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REBIRTH OF A WARRIOR Chapter 24
Grimly, I watched the fallen rider struggle to rise only to fall back to the ground. It gave me no pleasure to kill, but these men had asked for it by tracking me down. I collected my knives, not wanting to see such fine weapons rot in the undergrowth of this dark forest. Reaching down to retrieve a knife, I winced as the arrow wound reminded me of its presence. My fingers found the wound on my side. The arrow had hit nothing vital, but it had left a nasty gash where it had skidded off my ribs, and the wound was bleeding profusely.Flin perked up an ear at my reappearance and even looked halfway interested that I had returned. Gathering the reins I led him through the forest and out to where the last soldier lay. The warmth of the afternoon sun felt good after the cool, moist darkness of the forest. Blood dripped off my fingers, which held a wadded up piece of rag to the wound in my side, as I approached the last soldier in the meadow.The man was still conscious, but he didn’t have lo
REBIRTH OF A WARRIOR Chapter 25
There must be tunnels behind the gates that led through the mountains on either side of the wall in order to access the city beyond. It was a smart way of resolving the inherent tactical weakness of a gateway. Gates are typically the weakest points in a fortification; get enough ramming, bombardment, and a heavy enough massing of troops and any gate can fall; except maybe these gates. The angle they were at put them out of range of being directly fired upon by projectiles. The massing of troops in the narrow tunnels would create a bottleneck that could prove catastrophic, if they had death holes through which boiling oil could be poured down onto the attacking troops and the tunnels themselves could likely be caved in, if need be, to stop an invasion. If there was any weakness to be found in the defenses before me, it was probably the overconfidence of the soldiers defending it, thinking that the wall could never fail, which is a very dangerous weakness to have as overconfidence breeds
REBIRTH OF A WARRIOR Chapter 26
The words emanated from a darkened corner of the room. Peering into the corner, I heard a chair scrape against the stone floor and I saw a figure rise up and come towards me. The shadowy figure used a cane to walk. He came into the light and I was shocked to see a resemblance to myself in his face, although more timeworn and wrinkled.It didn’t surprise me when he said, “As you might have guessed we’re related, you and I. Your father was my son, which makes you my grandson. Long have I wanted to see you, but I feared to never see the day come.”He leaned heavily on his cane for a moment as his eyes rested on me. “Oh to God that your father, mother and brother could be here too! But at least I am not without comfort in that I, at least, have you! Come, my boy! It’s time that you saw your new home, that is if you choose to make it so.”I got to my feet stiffly and before I could resist, aged but still strong arms enveloped me in a bear hug that caused the pain in my side to intensify sli
REBIRTH OF A WARRIOR Chapter 27
“Oh, no!” exclaimed Krista.She had seen that look of pale stillness before. Frantically, she put her hand on the baby’s chest, but she could feel no movement there and the skin was cold. Big tears welled up in her eyes and then spilled down her cheeks as she gently rocked the still baby in her arms.Later, she got up as dawn’s first rays started to brighten up the gloomy morning and made her way towards the wharf which was nearby. Making her way down to the shore of the river, she lowered the baby into the murky waters. For a moment the baby’s face was visible and then it was gone.She had been making her way past the guards last night, intent on escaping the holding pens and the short, hard life of being a slave, when out of the dark a hand had feebly grabbed her. Gasping in surprise, she had spun towards the unseen hand to see a thin woman with dark shadows under her eyes standing there in the gloom.“Please! Please take my baby with you!”“ I…. I…. I can’t! I wouldn’t know how to c
REBIRTH OF A WARRIOR Chapter 28
Krista watched as the kind old lady got painfully back up to her feet and moved away towards her rocking chair. Her eyelids got harder and harder to keep open as she watched the old woman rock by the fire. Never before had she had such good food to eat. The warmth and comfort of the cottage and pallet she lay on did the rest and she was soon asleep.The old woman studied Krista as she slept deeply on the pallet by the fire and wondered again if she had made a mistake in buying the girl. She couldn’t afford to make more enemies than she already had.Buying escaped slaves had a way of being looked down upon by the local townspeople and she depended on those same people for her business. Looking again at the girl she shook her head, but of course she had made the right choice in saving the girl’s life. She would just have to face the trouble when it came and come it would.Krista opened her eyes slowly. That was an improvement from the day before, as both eyes opened easily. The cottage w
REBIRTH OF A WARRIOR Chapter 29
*****I walked through the corridors of the castle headed for the hall to which I had been summoned by my grandfather. The clothes I wore had been delivered to my quarters early this morning and had been accompanied by a note that stated that I needed to come to the chamber that I was headed toward now. As I made my way past servants and guards alike, I was the recipient of overly reverent displays of respect. I had to admit that I did feel rather lordly, as I strode through the timeworn halls of my forefathers.The orange tunic I wore, on which was the family crest of arms, was trimmed on the fringes and arms with tanned deer hide. The crest of arms itself was unlike any I had ever seen before. The crest was of a doubled edged sword shining brightly, its point thrust down into a field of azure blue from which lighting strikes of a fiery gold color radiated out into the surrounding azure blue sea. The crest was surrounded by a burnt orange backdrop with the words, ‘Keepers of the Word’
REBIRTH OF A WARRIOR Chapter 30
She was not looking forward to that. She never did. She avoided the town and its occupants as if there was a plague upon the place. But Sansa was too feeble to make the journey anymore. Krista knew what awaited her and she couldn’t help but cringe inwardly.Later, after she had picked the Amarano leaves, the Vantak roots and the Zantar blossoms that they needed for the cough tinctures, she found Sansa by the old kettle in front of the small cottage that she had called home for many years now. She came up to Sansa and set down the bag of herbs. She leaned forward and fondly kissed the old woman on the head.“A watched pot never boils, dear Sansa.”Sansa looked up and patted Krista’s hand. Krista’s eyebrows quirked up and a smile teased at the corners of her lips.“Sansa?”“Yes?”“Your pot is boiling.”“Oh, you rascal you! You’ve done it again. Now, off with you to town to get the tincture fluid.”Krista moved off towards the town with a laugh, getting a weak pat on the bottom for her im
REBIRTH OF A WARRIOR Chapter 31
“Krista, my time is drawing near and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. But if you trust me at all, know that what I’ve told you is the truth and that it will come to pass. Hold on to what I’ve told you when times grow dark in your life and have faith that what I have told you will come to pass.”Krista laid her head back down, hoping that Sansa’s words would come true, but all she felt was a growing sense of dread for what the future would bring.JasperRolf followed me down the main street of the village of Thunder Ridge Castle. The village itself was called Ta’arny and I had visited it often since my arrival at the castle. It was like walking through a part of living history, a history that was now mine. The town’s people left me alone for the most part after acknowledging my presence with a warm welcome of good morning, which I returned in kind. They knew where I was headed.I was headed to the chapel, which was the center of every Valley Lander town. The building wasn’t pretenti