Raging Swords by Robert Ryan

Author:Robert Ryan [Ryan, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Trotting Fox Press
Published: 2015-07-14T04:00:00+00:00

12. We Do Not Yield!

Gilhain was surrounded by the Durlin. He trusted them. They called him by name, and he knew as much, or perhaps more, of their everyday lives as their friends did. Yet without Brand among them, at one moment solemn and deadly serious, at another laughing and carefree, but ever-watchful, he felt suddenly vulnerable.

The Durlin had courage, but when necessity demanded, pure ice ran through Brand’s veins. He knew fear, as any wise man did, but it never stopped him. Where other men hesitated, he acted. Where other men were cowed by terror, he stood tall. Where other men broke, he found strength within himself to endure. He had proven all these things, or Gilhain would not have made him Durlindrath.

Without his constant shadow, ever-present but always in the background, Gilhain realized how easy it would be for an assassin to kill him. The Durlin were good, the best bodyguards in all of Alithoras, but without Brand to lead them they were lessened. For it was not skill that made the difference, nor friendship, but a deep and abiding affection more like that between father and son.

Gilhain shrugged his worries aside. He could not function if he dwelled on the risk to himself, and Cardoroth needed him to function. The attacks of the enemy had stepped up. It was the next day after Brand had left, and something had stiffened the enemy’s resolve. All night their sorcerous chanting rolled and echoed through the city. At dawn, the attacks began. Wave after wave of maddened elugs sought to take the walls. Aranloth claimed the elùgroths used sorcery to work them into a frenzy, and Gilhain believed it.

Another attack was forming now. The war drums beat louder than ever. The elug chant, not sorcerous as was that of the elùgroths, yet still a powerful sap to morale, rose and beat at the Cardurleth like a physical assault:

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