Chapters (44)
- Cover
- OTHER BOOKS BY STEPHEN R. DONALDSON
- Dedication
- PROLOGUE
- PART ONE
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- PART TWO
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- PART THREE
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- PART FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- EPILOGUE
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- What’s next onyour reading list?
Klamath straightened in his saddle, squinted where Ulla indicated. Peering in that direction, King Bifalt saw movement.
The First Captain’s company, his own soldiers and the men he had been sent to reinforce, made a deeper blot in the depths of the shadows. There should have been more, but the raiders and the smoke had killed too many. Without the Magisters of pestilence, many more would have died.
As the riders emerged into a swath of sunlight, Klamath released a long sigh. In a low voice, he asked, “Can you count them, Ulla?”
As if he feared a reprimand, the boy murmured, “Not yet, sir.”
Ulla’s tone caught King Bifalt’s attention. For the first time, he looked at the boy closely. To save his own life, Klamath would not have reprimanded an honest boy. Whatever Ulla feared, it was not his General’s disappointment. Yet he sat too stiffly behind Klamath. His face wore the twisted expression of a child who was trying not to cry.
The sight gave Bifalt an unexpected pang. There were already too many children with good reason to cry in Belleger and Amika. When Rile’s armies came, there would be far more.
Chewing his cheek, he watched the company below him.
It came slowly. For the sake of men who had to be bound in their saddles, King Bifalt expected the riders to keep a gentle pace; but their caution seemed excessive.
Then he saw that they were dragging a travois.
His mind raced. A travois? The company had brought someone who could not be tied onto a horse. Not poisoned, then. Injured—but still alive.
The King could not wait longer. Sternly, he nodded at Klamath. Together, they nudged their mounts down the slope. The bodyguards followed.
They closed the distance at a hard canter. Along the way, Bifalt noticed Ulla again. The boy was not sitting stiffly now. He squirmed against Klamath’s back as if he ached to drop to the ground and run.
As Matt’s soldiers rounded a hill into sunlight, the King and General Klamath halted in front of them.
From his saddle, King Bifalt scanned the riders. Their losses had been severe. Among the survivors, at least a dozen men sprawled on their mounts’ necks, kept in place with ropes. Several of the others were pallid and sweating, unsteady in their seats. The Magisters of pestilence, Bellegerin and Amikan, stayed near them.