Child Of Storms (Volume 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

in a couple of days with two hundred. The village, Furloch explained, was being used by Einar as a staging area for an attack on Loc Goren planned for the spring. Our young thane thought he had a rare opportunity before him. An isolated garrison could easily be cut off and destroyed. It would be a small but stinging defeat for Einar. The problem for Agnar was he could only spare two hundred mounted warriors for the expedition. I was still a full day away with one thousand men and Ardabur was two more days behind me. Had the weather last week been better, I would have been here and been able to both advise and accompany Agnar.”
                  “That thrice-damned blizzard!” Ardabur said.
                  “The wheels of history often turn upon such trivialities as the weather,” Braemorgan said. “Because of that blizzard, both of us were stranded for three days with two thousand men between the two of us. We’d have been here. For, you see, the spy’s report was but a ruse, false intelligence meant to trap Agnar.”
                  “I didn’t think Einar had the brains to plan such a thing.” Ardabur growled.
                  “He’s doesn’t,” Braemorgan said. “Einar is too much of a doddering imbecile to have come up with such a thing himself. Whoever is advising him is indeed crafty.”
                  “Agnar was afraid to miss the opportunity he thought was before him,” Wulfgrim said. “I begged him to forgo the expedition, but he thought if he did not seize the chance you would chide him as overcautious when you arrived.”
                  “And what a wonderful job of dissuading him you did, Wulfgrim,” Ardabur grumbled, his voice thick with angry sarcasm. “You were supposed to keep him in check until Braemorgan and I got back. Instead, you let him ride off into a trap.”
                  “What would you have had me do, Ardabur?” Wulfgrim said, his voice growing loud. “Should I have knocked the lad on the head, or tied him up in the corner?”
                  “Enough,” Morag said, jumping in. She shot Ardabur an angry glance. “Einar must have good spies of his own to have known our situation so well. To let us think the garrison was to be reinforced so soon! It forced my brother’s hand, before either of you could arrive to provide the extra manpower. Wulfgrim tried to stop him. I tried to stop him. Grang knows he never took much stock in what I had to say, but I still tried. He would not listen.”
                  “It was a fool’s venture,” Ardabur said.
                  “But you aren’t thinking like our young thane,” Braemorgan said. “He was eager to prove himself. He would have liked nothing more than for you or I to arrive here to news of a bold victory won on his own. He wanted us to praise him, to declare within earshot of his men how he was surely as bold and as daring as his father and his grandfather before him.”
    “Why else go himself?” the wizard continued. “Why not appoint a lieutenant to lead the excursion? Wulfgrim could have done the job easily enough. Strategically, Agnar would accomplish the same thing without risking his own neck. No, Einar knew what fish he was hooking.”
                  “There must have been nearly a thousand mounted warriors in all waiting for us,” Wulfgrim said. “Plus five wizards in the first wave and as many in the next. We never stood a chance.”             
                  “And yet I notice you made it back alive,” Ardabur said.
                  “What are you trying to say, Thane Ardabur?” Wulfgrim said, anger growing in his voice again.
                  “Your duty was to defend him, not to run from the battlefield to save your own worthless ass!” Ardabur growled, leaning forward and pointing his finger directly at