The Pearls (Pearls and the Crown 1) by Deborah Chester

Author:Deborah Chester [Chester, Deborah]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2007-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Exhaustion burned inside Shadrael by the time he finally spoke the word that had been sawing through his mind forever, and led his men out of the Hidden Ways back into the reality of cold, stinging air and moonlight shining over snow-covered ground.

Hills and woods surrounded him. He inhaled the scents of pine laced with pungent toklar bush. This cold and snow, the trees, the terrain were not what he’d been aiming for. Everything was wrong, and he knew a burst of alarm, sharp and sour, before he controlled it.

“Commander—”

“Have the men fall out and rest,” Shadrael broke in before Fomo could ask questions. Fomo knew where he’d planned to take them, but the rest of the men did not. “Half rations—cold—and a full measure of water each.”

Saluting, the centruin set to work.

Pushing away the headache buzzing in his temples, Shadrael kicked his horse through a thicket of trees, riding uphill into the clear to take his bearings.

Overhead, the hands of the gods had brushed the night sky with a spangle of lights. Above the fat milky moon, the star Kelili shone hard and bright inside the circle of her four lesser sisters. He knew that north constellation as well as the back of his hand, for it had guided him through the night hunts of his boyhood. Five years past, he’d followed it in leading his battered legion to safety from the Madrun wilderness. Now, gazing up at it, he gave the bright star a tiny Ulinian salute, touching his lips and forehead. With Kelili to guide him, he could never be lost.

To the east lay a dark jumble of foothills descending to forest. To the west lay the narrow valley once known as Falenthis, the valley of ruins and ancient tragedy where he’d abducted Light Bringer’s sister this afternoon.

Stunned, unable to believe it, Shadrael stared hard at the landmarks. Moonlight gleamed stark and white, reflected by the snow. It illuminated the landscape with such clarity there could be no mistake.

From this vantage he could see nearly the entire valley. There stood the crumbling pillars of its imperial arch. There ran the black line of the stream near the base of the opposite hills. And there lay the distant heaps of fallen buildings. A handful of fires, flickering like tiny beacons, showed him where the lady’s escort made their camp tonight in the narrow flat betwixt stream and road.

Disappointment sagged through him, and he bowed his head. All that effort to magically fold distance and time, all that sacrificing of his precious reserves to cross this wretched province and reach Ulinia by dawn, and to what result? They’d gone scarcely farther than a half day’s normal marching could have taken them.

Mortified, shocked, he looked again, telling himself that in his weariness he must be mistaken. But Falenthis it was. A place cursed through history, and evidently so tainted still that its bad luck had afflicted him and his men.

Or was the accursed valley to blame?

He glared at the girl shamming sleep in his arms.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.