The Thunder King (Bell Mountain) by Lee Duigon Read Free Book Online Page A

to one or worse. We’ll stand or fall by our walls and our defense of them—and by our fire-fighting teams.”
    That took the smiles off all their faces. Lord Ruffin had the final question.
    “When do you think they’ll be here in force, General?”
    Gwyll had studied his scouts’ reports. “In four or five days at the soonest, Governor-general,” he said. “A week at most.”
    Ruffin glared at Tombo. “Get those fire-fighting teams in order!” he said. Judge Tombo nodded.
     

     
    Now that they had actually seen it in the distance, Jack’s party pressed on all the harder for Lintum Forest. They set out earlier in the morning, made fewer stops to rest, and didn’t camp until the sun had almost set.
    Ivor from Cardigal didn’t especially want to go to Lintum Forest.
    “Everybody knows it’s full of bandits, not to mention wolves and bears,” he said. “There must be some quiet little town, away in the south, where we can sit out the war.”
    “We have friends in Lintum Forest,” Martis said.
    “You don’t have to come with us if you don’t want to,” Jack said.
    But Ivor was afraid of the giant birds; he wouldn’t travel the plains without company if he could help it. “Don’t see why you can’t make new friends somewhere else,” he grumbled. They had not, of course, told him anything about the ancient scrolls of Scripture they were carrying.
    He went on and on, too, about the Heathen magic and how hopeless it was to fight against it. “They’re going to burn down Obann City and that’s that!” he said. “Just like they did to Cardigal. I wonder whose faces those were in the fireballs. Devils, most likely.”
    “There’s only one devil,” Martis said.
    “You didn’t see the fireballs. If they weren’t devils, then I guess they must’ve been demons. You should’ve seen our chamber house burn!”
    “What rot!” Jack said. “Any building’ll burn down if it catches fire and no one puts it out. That’s not magic.”
    “It’s not magic, and the chamber houses aren’t holy,” Martis said. He knew that better than anyone, although he wouldn’t tell Ivor how he knew. He used to believe there was no such thing as holiness; but having been to the summit of Bell Mountain, he was now a wiser man on that score. But holiness, he now knew, was to be found in the presence of God: it had nothing to do with the Temple or the chamber houses. That presence, he had learned, was everywhere. He was a young man, but it had turned his beard snow-white.
     

     
    And as they talked and plodded ever eastward, King Ryons in Lintum Forest had secretly collected a few things he would need and wrapped them in a stolen bandana, to be carried with him on the day he ran away.
    He was careful. He’d been a slave long enough to learn how to do things without being seen. If slaves didn’t steal food from time to time, they’d never have enough to eat; but if you were caught, it meant a beating.
    So he almost fainted that morning when Jandra came toddling up to him, looked right through him as if he weren’t there (and yet looked into him deeper than anybody ever looked), and in a voice that was nothing like her own, said:
    “Seed of Ozias, who are to be King of Obann, I have chosen you and I am with you. I chose you before I shaped you in your mother’s womb; I knew you by name while King Ozias was still among the living.
    “Wherever you go, I am with you; whatever you do, I shall protect you. For you shall look down on your enemies from on high, and they shall flee before your face. A host shall scatter itself before you. I shall set you in a high place where no one has ever been set before, and make you a conqueror before you come of man’s estate. Behold, the Lord has spoken it.”
    And then, as she always did after one of those outbursts, her legs gave out and she sank to the ground in a deep sleep; and that horrible toothed bird that followed her everywhere let out a shriek that froze King Ryons’