by Ty Johnston
“I won’t be going with you and Randall to Kobalos,” she said. “I’ve already spoken with Weaver, and he says I can stay on with the wardens, maybe even become one of them. They need all the help they can get right now.”
His eyes bored into her for a moment, then he spun away, disappearing through the tent’s flap.
Adara could only watch him leave, not knowing if she would ever speak with him again. At least the tears were no longer flowing.
Chapter Twenty One
Adara allowed Kron plenty of lead time before she exited the tent. Then she spied him speaking with Randall and Captain Weaver near the river. The healer and warden appeared glad to see Kron recovering from his wistfulness and able to walk and talk among others again.
Adara didn’t care. She wanted no part of Kron Darkbow. She shied away from the others, walking out of the camp. After several minutes of wandering in dense woods, she came to small hillside overlooking the river west of the camp. She worked her way through a coppice of shrubs and leaned against an ancient evergreen.
It occurred to her she did not know the name of this particular river and would have to ask Weaver or another warden if she wanted such information, but then she realized it didn’t matter. The name of a river was of little import when her heart was breaking in two.
How could she trust and nurture a man who was willing to torture another human being, even if that human had been a cannibal? Her lessons were at an end, and her travels with Kron Darkbow were at an end. Adara would have to find a new teacher, or multiple teachers, within the border wardens of the Prisonlands. Kron had learned much in the Lands, as Adara supposed could she.
Adara knelt and cried. At first there were only trickles of tears running down her face, but within seconds she was in full sobs, her eyes misted and her cheeks drenched. She wiped away the waters as best she could with a silk kerchief pulled from her belt, but her white blouse was stained with the flow of tears.
A rustling from behind drew Adara’s attention and she turned to see Randall approaching through the bushes.
“Sorry to disturb you,” the healer said.
Adara shook her hair as if to tell Randall his presence was not a bother.
“I’ve spoken with Weaver and Kron,” he said, “but I wanted to speak with you. Kron tells me you are going no further with us.”
Adara nodded.
“Why?”
Another sob, a short and harsh one, broke from Adara’s throat as her fingers wiped more tears from her face. “It’s too much to explain, Randall,” she said. “I just can’t go on, not with Kron. And you need him.”
“Very well,” the healer said, “but what will you do? Where will you go?”
“I talked with Weaver last night,” she said. “He told me I would be welcome to join them.”
“It can’t be that simple to become a Prisonlands warden,” Randall said.
“Weaver said there’s a couple of months training usually,” Adara said, “but right now they need every sword they can muster.”
“I don’t feel right leaving you behind,” Randall said.
“You and Kron can travel faster without me,” she said.
“I’ve healed your horse,” Randall said. “It’s coming along fine. There shouldn’t even be a scar from the arrow.”
“It’s not enough,” Adara said, turning face the young man. “And I don’t mean the horse, or you. I mean Kron. He can’t give me what I need, and it’s not even his own fault. It’s just who he is, what he is. I have to leave him. I can’t be dragged into his depths of misery.”
“What of me, then?” Randall said. “Don’t you fear I’ll be dragged down with Kron?”
Adara gave a thin smile. “I regret leaving you with what you have before you, but you’re stronger than you give yourself credit for,” she said. “You’re stronger than me. Maybe its your Kobalan ancestry, but I think you can face anything Kron or the world can give you. You’re too good a person, Randall. The world has already shown you its worst, and you’ve come through without being shattered.”
“I don’t know,” Randall said. “I’ve my own darkness.”
“But you fight it. You fight and you win,” Adara said. “Kron gives in to his darker side, and I don’t want to be part of that. But I think you’re immune to it, at least from Kron.”
The healer placed a hand on her shoulder and sent out a bit of empathetic magic to her. She had no physical scars he could heal, but he hoped perhaps he could ease her mind.
She reached up and took his hand and leaned her face into it, a wet cheek caressing his fingers. “You’ll do the right thing, Randall,” she said closing her eyes. “You always do.”
***
By the next morning Kron and Randall were prepared to leave with the four wardens Captain Weaver had promised as an escort. They had enough food and other supplies to last them a week, and Kron guessed it would take about that long to make their way to the border with Kobalos.
“I never thought we would make it this far,” Randall said to Kron as they finished checking the tack and harness of their riding beasts.
Kron said nothing in return, but simply mounted his steed.
Weaver came to say his goodbyes, offering Kron an opportunity to return to the wardens.
“We could use your help,” the captain said.
“I have a charge,” Kron said, nodding at Randall as the healer climbed aboard his own horse. “If not for that, I would take you up on your offer. Once we are finished with our business in Kobalos, I may ride this way again. I hope to find the Lands in better hands by then.”
“We will do our best,” Weaver said. “Many exiles have already been caught, but there’s still a good number missing.”
“Fare well, then, Weaver,” Kron said and saluted with two fingers.
Randall waited a few minutes as Kron and their escort rode ahead. The healer was hoping Adara would come out from her tent to offer her goodbyes, but the woman did not show.
Randall saluted Captain Weaver, then kicked his horse in the ribs to follow Kron and the four wardens.
Once the party was out of the camp, Adara did exit her tent. She stared off in the direction Kron and Randall had trotted, but she showed no signs of following.
***
During the next week of following a river in the woods of the Prisonlands, Randall and Kron and the escorts came across no exiles, but they talked with a number of other wardens on patrol; the news of the Lands was that most of the escapees had fled west into Kobalos, the direction Kron and Randall were headed.
Eventually the riders came to a fork of major waterways. One river came from the west, one from the east and the one they had been following from the south; the three rivers flowed into one massive body of moving water that continued north.
Kron and Randall said their goodbyes to their escorts. The man in black and the healer watched the four riders turn south and gallop away, then they made their way across the river from the west and continued north along the main water way.
They were officially in Kobalos now, Randall’s homeland.
Continued in: Dark King of the North: Book III of The Kobalos Trilogy
The Ursian Chronicles
(in order of publication)
City of Rogues: Book I of The Kobalos Trilogy
Road to Wrath: Book II of The Kobalos Trilogy
Dark King of the North: Book III of The Kobalos Trilogy
The Kobalos Trilogy OMNIBUS edition
Blade and Flame: short story sequel to The Kobalos Trilogy
Bayne’s Climb: Part I of The Sword of Bayne
A Thousand Wounds: Part II of The Sword of Bayne
Under the Mountain: Part III of The Sword of Bayne
The Sword of Bayne OMNIBUS edition
Ghosts of the Asylum
Demon Chains
The Castle of Endless Woe (novelette)
Six Swords, One Skeleton and a Sewer (short story)
Road of the Sword
(short story)
Five Tales from The Rusty Scabbard
Mage Hunter: Episode I: Blooded Snow
Mage Hunter: Episode II: Sundered Shields
Mage Hunter: Episode III: Bared Blades
Mage Hunter: Episode IV: Hammered Iron
Mage Hunter: Episode V: Changeless Fate
About the author
Ty Johnston is a former newspaper journalist who has been writing fiction for nearly twenty years. When not busy writing or reading, he enjoys spending time with his wife, their beagle and house rabbits. To find out more, check out his blog at tyjohnston.blogspot.com.
Table of Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty One
Other books by the author
About the author
Table of Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty One
Other books by the author
About the author
