Literatura

DRAGONLANCE
Age of mortals Volume 2

The Lioness
NANCY VARIAN BERBERICK

Chapter 1
Sir Chance Garoll looked ahead at his fellow Knights, five in all, and he the sixth. He looked behind him and sighted down the wide road, flattened earth, thin and sun dappled, straight as a shaft through the woodland. The overarching trees gave him the uncomfortable feeling of riding through a tunnel, one closing behind, opening ahead.
One of his fellows hawked and spat then looked over his shoulder at Chance. "Headsman," he called, "keep up!"
Headsman. The others laughed, one pulled hard on the reins, making his broad-shouldered mount snort and curvet. "What's the count, Chance?"
Sir Chance—Headsman Chance—hefted the sack hung from his saddle's pommel. Blood dripped, staining the ground. When he closed his eyes, Chance could see the killing ground, the sunny green swale in the forest where he and his companions had fallen upon a den of elf highwaymen. The
Knights had run through the hapless robbers like death's own horsemen, swords flashing in whistling descent to swipe off heads.
Sometimes. Chance thought as he recalled the slaughter, the death-scream had howled out of a rolling head's gaping mouth.
"A dozen," he said, settling the sack again. His tall mount's brown shoulder was black with blood.
Blood etched a thin trail down the steed's foreleg. Trained to battle, inured to the scent of death, the great beast flung up his head at the thick, coppery scent, an eager light in his eyes.
Headsman, they had named him. He grinned. Not a bad name. He had not taken all the heads, but he'd taken most of them and collected them all. The orders from Lord Thagol had come to him directly; he considered it his duty to bring back the trophies. Chance shuddered, recalling how the brief moments in the Skull Knight's presence had seemed like hours. He'd have to spend time with
Lord Thagol again, and here, far away from the Knight, he dared hope and wish it wouldn't