Third Power by Robert Childs

Author:Robert Childs [Childs, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy
Publisher: Unknown
Published: 2017-01-03T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter XV

Steve yawned in spite of himself. He could not help it. Shortly after Gouroth’s departure from the general’s quarters he had set out to help bring the search party together that now accompanied him deep within the forested embrace of the Granar. The hasty gathering of trackers and soldiers, plus the rushed details involved in the plan to find Scott had kept him awake for what might as well have been the entire night. Now, at midday, his lack of sleep was catching up to him.

Sonya and Haldorum accompanied him on his left and right respectively, and to the old wizard he said, “Talk to me.”

“Talk to you?” Haldorum repeated.

“Yes. Talk to me about anything; I don’t care what. Talk about the plan to find Scott. I’m tired and I need something to focus on to help keep me awake.”

“No one ever said that leading men was altogether easy.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll get used to it,” Steve affirmed.

“Yes, I suppose you will at that,” Haldorum agreed. “Well, there are three parties of one hundred men each – one roughly one league to the east and the other to the west. If any one of the parties discover something they’ll let us know by scout. How was that?”

Steve rolled his eyes. “Riveting.”

“As usual, Haldorum, you have an uncanny love for the concise,” Princess Vessla announced as she rode up. She guided her mount between the old wizard and Steve, forcing the wizard to the outside. “I think Steven was looking for something more along the lines of conversation.” To him she said, “Let us speak of that grand day when you and I shall be wed, hmm?”

“Please, Vessla, not now. I’m worried for my friend and it’s important we find him above all else.”

“I understand your concern, Steven,” she said, “but there is little to be done until some sign of him is found. So in the meantime we can discuss matters of the future. Now, have you anyone you wish to invite.”

Steve sighed. At times her persistence was cute, at others—like now—annoying. Reluctantly he offered, “I can’t very well bring my family, but I think Scott would make an excellent best man.”

“Best man?” Vessla remarked curiously. “The best man for what?”

“Your fiancé is an alien to this world, princess. The ceremony of marriage is different from what you know,” Haldorum explained.

“Oh, I see,” she replied, clearly not anticipating this wrinkle. “Well, Father will insist upon a traditional Jisetrian wedding, naturally.”

Steve sighed. “Naturally.”

The search proceeded with agonizing slowness, granting little more than a few scant clues to Scott’s fate. Though his spear was found early in the day, not far from where Haldorum had opened the portal, there was little to go on. As the hours passed and the sun began its gradual descent to the horizon, Sonya and Steve matched the growing darkness with increasing melancholia, as though a door were closing on their prospects to find their friend.

“I don’t like it,” Vessla was saying to Eegrin. “I am surprised he doesn’t fall over from exhaustion.

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