Death of the Dragon - Ed Greenwood [12]
He heard the approving murmur from the warriors in the ring, and the officers heard it too. No more protests came to the royal ears as the King of Cormyr, and his strike force raced down the hill, angling their charge so as to come between the foremost orcs and the lone fleeing figure.
Gods, but it was a horde. Hundreds of tall, hulking orcs, fresh and eager, loped along with their blades out and their tusks gleaming, howling as they saw the humans rushing to meet them.
The two running forces crashed together in a sudden mass of shouts, ringing blades, and thudding bodies. Azoun pointed at the lone, gasping knight they were trying to rescue to make sure no orc slipped through the fray. He saw that Tolon and Braerwinter were leading four dragoneers to form a ring, then he crashed into a knot of struggling men with the old, quickening eagerness for the fray. The king drove his sword half through an orc's forearm. The beast screamed and tried to shake the steel free. Azoun barely heard an unexpected shout through its noise.
"Father! Azoun! Father!"
It could only be Alusair, but her voice was a raw sob. The king fell back from the fray, raising his ring. "Alessa? Lass?"
"Majesty!" Braerwinter's voice arose like a trumpet, and Azoun realized that the exhausted, fleeing knight had been his daughter.
He sprinted across the field, hearing the mighty roar of his main army behind him as it charged down the hill to slay the orcs. He ran to where the small ring led by the lords stood around a lone, shuddering form.
The Princess Alusair was sitting, her mouth wet from the healing potion Braerwinter had already forced down her throat, her face streaked with dirt and rivulets of sweat. Her eyes were dull with weariness, and she was shuddering between gulps of air.
He might have stood on a hilltop and watched orcs butcher her-one of the best warriors in the realm.
"Lass," he said fervently, dropping his sword and putting his arms around her in as gentle a cradling as he could manage. Her own embrace was fierce, and she put her face against his armored chest for only a few heaving breaths, never letting the men standing watchfully around them hear a single sob.
"I… found a grove of those twisted trees… It was full of orcs… Been running since… Spent all the magic I had fighting and running… Ring wouldn't take me to you… How came you here to my backlands?"
The battle was rising around them in earnest now, men and orcs shrieking and shouting as they died, their cries almost lost in the incessant ringing of steel.
"Alessa," Azoun said, rocking her slightly in his arms, reluctant to let go of what he'd come so close to losing, "I'm looking for the man who always knows what to do, no matter how much you two have crossed swords down the years. I need his counsel now, more than ever. Vangey's warhorse came this way. We've been following the trail, hoping to find him alive."
Alusair shook her head. "Cadimus was carrying someone else on this ride. Vangerdahast was-is-missing."
"What? Vangey wasn't in the saddle?"
Alusair shook her head again. "I fear he is truly lost," she whispered.
The king threw back his head as if someone had slapped him, paying no heed to the battle raging close around them now. The endless orcs were slowly driving back the men of Cormyr.
The king closed his eyes and shook his head grimly. "No," he muttered. "Gods, no."
He let go of her and walked away, as if alone in a fog. Alusair and the lords exchanged startled glances, then sprang to their feet and followed. The Steel Princess scooped up her father's forgotten sword.
"I'm no good at riddling my way out of prophecies!" Azoun told the air around him despairingly.
"Father?" Alusair slapped the blade back into her father's hand and shook his shoulder, imploring, "King Azoun-speak to me!"
"Vangey's wisdom lost to me, when I need it most?" Azoun murmured. "After all these years…"
He whirled around and snapped, "It cannot be. The old wizard's off on some quick work of his own.