Contents
Acknowledgments
1 Wardwick of Hurog: Hurog means dragon.
2 Wardwick: I missed my father. I kept looking over my shoulder for him, though he was safely buried.
3 Wardwick: I was caught in the web I’d spun. Instead of breaking free, I tried to convince myself I was safer there.
4 Wardwick: Running is an act of cowardice. Not that cowardice is nec- essarily bad. As my aunt used to say, “Moderation in all things.”
5 Wardwick: I don’t know that running was the right thing to do. People died who might not have if I’d stayed. People I loved. But it seemed the only option at the time.
6 Estian: Erdrick, Beckram, and Garranon: It was not just my story. Some of it I heard of much later. While we were still approaching Estian, events occurring in the city were to play a major role in what happened later.
7 Wardwick: Aethervon has always been a curious problem for devout Tallvens. If he was really a god, why did he allow the destruction of his temple? Fortunately, most Tallvens are not given to worship anything except gold so, on the whole, they aren’t much troubled.
8 Wardwick: The Oranstonians had a difficult time deciding who they’d rather fight, we Northlanders or the Vorsag. They didn’t like either of us much.
9 Estian: Beckram, Erdrick, Garranon: My father always said that Jakoven was an evil, sly, dangerous coward. If it hadn’t been for the cowardice and the annual sovereign’s tithe the king demanded, I think the Hurogmeten might have liked the high king.
10 Wardwick: Death is a wretched business, and rain only made it worse.
11 Wardwick: I wasn’t entirely sure whether I’d gotten myself into a war to defend Oranstone from the Vorsag, or a war against the high king. Either way, it suited me.
12 Callis: Beckram: Commanders are used to losing people on the field of battle, but usually there’s a body.
13 Wardwick: Obsession is a strange thing. It can be the fire that forges a true blade, but more often it is the flaw that causes the sword to break.
14 Wardwick: It always takes me a few days of sailing before I quit trying to jettison last week’s dinner.
15 Stories and songs all have a final word, but in real life not even death is a true end; just look at the lasting impression my father made.
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