Death on the Burnt Ocean by Peter Wacht EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available For Free Download
- Authors: Peter Wacht
- Language: English
- Genre: Norse & Viking Myth & Legend
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
A DISAPPOINTING HUNT
“Can’t you run faster than that, soldier!” The man standing guard at the
entrance to the tower, a very large blacksmith’s hammer held in his
hand, had to bend down to fit through the doorway without banging his
head. He was glad to be free of the confining space as he stepped out onto
the grass. He didn’t like being locked away from the outside and the fresh
air. It made him edgy. “You need to lay off the ale, Bertie. It’s all going to
your gut.”
Bertie huffed and puffed his way up the slope. The once musclebound
figure, now going a bit soft around the edges, was no more than a shadow in
the descending grey mist.
For just a second, the man by the door, the hilt of his sword peeking out
above his shoulder, thought that Bertie was carrying three large sacks across
his broad shoulders. It wasn’t until the soldier turned farmer was less than a
dozen yards away that the large figure in the doorway grinned, finally able
to pick out what Bertie was hauling.
“You try carrying three children up that wretched slope, Duff,” muttered
Bertie. He struggled to catch his breath as he let down the two daughters
who had been slipping from their perches as he sprinted up the hill. He kept
the youngest, a boy no more than two years old with his hands twisted
tightly in his father’s hair, on his shoulders as he ducked inside. “Is Winnie
here?”
“She is,” Duff replied, giving Bertie a friendly slap across his back for
his effort as the man passed by him, glad that he had made it. “Almost
everyone else from the village is here as well.”
“Not all?” asked Bertie. He turned back through the entryway, the son
on his shoulders pulling with greater vigor on his hair, obviously frightened
as the thin wisps of white began to darken to a thicker grey. Bertie carefully
extricated what few strands he had left on his head from his son’s tight
grasp. It wouldn’t be long now, so they would need to be quick. “Do we
need to go back out?”
Duff smiled, nodding his thanks for Bertie’s generous, likely suicidal,
offer. Bertie was a brave man. Duff had seen it with his own eyes more
times than he could count. The soldier in Bertie had never really left, just as
had been the case for him and so many others in the village. But there was a
key difference between them now.
Bertie had a young family. Duff didn’t. If anyone went back out into the
encroaching fog, it would be him. Only him.
“We should be all right,” replied Duff, giving Bertie a gentle nudge so
that he would follow his children into the tower. “Why don’t you go find
Winnie and see what kind of trouble those twins of yours have already
gotten into.”
For More Read Download This Book
EPUB