Read Online A Memory Of Light: Wheel of Time Book 14 by Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson - Free Book Online

said. “As soon as we saw this force here.”
    Well, that was something.
    “I do mean to stay here,” Guybon warned. “I won’t abandon this post.”
    “Why? The city is lost, man!”
    “The Queen ordered us to send regular reports through gateways,” Guybon said. “Eventually, she’s going to wonder why we haven’t
     sent a messenger. She will send a channeler to see why we haven’t reported, and that messenger will arrive at the Palace’s
     Traveling ground. It—”
    “My Lord!” a voice called. “My Lord Talmanes!”
    Guybon cut off, and Talmanes turned to find Filger—one of the scouts—scrambling up the bloodied cobbles of the hillside toward
     him. Filger was a lean man with thinning hair and a couple of days’ worth of scruff, and the sight of him filled Talmanes
     with dread. Filger was one of those they’d left guarding the city gate below.
    “My Lord,” Filger said, panting, “the Trollocs have taken the city walls. They’re packing the ramparts, loosing arrows or
     spears at anyone who draws too close. Lieutenant Sandip sent me to bring you word.”
    “Blood and ashes! What of the gate?”
    “We’re holding,” Filger said. “For now.”
    “Guybon,” Talmanes said, turning back. “Show some mercy, man; someone needs to defend that gate. Please, take the refugees
     out and reinforce my men. That gate will be our only method of retreat from the city.”
    “But the Queen’s messenger—”
    “The Queen will figure out what bloody happened once she thinks to look here. Look about you! Trying to defend the Palace
     is madness. You don’t have a city any longer, but a pyre.”
    Guybon’s face was conflicted, his lips a tight line.
    “You know I’m right,” Talmanes said, his face twisted in pain. “The best thing you can do is reinforce my men at the southern
     gate to hold it open for as many refugees as can reach it.”
    “Perhaps,” Guybon said. “But to let the Palace burn?”
    “You can make it worth something,” Talmanes said. “What if you left some soldiers to fight at the Palace? Have them hold off
     the Trollocs as long as they can. That will draw the Trollocs away from the people escaping out this way. When they can hold
     no longer, your soldiers can escapethe Palace grounds on the far side, and make their way around to the southern gate.”
    “A good plan,” Guybon said, grudgingly. “I will do as you suggest, but what of you?”
    “I have to get to the dragons,” Talmanes said. “We can’t let them fall to the Shadow. They’re in a warehouse near the edge
     of the Inner City. The Queen wanted them kept out of sight, away from the mercenary bands outside. I have to find them. If
     possible, retrieve them. If not, destroy them.”
    “Very well,” Guybon said, turning away, looking frustrated as he accepted the inevitable. “My men will do as you suggest;
     half will lead the refugees out, then help your soldiers hold the southern gate. The other half will hold the Palace a little
     longer, then withdraw. But
I’m
coming with you.”
    “Do we really need so many lamps in here?” the Aes Sedai demanded from her stool at the back of the room. It might as well
     have been a throne. “Think of the oil you’re wasting.”
    “We need the lamps.” Androl grunted. Night rain pelted the window, but he ignored it, trying to focus on the leather he was
     sewing. It would be a saddle. At the moment, he was working on the girth that would go around the horse’s belly.
    He poked holes into the leather in a double row, letting the work calm him. The stitching chisel he used made diamond-shaped
     holes—he could use the mallet on them for speed, if he wanted, but right now he liked the feel of pressing the holes without
     it.
    He picked up his stitch-mark wheel, measuring off the locations for the next stitches, then worked another of the holes. You
     had to line the flat sides of the diamonds toward one another for holes like this, so that when the leather