The Gift of Battle by Morgan Rice

Author:Morgan Rice [Rice, Morgan]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Tags: ScreamQueen, kickass.to
Published: 2014-11-23T06:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

Gwendolyn stood on the peak of the Ridge, on the broad, stone platform she had once toured with the King, and searched the sky. Argon stood beside her, Steffen at her other side and Krohn at her heels, as she searched the horizon, watching Lycoples disappear. After Lycoples had flown them back from Argon’s master and had dropped her and Argon off here, atop the Ridge, Gwen had commanded Lycoples to depart, to go and find Thorgrin and give him her message. His finding the Sorcerer’s Ring was their last hope, and Gwendolyn, as much as she wanted to for selfish reasons, could not keep Lycoples here with her. So she had let go of her one chance to escape, and instead had chosen to make a stand here, with the Ring, to not abandon her people, her vow, whatever dangers would come.

Gwen had no regrets. It was not in Gwendolyn’s makeup to abandon her people, and she had vowed to the King to help his people, and she intended to keep it. She could have had Lycoples drop her down below, in the safety of the capital, across the lake, far away from the front lines of the invasion to come—but that was not who she was. If a war was coming, this was where she wanted to be, on the frontlines, rallying the troops, preparing.

Gwen felt her heart fluttering, felt a familiar tingling sensation in her hands, her arms, as she steeled herself for battle, as she entered the mental mindset. As she had flown over the Great Waste, she had watched in awe, terror, and fascination the endless number of troops of the Empire, all marching for the Ridge—it had looked as if the entire world were rallying to destroy the place. It was a surreal feeling to be flying right into the heart of trouble, and not away from it. It was as if Lycoples had dropped them down right in the eye of the storm.

And she knew, if Argon’s master’s prophecies were true, that nothing would hold the Empire back, that the Ridge would soon be destroyed.

But Gwen was not one to give up easily, or to heed prophecies. Since arriving, she had, on the contrary, done everything in her power to rally the troops of the Ridge, all of the King’s knights, to help defend it. She had at first tried to get them to heed her words and evacuate the Ridge, but they would not hear of it, and she knew she would never be able to force this people to evacuate their home of centuries and head out into the unknown. Especially when there was no enemy yet in sight. Many of them still lived in denial that the Empire would attack.

So Gwen did the next best thing. She sounded all the horns, which continued to sound even now as she stood there, all of them sounding in a chorus, again and again, rallying all the knights in the King’s name, commanding them all to gather at the peak of the Ridge.

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