Sunday, March 30, 2014

Page a Day: Two Hundred



            I started when I saw that one of the moving was Jerem Cozak, thrown from his mastodon. I could not see the matriarch anywhere. The warlord pushed himself up to his knees.

            “Get Marcus,” he said. “Tell him one hundred pieces, corner of the citadel. He will understand.” There came the heavy, stomping sound of further reinforcements.

            “But I don’t –”

            “’Ware valkyries!” someone yelled downriver. “Here they come again!”

            His eyes widened. “Go, man! Or we lose this crossing now! You understand?”

            I nodded. As I turned my mastodon I realized that the lines of reinforcements I could hear coming would have had to run toward the bombardment while it was still falling. I urged my mastodon to her full run. In a few moments I would reach Marcus. When I cleared the fog, I saw that dawn paled the eastern sky. There came a long low crumbling from atop the wall to the north. I turned my head and witnessed: after two watches of nearly continuous bombardment by the most powerful weapons in the world, the first tower of Kasora was finally falling. Sixty three remained.

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