As per usual, the latest Update of the Avatar features another chapter from Blade of the Avatar, the official Shroud of the Avatar novel by Tracy Hickman and Richard Garriott.

Here’s the obligatory taste:

Chapter 5: Dark Horizon

The last to leave Midras were the caravans and their escort warriors under Aren’s command. The column of heavy wagons laden with food, equipment, tents and all else needed to support the army wound northwest across the plains, the road running close beside the meandering course of the Shimano River. Before them always was the dust cloud raised by the bulk of general Karpasik’s army with which they struggled to keep up. The dust would have been unbearably choking during the dry season, but the recent rains had dampened the ground before them and granted something of a reprieve to the teamsters at the end of the column. Behind them, the towering column of smoke from the still burning Midras continued to remind them of where they had been and what they had done.

Aren, astride his horse, found himself looking back often.

Of course, not everyone under Karpasik’s command was leaving Midras. Nearly one out of five of their warriors had been left behind to garrison the city. The Guardians of the Priestess had proven to be both resourceful and tenacious. While General Karpasik had declared Midras pacified, no one among the Army’s command staff, including the general, was so foolish as to believe it to be true. The city itself had been built upon the ruins of the previous city, and its roots were honeycombed with passages, chambers and tunnels in which rebellion could fester and flourish. While they had been unable to capture any of the Guardians alive, there was no way of knowing for certain whether all of them were dead.

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