Free Angels Blood by Gerard Bond Page A

adventure. They were exhausting.
    He wondered about Wollfen though, that same vitality was showing when he met him on the field.  There too was a strength and confidence that too few of his kind had, but he had also sensed a calm, there in the background.  He could see this man sitting back and taking his time to calmly contemplate things. Maybe he had learned that from his time with the elves many years ago.  He remembered him in passing, the man had kept to himself most of the time  watching, learning, studying.    Sometimes he would disappear to the outside world for months at a time then return again. It was a curious set of circumstances, he couldn't think of any humans that could call the Elven enclave home.
    That night Eldoron stole into the camp of the soldiers, always just a shadow here or there, listening, seeking out useful information. Then near a captain of those troops he overheard an interesting conversation indeed. 
    Valdarus was his name and he was talking with two of his lieutenants.
    “ I don’t know why we are here in this godforsaken land.  Nothing but open plains and small villages, no culture, no challenges. I can’t even see why we would bother trying to set up trade with these people even if we were at peace with them? Six months of ocean voyage, spoiled food and all those sicknesses and now what have we to look forward to? We get here and what is there? Flies, disgusting food and nothing but the prospect of ‘maybe’ a fight and from what we have dealt with so far, not much of a fight at that.”
    The lieutenant wasn’t mincing his words, they were far enough away from the main encampment to not worry about being overheard. But what was there to look forward to? They had been preparing in their own country for over four months before they set sail. They had been here four weeks with very little to show for it apart from having sacked a couple of dozen villages and towns. Almost a year for this campaign and even now they weren’t even close to attaining anything of value.
    “ Patience Gerron, all that we have done up to now is just preparation for something much more important.  I’m not sure what it is, but I can tell that it is all building towards a much larger objective.”
    The Captain was right of course, their commander at the main battle camp was in daily contact with their Warlord back at Port Cholandra.  Whatever strategies they were playing out, they all seemed to be going rather well in spite of the setbacks.  The loss of a lot of the food supply ships on the voyage had been one, it had placed a strain on the men over the last month of the journey.  Now, they spent half their time foraging to feed an army of fifteen thousand and many more were on their way. 
    “ All we can do is keep patrolling and collecting food where we can before the next lot of orders come through, I have a sense that shouldn’t be long.”
    In fact he had no sense of what was to happen next but he wasn’t going to tell a bunch of grumbling soldiers that they were going to be sitting idly for at least another month.
    “ Well they had better get cracking in my mind.” Was all the second lieutenant could add.
    At that moment Eldoron heard a crack of twigs near him and decided it was time to move on, enough information was collected this night.
    On the coast the captain of the guard was responding to a small commotion near the edge of the King’s entourage and approached to see what was going on.
    “ What have we here?” He inquired of the soldier holding a parchment in front of two women of questionable background. 
    He motioned the second guard out of the way to get a better look at them. Very plainly dressed indeed, they looked like common folk from the local area.
    “ Sir, these two women wish to see the King.” 
    “ And by what manner of right do you approach?” He directed at them. 
    The taller of the two who looked a little regal now that he studied her a little more closely