by R. G. Long
Ealrin also pondered the odd series of events that had led him to the Northern Wastes to follow Verde in the first place. Blume’s fate. Thoran’s current struggles. He shook his head clear. He needed to focus on tracking Verde, and not of thinking of the past.
As Ealrin followed the general west, he began to wonder what quest he might have been sent on. What would have been so pressing that one of his best generals, and most loyal supporter, should be sent to the Wastes? Perhaps he had somehow fallen out of grace in the last month. Perhaps now that the south lay in his grasp, he sought something to help him acquire Thoran. Though, in reality, with the south under his rule, conquering Thoran should not prove to be difficult. This also drove Ealrin to follow Verde: to see if there was something Androlion sought that he might steal in order to disrupt the Merc leader.
On this day, Ealrin followed Verde closer than he had before, making sure to keep him in his sights. The blizzard was worsening and the wind blew against him. He felt that if he were to lose him in the snow, he might be lost as well. He had not yet made himself as familiar with the territory surrounding the inn, as he would have liked. Unlike Holve, he was not keeping at least a hundred maps in his head at once. Instead of tracking him in the snow, and because he was dangerously close to him, Ealrin kept inside the forest that had appeared around midday. While Verde hugged its border, Ealrin tracked him from within.
As they approached a hill, though it was hard to tell in this blinding snow, Verde stopped suddenly. Ealrin just barely had been able to make out something flying through the air at him. Then, as swiftly as a fox, someone jumped from the woods and wrapped themselves around the general. Ealrin saw the blade drawn from the sheath, and the unmistakable slice of Verde's throat.
Ealrin dropped to the ground in order to not be seen. The killer had crouched down over his body and was now picking through the belongings he had on him.
So this is how one of the greatest generals is defeated, he thought, by a simple thief.
But there was something more to this thief. Something that was both familiar and strange. Ealrin noticed the wolf skin lay on their back and the mask of a white wolf that covered their face. He saw the strikingly silver hair that was long and braided and now fell over her right shoulder. The thief was a woman. And not just any woman, nor truly a thief.
Ealrin had heard the stories of this woman from those who stayed at the inn. She was deadly, swift; a bounty hunter without comparison. She was exactly what Ealrin needed.
A plan was forming in his head as he boldly came into view on purpose and walked toward her. He knew that if she desired him to die, he would be dead within a moment's notice. Ealrin also knew that, somehow, the fates were not done with him yet and that this would not be his last day.
He hoped his feelings were not wrong.
The wind changed and he knew a hunter as skilled as she would detect him. And indeed she spun on her heel and raised her sword, ready to strike at this newcomer who had invaded her capture of a bounty.
Ealrin was shocked as he approached her at her beauty. The hard life that she must live had not affected her radiance. And though the face that she gave Ealrin surely bespoke of a quick and efficient end, her eyes betrayed something that Ealrin had learned to look for in others:
Beauty.
He made no sudden movements towards his own weapon that remained at his side. She looked as if she could strike at any moment and indeed, Ealrin may very well have already been dead had her knife not been currently residing in Verde's heart.
He spoke loudly, boldly, and with as much courage as he could find within himself, for he knew that if he were right and the plan he had in his mind would work, that the senseless war in the south could reach an abrupt end. But this would be the first step of many. The first part of a long journey that hinged on the answer he now sought from a skilled assassin and bounty hunter.
He was surprised at the calmness in his voice as he yelled over the blizzard:
"Silverwolf! Hunter of the north! I am Ealrin, knight of the sword and servant of those who wish to keep the continent of Ruyn in a state of peace."
The assassin hesitated. She lowered her blade a fraction. Yes indeed, the fates were not done with Ealrin. He then said the words he would remember for the rest of his life:
"I have a job for you."
More exciting adventures
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The Story Continues
“Magic of Ruyn”, book two in the Legends of Gilia series, will be available Feb 20th, 2018!
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Thanks for reading.
Enjoy the journey,
RG Long