The Death of Chaos by L. E. Modesitt Jr.

went up against the first chaos wizard alone.”
    “Then I was even younger and stupider. Actually, that was my second. Antonin didn’t have an army camped next to him. The first one did, and I ran like hell, and was very lucky to escape.” I didn’t point out that being able to shield myself from the troops’ seeing me had helped a lot, and they still almost got me shooting off arrows blind. That shielding hadn’t worked against the wizard, only the troops, and it wouldn’t work against Gerlis himself. “Also, the point is to get back to Kyphrien with enough information to let the autarch know what is happening.”
    That got a snort from Jylla, and I looked over at her, standing beside her mount. She turned pale.
    “You made your point, Lerris.” Yelena’s tone was dry.
    “What point?” I really wasn’t that angry, but I had been irritated.
    She shook her head.
    “I’ll still be lucky to get back in one piece.”
    “I have great confidence in you, Order-master.”
    I was glad someone did.
    I packed up the cheese, orderspelled more water, and used some of it to wash my face. Below us, the sheep milled around more, and then drifted farther away from the road.
    “I’m sorry,” I said quietly to Yelena as we rode onward and away from the sheep.
    “There’s nothing to be sorry about.” She paused. “You know what makes you dangerous, Lerris?”
    “Me, dangerous?”
    “You,” she affirmed, glancing back toward the three who followed several lengths back and lowering her voice. “You just do whatever needs to be done. You do it with as much force as you can.”
    “That’s practical. You do it the best way you can. If you have to do it, then do it. And if you don’t, then don’t.” I was embarrassed and started looking at the road ahead, for sheep, for kaystones, for anything.
    The hills got flatter on the road to Dasir, and the sun got hotter, and the light breeze died down.
    Kaaa…cchwwww! I rubbed my nose and tried not to sneeze again.
    Jylla’s sneeze wasn’t much more delicate than mine.
    With the lower hills, the packed dark clay of the road had turned drier, redder, and dustier.
    Kaaachewwww!!!
    “You have an impressive sneeze,” offered Yelena.
    “Thank you.” My nose was running, reddish from the dust that seemed everywhere.
    “It’s been a dry year, this side of Kyphrien,” she went on. “That causes the dust. But it’s better than the mud.”
    Between coughing and sneezing, I wasn’t sure that dust was preferable to mud. Being an order-master is helpful for keeping away flies and bugs, but it doesn’t do much for dust. I itched everywhere and wondered if The Basis of Order dealt with itches. That was the problem, though. When you need to learn something it’s late, often too late. I sighed and resolved to read through the book that evening.
    With each step, the dust rose. And the dust rose and fell, and poor Gairloch’s legs looked like he wore boots made of red dust. I just wore a cloak of the stuff.
    Khhaaa…cheww!
    Overhead, the late fall sky had turned a cheerful blue-green, and bright, and the wind had died, making the day seem warmer, warm enough that by mid-afternoon I was sweating, and thin lines of mud ran down my cheeks.
    My backside was sore by the time the sun hung on the edge of the low hills behind us. Kyphrien already seemed impossibly far behind. I was still sneezing, and my nose was running red mud. My eyes itched, and I wanted to club Gerlis to death with my staff, just to get things over with sooner.
    “We’ll stay there.” Yelena pointed to a kaystone on the left side of the road that said “Matisir.”
    I squinted down the road toward a clump of buildings that seemed slumped between two low hills.
    “The barracks is right off the square, if you can call it a square.”
    Jylla sighed. Weldein flicked his reins.
    Matisir contained perhaps ten buildings. One was the barracks for outliers and transient members of the Finest, and one was a long stable.