Read Online A Warrior's Revenge by Guy Stanton III - Free Book Online Page A

other girls
helped Kana.
    Solin cried out grinding her teeth into the
rope length she held in her mouth and breathed heavy for a moment
before she passed out against Loric. Kana finished up with
bandaging Solin’s hand and arm and Loric stood up and gently lifted
Solin into his arms as the group started out again.
    In the early afternoon they cleared the rise
of a mountain ridge and the group stared in dismay at the endless
stretch of peaks and ridges that lay out before them. Everyone
stared in dismay, except for Loric. He was smiling.
    Kana stared at him at a loss as to why he
would be smiling. It was the first time she’d ever seen him smile
and the effect was mesmerizing, but how could he be smiling at a
time like this? All she saw when she looked out over the endless
expanse of the tops of mountains was a death sentence. There was no
way they could survive the cold to cross the barren mountain
landscape in front of them.
    “I know where I am now.” Loric said as if to
himself.
    Kana blinked and the group at large turned
to look at Loric. Eshta put into words what everyone else was
thinking, “You haven’t traveled over the mountains before?”
    “No, I was only a boy, but I have been to
this place before. Head for that dark rise of rock over there.”
Loric said pointing off to the left.
    Eshta looked mad and for a moment it looked
like she was about to say something, but she held it back and
started out for the dark rise of rock that Loric had indicated.
They reached the dark sided cliff face towards dusk. It was so cold
and this place unlike the good camps the group had stayed at before
had no shelter from the wind.
    Kana looked around and could see that the
others looked as miserable and hopeless as she felt. Loric was the
subject of many a dirty look, as he made his way through the group
walking towards the dark wall, until he and Solin completely
disappeared. There was a collective gasp from the group at large,
who had surged to their feet at the disappearance of Loric and
Solin. Loric’s voice called out for them to follow and immediately
everyone felt better.
    Kana stepped into the rock wall only to find
herself in a cavern that was lit by light that came from a glowing
ball of color on the ceiling. She had heard of such inventions from
the time before, but she had never seen them. The group followed
Loric, as he went progressively downward and they collectively
realized with relief that they weren’t going to have to cross that
impossible range of mountains, but rather they were going to go
under it instead.
    It was a welcome relief for the group, as
they walked deeper into the mountain, that the air got
progressively warmer. Kana could feel her feet and toes again,
which allayed her morbid fear of having to have her feet cut off
because of frostbite. After an hour they entered a great domed
cavern, which was set up as a camp of sorts that even had wood
ready to be fired within a ring of stones.
    “When I was here before there were cave fish
in that pool over there.” Loric said, as he started to light the
fire.
    There were fish and all of the group ate as
many fried fish as they could hold and then collapsed about the
fire enjoying the warmth and restful quality of the cavern room.
Kana sat down close beside Loric, who was staring reflectively into
the fire. He glanced over at her, when she sat down but then looked
away back to the fire.
    “How old were you when you came here
before?” Kana asked inquisitively.
    “Five or six, I’m not sure.”
    “That was a long journey for someone so
young to have undertaken.”
    “My father believed in being prepared and he
thought that as soon as I could walk and talk I was capable of
bearing responsibility. This tunnel was meant as an escape route
from Thunder Ridge to the Attorgron forest lands, but apparently it
was never used, probably because of the firing of the forest that
consumed it and all of its people.”
    “What is Thunder Ridge?” Kana