RAVENSONG
“Shakespeare? I ain’t never hoyd of him. He ain’t in no ratings. I suppose he’s one of them foreign heavyweights. They’re all lousy. I’d moyder the bum.”
– Tony Galento, American heavyweight boxer, 1910-1979
Carter watched out the window from the tower, and saw the army stretching out across the plain outside the village like so many ants under the tarnished gray carpet of sky. Far, far more soldiers than he’d seen at The Reach. And he had far fewer soldiers within his walls than they’d had.
“That is a lot of troops,” he said, and his chamberlain, Alel, nodded.
“I should get my armor,” said Alel, tying his wisps of gray hair back in a ponytail.
“It wouldn’t hurt,” said Carter, and wished Daorah was here. Or that she’d hurry back from the palace.
It wasn’t the organized lin
