Free A Charge of Valor by Morgan Rice Page A

his head, and Elden leaned back, coughing and gasping.
    Thor saw for the first time how much she cared for him; he could also see how much he had underestimated her. They had taken her for just another slave, a thief—but it turned out that she had been the most resourceful and most generous of them all. Without her, surely Elden would have been dead.
    “ You do great honor upon your race,” Thor said to her.
    She shook her head humbly, looking down at Elden.
    “ It is no honor,” she said. “Soon, we will all go the way of flesh. What I did will be inconsequential in the wheel of time.”
    Indra reached over to pick up Elden, and the others crouched down to help her. She and Reece lifted him to his feet, then Thor came over and helped, draping Elden’s arms over their shoulders.
    Thor and Reece walked, dragging him, continuing through the desert, Elden’s immense weight dragging them down. Elden was half-conscious, barely walking, more dragging his feet. As hard as it had been to march before, now, with Elden, it was unbearable. Thor did not know how he could make it.
    But they all plodded on, marching together, one step after the next, deeper and deeper into nothingness. With every step, the sun seemed to grow stronger.
    Finally, Reece’s legs gave out. He went tumbling down, bringing Elden and Thor with him. Thor’s legs were too weak to resist. He lay there, helpless. He looked around to see if the others would come to his rescue.
    But Thor was surprised to realize that the others had already collapsed, some time ago, all of them laying prone on the desert floor in various positions, far away. He’d been too exhausted and delirious to even know he had been the last one standing when finally he went down.
    Now they all lay there, motionless on the desert floor, beneath the sun of a hostile sky, waiting for nothing, except to die.
    *
    Thor found himself standing alone, in a small boat, drifting out to sea in the midst of a vast and empty ocean. Far off in the distance were soaring cliffs, and atop one, at the very edge, sat a castle. It seemed like a magical castle, a fantastical place, perched on the very edge of the world, high in the clouds. It seemed like a place protected from every danger of the world, a place in which anything was possible. Thor could feel the tremendous energy radiating from it, even from this great distance, and more than he had ever wanted anything in his life, he wanted to be there, inside.
    Most of all, Thor sensed that up there, high up in that magical place atop the cliff, his mother lived. He knew that he was approaching the Land of the Druids.
    Thor’s boat was suddenly pulled by a strong current, bringing him towards the rocky shore at the very base of the cliff, lined with jagged black rocks. The boat deposited him there and he staggered off, collapsing face-first into the rocks, too exhausted to lift his head. He knew that somewhere, high up on those cliffs above, was his mother. But he did not have the energy to get there.
    “ My Thorgrin,” came a voice.
    It was a woman’s voice, the sweetest and most reassuring voice he’d ever heard in his life.
    Thor knew it was the voice of his mother. He knew that she was standing over him now, and he could feel the intense light and energy radiating off of her. He knew that he only needed to lift his head to see her. But he was too exhausted to do even this.
    “ Mother,” he gasped, it coming out as a whisper.
    “ My son,” she added. “I have been watching over you. I have been waiting for you. It is time for you to come home. It is time for us to meet.”
    “ I want to,” he said. “But I can’t reach you. I can’t cross the desert. I can’t find the Sword.”
    “ You can,” she said, her voice resounding with confidence. “And you will . It is not yet time for you to die, brave warrior. Death will come for you soon enough. But not now. Now, it is time for you to live. Rise, and meet your destiny.”
    Thor felt a