The march south from Gladestown began on the rutted road south for the first several hours. Then Sergeant Verell called a halt and explained the way they would forage for food on the march. It was also the first time he explained the Legion’s standing orders to the group. The standing orders were important to a group of scouts who would be operating separately from the rest of the army. Because of their frequent separation, they would have to be more self-reliant than the forces that usually had large supply trains supporting them. Read more…

A shout jolted Cori awake the next morning. She sat up and looked around, disoriented for a moment until she remembered where she was. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and saw the source of the noise. Kieran was standing halfway up the ladder calling to the rest of the group of recruits who were all in various states of being awake. Read more…

The next several days of travel through the forest gave Cori a chance to think about her plans more. She had not liked lying to the farmer and his wife, and it settled poorly with her that they had realized that she was lying to them almost immediately. They were kind people and did not deserve to be lied to. She thought on this and determined that she would not lie about who she was if directly asked but she would only share information that was necessary to achieve her goals. Read more…

It took three days at the convent Chapter House of the Sisters of the Lake before Cori had gathered what she needed to continue with her plan. She had needed some supplies of food for the first day or so of travel, and she needed the information about the comings and goings of people around the Chapter House and surrounding community. On the third night, she was ready to move forward and not a moment too soon. She knew Logan’s plans were to start recruiting for the Legion right away Read more…

Cori stayed up much of the night formulating her plan to run off and join the Legion. She knew the law and knew that if she took the oath of enlistment, at sixteen she could not be forced to renounce that oath. She did not think her father would overrule that part of the law and tradition. The Legion of Solon had long been a place of redemption on the northern frontiers of the Kingdom of Rhodes. It had long been held that anyone who completed their enlistment in good standing would be pardoned for any but the most serious of crimes. Read more…

“Absolutely not,” Lady Elena Westgate said to Cori. Her mother’s level gaze to the other assembled members of the family was one they all knew too well. Lord Radnor sighed as his daughter looked to him in protest, but she got no support there either. Logan, who had arrived yesterday, five days after the announcement of the impending war, just stared in his cup of mulled wine. Jonathan was present from the monastery, but Cori knew he would be of no help. If Logan or her father, who both knew of her skill with the bow and in the forest hunting, would not come to her aid, she had no hope of winning over her mother. Read more…

Cori descended the north tower stairs holding the hem of her dress high in order to move as quickly as possible. She knew she had taken too long getting to the dinner with her parents and newly arrived guests. She vaulted down the last two stone steps, a most unladylike move and then ran into the main hall where her parents were holding a dinner for the guests. She turned the corner, her chest heaving, out of breath as her parents looked up and spotted her. Read more…

Cori stepped carefully. She glanced down and made sure of each step, avoiding leaves and twigs that would announce her progress through the thick forest undergrowth. Looking up again, the sixteen-year-old girl shifted her upper body to move her bow around the branch in front of her, keeping her knocked arrow pointed downrange. She could see her target now. The doe and fawn moved through the brush 15 yards ahead of her. Read more…