Sons of Ironstorm - Book 1: Griffon's Rise

Hard Questions

With a final look up at the silent and unmoving sorcerer, he slid from his saddle and stepped to where the enemy officer was still moaning out the last moments of his life.  His massive sword went into the ground with a low 'crunch' as it bit through the soil and he knelt between it and the fallen officer.

"How many still follow us?" he growled his question, his eyes shards of ice as they bore into the officer's face.  "How many more Ge'e Darien will we face before reaching the walls of the Star?"

 Somehow, though the man was lost in his pain as his life leaked away, the low tone of command in the big man's voice was enough to pull him back from the brink.  His eyes fluttered before he turned his head slightly to focus on the big man's face.

"More than enough, general." the officer rasped, his voice weakening with every word as blood appeared on his lips.  "You'll not reach the boy king with your missive alive."

"We shall see," the slender man, who had commanded the archers to fire, hissed tightly as he too knelt nearby.  "It'll take more than Grimnor's Reds to stop a company of the King's Rangers, sorcerer or no!"

As if in answer to him being named, the dark company became aware of a low chanting audible from a distance, quickly accompanied by the warming rush of magic gathering.  And, as he felt the warmth wash over him, the fallen officer smiled and closed his eyes.

"Yes, captain," he said, his voice now nearly a whisper.  Yet it clearly carried to every member of the dark company. 

"Yes, we shall see."  And then his death's rattle was slipping past his lips and the big man, who the officer had called 'general', leaned back from him, a frown on his chiseled face as he watched the officer relax into morbidity.

"Kadasa!" the slender man snarled, throwing a hard look up at the sorcerer, who now made strange and fluid gestures with his arms as he stared into the heavens.  Heavens that, suddenly, were filling with dark and seething clouds.

"More black magic!"  He looked at the big man, still kneeling on the ground, a thoughtful expression replacing his frown.  "I like it not, general.  The mage is summoning some sort of storm.  I suggest we leave this place immediately!"

"You'll get no argument from me, captain," the big man rumbled, coming to his feet in a surge of strength and motion, taking hold of his sword hilt before jerking it free with a yank of powerful arm and shoulder muscles.  What blood and gore the dirt hadn't scraped off, he wiped clean with a piece of cloth he tore from the fallen officer's cloak.  He went on as he slipped the clean blade back into its worn scabbard.

"See to your wounded.  As soon as the last body is policed and properly buried, we'll be on our way."

The slender man nodded.

"And the rebels, sir?"

The big man grimaced as his eyes raked over the ragged battleground and the broken bodies of their enemies that strew it liberally.

 "Leave them to the crows.  They'll serve as a sign to any that come across them that rebellion against the rightful king of Talemon will be met with the swiftest justice!"

It took half a turn of the glass majora to bury the four rangers that had fallen in the brief but devastating clash.  And, all the while that the rangers worked to care for their slain comrades, the sorcerer continued to gather the storm above the grove.  Until, as the dark company returned to their saddles, the first fat drops of the growing tempest began to pelt them.

"The footing will be uncertain this far off the Dawn Way if we continue overland."  The slender ranger captain noted as he brought his mount close to that of the big man's, as the general adjusted his saddlebags behind him.