Dragonlance Tales, Vol. 3 – Love and War

He covered his nose and mouth with tattered, dirty cloth and

urged the warhorse to move at a quicker pace. That their

loved ones had left these poor shells to rot did not bother

him. Now was a time to take care of the living, to help those

still with the breath of life within them. The dead were in no

hurry.

The light began to fade as the sun, hidden by clouds,

plunged closer toward its own death. Garrick eyed the huts

in this region. Unlike those he had passed shortly before,

these were more or less whole. Knowing them to be

contaminated, though, he could not bring himself to rest in

one. He dared not rest, anyway. Each moment was as

precious to him as if it were his last.

The woods came into view less than an hour later,

marking the beginning of the pass even before the great

ridges that stood to each side. Garrick blinked, rather

surprised that he had made it this far. That in itself was a

miracle. He gave thanks to Paladine and suddenly felt warm

all over.

The first trees were little more than stumps. This part

of the forest had been raped by the desperate villagers.

Panic had finally taken over at some point. To one side was

a small stack of firewood. A little farther, a tree stood with

its trunk chopped half through. Idly, Garrick wondered if

the woodsmen had fled because of plague or because of the

approaching horde.

Auron was hesitant to enter the woods and would do so

only after much persuasion. Garrick frowned. The warhorse

was not prone to hesitancy. The knight put one hand on the

hilt of his sword, but did not draw it. With more urging, he

managed to get the horse to move at a reasonable pace.

The woods were deathly silent. No birds, no ground

creatures. Not even the faintest hint of a breeze. Auron

snorted. Garrick tightened his hold on the sword. He

searched for but did not find any trace of draconian activity

in the woods. The feeling of death was in the air, though. It

was as if animal life had abandoned this area to the Queen.

Even the trees seemed to have given up; many were

obviously dying – another sign of things to come should the

armies of darkness emerge triumphant.

He rode on. The night air cooled his burning head. He

forgot some of his pain. To either side, the ridges grew

higher and higher. Garrick pulled his mount to a halt

momentarily and picked out a likely spot on one ridge.

Auron snorted and would not move. The animal had given

more than most and had finally reached its limit. Even its

training could not overcome such exhaustion.

Garrick patted the animal gently and dismounted.

Leaving the horse to rest, he made his way to the ridge top.

It was steep but by no means impassable. Discarding some

of his heavier equipment, the knight made progress.

He thanked Paladine that it was not a long climb. The

campfires became visible just after he had cleared the tops

of the trees. Further in, the pass sank deeply, giving him a

much better view of the region than he had hoped. Seeing

the vast number of fires, Garrick knew he had located the

Queen’s forces. They had dared to settle in an area where

they could easily have been trapped if there had existed an

army to trap them. The northern garrison, of course, was too

small. All other resistance had been crushed. The

commander of the army had a right to be confident.

Tomorrow they would head through the pass and into

the unprotected lands. It would not take them long to reach

the garrison then. The battle would be even shorter.

Once more, he wished that Standel had survived rather

than he. Standel would have looked at the massed forces

and scoffed. He would have organized, would have planned.

Garrick had only a few wild ideas and a hope that Paladine

would grant him the chance.

His head pounding, Garrick returned to his mount. The

horse was grazing peacefully. He saw no reason to disturb

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *