Augury Answered by Phillip Murrell

Author:Phillip Murrell [Murrell, Phillip]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781096096191
Published: 2019-05-31T22:00:00+00:00

chapter 14

Murid rubbed her eyes and stretched on her bed. She felt the space beside her. It was empty. Murid was briefly melancholy until the aroma of hot coffee caressed her nostrils. She sat up and rubbed sleep from her eyes. Sitting on her dresser was a silver kettle; steam rose from the gooseneck spout.

Murid rose from her bed and searched for some clothes to cover herself. She’d gladly abandon them again, but Two Dogs was no longer in her longhouse. She understood. People liked to talk, but a part of her wanted to let them. She was queen, after all.

Murid selected a green tunic with matching trousers. Her mother would have had words with her about wearing a dress, but that wasn’t practical for the hunt she had planned.

After dressing, Murid walked to her dresser and grabbed a mug. She poured the hot coffee and held the cup to feel the warmth. The coffee was black, so Murid added some of the milk provided. It turned to a light brown. Murid took a sip of her gift. If Two Dogs did this every morning, he was forgiven for sneaking away.

Someone knocked on the door. “My queen, are you awake?”

“Yes, Egill, you may enter,” Murid answered.

The door opened. Egill walked through and spied the coffee in Murid’s hand.

“Am I interrupting anything?” he asked.

Murid smiled as his eyes lingered on her steaming mug.

“No,” she answered. “I’m surprised to see you up so early.”

“My head agrees with you. Unfortunately, duty calls.”

“What is it?”

Murid gestured to the bench running along her table. Egill nodded and took a seat next to her.

“It’s the Black Cloud. They’ve sacked another farm. At the rate they’re going, Corlain cannonballs will slam into our walls a week from now.”

“I see. What do you suggest?”

“My queen, I know you want to honor Jorosolman, but we don’t have two more nights to celebrate. We need to evacuate the city. We can head farther north and prepare for the Corlains.”

“That’s blasphemous!” Egill looked away. Murid calmed herself. “Aren’t we prepared now? We’ve known this fight was coming for some time. We already won our first battle.”

“We lost our king at Samburg. If it wasn’t for Two Dogs, we likely would have lost more. That victory was costly, and the Corlains didn’t know to expect the fight. The division heading this way isn’t as ignorant. They outnumber us three to one. We must abandon the ring fortress.”

“Egill, I respect your opinion, but my hold on this crown is tenuous at best. If I run away without honoring our most sacred god, I’ll lose more support.”

“If you lose our army to a Corlain attack, support won’t matter anymore.”

“We have a week; we only need three days. We’ll finish the festivities, then leave. It must be in that order.”

Egill pressed his palms together in front of his mouth. He looked like he was praying to Murid, but she knew he was keeping himself from saying anything he’d later regret.

“I can’t guarantee we have a week.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.