The Light of Burning Shadows Read Free Page B

use of the Shadow Monarch’s power, not the role the Empire played in the world, and definitely not how to set things right again.
    Naturally, Visyna agreed with Chayii about Private Renwar, but the point was moot as Renwar volunteered for every attack. Konowa was happy to have him along. Konowa had thought Renwar too fragile for soldiering, but the private was proving to be a fierce warrior, charging the beach with exceptional bravery and never once holding back despite his significant impairment.
    The boat lurched and one set of oars rowed air for a moment. Konowa stumbled and grabbed hold of the cannon before righting himself. It took a greater effort to keep the contents of his stomach. He stood back up, carefully. The crew was struggling to keep the boat on course as the sea grew choppier.
    “Go left, man, more left,” Konowa said, brandishing his saber. The white-enameled hand guard with gold inlay was a bit showy for his tastes, but it had been a gift from his friend Jaal, the Duke of Rakestraw, and Konowa cherished it. It had taken some doing to get a new three-foot-long blade put on it after the first one had broken at Luuguth Jor, but Sergeant Arkhorn had known a dwarf who knew a blacksmith and Konowa had paid twenty silver coins and asked no questions.
    “Left. We need to land on the southern tip,” Konowa said.
    “You mean larboard, sir,” the boat’s mate said.
    Konowa stared at the man.
    “Aye, sir, left it is! All right, boyos, you heard the officer, more left!”
    Konowa turned back to face the wind, preferring the bite of the salt-tinged air and stinging spray of the water to the looks of the men he was leading. The mix of fear, anger, loathing, and resentment he saw there filled him with feelings he couldn’t afford to indulge in. Chayii, for her part, simply looked sad, which only added to his pain. Something small and furry landed on Konowa’s shoulder.
    “Enjoying the ride, Father?”
    Jurwan Leaf Talker, wizard, counselor to Imperial Army Marshal Ruwl, husband of Chayii Red Owl, and currently unwilling or unable to turn back to elf form, twitched his whiskers and said nothing. Konowa sighed. When he’d bothered to imagine his future, he’d never once allowed for the possibility that one day he’d be leading soldiers ashore to do battle against the Shadow Monarch’s dark creatures with his mother and father in tow. That one now sported a very bushy tail and the other was generally disappointed with how he’d turned out did, however, seem like something he should have anticipated.
    He wasn’t sure which was worse.
    “We could use your help, you know,” Konowa said.
    Jurwan scratched his nose with one small paw and said nothing. In a way, Konowa didn’t blame him. Jurwan had risked his life, certainly his sanity, to get the black acorn now resting against Konowa’s chest from atop Her mountain. Her dark magic must have done more damage than even a great elf wizard like his father could repair. That thought should have given Konowa pause, but he knew that where his father had failed, he would not. Perhaps, if Jurwan’s ryk faur Black Spike, the Wolf Oak he shared a magical bond with when a member of the Elves of the Long Watch, were still alive, he would be back to his old self by now.
    Konowa patted a hand against his chest and felt the familiar tingle of cold power there. A dark stain now marred Konowa’s skin over his heart, but he knew he could undo it when the time was right.
    “Were you able to sense anything from the ship?” Konowa asked, keeping his voice low. Jurwan, some years ago, had quietly gifted the…body, for lack of a better word, Konowa supposed, of his ryk faur to the Queen for use in building one of her ships. The gift had infuriated the elves of the Long Watch and his mother in particular. Not even the naming of the ship after the Wolf Oak could appease the elves, but Konowa doubted that anything less than the dissolution of the Empire would. Fittingly, the