Ranger Rising by Mercer Salvador

Author:Mercer, Salvador
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Diamond Star Publishing
Published: 2015-05-28T16:00:00+00:00

Khan was frustrated. For four days, they had been searching for a large group of refugees from Korwell, and he had been camped for over two days on the western bank of the Gregus River in the middle of nowhere. Despite his many attempts to find them, they seemed to have disappeared completely. What was more concerning for him was when he bent his mind and will into the globe of seeing that he possessed, he could see both up and down the river, but as soon as he tried to peer across the river at the forest’s edge, his crystal ball would go black. There was a powerful presence blocking his vision past the river, and this was something he had never encountered before.

Boxer and Gund had returned the previous night with little to report. The southern group, led by Boxer, found no tracks and no place to cross the river. The northern group, led by Gund, found a possible ford not far from their camp where the water ran shallower and quicker over a jumble of rocks, but, with the heavy rains recently, the river was swollen and the crossing was deemed too dangerous to attempt at this time.

Currently, his lieutenants were debating whether to build rafts or simply take the one-day journey north to the old stone bridge that crossed the Gregus and then spend a second day returning along the eastern bank. The issue was that without a way to cross nearby and not knowing what side of the river the refugees were on, his reinforced patrol would be split in two and not be nearly as effective should they encounter resistance.

“Dorsun,” Khan called out from his rocky seat overlooking the brigand camp, “what do you and your leaders think?”

Dorsun was stockier than most of his peers but stood just as tall. He walked over to Khan’s tent and knelt beside him on one knee where he could speak softly without being overheard. “Well, no one seems interested in walking for two days just to get to the other side of this river, and even less seem inclined to enter the Blackthorn Forest. If we have to, I suggest making some crude rafts today and crossing tomorrow. The rain has almost stopped, and I feel certain any tracks left will have been gone by now. Is it really necessary to track down these particular Ulathans?”

Khan had covered his seeing globe with his robe and deftly replaced it back into its pouch as Dorsun spoke. Khan thought for a second. “Am-Ohkre seems obsessed with them for some reason. Perhaps someone from the Korwell family is with them or they have something he wants, but either way, they have now killed a squad of our troopers and seem to be somewhat organized in such a way as to pose a threat to our operations in the area. If they did enter the Earlstyne . . . or Blackthorn, as you refer to it, then we must go there as well despite its reputation.

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