The Dawn of a Desperate War (The Godlanders War) by Aaron Pogue

did conceal the humor in his tone as he asked, “Are we friends, then?”
    Auric frowned. “If you make sufficient apologies to Sera—”
    Corin shook his head. This was not at all why he’d come here, but seeing the farmboy face to face—and finding him so congenial—Corin found himself overwhelmed with curiosity. He caught Auric’s elbow and stopped him in his tracks. “I’m not concerned with Sera. What of you? I left you trapped within the hold of a smuggler’s ship beneath a hundred pounds of Dwarven powder.”
    Auric waved that away as nothing. “I ordered you to leav e me.”
    Corin swallowed hard. Confession was not much in his nature, nor was contrition for that matter, but he’d ached the day he left this noble farmboy to his death. He’d cursed himself and cursed the man who’d put him there, and in all the days that had passed since then, he’d wondered.
    “How did you survive?”
    Auric cocked his head, considering Corin by moonlight. Then he threw back his head and laughed. “Are you sincerely concerned about that business? I told you at the time that I’d survive.”
    “Sera told me the same,” Corin said. “When I brought her news that you were dead and told her the circumstances, she said you’d escaped from worse than that. I was sure she was just hiding from her grief, but then I heard . . .”
    “I lived,” Auric said. He laughed again and squeezed Corin’s shoulder. “Sun and skies, Corin. I’m an adventurer. I’ve survived far worse.”
    “But how?”
    The farmboy caught Corin’s gaze and held it for a long moment. His answer had no laughter in it. “By the aid of good friends. I’ve never passed up the chance at a friendship, and those friends have never ever let me down.”
    Corin hazarded a guess. “Was it Ridgemon? I know he was training to be a wizard.”
    Auric nodded. “Ridgemon magicked me away before the ship exploded. And he knew where to find me because Longbow led him there. And Longbow was alive because Hartwin never trusted you. He tracked us through the woods that day and watched as Longbow fell. He brought the others back to rescue me, and they succeeded just before the powder blew.”
    His voice never changed as he explained it all. He sounded fondly reminiscent and grateful for the friends he’d had around.
    But that brief narrative revealed a dozen damning secrets Corin had believed secure. He had led Auric into the ambush that left Longbow bleeding out on the sand and the farmboy trapped in the smugglers’ hold.
    “Longbow lived?” Corin asked, his voice hoarse. He tried not to tense, lest Auric sense it through his friendly grip on Corin’s shoulder, but Corin felt an urge to grab for his knives. If the friendly farmboy decided to see justice done—and gods knew he had reason to demand it—he could likely wring Corin’s neck before Corin had a chance to flinch.
    But Auric only nodded. “He did. He comes from hardy stock, you know. And Tesyn is a wonder with a needle and thread.”
    “Then he . . . he told you everything?”
    “Him and Hartwin, between them.” Auric frowned, and then his eyes went wide. “Are you afraid? Corin, none of this is news to me. I learned it all a lifetime ago.”
    “It’s been three months.”
    “Nearly five now, but that is not my point. We survived the day. That’s all that matters. You had your reasons, clear enough, and in the end you saved my Sera from the clutches of her enemies. You brought her out here with me.” He released Corin and shrugged his massive shoulders. “I’ll call us even just because you rousted her from Ithale. Can’t stand the food there, really.”
    Corin gaped. “You must be mad.”
    Auric shook his head dismissively. “Don’t think so. But ask me sometime how I first came to know Longbow. He tried to kill me. Or Hartwin. He did too. Or Kalad, for that matter! I caught him shoving Ridgemon around when we were all boys. Gave him a bloody nose, and he broke seven bones for