The General's Legacy

Chapter Seven: The Storm (part 1)

The Battle of Ostmere 1848
Kingdom Army of Valendo led by King-consort General Garon Allus Artifex-Dendra. Deaths: approximately 3100
Kingdom Army of Nearhon led by General Magnar. Deaths: approximately 4600.
Excerpt from the War Histories of Valendo.

*

Dark cloud far in the south of the valley gradually rolled north.
Cory watched it come while he slouched against the tree on the hill where he had once sat with Julia's head lying on his lap. He remembered the tickling and then she had sat on his lap. That thing she did with her messed up hair part covering her face, delightful blue eyes looking right into his heart. After months of seeing her almost every day she had been gone for two weeks. It felt like something inside him had left to go with her. A craving ripped at his mind, heart and somewhere further down.
He looked north; somewhere over the mountains is where she would be. He fooled himself that if he concentrated he could somehow tell exactly which direction she was in.
This was silly, he should just ride to Plain Lake City and fix whatever the problem was just as he had told her he would. It couldn't be that hard. He promised himself he would leave in the morning. Grandfather had left him money, he could hire whatever security he needed.
Distant thunder pulled his attention back to the south.
Flickering lighting in the sky broke free striking an intense white crack down the mountain side on the opposite side of the valley. Moments later the storm cracked the mountain side again. Looking up at the branches overhead he imagined a lightning strike and then the tree in flames. He stood and ran back to Sunny tethered at the foot of the hill. Nineteen hands of warmth, strength and salvation from the storm. Rain fell in a black veil hanging below the clouds still miles off, but the wind howled at him right out of that boiling abyss. It snapped at Sunny's hind quarters as he galloped back to Tranmure.
There was a concert on tonight. The orchestra house would be the ideal refuge from the rain and the music an antidote to thunder.
Cory decided to leave Sunny at the stables next to the orchestra house. He would get caught in the rain for sure if he tried to take him back to the palace stables.

*

Pragius had striven all day to penetrate the mystery of why the use of magic caused such exhaustion and stress. It had been hanging there like an elusive winking star in the night sky almost from the start. Fighting through the treacle fog of his own fatigue, in the grip of frustration, he pored over the pages of the book like never before. The answers had to be here, however much like grabbing onto them was like trying to grasp a fist full of dawn mist. The contents of the pages changed depending on what order he read them in and even how quickly he read them.
It didn't help matters that the sky was starting to turn grey and the room dimmed with the faithful light of day forced into retreat.
But of course, he had learned to solve that problem before. He looked up from the book for a moment passing his hands in front of his eyes while making some quiet sounds. The room and the book appeared to him as brilliantly lit as a clear summer day.
He read on. There was a knock at the door.
"Pragius, half an hour until the meeting." King Ceoric announced followed by his footsteps disappearing into silence,
'I only have half an hour to finish this, or I'll be starting again. Hours wasted,' he thought.
Angry now he gritted his teeth, reading, heart racing, tension pulling across his chest and pain stabbing into his head.

*

"I promise you... dear friend... this is the last time I will ask this of you." Magnar caressed Rancave's shoulders from behind as the young mage sat at a table.
They were in a dark place isolated in a globe of warm light created by a single candle. A leather bound book lay open before Rancave.
"I hate this, it's a long way from here to Tranmure, and it pains me."
Rancave winced in anticipation of what he thought was to come.
Reaching for the magic in his mind he started to read. Every sentence stepped up the pain until he started to growl the incomprehensible words.
Magnar waited like a venomous snake regarding an approaching rodent with Rancave's words drifting under his consciousness.