Two hours before dawn, Govannon shook Brin awake with orders to report to the front. He quickly stood and dressed and when he remembered the state of his old armor, hoped that this would be one of the last times that he would need to wear it to combat. There were several holes punched straight through the metal, and his helmet was near useless. It had been torn to pieces with the goblin [Paragon's] final attack and while Meredydd has sort of banged it back into place, it had more holes than a straw hat.The rest of the men weren't looking much better. Brin started to summon glass to fill in the gaps of the armor, but Cid grabbed his arm. "Don't bother. That will just make it more annoying for the armorers when they repair it or melt it down. Besides, if today goes like yesterday or the day before, it won't be an issue.""What do you mean?" Brin asked.It was Govannon who answered. "He means grab a good book or something, because it's going to be boring as hell.""I definitely do not mean that you should grab a book. This is an active battlefield we're talking about. After a manner of speaking. He's right that we're in for a boring day, though," said Cid.Brin tapped his torn breastplate, thinking. Well, if push came to shove he could patch everyone's armor with his new superglass shield in two seconds flat. "What book? Or was that just a turn of phrase?""Have you read Sword of the Grasshopper or The Idle King?" asked Meredydd."I've read those," said Aeron. "But yesterday I got my hands on a copy of Sir Elatore of Argonis that I haven't gotten a chance to start."Brin looked between his Lancemates, stunned. "Wait. What? You guys read?""Of course we can read! Why would you assume we couldn't?" Hedrek said, maybe a little too sternly."I didn't," Brin said. Well, he hadn't doubted they could all read before, but now he thought Hedrek was being a little too defensive... (...)