Kingdom of Ash

What flew and scuttled in that darkness,
what waited for them ...
Dorian was nearly slumped in his saddle,
shield strapped over his back, Damaris
sheathed at his side.
“You look how I feel,” Chaol managed to
say.
Dorian slid sapphire eyes toward him, a
spark of humor lighting the haunted depths. “I
know a king shouldn’t slouch,” he said,
rubbing at his blood-and-dirt-splattered face.
“But I can’t bring myself to care.”
Chaol smiled grimly. “We have worse to
worry about.”
Much worse.
They hurried toward the castle, turning up
the hill that would take them to its doors,
when a horn cut across the battlefield.
A warning.
With the view the hill offered, they could