Free An Empire Unacquainted With Defeat by Glen Cook Page B

She's at the Tower. Come on. Go." He kicked the roan to a gallop.
    Steban didn't reach the Tower. Rula, having conquered Tain's mule, met him. She pulled him up behind her and continued toward her home.
    Tain saw the Caydarmen to the south, but didn't alter course. He would find them when their time came.
    It was too late now. Absolutely too late. He had switched allegiance from peace to blood. He would kill them. The Witch would go last. After she saw her protectors stripped away. After she learned the meaning of terror.
    He was an angry, unreasoning man. Only craft and cunning remained.
    He knew he couldn't face her wild magic armed only with long and shortsword. To do so he had to resume his abandoned identity. He had to become a soldier of the Dread Empire once more. A centurion's armor bore strong protective magicks.
    What amazing fear would course through the Zemstvi!
    He pulled up when he topped the last hill.
    The after-smell of sorcery tainted the air round the stead. The familiar stench of the Dread Empire overrode that of the Witch . . . .
    He hurled himself from the horse into the shelter of small bushes. His swords materialized in his hands. His emotions perished like small flames in a sudden deluge. He probed with Aspirant senses.
    They had come. Because of the civil war he hadn't believed they would bother. He had fooled himself. They couldn't just let him go, could they? Not a centurion with his background. He could be too great a boon to potential enemies.
    The heirs of the Dread Empire, both the Demon Princess and the Dragon Princes, aspired to western conquests.
    Tain frowned. Sorceries had met here. The eastern had been victorious. So what had become of the victor?
    He waited nearly fifteen minutes, till certain the obvious trap wasn't there. Only then did he enter the yard.
    He couldn't get near Toma. The flames were too hot.
    Kleckla was beyond worry anyway.
    Tain was calm. His reason was at work. He had surprised himself in the jaws of a merciless vice.
    One was his determination to rid the Zemstvi of the Witch and her thieves. The other was the hunter from home, who would be a man stronger than he, a highly ranked Candidate or Select.
    Where was he? Why didn't he make his move?
    Right now, just possibly, he could get away. If he obscured his trail meticulously and avoided using the Power again, he might give his past the slip forever. But if he hazarded the Tower, there would be no chance whatsoever. He would have to use the Power. The hunter would pin him down, and come when he was exhausted . . . .
    Life had been easier when he hadn't made his own decisions. Back then it hadn't mattered if a task were perilous or impossible. All he had had to do was follow orders.
    He released the old cow, recovered his mule packs. He stared at them a long time, as if he might be able to exhume a decision from their contents.
    He heard a noise. His hands flew to his swords.
    Rula, Steban, and the mule descended the hill.
    Tain relaxed, waited.
    Rula surveyed the remains. "This's the cost of conciliation." There was no venom in her voice.
    "Yes." He searched her empty face for a clue. He found no help there.
    "Rula, they've sent somebody after me. From the east. He's in the Zemstvi now. I don't know where. He was here. He chased the Caydarmen off. I don't know why. I don't know who he is. I don't know how he thinks. But I know what his mission is. To take me home."
    Steban said, "I saw him."
    "What?"
    "A stranger. I saw him. Over there. He was all black. He had this ugly mask on . . . ."
    A brief hope flickered in Tain's breast.
    "The mask. What did it look like? What were his clothes like?"
    Steban pouted. "I only saw him for a second. He scared me. I ran."
    "Try to think. It's important. A soldier has to remember things, Steban. Everything."
    "I don't think I want to be a soldier anymore."
    "Come on. Come on." Tain coaxed him gently, and in a few minutes had drawn out everything Steban knew.
    "Kai Ling.