Knight Commander by Eric T. Knight

Knight Commander by Eric T. Knight

Author:Eric T. Knight [Knight, Eric T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-08-06T22:00:00+00:00


Chapter 23

Jarryd was in the room Fang had showed him to, pulling off his boots, thinking how nice it would be to lie down on a real bed, when the door suddenly swung open and Hamisi barged in. She was red-faced and swearing loudly. She threw herself down in the room’s only chair.

“He still won’t change his mind.”

“You’re talking about Kathor, I guess.”

“The big oaf. He’s going to throw his life away for no reason. Why won’t he listen?”

“I was really hoping his mother could get through to him.”

“I talked to her before I went to try and talk to Kathor again. She says he refuses to even talk about it.”

“Did you see the look on his face when Hitch teased him about not being here?”

“That didn’t help,” Hamisi said. “He already feels guilty enough. It’s so stupid. He couldn’t have changed anything even if he had been here. And it’s not like he was taking a holiday at the lake. He was locked up in the gladiator pits.”

“That’s not the way he sees it.”

Hamisi looked at Jarryd. “You have to do something.”

“What?”

“I don’t know. But you’re the leader. You need to come up with something.” She jabbed a finger at him. “You want to save the world? You need to start right here. We need that big idiot. You can’t let him get away.”

Jarryd sighed and started pulling his boots back on. “I’ll go talk to him.”

“Do that.” She stood up. “I’ll go talk to Fang about getting us a wagon.”

“What’s the wagon for?”

“It’s our fall back plan. If you can’t get through to him, I’m going to knock him out, chain him up, and haul his butt away.”

“You remember that he can break chains, don’t you?”

Her jaw tightened. “Not if I use enough of them.”

“There’s about a hundred other reasons that won’t work. You know that, right?”

“I don’t know any such thing. You couldn’t rescue me from execution. I couldn’t rescue you from the Exalted One. Did we let that stop us?”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

Jarryd headed down the hall to Kathor’s room. He was exhausted and the liquor wasn’t sitting well in his gut. He didn’t have any idea what he was going to say to Kathor. It all seemed hopeless anyway. But Hamisi was right. He had to try. He had to try everything he could think of, and then try some more.

He stood outside Kathor’s room, trying to figure out what he would say to the man. But nothing came to him and finally he turned away and walked to the end of the hall, where he climbed the ladder up onto the roof. Scratches was up there, standing by the parapet.

“Sorry,” Jarryd said. “I didn’t know anyone was up here.”

“It’s all right. You’re not hurting anything, and I sure don’t mind the company.”

Jarryd joined her. For a time, he simply stood there, looking out over the city. The darkness covered the destruction, shadows filling in the gaps torn by the war.

“It’s peaceful up here,” he said at last.



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.