Blade of the Avatar/Blade of Midras/Chapter 8

=Treacherous Paths=

Excerpt
Within a few days march, the Army under General Karpasik’s command had reached Kiln and, with barely a moment’s hesitation, had passed it. The village proved to be a miserable collection of buildings clustered around a central stockade. The self-styled warlord within seemed almost eager to surrender the place to the protection of the Obsidian Army after word had come that Midris had fallen to the South. Kiln, however, was beneath the notice of General Karpasik; the place would have cost him more to secure it than he could gain through plundering it. So the mighty warlord of Kiln was left to watch the great Army pass by his town in sad wonderment.

Syenna returned from a scouting sortie ahead of the advance. She pointed out to Karpasik a less traveled road that led to the Northwest. It departed from the main trade routes that followed the Shimano River to the northeast in the direction of Port Crucible before intersecting with the East-West trade routes. Following the main roads meant that the Army would have to take a circular route to its objective. Syenna assured him that the less traveled road would more closely follow the roots of the Blackblade Mountains with an easy ford across the River Cascade, and thereby saving them nearly a week’s march in getting to Hilt.

The perpetual storm above the Blackblade Range appeared on the horizon a full day before the peaks themselves were evident. Dark and roiling, the black clouds rose so high into the air that the tops seemed to flatten against the dome of the sky. They seemed like an angry, living thing with sporadic pulses of lightning beating somewhere deep within.