Song of the Valiant by Morgan Rice

Author:Morgan Rice [Rice, Morgan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Morgan Rice
Published: 2023-10-10T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

"I told you no burning!"

Tak felt his rage building as he watched a pair of wagons burn, right in the path that his horde needed to take to reach the city of Destarra.

Bodies lay on the ground, three men and a woman, slaughtered like they were nothing. That was common enough. The horses drawing the wagons had been killed too, though, and the Janden didn't like to waste good horses.

As for burning the wagons, that was clearly intended as a message to him.

Tak dismounted his own steed, leaving his bow on the saddle, but keeping his curved sword close at hand. He suspected that he would need it before this was done.

"Who did this?" he demanded, in a thunderous voice.

"What's wrong, Chief?"

Vek stepped from the throng of those near the wagons, his large form pushing others aside to make way for him. There was blood on his armor that made it clear he'd played some part in this. He even had a bow still held loosely in his hand, an arrow resting in his fingers.

"You did this?" Tak demanded.

The other man tilted his head to one side. It made the longer hair on that side of his head fall across his face, disguising his expression for a moment. Tak didn't need to see it to know that it would be a sneer.

"I thought we were Janden," Vek said. "We fight, we kill. We take what we want!"

That brought a sound of agreement from some of the men around him. Others, clearly sensing Tak's anger, remained silent.

"And I told you that wasn't the plan," Tak replied.

"Ah, your plan," Vek said. He made even that sound like a joke. "The plan where we leave the Lyt alive where we find them, we settle down in their homes, and we all become farmers."

"The plan where we conquer a kingdom instead of destroying it," Tak snarled at the other man. "The plan that has been my destiny since the day I first rode."

Vek kicked at the dirt, then looked pointedly at the sky.

"You want to conquer a kingdom where the sun never shines. A dying kingdom!"

"It will live again once it is ours," Tak insisted. "That is what these signs mean!"

"What you hope they mean," Vek countered. "Me, I just see shadows. And a kingdom with all the wealth we could want. I say we take that wealth and then head south again. With enough of it, we could buy ourselves a city-state."

Tak glared at him. He'd had enough.

"The last I heard, I was chief," Tak said. "So unless you're planning on challenging me, you do what I say, all of you."

"Yeah, about that," Vek said, and brought up his bow in the same breath. He drew and loosed an arrow faster than most men could think of doing it, the shaft heading straight for Tak's chest.

Tak was already diving out of the way. He'd known that the other man would strike first and issue any challenge second. It was against the way the clans did things, but a man like Vek wouldn't care.

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