The Warlord's Legacy (59 page)
How many times, after all, had Corvis Rebaine already performed the impossible?
She could accomplish little enough by herself, perhaps, but at least she could make a start until the soldiers arrived to aid her. Grunting with exertion, the baroness of Rahariem leaned down and heaved aside the first of many stones.
M
ELLORIN STOOD CALF-DEEP
in snow, one hand resting on Sunder’s hilt, and struggled to peer through the whirling blizzard at the path before her.
She had indeed learned much about Corvis Rebaine, and as she’d been warned, there was much of it she wished she hadn’t. Still she’d sought more—and more she had discovered. From Tyannon and Jassion, from Irrial and even from Davro; from scholars and sages, historians and even oracles. She devoured it all, until there was no more to be learned.
And she’d learned what she must do with that knowledge. She wondered if, in the many months that had come and gone, her mother had begun to forgive her—or if she ever would.
But it didn’t matter. Mellorin knew her father, now. She knew why he’d left, and if she couldn’t yet forgive him for that, she could at least understand. She knew what he’d hoped to accomplish and the world he’d hoped to build … And she knew where he’d gone wrong.
She had no children waiting for her. She could avoid his mistakes. She could do it
right
. But she, like her father before her, needed the power to make it work.
Her guide, scion of a local Terrirpa tribe, reemerged from the wall
of snow and beckoned with a fur-clad hand. “We should hurry, good mistress, lest the blizzard grow any worse.”
An absent nod was her only response as she gazed upward, as though through sheer force of will she could see into the uppermost reaches of Mount Molleya, or the hidden cave at their peak where her prize awaited, entombed within the ice.
I’ll build the world you wanted for us, Father. I’ll make you proud
.
Plans for the future and memories of the past twining around each other behind her eyes, Mellorin waved her guide forward and began to climb.
About the AuthorA
RI
M
ARMELL
would love to tell you all about the various esoteric jobs he held and the wacky adventures he had on the way to becoming an author, since that’s what other authors seem to do in these blurbs. Unfortunately, he doesn’t actually have any. In point of fact, Ari decided while at the University of Houston that he wanted to be a writer, graduated with a creative writing degree, and—after holding down a couple of very mundane jobs, in retail positions and as an advertising proofreader—broke into freelance writing. He has an extensive history of writing for role-playing games, but has always worked on improving and publishing his fiction at every opportunity. He has several shared-world novels and short stories in publication—including
Agents of Artifice
, a Magic: The Gathering novel—but
The Conqueror’s Shadow
was his first wholly original published book.
The Warlord’s Legacy
is the next book in the Corvis Rebaine Saga. He also has a new book,
The Goblin Corps
, coming out soon.Ari currently lives in an apartment that’s almost as cluttered as his subconscious, which he shares (the apartment, not the subconscious) with his wife, George, and two cats who really need some form of volume control installed. You can visit Ari online at
www.mouseferatu.com
