The Iron Tempest Read Online Free PDF

them?”
    “How? I was surrounded by hills and cliffs. Besides, my horse was exhausted and could scarcely stagger over the rough ground.”
    “What about your army? Surely they could have helped?”
    “It would have taken more than a day, perhaps two, to have rejoined them. I left them to find their way to Karl without me.”
    “So what did you do?”
    “I did the best I could, of course, what do you think? For nearly a week, I pursued Gravelotte and her abductor. There were no paths through that weird landscape; it looked like it had been blasted by God Himself, like the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah. Eventually I came to a high, curving ridge. It overlooked a circular valley—like a broad crater—that was as wild and desolate as anything I have ever seen. From the middle rose a rock, a towering crag, and on the summit of this was a castle made entirely of steel.”
    “Steel?”
    “Yes, or silver. Some metal, at any rate, that blazed like an open furnace in the light of the setting sun. I arrived just in time to see the black horse land atop one of the gleaming towers.
    “For days I circled the base of the crag, without finding any way to climb it; it was as smooth as a whale’s tooth. Can you imagine my despair? I’d have prefered to see my heart ripped from my breast, than to see Gravelotte taken from me. You’re too young to know about such grief, such despair.”
    “Perhaps I do,” she replied, “know something of such loss.” The knight ignored her comment and continued his story:
    “I had only just resolved to die there, waiting hopelessly, when I saw a pair of knights clambering down the rubbly slope of the crater. They were led by a dwarf, a horrible-looking thing riding between them on a donkey. I recognized them immediately as pagans. One was Gradasso, King of Sericana. The other was Rashid, the most eminent of all the Saracen warriors.”
    “ Rashid? One of them was Rashid?”
    “That’s what I said. Why? Do you know him?”
    “Yes! No. Not exactly. We’ve only met once. But please, I’m sorry,” she added, trying to hide her excitement and the embarrassment that she had allowed it to show, “don’t let me interrupt you.”
    “A little late, isn’t it? Where was I?”
    “Gradasso and, ah, Rashid had just arrived.”
    “Yes. I approached and asked what had brought two such reknowned knights to such a Godforsaken place. The dwarf answered for them, which I thought insolent.
    “‘They have come,’” it said, “‘to challenge the lord of that castle, the one who commands the hippogryph.’”
    “ Hippogryph ?”
    “Yes, yes,” he replied truculently at her interruption. “That’s what the flying monster is called. Half horse, half gryphon. Hippo. Gryph. It’s Greek. Anyway, if I may continue, I begged them to take up my cause and, if they were to prove victorious, to return my love to me. I told them my story and they promised to do their best.
    “As they descended to the plain that surrounds the tower, I retired to the slopes, where I could best watch the battle. I knew that I was too exhausted—physically, mentally and emotionally—to be of any use to them. My proximity would have only been a hindrance.”
    “I can see that.”
    “Gradasso generously offered to toss for the privilege of being first to approach the enemy, but Rashid waived it, saying it didn’t matter to him who went first.”
    “That’d be just like him!” she agreed breathlessly.
    “As soon as Gradasso reached the base of the crag, he took his horn and blew a long, resounding note on it. The steel castle seemed to resonate in sympathy and the whole crater rang with the unholy sound. My very armor quivered like the metal of a bell and I had to clap my hands to my ears. The last echo had not stopped reverberating when the black knight on his black, winged charger appeared atop the highest turret. With slow, deliberate beats the monster rose and was soon nearly lost to sight at an altitude that would