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.“Aye, the story,” said another.“And more wine here!”A quartet, hidden somewhere off in the shadows shrouding the reaches of the hall, launched into an air.The flute trilled over sonorous strings and cheerfully told the story of lost love.Levoreth heard a roar of laughter go up from the far end of the table where the regent sat.The ache in her head increased.The apple fell apart into four sections under her knife.She considered ramming the blade into Dwaes’s leg but discarded the idea, as it would only have meant more and louder noise from him.“The story,” said Dwaes, a bit off stride, “does not carry its full weight unless one comprehends the true beauty and virtue of Lady Devnes Elloran—as all Vomaronish women are, of course, beautiful and virtuous—”“More wine!”“Aye!” bawled the fat little drunk.“Summat like Thulish cattle, I’d say!”Dwaes reddened but chose to ignore this, as the rest of his audience was still intact.“In early May, Lady Devnes went riding with her attendants and several brave men-at-arms along the eastern shore of Lake Maro, as some are wont to do, for there the late spring flowers grow in a profusion that cannot be found elsewhere.While she and her maids were picking flowers, a party of ogres came rushing from the woods and fell upon them! The men-at-arms were hacked to pieces and the maids ravished so that only one survived, and she to die before the week was out.Unhappily, Lady Devnes was carried off, the ogres leaving the one poor maid to totter back to Lura with word of their demand.”“Wasn’t the lady ravished too?” called someone raucously.“Of course not,” said Dwaes.“Ogres love gold more than anything else, and the duke’s daughter was worth her weight in gold to them.Untouched.They’re clever brutes and knew what they were doing.When her father, the duke of Elloran, heard the news, he sent word to all the duchies of Tormay, begging the aid of any lord brave enough to track the ogres and bring back his daughter unharmed, for he feared the ogres would not bother to release his child even if he delivered them their demanded price.Lords and princelings came from all across Tormay, eager to win fame, honor, and much more, for the duke had promised Devnes in marriage and the duchy of Vomaro at his death to whoever brought her back, for she was his only child.”“Two of my nephews,” said old Duke Maernes of Hull grimly, “fools that they were, went haring off to Vomaro when they heard the news.I thought the girl already dead.Besides, only an idiot would seek an ogre in its own stronghold.”“Your nephews,” said Dwaes, “did not fare so well.”“Aye,” said the duke.“Fools, both of them.Dead fools.”“Like many others.It was a grim, sad summer, with every manor and castle in Vomaro flying their mourning flags.And then, on midsummer’s day, the Farrow lad came riding on his black horse.Right up to the duke’s door, as calm as you’d please, and with coarse and common speech declared he’d come to try his hand at the quest.Oh, the duke knew of the Farrows, and he knew the great iron sword strapped on the whelp’s back.He knew who it belonged to.Desperate for his daughter, he would’ve sent forth anyone who desired.The duke provisioned the young scoundrel, and Declan Farrow rode out in the company of two others undertaking the same quest.“The trail was cold, but Farrow lad picked up trace of it west of the Lome Forest and so followed it with his two companions.I must confess, though he proved to be a damnable scoundrel, he could track the most clever of the woodland animals.Step by step, he made his way through the shadows of Lome Forest until he came to the foothills of the Morn Mountains.There, the trail climbed up into the snowy peaks.”Those at the table near him were silent, eyes fixed on him.They knew the best was yet to come.Levoreth finished her apple and thought morosely about the girl Giverny.The anger on her thin face.She would learn in time.“The ogres’ hideaway was built into the face of a cliff.It could not be approached save by a wicker basket raised up and down on an iron chain.But Declan Farrow climbed the cliff in the night and then lowered the basket so that the other two might come up with him.The mouth of the lair yawned before them, stinking of ogre and darker than the night itself.They ventured in and found themselves looking down into an open hall.A long table was crowded about with ogres, tearing at their meal of mutton and who knows what else.Judging the brutes full of meat and ale and thus slow on their feet, Declan desired to fall on them immediately and try luck and their swords.But his two companions, being of more cautious mind, counseled biding their time until sleep had overtaken the ogres.In his pride, though, the youth scorned them and leapt down into the hall, sword drawn [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.