Free Aegis of The Gods: Book 02 - Ashes and Blood by Terry C. Simpson Page B

deep breath. “Listen. Whatever you’re meant to do, you’ll find a way just like you found one past your issues with Irmina. Right there,” his gaze roved over the giant, “is your start.”
    “Start to what though?”
    “That, my friend, is a good question.”
    Ancel gazed out toward the Kelvore River as they made the sharp turn off Henden Lane onto one the many small alleys crisscrossing this part of town. Swollen by precipitation from the northern ranges, the river’s deep swirling waters rushed by. A gray mass of clouds hung over the mountains. Set next to the Kelvore, this was the one part of town without walls. “You ever wonder where we would be if things didn’t happen like they did?”
    “I don’t wonder. I know. We’d be dead,” Mirza replied.
    Ancel contemplated his words for a moment. “If you let Dan tell it, we may as well be dead by staying here.”
    Danvir had decided to leave with the old, the children, and the others who didn’t wish to be a part of the fighting to come. Ancel recalled hugging his broad-shouldered friend before Danvir set off as part as the escort to Torandil.
    “Dan turned into a coward.” Mirza hawked and spat. “I never expected that from him.” Mouth twisting in contempt, he continued, “We were supposed to be in this together, going off to be knights, fighting to keep Granadia safe. Now the world’s at stake, what does he do? He flees at the first sign of killing like some green-eyed girl.”
    “Not everyone is made from the same mold, Mirz,” Ancel said. Sometimes, he did miss their big friend. He could picture Danvir’s oversized nose and ears and his eyes bulging at the sight of the giant. “Not everyone can be as cold as you when it comes to taking a life either, not even me.”
    “We do what we must.”
    “Indeed.”
    “Speaking of old friends, you heard anything from Alys?” Mirza broke into a wry smile.
    Ancel’s lips gave an involuntary twitch. He missed her. “The last eagles to arrive said they’d reached Torandil safely. Good thing too. Just in time before the hardest bit of winter hits. For a while there I was worried. Waiting for that eagle made me wish there was a faster way to travel between cities, you know, like the ancient Travelshafts or something.” Ancel pictured himself riding through the tunnels that stories said existed between the major cities, arriving in a third of the time it would take to make such a journey by horseback.
    “If wishes had wings, pigs would fly,” Mirza said.
    “I always thought that was a dumb saying. What does it mean anyway?”
    “Who knows,” Mirza shrugged, “it sounds wise, and that’s all that matters.”
    Ancel snorted. He eyed the sky again. Snowflakes swirled down like white ash from the thick, gray quilt stretching from the Kelvore Mountains all the way to the Red Ridge farther east.
    “Although I don’t like why Danvir left, I wonder if we shouldn’t have done the same,” Mirza said.
    Surprised to hear Mirza admit as much, Ancel arched an eyebrow.
    “I mean, I know we stayed to arm our soldiers properly and all. And to recover from the Sendethi attack, but we should have left by now. Time is dragging. Every day I expect shadelings to charge from the Greenleaf or pop out of thin air. It’s not a good feeling. The fact that the Council isn’t turning away any refugees doesn’t help. More and more people are beginning to talk as if we’re home, like the old days, as if everything is fine. It isn’t.”
    “I know what you mean.” Ancel glanced down at the giant. “Maybe, we were waiting for him.”
    “Let’s hope so.”
    They traveled the last several hundred feet in silence, the snowfall growing heavier. Ancel prayed he was right about the stranger, because Mirza was right. Hanging around in Eldanhill did not bode well. At some point, either the Tribunal’s Pathfinders would come or the Sendethi would win out and strike against Eldanhill once more. Worse yet, the man who’d