Chaosmage (Age of Darkness) by Aryan Stephen

Author:Aryan, Stephen [Aryan, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Fiction / Fantasy / Epic, Fiction / Fantasy / Historical, Fiction / Action & Adventure
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2016-10-10T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 27

By the time Alyssa made it back onto the wall it was almost midday. She’d spent the morning helping other people, which consisted of offering suggestions to problems they understood better than her. Nevertheless they were grateful and seemed happier for her guidance.

Before she’d gone very far down the corridor someone else intercepted her with a matter that needed her immediate attention. With more people to feed food was starting to become a problem and rationing would only get them so far. They had plenty of water, as the deep wells were connected to a vast underground lake, but their food was not without its limit. As the nights became colder the woollen blankets, scarves and gloves would become more important, but they still needed fuel for fires and cooking. For now they were gradually chopping up the racks and distilling wine, but the process took time and neither would last forever. The obvious idea was to bring logs in from the old wood outside the city.

Her offer to go into the countryside to forage was met with surprise and shock. A team of ten armed volunteers offered to go over the wall instead, to check her traps and cut down a few trees. Normally people were reluctant to leave the safety of the walls, but suddenly the idea of stepping out of the city, even for a short time, had become appealing. Alyssa knew the reason why, even if they didn’t. She could feel the darkness inside her trying to push its way to the surface, but she wouldn’t let it be her master. Whenever she felt her temper begin to fray at the endless questions, she took a moment to breathe and pray.

Her people were changing. Guarding the walls by themselves for one night had given some of them a jolt of courage. It was untested and wouldn’t last long once they’d endured a night with the Forsaken, but she knew it was a beginning. With a mixture of fear and pride she consented for the party to visit the old wood.

As she made it to the top of the wall someone pressed a bowl of stew and a chunk of fresh bread into her hands. The woman smiled at Alyssa and then carelessly set another bowl on the wall a few feet away from Zannah. Alyssa carried the bowl to her friend and split the bread in two. As they ate in silence she poked the lumps in her stew with her spoon until she could recognise them. Mushrooms and rhubarb. There were still plenty of both and thankfully she wasn’t tired of the taste just yet.

“Where are the others?” asked Alyssa, her mouth half full of stew.

“The wizard went out into the city again and Tammy is asleep.”

Movement caught Alyssa’s attention on the street and a few seconds later she saw several people stumble into view. All were bruised, bloody and battered. Several bore wounds and most were local people. There were also three mercenaries and they were in an equally bad state, limping along and wrapped in bloody bandages.

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