The Sword Of Erren-dar (Book 2) by R.J. Grieve

Author:R.J. Grieve
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2014-05-18T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-one

A Question of Courage

Sareth was awoken the next morning by the persistent cheeping of a little bird in a bush nearby. Lazily, she rolled over onto her back, aware of a pleasant sense of well-being and opened her eyes to look up at an azure sky through the lace-like leaves of the mighty beech tree that soared above her. The little bird continued its diatribe, chasing the last remnants of sleep away like a morning mist and she tucked her hands behind her head and watched, with dreamy detachment, the soft play of the dappled sunlight through the leaves as they trembled in the faintest breath of air. The camp fire had died down and was now merely sending up a tendril of smoke that drifted indecisively in the calm air, scenting the glade with the delightfully bitter-sweet smell of wood smoke. Her companions were no more than five shapeless huddles under their blankets and as no one showed even the slightest tendency to stir, Sareth, shifting her position slightly so that the warmth of the sun fell directly on her face, lay contentedly letting her mind drift as effortlessly as the wood smoke.

It seemed almost impossible that it was only yesterday that they had been deep underground in the darkness and cold of the ice tunnels. On this warm, sunny day it seemed like some grim hallucination rather than reality. Surely it was in some dreadful dream that she had seen the writing appear in the ice?

The message had brought Iska to her knees on the icy floor, shaking and sobbing.

“What do they want of me?” she had wept. “How can I avenge them? I am only one person with no special position or ability. I am not a great warrior who could fight for vengeance, or a sage who could summon it. I am just one girl alone, so how can I do what they ask?”

Although each of them in turn, even Gorm - who wasn’t entirely sure what the fuss was about - tried to comfort her, in the end it was Eimer who succeeded. He knelt on the floor before the distraught girl and gently gripped her shoulders, causing her to raise a tear-stained countenance to him.

“Do you not realise, Iska, that you are already on the path to avenging them? Whatever reason your brother has for causing the sword to be stolen and brought to Adamant, it is not a good one. These women all lost their lives because they opposed the Destroyer, because they would not aid the House of Parth. In retrieving the sword and thwarting whatever evil scheme Mordrian is planning, you are avenging them.”

All trace of the flippant young man was gone and he looked steadily into her eyes in a manner that made even those who had known him since childhood scarcely recognise him.

“I do not wish to bring my country to ruin,” she said constrictedly.

“No one is asking you to do that, but you do wish to stop

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