A Shore Too Far - By Kevin Manus-Pennings Page 0,1

saying. “You’ll still need supplies over the passes and that still leaves you the forts for your trouble.”

“Say it is the Haru; what numbers would that mean?” I asked.

“Two hundred ships? Twenty thousand at most, though some men must stay behind to protect their ships—and they’ll need those ships for resupply at first, though they don’t stand a match against Pulgatt’s boys. You remember the Haru word for our ships? Klenni—wooden island.” Gonnaban let out a short bark of a laugh. “They’ll be more than daft if they trust the sea for supplies. No, sir, what we have here won’t be Haru.”

Two days would prove him right.

Chapter 2

Abringol sat on the western extreme of the Gaping Sea and was in my childhood a bleak and dismal port known as much for its corruption as its dilapidation. When my older brother, Eric, came of age, he asked for the rule of the city and my father sent him there with two legions of the North Guard. In a decade, Eric had rebuilt or redone every government building into a gleaming edifice that inspired visitors and citizens alike. Self-serving bureaucracies were replaced and streamlined. The harbor was improved and the wharves broadened. There was not a western power that did not use them to trade with us, and Eric treated them fairly. Though our younger brother, Kollus, had transformed his city of Brenna into a city of learning, the cultures that crossed paths in Abringol so enriched the city that everyone expected Abringol to become the new seat of learning in all of Avandi.

As my men and I approached the city at sundown, riders carrying Eric’s banner emerged and galloped to escort us, their leather armor and green surcoats shaking with their pace. Within moments I could see the trumpets strapped to their saddles. The captain of the escort saluted smartly as his men turned to form a wedge leading us in.

“Prince Eric Asgrand, governor of Mulgrond, Pennett, and Kee, bids his sister welcome, High General, and begs you to allow him to do you all proper honors.” The rider hid his smile well.

Gonnaban leaned in. “Eric’s still fond of you.”

I felt myself blush and resisted glancing at Gonnaban’s grin. I knew it grew wider when the riders sounded their horns, peal after peal, as they were answered by the city watch. The sound rolled off the city’s low hill and took wing in the surrounding scrub wood.

We entered the outskirts of the city and soon came to the old city gate, its wall a crumbling marker of the historic edges for the city, and were met by Eric and his attendants. Tall and bearded, Eric stood beside his mount, his face warmed beyond its usual stoicism. He wore the ceremonial uniform of the city guard, and his poise was that of a man who wanted for nothing but from whom nothing could be taken. Not for the last time, I felt a stab of guilt for having tried to kill this man years ago.

I swung off my mount, too soon perhaps, and clasped his hand and arm. He waited only the merest second before pulling me close to him and embracing me.

“Sister,” he said simply.

“I did not ask Father to send me. I—,” I began.

“We’ll talk of that later,” he said. “Let’s get your men refreshed and we’ll adjourn to the palace.”

He looked above me at my master-at-arms. “Gonnaban, I see you continue to dodge retirement.”

“They thought it unwise, Your Highness, to unleash me onto the women of the land. And they are very prudent there, sir, very prudent.”

Eric smiled and squeezed my arm. “Well, you’ll join us in counsel, won’t you?”

“I go to serve, sir. I go to serve,” Gonnaban answered.

Eric faced me again, and I met those inscrutable, warm eyes of his. He turned to his mount.

***** ***** *****

We met again in an upper sunroom of the palace, a room that by its high vaulted ceilings and tall windows I could tell Eric had designed. The windows faced west to the sea, and the bay was just as busy as the city was a success. Couches and tapestries lined the wall and the sunset was a fire on the waters, the light almost pressing against us.

Gonnaban stood uneasily, always uncomfortable among any other member of my family. Eric had changed into simple palace gowns, red and silver, though his mind showed in that he wore Ebaddri, the ceremonial sword of the prince. I sat on a windowsill and let

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