Read Online Rex Regis by L. E. Modesitt Jr. - Free Book Online Page B

the west side of the river?”
    The grizzled crofter shook his head. “Aren’t none to speak of.”
    “How bad is the swampy part?”
    “Right now, I wouldn’t be going there. It’s passable enough come summer.”
    “All the way to Eluthyn?”
    “I wouldn’t know about that. Never been farther north than Eelan, and not there recently.”
    “How far is Eelan?”
    “Mayhap twenty milles, could be a shade more.”
    “Do people travel here from farther north?”
    “In the summer, they do. Not now, most years.”
    Quaeryt asked more questions, but it was clear that the man had told him what he knew. And others around the square couldn’t add much.
    “We might as well push on,” he decided.
And we’ll likely need imaging in more than a few places.
    Less than two milles north of Faantyl, the outriders came hurrying back to Quaeryt and Zhelan.
    “Sirs…”
    “There’s an impassable swampy stretch of road?” asked Quaeryt.
    “Pretty much, sir.”
    “What does the road look like beyond the swampy place?” asked Quaeryt.
    “Can’t tell, sir.”
    “Is there a track that leads around it?”
    “There’s a narrow path, but Cloryt’s mount’s foreleg sunk so deep we had to use ropes to pull him clear.”
    “We’ll have to see what the imagers can do, then.” Quaeryt turned in the saddle. “Imager undercaptains! Forward!” Then he looked at Vaelora. “The road repairs begin. I hope we don’t have to rebuild it all the way to Eelan.”
    “If you do, that will make life better for the people.”
    “And take days…” he replied dryly, turning to Zhelan and saying, “Have the men take a break, and pass the word back to Calkoran and Khaern. Water the mounts, and then move ahead to join us. But take your time.”
    With the four imager undercaptains and Elsior, Quaeryt rode forward a good quarter mille along the section of the road that rose very gradually, perhaps five yards over the distance. He reined up where the outriders waited on the gentle crest just south of an area that looked like a gigantic mud puddle, stretching several hundred yards to the north and east and some thirty to the west. His first inclination was to have one of the imagers just remove the sloppy mess, but he saw that the road was actually in a depression with higher ground to each side, and that ground was a good two yards higher. Still, that gave him an idea, and he guided his mount toward the river, where he looked over the higher ground between the muddy mess and the slope down to the Phraan. Then he rode back.
    “Horan … do you see where that bare bush is?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “Do you think you could image out a channel two yards wide from the road through the higher ground?”
    “So that the slop will flow toward the river?”
    “That’s the idea. Even if it doesn’t, that will allow drainage in the future so that this mess doesn’t happen again.”
    Horan concentrated, and in instants there was a channel from the west side of where the road might once have been through the higher ground to the slope leading down to the river, a distance of about fifty yards.
    “There you are, sir.” Horan blotted his forehead.
    “Let’s wait and see how much drains away.”
    While the water on top of the mud slowly flowed through the channel, after a quint had passed it was clear that the mud below the surface water wasn’t moving. Not anytime soon, Quaeryt realized.
    “Lhandor, image away a few yards of the mud, starting there.” Quaeryt pointed several yards north of the slightly higher and drier ground where he had reined up.
    “Yes, sir.”
    After just a few efforts by Lhandor and Khalis, and even a smaller amount being removed by Elsior, Quaeryt called a halt when he saw, at the bottom of the excavated area, the remnant of what appeared to be a stone wall.
    “Take away a bit to the north,” he ordered.
    “Yes, sir.” Khalis did so, revealing more mortared stone.
    With the additional removal, Quaeryt could see that