The Fall of Erlon by Robert H. Fleming

Author:Robert H. Fleming [Fleming, Robert H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-09-28T16:00:00+00:00

Elisa

The morning was bright and chilly. Elisa rode directly behind Marshal Lauriston as he talked quietly with Desaix in the front of the group. Mon was to her left with a bottle clanking around in his lap.

Desaix galloped away from Lauriston to return to scouting. The marshal rode alone at the front now with his head down in thought. Elisa nudged her horse faster to catch up with Lauriston at the front.

“When should we cut east?” she asked when she pulled level with the marshal. She’d assumed they would’ve already moved away from the Broadwater and hidden in the deeper forest, but she trusted Lauriston to make the right decision.

But since the guide’s latest warning to her, she knew something was about to happen. Maybe the group should already be heading east and away from potential danger. She wanted to hear Lauriston’s thoughts on his own plan.

“When we approach Bres, I think.” Lauriston didn’t sound fully confident in the answer.

“And we’ll be able to find the army in the forest?” Elisa knew the Dune Forest to be vast and difficult to traverse.

“The agreed-upon location is Lake Brodeur. That’s on the other side of this part of the forest. The army should be split up throughout the forest, so we may find them sooner.”

“And if their plan has changed?” Elisa’s voice was low. She didn’t want the scenario to be true.

“Then we’ll have to find them some other way.”

They rode some more in silence. Traveling up and down small hills. Passing over small creeks and between thickets and clumps of underbrush.

“Your father would ask me for advice while we were on campaign.” Lauriston spoke at last through a long exhalation. His voice was tired and worried. “We would discuss the next move, the mindset of the enemy general and how to defeat him. He seemed to always know the right answers. For any situation, even against Duroc.”

Elisa didn’t know how to respond. Memories flooded her mind and she felt heat come to her cheeks at the mention of her father. A vision of him riding next to her through the imperial forests outside Plancenoit flashed across her mind. She was younger. She laughed and her hair waved behind her as they galloped through the trees.

“I keep asking myself what he would do right now. What would he have us do?” Lauriston shook his head and stared down the path in front of them. “He wouldn’t give up.”

“No.” Elisa knew that much was true.

Lauriston turned his head and looked at her. She could feel his eyes searching through her own. There was pressure there, like he expected her to have answers. He wanted her to be her father, to save them all in some miraculous and brilliant move.

But there was nothing to offer. Elisa was as lost as the rest of them. She wasn’t her father. She was useless, especially in a war like this one.

“It’s okay,” Lauriston pulled his eyes from hers. “We’ll find a way.”

Elisa fell back behind Lauriston and let the marshal ride alone at the head of the group.

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