The Magic of Recluce - L. E. Modesitt [202]
Yelena swung onto her brown gelding. “Then there are none.”
I pondered that as I climbed onto Gairloch. Perhaps that was the problem, that there simply were no great order-masters to combat the great chaos-masters like Antonin. Then I frowned. A simple solution, too simple. And simple and easy answers were almost always wrong.
By mid-morning, the feeling of impending chaos was stronger, much stronger, and not receding.
The road had not been used in some time, except for-a single rider whose prints appeared now and again in the sheltered spots in the clay. How long since the prints had been made, I could not tell. Nor could Yelena.
“We have not had a great rain since summer.” She pursed her lips.
I could feel the energy ahead, perhaps as near as over the next hill-crest.
Overhead, heavy gray clouds rolled.
Thurummmm…
No rain fell as we rode up the especially-steep hill.
“Stop,” I said, feeling the chaos pressure. “There’s something ahead.”
“Armed men?”
“No.” I sent my perceptions forward, but could only detect a small hump in the road, somehow tied down with chaos. Nothing else. “I think it’s all right for now.”
The hump was a body, or what was left of it.
Yelena rode almost up to the figure, then dismounted, standing back from face-down remains. “Outlier’s belt.”
“Careful…there’s chaos there.”
The sub-officer nodded. “I know. We’ve seen this before.” She drew her sword and touched the body. A bright blue spark flashed against the steel. She glanced at me. “That’s another trick of the white wizards.”
Even from where Gairloch and I had stopped, the heat from the spark momentarily warmed the chill noontime air.
She used the sword to lever the body over onto its back. The Kyphran soldier’s face was a charred and shattered mass—the target of a fireball thrown by Antonin or Sephya or some other chaos-wizard.
I could guess what happened. The outlier had been lured or charmed this far out and then destroyed.
“Chaos fed on him. Too bad we can’t feed on chaos. We’d never go hungry any more.” She motioned to Weldein. “Let’s take care of this. Not much time, but there are stones there.”
In the end, all of us created a cairn by the side of the deserted road.
As we remounted, Yelena’s remark got me thinking. In a way, chaos fed on chaos. The stronger Antonin became, the more he could destroy, which increased the amount of chaos in Candar. In the whole world, really. If the old masters were right, increased chaos had to be balanced somewhere with increased order.
I swallowed hard. If what I thought was true was in fact true, Talryn and the Brotherhood had a lot to answer for, one hell of a lot.
That didn’t resolve my particular problem. While I was getting stronger, Justen had been right. It was a slow process. Antonin could literally tear holes in mountains and buildings and infect whole cavalry troops with chaos. It would be years, if ever, before I could confront Antonin directly—and that wouldn’t help Krystal or the autarch, or the people of either Gallos or Kyphros.
Justen’s method was clear. He kept reinforcing low-level order everywhere around Antonin, from healing in Jellico to sheep-ranching in Montgren. That order limited the indirect spillover of chaos and protected most of the innocents. Just as clear was the fact that Antonin was willing to let all of that low-level order build up, because it allowed him to increase his powers. Which, in turn, let Justen exercise his powers…
I rubbed my temples with my fingertips. Was the whole thing an exercise in circles? Was any wizard, white or black, really being honest about it? Was this the reason why no one had answered the questions behind my questions?
“What now, order-master?”
I understood. Now she had the reason to be dismissed—and Krystal needed them in the Northeast more than I needed them here.
“This is as far as you go, sub-officer. This is where chaos starts.”
“Are you sure?”
I nodded, wanting to ensure that all of them carried the same message back. “I can’t protect you and search for the white wizard, not without endangering us all. I thank