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?
Without orders, Magister Solace took command of Whimper and her panicked comrades. In his dour fashion, he herded them downhill toward the horses.
When they were gone, General Klamath surged to his feet.
“Go!” he roared. “Now!” Then he ran to help Rowt with the wounded.
He did not start to weep until all of his survivors were mounted and fleeing eastward through the storm.
TWENTY-TWO
IN STORMS
For two full days, a snowstorm covered Belleger from the Wall Mountains in the east to the crashing seas in the west. In the Last Repository, the Farsighted were blinded, unable to penetrate the heavy clouds, the veils of snow. Even the boundaries between day and night were scarcely distinguishable. Twilight faded into deep darkness and back again with nothing to mark its passage.
As a result, no one in the Repository knew whether King Bifalt had survived the destruction of Belleger’s Fist. No one knew the fate of the el-Algreb in the south or the movements of Rile’s fanged horde in the north.
And no one knew that the combined armies of Belleger and Amika were fleeing for their lives ahead of the Great God’s cavalry. General Klamath’s desperation was hidden from them.
Led through the snowfall by a depleted throng of skirmishers, Rile’s cavalrymen gave chase. Commanded by priests riding tusked beasts, they ran hard, seeking slaughter.
The General’s forces began with a substantial lead. Hours before the first Magisters returned from the ridgecrest, First Captain Hegels had broken camp. At the first sign of Klamath’s defeat, he had harried the army into motion. When General Klamath caught up with him, they had time to organize their flight.
Without pausing, Klamath put Hegels in the lead with a squad of Bellegerins, men who had once lived in this region and knew the terrain. Then he arrayed his riflemen in a long stream wrapped around his remaining Magisters of fire, lightning, wind, and drought. The first exploding globe had killed seven drought-wielders, six Magisters of fire, and two of Brighten’s comrades. The General could not afford to risk those that remained.
Taking the rear, he kept Captain Rowt, six riflemen, all twelve Magisters of pestilence, and Magister Crawl with him. He did not expect the skirmishers to match his pace. Instead, he told the soldiers to watch for Rile’s cavalry. The pestilence-wielders he instructed to cast their sorcery behind them whenever a rifleman shouted a warning. Above everything, he had to hinder those infernal beasts. Mere horses could not flee fast enough or long enough to stay ahead of the enemy. First the mounts would die, their hearts and strength broken. Then the whole army would fall. For the next hours, nothing except sorcery could answer Rile’s skirmishers or slow his cavalry.