Millennial Mage novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Eleven Days at the Ford

Teo set the sword across his knees and told it to the fire.

"I was captain of the Fourth Company," he said.

"Four hundred foot soldiers.

We held the Sallow Ford on the Ash road, to keep the Northern Reach out of the valley."

Nobody moved.

Bran had stopped chewing on his pipe.

"We were told the wagons were coming. They did not come."

"For how long?" I asked.

"The first ration ran out on the fourth day.

By the eighth we were eating the horses.

By the eleventh, men were fainting at their posts, and the Reach was massing on the far bank."

"A messenger from the Hall said the wagons were at Ash Bend, one more day."

"And?"

"I did not believe him.

I gave the order to pull back at night, up the gorge road toward Harrow, because my men could not hold a spear."

His voice was perfectly level.

"The Reach had been waiting in the gorge.

It was a trap.

The ones who could still run, ran.

I was one of the ones who ran."

Isaura made a sound in her throat.

"The Hall called it desertion.

They said the wagons reached the ford the morning after we left.

I was not there to see."

He lifted his gray-green eyes and looked at her for the first time.

"I'm sorry about your brother.

I would give anything to change it.

I have not changed it in two years."

Isaura set down her mug very carefully.

"If you left them to die," she said, "I'll kill you at Harrow.

If you did not, you will tell me exactly what you did not do."

"Fair," said Teo.

I stood up.

The fire cracked, and I walked out of its light and into the dark.

I heard him behind me, a few steps back, not hurrying.

I walked until the camp was a smear of orange behind me.

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