“Aye, the story,” said another.“And more wine here!”A quartet, hidden somewhere off in the shadows shrouding the reaches of the hall, launched into an air.The flute trilled over sonorous strings and cheerfully told the story of lost love.Levoreth heard a roar of laughter go up from the far end of the table where the regent sat.The ache in her head increased.The apple fell apart into four sections under her knife.She considered ramming the blade into Dwaes’s leg but discarded the idea, as it would only have meant more and louder noise from him.“The story,” said Dwaes, a bit off stride, “does not carry its full weight unless one comprehends the true beauty and virtue of Lady Devnes Elloran—as all Vomaronish women are, of course, beautiful and virtuous—”“More wine!”“Aye!” bawled the fat little drunk.“Summat like Thulish cattle, I’d say!”Dwaes reddened but chose to ignore this, as the rest of his audience was still intact.“In early May, Lady Devnes went riding with her attendants and several brave men-at-arms along the eastern shore of Lake Maro, as some are wont to do, for there the late spring flowers grow in a profusion that cannot be found elsewhere.While she and her maids were picking flowers, a party of ogres came rushing from the woods and fell upon them! The men-at-arms were hacked to pieces and the maids ravished so that only one survived, and she to die before the week was out.Unhappily, Lady Devnes was carried off, the ogres leaving the one poor maid to totter back to Lura with word of their demand.”“Wasn’t the lady ravished too?” called someone raucously.“Of course not,” said Dwaes.“Ogres love gold more than anything else, and the duke’s daughter was worth her weight in gold to them.Untouched.They’re clever brutes and knew what they were doing.When her father, the duke of Elloran, heard the news, he sent word to all the duchies of Tormay, begging the aid of any lord brave enough to track the ogres and bring back his daughter unharmed, for he feared the ogres would not bother to release his child even if he delivered them their demanded price.Lords and princelings came from all across Tormay, eager to win fame, honor, and much more, for the duke had promised Devnes in marriage and the duchy of Vomaro at his death to whoever brought her back, for she was his only child.”“Two of my nephews,” said old Duke Maernes of Hull grimly, “fools that they were, went haring off to Vomaro when they heard the news.I thought the girl already dead.Besides, only an idiot would seek an ogre in its own stronghold.”“Your nephews,” said Dwaes, “did not fare so well.”“Aye,” said the duke.“Fools, both of them.Dead fools.”“Like many others.It was a grim, sad summer, with every manor and castle in Vomaro flying their mourning flags.And then, on midsummer’s day, the Farrow lad came riding on his black horse.Right up to the duke’s door, as calm as you’d please, and with coarse and common speech declared he’d come to try his hand at the quest.Oh, the duke knew of the Farrows, and he knew the great iron sword strapped on the whelp’s back.He knew who it belonged to.Desperate for his daughter, he would’ve sent forth anyone who desired.The duke provisioned the young scoundrel, and Declan Farrow rode out in the company of two others undertaking the same quest.“The trail was cold, but Farrow lad picked up trace of it west of the Lome Forest and so followed it with his two companions.I must confess, though he proved to be a damnable scoundrel, he could track the most clever of the woodland animals.Step by step, he made his way through the shadows of Lome Forest until he came to the foothills of the Morn Mountains.There, the trail climbed up into the snowy peaks.”Those at the table near him were silent, eyes fixed on him.They knew the best was yet to come.Levoreth finished her apple and thought morosely about the girl Giverny.The anger on her thin face.She would learn in time.“The ogres’ hideaway was built into the face of a cliff.It could not be approached save by a wicker basket raised up and down on an iron chain.But Declan Farrow climbed the cliff in the night and then lowered the basket so that the other two might come up with him.The mouth of the lair yawned before them, stinking of ogre and darker than the night itself.They ventured in and found themselves looking down into an open hall.A long table was crowded about with ogres, tearing at their meal of mutton and who knows what else.Judging the brutes full of meat and ale and thus slow on their feet, Declan desired to fall on them immediately and try luck and their swords.But his two companions, being of more cautious mind, counseled biding their time until sleep had overtaken the ogres.In his pride, though, the youth scorned them and leapt down into the hall, sword drawn [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]