Page 186 of Keeper of the Word

“You said once you’ve Seen my future.”

She gazed outward.

“Did you know?”

“Know what?” she asked.

“That ’twould take all this to bring me to faith?”

“Not all of it.”

“I failed. The Edan Stone is gone.”

“’Tis not gone, Sir Tolvar,” she reassured. “As I said, we have not yet failed. There are still many tasks. We shall recover it.”

“Siria’s skirt. Look at me.” He swept his arm, upsetting his tea. “I do not know what else you expect of me. My body is beaten.”

“And yet you said you have a new faith.”

“I know what I desire. What I must do. But I must accept what has been done to me.” His snicker came out sour. “First, I lose my sword. Then I recover it, only to lose it again to the one person of whom I need to rid the world.” He groaned. “How much time do I have?”

“Not much time to recover. But we will retrieve the Edan Stone, and you will fulfill your destiny.”

Tolvar groaned again. “Not much of a destiny when all is said and done. Witnessing the end.”

Elanna echoed Casta’s words, “’Tis not the end.” She understood at that moment ’twas true. ’Twas never the end until everyone had given up. Until all hope had been lost. And sitting next to the Wolf, battered though he was, he, too, had not given up.

Their hope for the realm would lift each other until they had completed what they’d begun in a forest moons ago.

Chapter

Sixty-Eight

ELANNA

They were pursued, but they stayed ahead. Tired. Fatigued. But with a sense of duty. And hope. Elanna uttered it over and over. Hope.

Traveling back into Grenden, they followed the Glendower River until, at last, in their sights was Asalle. Already, its transformation from the city of Light into something bare and bleak could be detected. Its wall, which had shone with glory and grace, gloomed.

The towers of Castle Sidra protruding into view slumped like defeated warriors.

But the worst sight was that of the emptying of Asalle.

Everyone had been ordered out of the city. Citizens, rich and poor. Young and old. Laborers and beggars. Constables and criminals. Everyone.

The masses flooding from Asalle’s great gates pooled onto the road and into the surrounding countryside. Most did not possess horses or carts or means to go anywhere, so they had built tiny camps along the banks of the Glendower and even into the wide-open space.

Whether Asalle’s citizens lingered because they thought theirexodus was temporary, Elanna did not know, but what she focused on was the countless unarmed citizens—so many women and children—whom she observed from their vantage point on the hill across the river.

“Stars almighty,” Ghlee said. “This shall be a bloodbath.”

The words stung. Yet everyone knew them to be true.

On the other side of the hill, through a spyglass, they were alerted to at least three separate armies steadily marching their way toward Asalle. In the distant south marched a massive army, like a dark cloud gliding across the plains. Most likely, it belonged to Anscom, whom Crevan had evidently kept as prisoner to control his massive forces. How many days would it be before it reached this place?

“We do not have long,” Kyrie reminded Elanna, reining in her horse prancing under the tense air.

Night coasted nearer. “Nay, we do not,” Elanna returned. “In more ways than one. Where is Tara?”