The Sworn Knight, Robert Ryan [good beach reads .txt] 📗

a step toward death. But she had sworn anotheroath, and if not a marriage pledge, it was just as strong. Faladir needed her,or at least the hope she represented. If, by some strange chance, both she andFaran still lived after their quests, then maybe it would be time to tell himthen how she felt.

She was the least suited to her current task, but Asana andKubodin let her lead. Or maybe they really did defer to her because she wascharged by fate to fulfil the task they now set out to achieve.

It occurred to her that it was a test, though. She had beentrained, mostly by Asana but also by Kubodin. By coming with her, they wereputting their lives in jeopardy. That being the case, they were entitled to puther under pressure. They were entitled to see how she dealt with it and how sheled them. If she was not up to that, it was better they found out now ratherthan later when it was too late for them to leave her.

That was an uncharitable view of things, and they had seenhow she performed under pressure when fighting Lindercroft. But still, shewould not blame them if it were some kind of test.

It also occurred to her though that it was just a continuationof her training. Fighting a knight was one thing, dangerous as it was, butleadership was something else. All the training in the world could not giveexperience here. That had to be earned, and it could only be earned by doing.

If she survived, she would reach Faladir. There she mustsomehow rally the forces of opposition to the king to her banner. That wouldrequire not just luck, nor mere destiny, but actual skill. Best that she startthat now, even if it was with just two men, and the leadership little more thanpicking a path ahead through the dark.

They moved across the battle plains. Somewhere only a littleway to the east of her, Faran would be looking up at the sky, checking forsigns of elù-draks just as she was. But each day they traveled the farther awaytheir paths would diverge.

She saw nothing in the sky to alarm her. Nor did she senseanything ahead. But the greatest danger lay behind them, if their trail hadbeen found. So she paused from time to time and watched what she could of theirbacktrail.

There was little to see in the dark. But if they were beingfollowed, perhaps they would hear or see some flight of birds disturbed fromtheir roosting place. Or if the enemy were careless, or unaware how close theywere, maybe even some hint of a campfire.

There was nothing though, and she was glad of that. So tooof the dark. She had no desire to see the bones in the ground on these plains,be they those of the enemy or her ancestors.

The battle plains did not last forever though, and bydaylight they should have passed out of the majority of areas where battles hadbeen fought.

But as the dawn approached they came to a vast area ofbarren earth. In the growing light they could see little grass here. The earthwas bare and dry. Dust rose at their footfalls, and there seemed to besomething eerie about the place.

“Hey, look over there,” Kubodin said. But even the littleman, never subdued by anything, spoke in a hushed voice.

Ferla understood why. As they neared, and the daylightincreased, she saw the vast skeleton of a massive beast. It was larger by farthan anything she had ever seen before, and she wondered that something so hugecould ever have trod the earth.

Or flew. Because it must have been a dragon.

The long skeleton was the length of a felled tree. But therib cage still rose up, each bone, though flattish, still thicker than her arm.The sun had bleached everything to a dull white, even the head that rested onits side a good way off, where the two vast cavities in the bone that oncehoused its eyes were pools of shadow.

They came to one of the legs, and saw the massive claws atits end, each one that in life could have impaled a man like a spear. Severalof these were broken off though at the base, and were nowhere to be seen.

Ferla looked around and understood. She was skilled atreading trails, and this, if thousands of years old, was a trail of sorts.

“They killed it here,” she said. “But slowly. See the brokenclaws? It would have attacked with those, but whoever fought this thing knewhow to defend against that. They caught the claws in something and then as thecreature moved its own weight snapped them off or pulled them out of the foot.”

“I have heard,” Asana said, “that the elves used greatchains for that exact purpose.”

Ferla nodded to herself. She could almost see it, but thewarriors who did that were brave men. Many of them would have died.

They came to other bones, and these were scattered well awayfrom the rib cage.

“This is a wing,” Ferla said. “Or what’s left of it. Again,you can see signs of where the bones have been broken. They disabled itsability to fly, probably with those same chains. But it would take many elvesor men working together to do such a thing.”

“So the legends say,” Asana agreed.

Ferla had heard legends of dragons, but not of how soldiershad killed them in battle. It was a gruesome business, but all war was.

Kubodin stuck his head through the great rib cage andpointed.

“See there? Look at all those arrow heads.”

Ferla came closer. She was not going to put her head betweenthe bones like Kubodin. Dead as the dragon was, it was a creature of ultimateevil, and she had no intention of touching it. But she could still see clearly.

Scattered all around were the arrow heads Kubodin hadpointed out. They were slender and long, suited to puncturing deep into thehide of a creature. Even so, she doubted most would have had much impact on thedragon. Its skin was supposed to be tough like armor. But she did see that manyof the arrow heads were concentrated in the