen troopers, stretched to the west on the south side of the camp. She looked again for native Rasesni-speakers and sampled their mood as she passed. They were suspicious and uncooperative. Yard by yard she surveyed the packs and tents, looking for the power signature of any magical device. Her muscles were tense, making her sore left shoulder ache, as she expected at any moment to trigger an event like yesterday’s, and she had to keep reminding herself to relax or she’d never last the day.

About halfway down the column she glanced casually with her mind at one small pile, too far away for her to make out individual contents, and bolted upright. Was that it?

Before she could confirm it, there was a white flash and small objects shot out harmlessly in all directions. A cry went out from the men, and one trooper shouted, “Stop! Stop! Don’t do any more.”

He reached a shaking hand into his pocket and withdrew a small object. He laid it gingerly on the ground and backed away, pulling at the arm of his companion who was still staring in shock at the explosion far out in the grass.

“That was his,” he said, c*****g his head at his buddy. “We both have these. Is that what did that?” He pointed out into the field. “I didn’t take mine off—he said we shouldn’t ever take them off if we wanted them to work.”

A burly man thundered down upon him. “‘Everything out of your pockets and off your backs,’ I said. You heard me.” He eyed the guilty men. “Anyone else not inclined to obey orders?”

The unit looked properly cowed.

“All right, back off,” he roared. “Over there, by the trees. Move!”

Penrys climbed down awkwardly from the cart and bent over to look at the object. It was a wooden charm of some kind, painted in bright colors. She straightened up to look at the driver. “Better go join them,” she said.

Movement caught her eye—Chang was approaching to see what had happened. She turned to the man in charge of the troopers. “Better yet, Kwajigomju-chi, can you mark this with something? Then let’s all get out of here and meet him, in case something goes wrong.”

He bellowed to his retreating men to bring him a staff, and one of them returned on the run with an eight-foot whippy pole. The kwajigomju untied his neckerchief and fastened it around the top like a flag before sticking it in the ground, none too close to the cheerful charm. He climbed into the back of the cart, and all of them drove at a good trot over to intercept Chang and stop him from coming any closer.

“You found one,” the Commander said. He pursed his lips and nodded. “There will be more.”

“We may have found two of them.” She c****d her head at the kwajigomju to finish the story.

“Two of my men—friends they are—one of them emptied his pockets like he should, and that’s what went off. Turns out the other one didn’t.”

Penrys explained. “He put this thing… I don’t know what it is, a charm, maybe? Anyway, it’s out there where the pennant is. I’m not sure how to look at it without setting it off, but I could try ordinary tools.”

“Are you sure it’s another device?” Chang asked.

“Well, no. To do that I’d have to trigger it. If it is, I want to see how it’s made.”

“Dangerous work,” he commented.

She cleared her throat. “I’d rather save it until last, if I could. I want to find the rest of them first.”

Chang nodded. “Kwajigomju, set up a guard around that item, a hundred yard circle. Don’t let anyone approach.”

“I’ll use the unit that caused the problem, sir. We’ll keep everyone away from it.” He hopped down from the cart and humped off toward his men.

“And find out where they got those things,” Chang called after him. “I want to talk to them.”

He waved his hand in acknowledgment without turning around.

Word spread down the line, and soon there was a small amount of traffic crossing hurriedly back and forth ahead of them as the contents of incompletely emptied pockets were suddenly added to the piles of items waiting to be examined.

Behind Penrys and her driver, the soldiers whose possessions had already been tested walked back to retrieve them and return them to pockets, packs, and tents.

One tent went up with a hollow noise when she probed it.

“Whose was that?” she asked the shocked men, and four of them reluctantly raised their hands.

“I’ll need a list of absolutely everything that was in there, no matter how small or trivial.”

She glanced outward and saw Chang’s party riding on a parallel track outside of the column of soldiers. He dispatched someone to collect the four men for interrogation, and she drove on.

The rest of the troopers’ column was clean, but it wasn’t the same for the civilians. Her driver turned the cart at the head of the column where there were dozens of men working on lining up the column of wagons for the third pass, and she began making her way back down the north side.

Almost at once, she felt something briefly from a laundry crew’s supplies. There was just enough to confirm the same signature before the distant air was full of dried soap flakes. The men and women of that crew were collected by Chang’s men.

Penrys glanced over at her driver. “Chang has a system going here, doesn’t he?”

“Always was one for organized effort,” he said. “This ain’t no different.”

A food dump went off next, within seconds, and she slowed down to make sure she probed absolutely everything. Altogether, she triggered four devices on that side of the camp.

By now the afternoon was beginning to approach dusk, and they broke for a few minutes before starting on the wagons. The healers’ tent had been cleared at the start by the simple expedient of carrying off the injured men on their cots far enough to let it be probed safely. Penrys dismissed the driver when they got there to go and care for the horse and return in an hour or so.

The wagons are going to be a problem. That’s where the mirror was. They’re the easiest to sabotage.

She wasn’t looking forward to it, and could already feel herself dragging. She yawned, and walked into the tent to see how Zandaril was doing.

He was sitting up, eating his dinner, and Hing Ganau was supervising the procedure.

Zandaril swallowed his current mouthful when he saw her. “You’ve been busy, busy, busy. Stories everywhere.”

“It’s not even half done,” she said. “The wagons’ll be worse.”

“Maybe not,” he said. “I hear they changed their minds. These troopers had nothing to do today, and Chang doesn’t want to lose more wagons. So, they took each wagon, unloaded it, and ran it out to the side. Maybe if something goes whoosh, less will be damaged.”

“That’s a lot of work,” she said.

“Chang’s in a hurry, he is. Doesn’t want to stay in one place. He thinks, better men be tired and safe, then rested and in danger.” He grinned at her. “The men agree. Glad you’re getting rid of threats.”

She glanced around the healers’ tent. After I killed sixteen of them and hurt all of these. She looked at Zandaril. And you.

“Are they going to reload the wagons in the dark?” she asked.

Hing shook his head. “Everyone’s praying it won’t rain, aren’t they?”