Read Online Against the Empire: The Dominion and Michian by Jeffrey Quyle - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Jeffrey Quyle
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two weeks without exercise, confined while Alec was unconscious, leaving the horse less fit than usual.
Alec dozed as they walked upriver, away from the camp. By the starlight and the partial moon he had seen Kinsey’s chapel on the hill when they had passed it. They continued to ride eastward, across land where the Goldenfields and Dominion armies had not pursued the fleeing lacertii. The lands had not become battlefields, and there were neither graveyards, nor many bodies still unburied, except for those lacertii soldiers who had died from injuries they received earlier. The ground nonetheless continued to be littered with equipment and material the soldiers had discarded as heavy or unnecessary while they continued their long walk homeward.
After several hours, the rim of the horizon began to brighten as dawn started to appear in front of Alec and Walnut. By the rising sun’s crimson light, Alec realized that even if the river valley hadn’t been easy to follow, the trail of the retreating army would have shown him the way towards his destination. With the sunlight illustrating the trampled ground and all the debris from the lacertii retreat, Alec had no problem in moving ahead. By mid-morning he was worn out, and got off Walnut, letting them both rest in the shade of a small riverside grove of cottonwoods, to avoid the worst of the mid-day heat.
When the height of the heat had passed, he roused himself to get back in the saddle and rode out again, heading east. His pace continued to be deliberate and easy, since he had no deadline for reaching his goal. Late in the day, he stopped to examine a sad formation; dozens of lacertii bodies lay together. He’d seen fewer and fewer dead lacertii the further he rode away from the battlefield, and this particular site was a closely packed cluster of men and women.
They were, he belatedly realized, the officer corps. They all wore uniforms with stripes and markings, and many wore elaborate swords that appeared to be too delicate for real use.
The officers must have tried to stop the retreat at this point, and the soldiers had resisted. They’d resisted to the point of mutiny, corralling the officers together, and then butchering them. Then, freed of the constraint of leaders, the soldiers must have continued on their way towards home. The smell in the air from the long-dead bodies was more than Alec could withstand, and he remounted the uneasy Walnut to ride further away.
They continued to ride until well past sunset. Alec wasn’t sure if he’d be followed. He suspected he would be; Armilla would not take kindly to his disappearance, he knew. He suffered punishment from her once before when he’d abandoned her protection, and he knew more was coming when they met again. He didn’t have the stamina to ride hard and fast, but he would travel as far as possible, to delay being caught.
After a night without a fire, he departed early and rode further, and continued to do so for several days without incident. Walnut has an abundant supply of grass to forage, while Alec ran out of camp supplies within a few days and started having to forage as well. He started eating riverside roots again, and other edible plants as he found them. His healer knowledge remained available to help him decide if something was safe or not. The same was not true of his warrior skills however. He discovered that he could not successfully use a lacertii bow and arrow he found to hunt for small game. And so he suffered a monotonous diet growing constantly thinner, and rode along, with too much time to think about too many things.
Chapter 7 – Companions in Pursuit
Kinsey awoke on the morning Alec was gone, and sensed a change. She attended her needs, then walked to Alec’s tent and discovered he was out of bed already. Surprised, she went to the mess tent, then went to Armilla’s tent. “I didn’t see Alec at his tent or having breakfast,” she informed the
Alec dozed as they walked upriver, away from the camp. By the starlight and the partial moon he had seen Kinsey’s chapel on the hill when they had passed it. They continued to ride eastward, across land where the Goldenfields and Dominion armies had not pursued the fleeing lacertii. The lands had not become battlefields, and there were neither graveyards, nor many bodies still unburied, except for those lacertii soldiers who had died from injuries they received earlier. The ground nonetheless continued to be littered with equipment and material the soldiers had discarded as heavy or unnecessary while they continued their long walk homeward.
After several hours, the rim of the horizon began to brighten as dawn started to appear in front of Alec and Walnut. By the rising sun’s crimson light, Alec realized that even if the river valley hadn’t been easy to follow, the trail of the retreating army would have shown him the way towards his destination. With the sunlight illustrating the trampled ground and all the debris from the lacertii retreat, Alec had no problem in moving ahead. By mid-morning he was worn out, and got off Walnut, letting them both rest in the shade of a small riverside grove of cottonwoods, to avoid the worst of the mid-day heat.
When the height of the heat had passed, he roused himself to get back in the saddle and rode out again, heading east. His pace continued to be deliberate and easy, since he had no deadline for reaching his goal. Late in the day, he stopped to examine a sad formation; dozens of lacertii bodies lay together. He’d seen fewer and fewer dead lacertii the further he rode away from the battlefield, and this particular site was a closely packed cluster of men and women.
They were, he belatedly realized, the officer corps. They all wore uniforms with stripes and markings, and many wore elaborate swords that appeared to be too delicate for real use.
The officers must have tried to stop the retreat at this point, and the soldiers had resisted. They’d resisted to the point of mutiny, corralling the officers together, and then butchering them. Then, freed of the constraint of leaders, the soldiers must have continued on their way towards home. The smell in the air from the long-dead bodies was more than Alec could withstand, and he remounted the uneasy Walnut to ride further away.
They continued to ride until well past sunset. Alec wasn’t sure if he’d be followed. He suspected he would be; Armilla would not take kindly to his disappearance, he knew. He suffered punishment from her once before when he’d abandoned her protection, and he knew more was coming when they met again. He didn’t have the stamina to ride hard and fast, but he would travel as far as possible, to delay being caught.
After a night without a fire, he departed early and rode further, and continued to do so for several days without incident. Walnut has an abundant supply of grass to forage, while Alec ran out of camp supplies within a few days and started having to forage as well. He started eating riverside roots again, and other edible plants as he found them. His healer knowledge remained available to help him decide if something was safe or not. The same was not true of his warrior skills however. He discovered that he could not successfully use a lacertii bow and arrow he found to hunt for small game. And so he suffered a monotonous diet growing constantly thinner, and rode along, with too much time to think about too many things.
Chapter 7 – Companions in Pursuit
Kinsey awoke on the morning Alec was gone, and sensed a change. She attended her needs, then walked to Alec’s tent and discovered he was out of bed already. Surprised, she went to the mess tent, then went to Armilla’s tent. “I didn’t see Alec at his tent or having breakfast,” she informed the
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