Young Robenc

When Robenc was a young man, his first official assignment was Phylax of the small garrison at Mountain House. Politically, the position was hardly a plum appointment, the locale being so remote (in so many ways) from the Golias' court. But he was young, with enough ambition to get him into trouble with his betters, and it was his first command.

His primary duty, it seems, was to preside over the five Stratioti, who did all the work, to take a quarter-day shift in rotation with them, and of course, to secretly report on the Superius Frater's doings from time to time.

Otherwise, there really was very little to do, so in his off hours he would wander the demesne, getting to know the trails, the cutoffs, the ways into and out of the grounds, and the general layout of the House itself. He had started these excursions while slipping away to the town, but soon became fascinated with the terrain — its stately mountains, sheer drops, boulder fields, and magnificent vistas.

Two things ripened in his mind on these ramblings. One was that even were he not duty-bound to the Frater and his own men, he might well choose to live out here, well away from the city's noise and intrigue. The other was a sense, inchoate at first, and unsupported by any direct evidence from his senses, that someone was living out there in the wild surrounding the House.

His walks in the woods and mountains took on the character of a kind of hunt: without knowing it at first, he began to use instincts developed during his military training to 'stalk' his indistinctly imagined quarry. By the time he became consciously aware that he was doing this (he was not a man given to much reflection), he was taking every moment of his free time — and some of his working hours as well — to track this person or persons unknown.

This preoccupation of Robenc's caused some worry on the part of the Superius Frater. He did know, of course, that Robenc was sent in part to spy on him, and would have to report to their common superiors from time to time. He also knew that he himself was doing nothing out of the ordinary, at least at the moment, to occasion Robenc's frequent visits to the town.

The Frater tried subtly to find out more from the stratioti, but they did not seem to care what Robenc did. To them the Phylax was a likable but not very bright sort of person who liked tromping through the woods. Most of their conversations with him concerned the beauty of the surroundings, a subject about which he seemed unendingly enthused, and which led them to treat him with a touch of indulgence: he was, after all, a city boy who had never seen such things.

The Frater of course recognized this as a ploy on Robenc's part for getting information from them without their realizing it. But about what? The countryside, and the house, and the legends about the place that nobody really believed but loved to tell? What was Robenc up to?

He decided to ask Robenc directly. It was a gloomy day in midwinter. The lake was frozen, but a few days before, it had warmed up enough to slush the trails and walks. Then during the night freezing rain had turned everything as slick as a mirror. It was still falling after breakfast when he found Robenc on the lower porch, pacing to and fro as if on a leash. The Frater ordered bark tea from the refectory, and when it came he opened the window of his study and invited Robenc in.

The young man appeared reluctant, but when the Frater remarked that the rain was unlikely to let up whether Robenc stood watching it or not, he shrugged with a faint smile and came in.

Robenc accepted the glass of tea with a distracted air and waited for the Frater to make whatever request he had decided to make.

'When I was first sent here,' the Frater began, 'I was aggrieved and resentful. I felt I had been exiled to the end of the world, and spent my days plotting my escape. But you seem delighted by this remote assignment. Perhaps — ' [...]