With Riulan‘s acceptance of them the meeting broke up. Erimbril gathered together those of the apprentices he had decided could be trusted, as well as those like Riulan, who had the spark of power within them. Galdacil gathered up Weldan and the rest of the former officers and sergeants from Mistrew’s army. Narn though merely walked out into the courtyard and stood by the gates, looking them over and thinking. It was there by the gates, his eyes unfocused into the distance, that the group of men found him.
“M’lord Narn.” Narn turned, his thoughts brought back to the present by the comment. Before him stood several men, some obviously from the army, others seemed to possibly be hunters, and all carried bows and full quivers. The one who had spoken was a young man, no more than 18, who wore the tunic of the guard. “We’ve come to serve you m’lord. Some of us Weldan suggested come to you as scouts like these others and myself. We watched you fight, and we figure you and yours will be the first to be in any fighting. We want to be a part of that. We’ve got nothing left, Mistrew had killed all of our families by this point, or they had fallen in the battles we’ve fought. We want revenge and well..“ The young mans words trailed off, the anger still evident in his eyes and stance.
Narn looked at them all, two dozen of them standing before him and saw the echoes of anger and grief in all of them. And something more dangerous and frightening in several of them, almost a deathwish. His voice was soft, “And you wish me to help you get that revenge don’t you.” The group nodded almost as one and Narn nodded once in acceptance, “So be it. But you will all have to accept one thing.”
“What is it m’lord?”
“Life.” The looks of puzzlement amused him as he turned and headed out into the fields surrounding the castle, moving towards the forests to see what there was around.
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