Chapter 54: Rain

They were all waiting for me when I returned. Juniper was saddled and restless. She wanted to run, and run now. I mounted and had Chandra lead the way, since she liked to scout ahead. I didn't see harm in that as long as she returned instead of confronting any obstacles. She surprised me though. Chandra rode beside me for a while, talking without really saying anything. I think that she was trying to cheer me up or wanted to comfort me. I wasn't sure.

We were a few miles out of town when she asked me about the blood on my wrist. I didn't remember seeing any earlier, but could have easily splattered some of the rogue sergeant's blood on me. I relayed the morning's events to her and gave her the pertinent names that I found.

"My Lord, you aren't supposed to promote someone else's man to a sergeant. The men are supposed to let the lord know that their leader is dead, and offer a suitable replacement for him to promote."

That sounded strange. But since I was never in the armed forces, I don't know what would be a better system. Thinking back, the sergeants that I found here tended to be good choices. With the exception of the last town, those sergeants were all corrupt. I wondered how much Grant's weakness had to do with that?

"They needed someone to take charge. Verner proved to be decent, so I set him to complete the tasks that I assigned. I felt like I could trust him. After Grant left, hell even before he left, there was a power vacuum in that town. That was probably why the wizard had such an easy time doing what he did."

"What is a vacuum, My Lord?"

"A vacuum is the complete absence of something. In this case there was no one wielding any power, that vacuum was filled by the wizard. Does that make sense?"

"Not really."

"Hmmm. How about this? If you take your wineskin and completely empty it of wine, and then place the opening to your mouth and breathe in so that the bag is flat and no more air can come out. Now cap it off before any air gets into it. You just created a vacuum. When you remove the cap, air will rush in filling the void. Grant opened the cap of power in that town, and the wizard rushed in."

"Does this mean that if Grant used more power that the wizard would have not come?"

"The wizard would have looked for other towns with a weaker lord, first. Unless he specifically chose this town for a reason. Peoples' motivations can change what would normally be a simple choice and make it a complex choice."

She thought about what I said. "That means that weak nobles are just waiting to be exploited."

"Pretty much. Even the strong ones can be taken advantage of if a weakness can be found."

"If they are so strong, why would someone go after them?"

"Take Steven. His power base is very large. He was a duke and controlled a large area of land and a great number of people answerable to him. Yet I was able to beat him because I used power at a point. I did not fight against his strength. I made him fight against mine.

"On a one-on-one fight he didn't have anyone that could survive against me. I was able to penetrate his defenses and kill him, where a larger group of men would have been held at bay, or even defeated by Steven's superior numbers."

"But you only got into the city by using my name."

"Correct. You, as my student, are part of my power. I will protect you, but I will also use you to help me when I think that it is beneficial to me."

"What would you have done if I wasn't there?"

"Killed a lot of soldiers. I thought about that earlier."

"It's good that I was there then, wasn't it?"

"Chandra, I am very glad that you came with me. I really am." I saw her beam at the praise.

"Why don't you go scout ahead. I'll be fine."

"Oh, and Chandra?" She looked back just as she started riding off. "Thank you," I said with a small smile. Her presence did help my mood this morning I hadn't thought of Megan once since we left town.

Well, maybe three or four times.

Unfortunately, our clear morning fled before the oncoming storm clouds. The wind started gusting shortly before lunch. I stopped us early so that we could eat before the rain came killing our fire. Someone up there liked me, since the first drops didn't come until everyone was mounted again. The wind picked up and raindrops the size of pennies came pouring down, drenching all of us in no time at all. Since there were no trees of any size around, stopping was not a viable alternative. I did ask Chandra if she wanted to ride with Megan, but she refused. She just tightened her hood and kept riding.

I said before, that I was the one that the weather affected the most, but there was no way in hell that I was going to ride with Megan alone in that carriage. I would have to suffer in soaking wet clothes until we stopped for the day at the fairly large town ahead of us. I didn't remember the name of it though. I guess that I would find it out later.

The rain slowed our travel along the unpaved cart track. By the time that we neared the town where we planned on staying, the lower half of the carriage was covered in mud. Needless to say, so were we. If I would have known that it was going to be this bad, I would have stayed in bed. We were all miserable, even the drivers sounded cranky. Dusk came and went. According to the map that we looked at before we left the town was close. We all needed hot food in front of a roaring fire.

And a bath, a nice long, hot bath.

The inn was crowded and smoky, even as late as we arrived. Megan and I did kill all conversation in the room when we entered. I gave her my arm for support so that she did not slip and fall in the ever-present muck. Now would have been a great time to have my umbrella. Not that I remembered where I last saw it.

The rotund barkeep scurried out from behind his bar, wiping his hands furiously on his alcohol stained apron. "My Lord, My Lady, it be a dreadful night, you would like a room, can I get you a room? A meal? Marci made a good stew."