Free The Sorcerer's Ring: Book 05 - A Vow of Glory by Morgan Rice

fortifications had all been too wide, there had been no
slits in the stone for firing arrows, and the walls were merely a few inches
thick. Now, the stone walls stood several feet thick, there was but one
entrance in or out of the city, and it was shaped and built in such a way that
it could be well-guarded from the inside, held with just a few men. New
parapets had been built from which the townsfolk could defend with a few
cauldrons of tar and a host of bows.
    Kendrick
was satisfied. In this new place, but a few hundred well-trained men could fend
off a few thousand. These people had desperately needed the eye and labor of
professional soldiers and it was now vastly more secure.
    As
Kendrick stood there, he felt satisfaction from a hard day’s work, from helping
his fellow citizens—yet there was something in the back of his mind which
troubled him. He wasn't quite sure what it was. Earlier this morning he could
have sworn he spotted Estopheles, circling up high, screeching in a way that
disturbed him. It felt like a warning. Worse, the night before he had been up
hours with troubled dreams of this town burning, of all his handiwork being toppled
to the ground. He had dreamt this dream not once, but three times, the third
time waking him for good, too vivid to allow him to return to sleep.
    He did
not understand what it all meant. He hadn't had bad dreams since he was a
child, since the night before his grandfather died. He hoped it was not a
premonition of something evil.
    "My
lord!" came an urgent voice.
    Kendrick
turned to see a messenger come running up to him. It was the boy whom he had
appointed to the new position of lookout on the newly-built watchtower.
    "Come
quick! I spot something on the horizon. I do not understand it.”
    Kendrick
turned and ran off with the messenger, several of his men following. They cut through
the winding streets of this town which Kendrick had come to know by heart, and he
ran down the narrow path that twisted up a small elevation at the far end of
the city, taking him to the top of a hill upon which they had built the new
stone tower. It was the highest ground in the city, and the place at which
Kendrick had instructed they should keep a twenty four hour watch. This was the
first time the lookout had spotted anything, and Kendrick guessed that it was
just a false warning from a skittish boy.
    Kendrick
reached the top and stood on the narrow, circular platform with the others, and
followed the scout's finger as he pointed at the horizon. It was a clear, blue
and yellow day, no clouds as far as the eye could see, with perfect visibility.
Kendrick could see for miles, and he looked east, towards the Highlands,
towards the McCloud border. As far away as they were, on this day, Kendrick
could see the faint outline of the Highlands, the mountain ranges spotting the
horizon, shrouded in mist.
    As he
looked closer, Kendrick, to his surprise, spotted something, too.
    "There,
my lord," the scout said, pointing to his right.
    At
first Kendrick did not see exactly what the scout was talking about. But as he
scrutinized the horizon, he began to see it, too. There was a small, faint
cloud, in the very distant horizon, appearing a tiny bit thicker than the
others, and appearing slightly lower to the ground. As Kendrick watched, it seemed
to grow ever thicker, darker.
    "It
looks like smoke,” the scout said. “It doesn't make any sense.”
    Kendrick
nodded. He was right: it didn't make any sense. Why would there be a fire on
the McCloud side of the Ring? None of his people had launched a raid, as far as
he knew.
    "Perhaps
it is a random fire that has broken out in one of their cities," one of Kendrick’s
men, beside him, volunteered.
    Kendrick
nodded, thinking. While that was a possibility, he felt it was not the case. He
sensed that something was wrong, that something bigger was happening. Something
he did not understand.
    Kendrick
stood there, wondering, debating what his next move should be. He