Mordraud, Book One Read Online Free PDF Page B

practically nothing is known of what happened back then.”
    “ I don’t understand.”
    “ To be honest, even I don’t understand,” whispered Eglade. “But all my fellow villagers see it the same way as the elders. Something horrific must have happened during the Endless Night.”
    “ Not that the world outside this forest is particularly inviting!” Varno burst out, with a sarcastic grin. “Cambria, the city that was once yours, is now the capital of the East. It’s become the heart of an empire. Certainly not the first. After taking your city, I fear my people acquired a taste for it. We Khartians love fighting wars...” he chuckled.
    “ Emperor Loren, the patriarch of the most powerful family in Cambria, has control of most of the East, as far as Telatias, and stretching south until Calhann. But Elder and his rebel allies of the East are unexpectedly holding their own. They’re defending the territories along the eastern ocean – the lands of their ancestors. I fought in one of these battles...”
    “ Whose side were you on?”
    “ Cambria’s. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. Wars are useful merely to us mercenaries. They bring troubles and hunger to all other people.”
    “ A mercenary? What’s that?” Eglade inquired with curiosity.
    “ A man who fights a war for money,” Varno explained.
    “ It sounds very sad...”
    “ Perhaps,” he shrugged his shoulders. “But there’s worse.”
    “ Such as?”
    “ Dying in a war fought for money...” replied Varno with a cheerless smile.
    ***
    The weeks went by. Varno’s wounds had fully healed. He spent his time telling Eglade stories of his people, and she reciprocated with those of her own folk. He soon realised the human and Aelian worlds were as distant as the clouds from the wells, although the two races were physically very similar. The Aelians lived on memory alone, desperately clinging to the old laws of their people. They found it hard coming to terms with life in the woods, yet they had created a sort of balance, albeit with great effort. The Khartians were always pursuing a future of wealth, comfort and, above all, power. Males and females had the same standing among the Aelians. Each had the right to an adequate amount of food, a roof for shelter and an education. Instead, among the humans, those with the most money could afford anything they desired. And women had very little say.
    Eglade had studied with the female elders, assisting them as handmaid. She could read and count well, and make complex calculations on scales Varno couldn’t even vaguely grasp. He could barely read, and his writing skills were even poorer. She’d learnt his language, she’d saved him from certain death, she knew how to make marvellous healing potions, and she could feel the coming of a storm a day before it struck. The most Varno could do was channel his might into handling a sword.
    Eglade told him lots of other less appealing details. The Aelians could be iron-resolute in their rules, to the point of calculated and intentional cruelty without hesitation. Their minds were far more rational than they seemed, contrasting with their houses snuggled beneath the trees and their vegetable patches overrun with colour. They possessed a true passion for cataloguing, and for the inherent elegance of laws. They lived in an eternal state of creeping dissatisfaction that never left them in peace.
    The more she spoke, the less Varno felt in harmony with the framework of her mind. An ocean of differences stood between them.
    Yet all the seas of t he world couldn’t quench the sense of wonder they felt when together. They were two eras, two realities, two mentalities meeting, as had happened perhaps very few times before.
    It wasn ’t long before the wonder evolved into affection.
    All the stories Varno managed to narrate were, for Eglade, a window onto a secret that had always been concealed, debarred to her and to her fellow creatures. For his part, he found the purest