(eng) Maggie Furey - Aurian 03 by Sword of Flame

Author:Sword of Flame [Flame, Sword of]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Bohan had lost the wolves already. He was less concerned about the fact that he had also come within a hairbreadth of losing his life on the springy, slippery plank bridge that bent and bowed alarmingly beneath his weight as he crawled across it on his hands and knees. Though it was only a short crawl from the fastness window to the mountain ledge, much care had been needed to avoid a fal, and by the time he had reached the other side, the wolves, stil carrying Aurian's son, had vanished into the darkness.

The night was stil black, with an hour or two of darkness yet to go before the dawn. The eunuch pressed himself against the steep and sloping face of the mountain and, forcing his thick fingers into a narrow, slanting fissure in the stone, clung with al his strength to keep himself balanced on the ledge that was scarcely wider than he could span with one great hand. He had already discovered, to his dismay, that the slender crack to which he clung narrowed away to nothing in the direction he wanted to go—and without a handhold it seemed impossible, because of his massive bulk, that he could keep his body balanced on the ledge. Bohan closed his eyes in anguish. What could he do? Every moment he lingered there, afraid to go forward and refusing to go back, those accursed wolves would be getting farther away with the child that he had promised to guard.

Though there was no rain now, the rocks were stil wet and slick from an earlier squal, and a thin, frigid wind whined and snarled as it snaked across the Wyndveil's bare flanks. Bohan, having spent his life in the broiling desert climes of the south, found himself shivering uncontrolably, and a knot of panic twisted in his breast. Though he told himself stoutly that he could stand any amount of discomfort from the cold, the growing numbness in his feet and fingers could only add to the peril of what was already an appalingly difficult climb—and the longer he waited, the greater would be the risk of a lethal fal.

There was nothing for it. Bohan could not bear the shame of letting his beloved Aurian know he had lost her child. He knew that he must go on somehow and find Wolf—or perish in the attempt.

Slowly, he began to inch his way along the ledge, his right hand reeling out ahead of him into the slim crack in the stone; al his concentration centered on the narrowing fissure that provided scant purchase for his abraded fingers.

And then, abruptly, the crevice ended. As the eunuch's groping fingers met with nothing but smooth stone he rocked for a horrifying instant, until his left hand, stil securely anchored, brought his body back to lean, trembling, against the cold rock of the cliff face. But now he was putting too much weight on the fragile ledge beneath his feet. With a tearing crack, the lip of stone broke loose beneath him.

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.