Mel Keegan The Lords of Harbendane (S)

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. Thisevening should have been for you and Tristan to share, before you putyourselves in danger s way.You have made love?Heat rushed into Rogan s face. You know we did.Rigel heaved in a breath. Then the time wasn t wasted. He cockedan ear to the warbells which had begun to peal over Huyuk. There s thefinal call.Go on, Rogue! I ll be with you when we fall on the landpirates.Somehow, he drew himself up straight. Do something for me.Tell Damieland Morgan I was magnificent. I ll tell them. Pain stormed through Rogan as he watched Rigel bringthe horse about.He knuckled his eyes and called huskily, Shevan?203 Here. Armes came around beside Tristan. There s nothing they cando.I asked the best in Huyuk.Every man has a final battle, Rogue.Thereare times when I think, if I never see another battlefield as long as I live, it llbe too soon.Rogan felt the truth of this in every bone as he, Tristan and Shevanjoined their cohorts.His thoughts were full of scenes he had not recalled inyears.Rigel as a boy, muddy and victorious, with the crock full of frogsfrom old Gilmaran s pond.in trouble with his teachers for vanishingwhen he should have been studying.a starry-eyed young man, in lovewith some girl he had now long forgotten.To Rogan, it could all have beenyesterday.Memory was a lance through his belly, and his fists clenched onthe saddle horn. They ll sing songs of him a hundred years from now, Shevan saidsoftly. It s the stuff of legend, Rogue.Cherish him for it. I do, Rogan told him. This is the price of every battle.Others paidit at Coepen Highdale, and at how many other battles, when we wereyoung? He blinked away the tears. Time.The warbells chimed insistently now.Cohorts were swinging togetherunder the late spring stars.Tristan was at Rogan s right hand, never farfrom him white faced, wide eyed, but when Rogan wondered if he hadbegun to regret the decision to ride, he shook his head. Stay close, Rogan told him, and I ll show you sights you ve neverseen before, and might never see again.what become of Sybella Brandel? The surgeons had her, last I saw.She was snarling and swearing asthey stitched up what cuts they could, and iron-sealed the rest. Tristansnorted. You were gentle with her.There s people in Huyuk whowould ve been glad to skewer her, for arrogance and stupidity. Hepaused. And cruelty.the name of Corin Ferand was on many lips.Ibelieve Corin has been avenged. And you? Rogan wondered. Do you count yourself avenged? I ve nothing to want vengeance for, Tristan said with a shrug. Itwas all my own doing.a low caste Delus in with dreams of betteringhimself? Nothing befell me that I didn t deserve! But Corin was innocent,and he was avenged on the edge of your sword.I dare say my dignity willrepair itself in time. No one s criticizing you, Rogan said slowly. Some wonder if youblundered ignorantly into the contract.Others speculate that you wereduped into it.In the end, it doesn t matter.It s finished now.And this time? This time? Tristan looked sidelong at him. This time there s nomistake.and I m so very sorry about your brother. So am I. Rogan swallowed the grief a second time and said withdifficulty, Tonight you ll see how a Halloran dies.We have a pride aboutus, Tristan.We die well.204He remembered those words hours later, when Alsheban was setting andthe east had not yet begun to lighten with pre-dawn twilight.The scoutswere accurate in their advice, Lilith was right in her predictions of fairweather for the whole night, and the archers had slunk on ahead, scuttlingthrough the darkness like foxes, unseen, unheard.The land climbed away steadily, mile by mile, into the Eisweg foot-hills, until the high country began to show great masses of blue-green ice,so iron-hard and so cold, they would hang on through summer and growagain with the first winter snows.The glens opened off to left and right like wings off the body of a greatinsect, and directly ahead were the two wide, flaring valleys in whichHrald Barbansen s host lay camped.Darkness was blue-black and thick asmolasses.The moon was gone, and by starlight the land was forbidding,strange, filled with shadows.Eisweg in scouts saw them coming before they were within five milesof the host, and the alarm went up with a strident bellow of brazen horns.The sound sent shivers along the spine.Rogan hated it, yet it could rousehis blood, fetch his nerves to life when he would have believed himself halfdead [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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