Read Online Heritage [4] Inheritance by Christopher Paolini - Free Book Online Page A

over which a pot of stew was now simmering.
    Katrina filled a bowl with stew and handed it to him. Then, from within the tent, she brought him a mug of ale and a plate with a half loaf of bread and a wedge of cheese. “Is there anything else you need?” she asked, her voice unusually hoarse.
    Roran did not answer, but cupped her cheek and stroked it twice with his thumb. She smiled tremulously and laid a hand over his, then returned to washing and began to scrub with renewed vigor.
    Roran stared at the food for a long time before he took a bite; he was still so tense, he doubted he could stomach it. After a few mouthfuls of bread, however, his appetite returned, and he began to consume the stew with eagerness.
    When he was done, he placed the dishes on the ground and then sat warming his hands over the fire while he nursed the last few sips of beer.
    “We heard the crash when the gates fell,” said Katrina, wringing a bandage dry. “They didn’t hold for very long.”
    “No.… It helps to have a dragon on your side.”
    Roran gazed at her belly as she draped the bandage over the makeshift clothesline that ran from the peak of their tent across to aneighboring one. Whenever he thought of the child she was carrying, the child that the two of them had created, he felt an enormous sense of pride, but it was tinged with anxiety, for he did not know how he could hope to provide a safe home for their baby. Also, if the war was not over by the time Katrina gave birth, she intended to leave him and go to Surda, where she might raise their child in relative safety.
    I can’t lose her, not again
.
    Katrina immersed another bandage in the tub. “And the battle in the city?” she asked, churning the water. “How went it?”
    “We had to fight for every foot. Even Eragon had a hard time of it.”
    “The wounded spoke of ballistae mounted on wheels.”
    “Aye.” Roran wet his tongue with ale, then quickly described how the Varden had moved through Belatona and the setbacks they had encountered along the way. “We lost too many men today, but it could have been worse. Much worse. Jörmundur and Captain Martland planned the attack well.”
    “Their plan wouldn’t have worked, though, if not for you and Eragon. You acquitted yourself most bravely.”
    Roran loosed a single bark of laughter: “Ha! And do you know why that is? I’ll tell you. Not one man in ten is actually willing to attack the enemy. Eragon doesn’t see it; he’s always at the forefront of the battle, driving the soldiers before him, but I see it. Most of the men hang back and don’t fight unless they are cornered. Or they wave their arms about and make a lot of noise but don’t actually do anything.”
    Katrina looked appalled. “How can that be? Are they cowards?”
    “I don’t know. I think … I think that, perhaps, they just can’t bring themselves to look a man in the face and kill him, although it seems easy enough for them to cut down soldiers whose backs are turned. So they wait for others to do what they cannot. They wait for people like me.”
    “Do you think Galbatorix’s men are equally reluctant?”
    Roran shrugged. “They might be. But then, they have no choice but to obey Galbatorix. If he orders them to fight, they fight.”
    “Nasuada could do the same. She could have her magicians cast spells to ensure that no one shirks their duty.”
    “What difference would there be between her and Galbatorix, then? In any case, the Varden wouldn’t stand for it.”
    Katrina left her washing to come and kiss him on the forehead. “I’m glad you can do what you do,” she whispered. She returned to the tub and began scrubbing another strip of soiled linen over the washboard. “I felt something earlier, from my ring.… I thought maybe something had happened to you.”
    “I was in the middle of a battle. It wouldn’t be surprising if you had felt a twinge every few minutes.”
    She paused with her arms in the water. “I never have