Free The Weight of Honor by Morgan Rice Page B

Baris, living as they did down in the canyon, a hard, drab people. His people were not to be trusted.
    “Do what exactly?” Duncan called back, indignant. “Liberated you?”
    “ Liberated us!?” he sneered. “You started a war we cannot win!”
    “Now we lie at the mercy of Pandesia!” called out a voice.
    Duncan turned to see a noble standing, staring back angrily at him.
    “All of us will now be slaughtered, all because of your impetuous actions!” he called.
    “And all this without our authority!” shouted out another noble, a man Duncan did not recognize, wearing the colors of the northwest.
    “You will surrender at once!” called Bant. “You will approach the Pandesian lords, you will lay down your arms, and you will beg their forgiveness on behalf of us all.”
    Duncan fumed at these cowards’ words.
    “You all disgust me,” Duncan replied, enunciating each word. “I am ashamed that I fought for your freedom.”
    A heavy silence filled the room, none daring to respond.
    “If you do not surrender at once,” Bant finally called out, “then we shall do it for you. We shall not die for your recklessness.”
    Kavos stepped forward and drew his sword, the sound reverberating in the room, heightening the tension, Bramthos standing close beside him.
    “No one is surrendering,” he said, his voice cold and hard. “Come close, and the only thing you will surrender to is the tip of my sword.”
    The tension in the room reached a fever pitch, both sides in a tense standoff, until finally Tarnis, the old King, stepped forward and laid his hand gently on Kavos’s blade. He smiled, the smile of a professional politician.
    “There is no need for division here,” he said, his voice soft, reassuring. “We are all men of Escalon, all men who would fight and die for the same cause. We all desire freedom. Freedom for ourselves, for our families, for our cities.”
    Slowly, Kavos lowered his sword, yet he still stared coldly across the table at Bant.
    Tarnis sighed.
    “Duncan,” Tarnis said, “you have always been a faithful soldier and a true friend. I understand your desire for freedom; we all share it ourselves. But sometimes brute force is not the way. After all, consider your actions. You have liberated the northeast, and even managed to win the capital, for now at least. For that I commend you. We all commend you,” he said, turning to the room with a wave of his hand, as if speaking for all of them. He turned back to Duncan and rested his eyes upon his. “And yet you have also now left us vulnerable to attack. An attack we cannot possibly fend off. Not you, not even with all your men, and not all of Escalon.”
    “Freedom has a price,” Duncan replied. “Yes, some men shall die. But we will be free. We shall kill all remaining Pandesians before they have a chance to regroup, and within a fortnight, all of Escalon will be ours.”
    “And even if?” Tarnis countered. “Even if you manage to rid our land of them before they rally? Reason with me. Will they not just invade through the open Southern Gate?”
    Duncan nodded to Anvin, who nodded back.
    “My men prepare even now to ride for the south and secure the gate.”
    The politicians grumbled with surprise, and he could see the surprise in Tarnis’s eyes, too.
    “And even if they secure it? Will Pandesia not storm the Southern Gate with a million men? And even if they lose those million men, can they not replace them with a million more?”
    “With the gate in our hands, no force can take it,” Duncan replied.
    “I do not agree with you,” Tarnis replied. “This is why I surrendered Escalon.”
    “The Southern Gate has never been destroyed,” Duncan countered.
    “And never has Escalon faced an army the size of Pandesia. It has never been tested,” Tarnis said.
    “Precisely,” Duncan replied. “You don’t know that we’ll lose. And yet you surrendered us anyway.”
    “And you my friend,” Tarnis replied, “don’t know that we