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Mykel stood silently for a moment.
Captain!
At the words from the majer, Mykel turned. Yes, sir?
I need a word with you.
Yes, sir. Mykel walked to the majer, stopping short a yard away and waiting.
This has been a most distasteful situation. Cadmians should never be on trial
for murder. This whole incident suggests that your leadership has been less
than superb. In fact, your leadership has been barely adequate at times.
Mykel waited, his face calm. Saying anything would just make matters worse,
and Mykel was partly to blame, if not for any reason that the majer knew.
You ll be returning to the mine patrols first thing in the morning with third
squad, declared Vaclyn. You will report to me every Octdi afternoon, here at
the headquarters building, no later than two glasses past midday. You will
bring one squad, a different squad, each Octdi. You will begin this Octdi. Is
that clear?
Yes, sir.
Good. Vaclyn s smile was cold. You may go, Captain.
Mykel offered a slight bow, the least he dared, before turning and walking
back toward the barracks. He d need to talk to Chyndylt, and he might as well
get that over with first.
No matter what he did, matters between him and Majer ^ Vaclyn could only get
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worse. He would have to continue to document everything he could, however he
could, in between riding and supervising patrols.
Why did Vaclyn dislike him so much? Because the majer was afraid that Mykel
would reveal how incompetent he was?
Mykel shook his head. Vaclyn was too incompetent to ^cognize his own
shortcomings, and too self-centered even to consider whether he had
shortcomings. What Mykel didn t understand was why the majer remained in
command of the battalion. Sooner or later, Vaclyn would make a mistake that
his captains couldn t rectify and that Colonel Herolt couldn t cover up. Then
what?
Mykel snorted softly. What would happen was that some captain would be
blamed most likely Mykel and flogged or executed, or both.
The court-martial had bothered Mykel, not because of the outcome, but because
he had sensed that something had not been right about the entire situation.
What that might have been, Mykel had not been able to determine, only that he
felt that way. Polynt had deserved death, probably for two murders, if not
more.
Even so, the execution itself had been hard for Mykel, because flogging to
death was painful. At times, he d felt like he d suffered some of the strokes,
even though he d only had to stand in front of third squad and watch. That had
to have been an overactive imagination. What else could it have been?
Quietly, he headed for the barracks as the last long light of the winter sun
faded in the west.
48
As the long shadows that preceded twilight stretched across the compound,
Dainyl watched from the corner of the headquarters building as Majer Vaclyn
exchanged words with Captain Mykel. The captain s posture remained formal,
neither relaxed nor stiff with anger, but Dainyl could sense a core of
feeling hot rage encased in cold control. After the captain turned, Dainyl
moved toward the majer.
i
Vaclyn looked up, surprised at the alector s appearance. Colonel.
Majer. Dainyl projected a faint sense of curiosity. I saw you talking to
Captain Mykel, and you seemed concerned.
For several moments, Vaclyn said nothing. Dainyl could sense that he was
irritated at what he felt was an intrusion, but the colonel held a pleasant
expression on his face and waited, using his Talent, as well as his eyes and
ears, to study the majer.
I am, Colonel. Any time a ranker behaves the way Polynt did is a matter of
concern.
I can see that, but Captain Mykel reacted well under the circumstances.
He reacted. That was the problem. He never should have let it happen,
Colonel. Good officers anticipate matters like that.
Dainyl had trouble seeing how the captain could have foreseen an
unpremeditated murder by a man who had successfully hidden his background from
a number of Cad-mian officers. Polynt had obviously changed his name enough so
that he would not have been linked to a murder in Dramuria. He d also enlisted
in the Cadmians in a place remote enough from Dramur that no one would have
thought to have checked his ankle for a prisoner s tattoo.
I can see your concerns, returned Dainyl. Still& Captain Mykel should not
be judged too harshly. He wasn t the first one who failed to discover that
Polynt was an escaped prisoner.
If you will pardon my directness, Colonel& Captain Mykel s difficulties
cannot be excused by the failures of others.
That is true, Dainyl replied smoothly. A commander s shortcomings should
not be blamed on those above or beneath him. Your point is well-taken, and all
officers in the Myrmidons and Cadmians should be held to that standard.
Once more, Dainyl sensed the faint and distant feel of Talent about Vaclyn,
yet he could sense nothing beyond that and he knew he should, but not what or
how. Not for the first time, he wished he had been given greater training in
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Talent, but because he had not manifested Talent when young, he had never been
afforded that opportunity.
Thank you, Colonel.
Dainyl doubted Vaclyn would be thanking him, not if the majer truly understood
the meaning behind his words. Thank you very much, Majer. I wish you and
Third Battalion well in your efforts to deal with the rebels.
Thank you, sir. We ll make sure that there isn t a real rebellion, choke off
this unrest before it gets out of hand.
With a last smile, Dainyl turned and walked briskly toward the officers mess,
where the food was barely edible, but the ale not too bad.
49
There are those who claim life is sacred in and of itself, or on behalf of
some deity, yet they do not refer to all life, but that of their own kind. If
they do claim that of all life, then they are either ignorant, or hypocrites,
or both. To live, every being steals from another, for to live one must
consume food. Consuming food is taking the life of another, or eating what
another might have consumed to live, if not both. All cannot be equally sacred
if one is prey to the other, and thus less than the other.
One who truly believes that the end purpose of life is but to create more
life for whatever purpose is not a thinking being, but a steer as fit for
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