Sherwood Smith Quote

There were no shouts, no trumpets, nothing but the ringing of iron-shod boots on the stones of the bridge, and the clank of ready weaponry.Could we rescue them? I could not see Khesot’s face, but in the utter stillness with which they stood, I read hopelessness.I readied myself once again--Then from the center of their forces stepped a single equerry, with a white scarf tied to a pole. He started up the path that we meant to descend. As he walked the light strengthened, now illuminating details. Still with that weird detachment I looked at his curly hair, the freckles on his face, his small nose. I thought, and then winced the thought away. We were not Galdran. I waited.He stopped not twenty-five paces from me and said loudly, Countess, we request a parley.Which made it obvious they knew we were there.Questions skittered through my mind. Had Khesot talked? How otherwise could the enemy have seen us? The only noise now was the rain, pattering softly with the magnificent indifference of nature for the tangled passions of humans.I stood up. Here. State your message.A choice. You surrender, and your people can then disperse to their homes. Otherwise, we start with them. He pointed to the bridge. Then everyone else. He lifted his hand, indicating the ridge up behind us.I turned, and shock burned through me when I saw an uncountable host lined along the rocks we’d descended from half a night ago.They had us boxed.Which meant that we had walked right into a waiting trap.I looked down at the bridge again. Through the curtain of rain the figures were clearer now. Khesot, in the center, stood next to a tall slim man with pale yellow hair.I closed my eyes, fought for control, then opened my eyes again. Everyone goes to their homes? Including Khesot and the four down there?Everyone, the boy said flatly, except you, Countess.Which meant I was staking my life against everyone else’s. And of course there was no answer but one to be made to that.With black murder in my heart, I flung my sword down rather than hand it over. Stepping across it, I walked past the equerry, whose footfalls I then heard crunching behind me.Wild vows of death and destruction flowed through my mind as I walked down the trail. No one moved. Only the incessant rain came down, a silver veil, as I slipped down the pathway, then reached the bridge, then crossed it, stalking angrily between the lines of waiting warriors.When I neared the other end of the bridge, the Marquis turned his back and walked inside the fortress, and the others followed, Khesot and the four scouts still some distance from me. I could not see their faces, could not speak to them.I walked through the big gates, which closed. Across the courtyard the south gates stood open, and before them mounted warriors waited.With them were two saddled, riderless horses, one a familiar gray.In silence the entourage moved toward them, and the Marquis mounted the gray, who sidled nervously, newly shod hooves ringing on the stones.Khesot and the others were now behind me, invisible behind the crowd of warriors in Renselaeus colors, all of whom watched and waited in silence.It was weird, dreamlike, the only reality the burning rage in my heart. Someone motioned me toward the single riderless horse, and I climbed up. For a moment the ground seemed to heave under the animal’s feet, but I shook my head and the world righted itself, and I glared through the softly falling rain to the cold gray gaze of the Marquis of Shevraeth, heir to Renselaeus.His horse danced a few steps. He looked over his shoulder at me, the low brim of his hat now hiding his eyes.Ride, he said.