Dawn of the Ice Bear by Jeff Mariotte Page A

Tarawa?”
    â€œI can probably find one,” she said.
    â€œGood. Then we must figure out where to go and how to get there.”
    â€œCimmeria,” Donial reminded him. “We believe that’s where Conor would have gone. I know he mentioned the name of his village.”
    Alanya had screwed up her face. “Taern!” she burst out. “I have been trying to remember it ever since we found out the teeth were missing. If Conor had not boasted so about his status there, I would never have remembered.”
    â€œCimmeria is far from here,” Tarawa pointed out. “How will you travel?”
    â€œThe Restless Heart !” Donial said.
    â€œBut the sailors are still on it,” Alanya protested. “And Elonius, last of the mercenaries, with them.”
    â€œThen they’ll accept me as their captain,” Kral said. “Or they’ll die trying to keep us off.”
    â€œBut are we enough to sail her?” Alanya asked. “And if we fight them and win, what then? The three of us could never do it.”
    â€œFour,” Tarawa corrected.
    â€œYou would leave Stygia and accompany us?”
    â€œShe is no longer safe here,” Kral said.
    â€œKral speaks the truth,” Tarawa agreed. “Shehkmi will figure out who let you in. His magic will reveal it to him. I have as much reason as you to want to be away from here as soon as possible.”
    Alanya nodded. Kral suspected that she was worried about what would happen when they returned to the ship without Gorian and the others. She was right in guessing that the Heart ’s sailors would not readily accept them. But there was every likelihood that they were anxious to be away from Stygian waters, no matter who was aboard.
    â€œAnd I believe I can find a few more who would love to put Stygia behind,” Tarawa added. “So we should be able to form a crew for your ship.”
    â€œNot our ship,” Kral amended. “At least, not yet. But it will be.”
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    GOVERNOR SHARZEN LISTENED to the continuing chaos outside with a growing sense of dread. For a second night, the walls had held against the Pictish assault. But how much longer could they last? Fires burned throughout the fort. Waves of attacks came and went, as Picts climbed the walls or broke through the burned-out sections. Runners had come back from the farther reaches of the wall with reports that Picts had overwhelmed it, simply circling around where it had not yet connected to the next fort up the line.
    From all appearances, the Pictish clans had banded together. Sharzen didn’t know if their goal was the complete elimination of all settlements from the Westermarck, or just of Koronaka. But Koronaka alone could not stand against them indefinitely, certainly not without reinforcements from Aquilonia. A couple of scouts had arrived claiming that reinforcements had, in fact, been sent.
    At this point, it appeared that they would be too late to help.
    Sharzen had no intention of dying here on the frontier. To help figure a way out of this, he had summoned Gestian. The captain stood before him now, pacing, anxious. “You would rather be out there,” Sharzen observed. “On the wall.”
    â€œI belong where my men are fighting,” Gestian answered.
    â€œWhich is precisely why I made you captain of my forces,” Sharzen said. “I admire that.”
    â€œYet you have called for me,” Gestian pointed out.
    â€œIndeed,” Sharzen said. “Koronaka is doomed, Gestian.”
    â€œHow can you say that, Governor?”
    â€œI say it because it is true,” Sharzen replied. “Perhaps not on this night. But the next, or the one after that. Our losses these last two nights have been serious, would you not agree?”
    â€œI would,” Gestian said. “Serious, if not cataclysmic.”
    â€œSo if they return tomorrow night—which they will—they will finish