Trials of the Hierophant by Ethan Risso

Author:Ethan Risso [Risso, Ethan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rookpen Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

eronwy Mórgor, leader of one of the largest armies in the history of Dweömer‌—‌she liked the sound of that. With part of Heid’s forces joining her own, the size of the army rivaled even that of Annwyd’s trained soldiers.

“Tell Aeronwy to take charge.” It was the only parting message Gawain had given before he abandoned his duties. She licked her dry lips and looked at the fortified walls of the Sigla. She wished Brân was at her side. His scouting abilities would have been most useful, but he vanished with little fanfare. The Sigla Outpost refused to yield to their siege, and they remained locked in a seemingly endless stalemate.

The Annwydians were not fools. Their stronghold was flanked to the north and the west by the Āstellan River. It was their proximity to the river, and the trade routes, which afforded the Sigla Outpost a status closer to a settlement than a simple, military post. A quaint trading village grew around the perimeter of the old fort steadily over the past generation. Often bustling with merchants on their travels from Gweliwch to Niſeport, the village was now quiet as all its residents fell back to the inner wall of the original fort.

The first great success of her forces came a fortnight past when they were able to lay claim to the river and cut their supply line from Gweliwch. The river bend was littered with the destroyed remains of a dozen supply boats. Some captains scuttled their own boats, in an attempt to keep their cargo from the hands of their enemies. It did not dampen her forces, however. Her men were stocked with both food and weaponry to outlast even the most steadfast of her besieged foes.

The air smelled foul with the stench of maggoty flesh rotting around the perimeter of the outpost’s wall. Bodies of men, women, and children numbering in the dozens decayed in heaps. Aeronwy looked up as two soldiers hoisted another corpse over the outer wall of the outpost as they shouted curses to the field. The soldier was stripped of armor. His naked body rolled off the top of the heap and onto the ground. His blackened lips and the putrid sores on his body signified the pestilence which plagued the outpost. The yellowed eyes which stared out at her from beneath his matted hair sent a chill up her spine. It had been some time since she felt the true effects of war. There was something about the man’s eyes which struck a chord that echoed throughout her very being, and she felt the familiar blood lust well inside of her as she looked at the fetid corpse.

Twilight was nearly upon them. Hundreds of fireflies dotted the landscape with little flecks of light. Aeronwy waved away one of the bugs on the rim of her cup before lifting it to her lips. Her second, Jored, soon joined her at the trestle table, erected just at the border of the village as a show of their tactical advantage.

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