A Warrior's Redemption (The Warrior Kind) by Guy Stanton III Read Free Book Online Page A

gradually grown more distant.
    It was dark enough now to move on and I woke the boy, who came awake startled. We mounted up and I led the way through the darkness that was gently highlighted , by the glow of a half moon. I looked back after an hour and saw that the boy was almost asleep in the saddle, as he relied more on his horse’s natural instinct to follow mine than con scientiously directing its path himself. It was working for the boy so I let him be and monitored his horse’s progress after me a little closer to make sure he continued following me.
    The boy hadn’t said a word since we had left Kharta. Looking at him now hunched over in the saddle with a blanket wrapped around him to ward off the night’s chill remind ed me of the awesome responsibility I had taken upon myself to get this boy to safety in the Valley Lands. I should have left him behind for both our sakes. Still I didn’t regret my decision completely, if I could get this boy to a better life than I had experienced it would be worth the risk at least in some ways. Having the boy along had changed my escape route considerably though. He wasn’t up to an all out run for the Valley Lands so I had decided on a route that I hoped that our pursuers wouldn’t expect. Instead of taking the ob vious route further up through the Hagathic Wastelands I was taking a gamble on another route. I was going to bypass the Zoarinian forces that I felt sure awaited us on the other side of the Hagathic Wastelands, by going partially through the Plains of Zoar the very heartland of the enemy.
    I doubted that my pursuers would expect even me to do something crazy like that. I would avoid the Zoarinian out posts stationed along the northern border of the Plain of Zoar, by hiring a Kawnia Lake fisherman to take us across the lake and drop us off on the shores of the Silepsium Moors. From there it would be a straight shot to Kingdom Pass and the Valley Lands beyond.
     
    Two days later we made it into the Lomar Swamplands and if I hadn’t lost anyone still on our tail by now then I wasn’t going to.
    I had gone back to the camp that I had left my men at hoping to increase the strength of our party northward, but the camp had been deserted with castoff supplies and clothes laying around like my friends had left i n hurry without time to pack. I couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to cause them to leave one of our most secure camps so hastily. Perhaps it hadn’t been so secure given that the Valley Lander had found us. Just how had he been able to do that? Blind luck I guess.
    I had been looking out for my friends for so long now that I felt like I was somehow at fault for the hard times that seemed to have befallen them in my absence. They would have to make do for themselves from now on, because I wasn’t going back to the life of a bandit. My responsibility was to get the boy to safety as I had promised his father that I would and then get the reports to the high council of the Valley Lands. Then other things would occur. What they might be I wasn’t sure, I’d just have to discover them along the way. I was anxious to meet this grandfather who had been searching for me for so long. Maybe when I was in the land of my father my purpose in life would be clearer to me. I hoped so.
     
    I parted the heavy knot of reeds in front of me slightly to glance through towards the boats pulled up in the sand across from us. The water was up to my waist and it was surprisingly cold for this time of year.
    I watched as the Kawnia Lake fishermen finished hauling the day’s catch in from their fishing boats. Having finished their task they started off towards the sleepy village in the distance. I waited until the sun had almost disappeared over the horizon before I felt it was safe for us to move from the heavy reeds we were hidden in.
    We had run straight into a Zoarinian patrol two nights ago. It had been a unexpected surprise for both parties. In the chase that followed