The Sword of Morning Star

The Sword of Morning Star Read Online Free PDF Page B

Book: The Sword of Morning Star Read Online Free PDF
Author: Richard Meade
Tags: Sword & Sorcery
of Rage and Vengeance, of Death and Destruction… and it was said that I… that I…”
    But a kind of purple darkness was closing in on him now; and his voice trailed off.
    But he could still hear. And when Sandivar said: “Yes. Yes, there will be all that,” he knew it had not been just a fever dream. “In due time,” Sandivar said. “In due time, my princeling.” Then Helmut entered the purple darkness, was wrapped around with it, and knew no more.

CHAPTER III
     
    It was some four months later that, at Sandivar’s behest, Helmut saddled the bear.
    Before dawn, the boy emerged from the tower, his good hand smoothing back his touseled hair and knuckling sleep from his eyes. Even so short a time as this had put an inch on his height, and where, once, he had been all skin and bones, now he was solid muscle. He wore the simple kirtle Sandivar had given him, and no other garment; but around his waist was buckled harness and short sword, the latter in a scabbard on the right so it could be quickly drawn across the body from the left.
    This was his favorite time of day on the marshes, glorious early morning, a sight of which Helmut never tired. Here the Jaal spread itself into league after league of shallows, reed-grown and grassy, and, not far distant, merged with the sea. Now the cool morning wind came sharp in the boy’s nostrils with the tang of salt; there were, too, the rich black muck of the fens and the heady perfume of a hundred different growing plants. Moreover, the sun was rising, making entrance on the horizon like a warrior so armored and helmed with gold that he gave off rays of splendor amidst the pomp and circumstance of his coming. These, reflected in the glassy surface of the water, just rippled by the sea breeze, shimmered in redoubled richness. And as Helmut watched, a flight of the great, snow-white herons of the marsh winged majestically between sea and sky, vanishing into that golden morning blaze like enormous moths into a gigantic flame.
    He could have stood thus all morning; but he had a task. Therefore, he gave voice to that strange and throaty call which, by now, he had learned from Sandivar. Immediately, the great bear, whose custom it was to keep guard during the night at the base of the tower, shambled into view. When he rubbed and nuzzled against the boy, his withers were as high as Helmut’s eyes.
    “Good morning, brave Waddle!” the boy laughed, scratching the bear between the ears. “Slept you well? Hopefully so, for it’s your master’s intention to take you on a long, sore journey. Now, sir, stand. Do you hear? Stand.” And with his one hand, he lifted the light, well-padded saddle Sandivar had devised for the beast and swung it into place on Waddle’s back.
    “A bear for a steed,” Helmut went on, talking to Waddle as, deftly, he caught the dangling girth with the stump of his right hand and then buckled it with his left. He had a certain dexterity with that stump, now; and it was plain to see that he had long since accustomed himself to the deformity, even, for the moment, forgotten it.
    Waddle stood patiently while the saddle was latched into place. “A bear for a steed,” Helmut repeated. “Whoever heard of such matter? Were I to tell this in the court of Marmorburg, surely all would laugh me out of—” He broke off, his pleasure with the morning gone at the thought of the great palace in Marmorburg, where he had spent his childhood. No news had he of the Kingdom of Boorn and the Empire of the Gray Lands for nearly four months, now: thus, Sandivar justified his going away for the first time since Helmut had been brought to the tower.
    “Some word,” he had told Helmut the night before, “of conditions in Boorn and in the Lands of Light must I gather. Waddle has a natural pacing gait and will take me quickly to where I must go; we shall be back in not above two days. Surely, for that much time, you can fend for yourself here, bearing in mind that you may not
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