A Rite of Swords (Book #7 in the Sorcerer's Ring) by Morgan Rice Read Free Book Online Page A

his other
legion brothers, the Silver—everyone Thor had ever known and cared about rushed
forward to embrace him and Gwendolyn.
    They were all, finally, united.
Finally, they were free.

CHAPTER
NINE
     
     
    Andronicus stormed through his
camp and in an impulsive fit of rage, reached out with his long claws and
severed the head of the young soldier who happened, to his great misfortune, to
be standing nearby. As he marched, Andronicus decapitated one soldier after the
next, until finally his men got the idea, and ran to stay clear of him. They
should have known better than to be near him when he was in a mood like this.
    Soldiers parted ways as
Andronicus stormed through his camp of tens of thousands, all keeping a healthy
distance. Even his generals stayed safely away, trailing behind him, knowing
better than to get anywhere near him when he was this upset.
    Defeat was one thing. But a
defeat like this—it was unprecedented in the history of the Empire. Andronicus
had never experienced defeat before. His life had been one long string of
victories, each more brutal and satisfying than the next. He did not know what
defeat felt like. Now he did. And he did not like it.
    Andronicus ran over and over in
his mind what had happened, how things had gone so wrong. Only yesterday it had
seemed as if his victory was complete, as if the Ring were his. He had
destroyed King’s Court and had conquered Silesia; he had subjugated all the
MacGils and humiliated their leader, Gwendolyn; he had tortured their greatest
soldiers high up on the crosses, had already murdered Kolk, and had been about to
execute Kendrick and the others. Argon had meddled in his affairs, had snatched
Gwendolyn away before he could kill her, and Andronicus had been about to
rectify that, to get her back and execute her, along with all the others. He
had been a day away from complete victory and greatness.
    And then everything had changed,
so quickly, for the worse. Thor and that dragon had appeared on the horizon
like a bad apparition, had descended like a cloud, and with their great flames
and Destiny Sword had managed to wipe out entire divisions of men. Andronicus
had witnessed it all at a safe distance; he’d had the good battle sense to
retreat here, to this side of the Highlands, while his scouts continued to
bring him back reports throughout the day of the damage Thor and the dragon had
done. Down south, near Savaria, an entire battalion was wiped out; in King’s
Court and Silesia it was just as bad. Now the entire Western Kingdom of the
Ring, once under his control, was liberated. It was inconceivable.
    He stewed as he thought of the
Destiny Sword. He had gone to such lengths to get it away from the Ring, and
now it had returned here and with it, the Shield was back up. That meant he was
trapped in here with the men he had; he could leave, of course, but he could
not get any more reinforcements inside. He estimated he still had a
half-million soldiers here, on this side of the Highlands, more than enough to
outnumber the MacGils; but against Thor, the Destiny Sword and that dragon,
numbers no longer mattered. Now the odds, ironically, were against him .
It was a position he had never been in before.
    As if things could not get even
worse, his spies had also brought him reports of unrest back at home, in the
Empire’s capitol, of Romulus conniving to take his throne away from him.
    Andronicus growled with rage as
he stormed through his camp, debating his options, looking for someone, anyone
to blame. He knew as a commander that the wisest thing to do, tactically, would
be retreat and leave the Ring now, before Thor and his dragon found them, to
salvage whatever forces he had left, board his ships, and sail back to the
Empire in disgrace to retain his throne. After all, the Ring was but a speck in
the huge expanse of the Empire, and every great commander was entitled to at
least one defeat. He would still rule ninety-nine percent of the world, and