Ashes to Embers by Michelle Schad

Author:Michelle Schad [Schad, Michelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Corrugated Sky Publishing, LLC
Published: 2019-10-11T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Out on the border of the Forest of Talaedra and the road leading north from Joricho City sat a single cottage alone among a rolling field of wild blossoms. It was an anomaly among the blighted landscape surrounding it. Much of the land consisted of burned-out fields or endless acreage of dead grass.

Madhavi had specific preferences, however, gladly using up her personal resources and Power to attain her little slice of heaven. The dragon-born woman admired the wild-flowers from the open window in the cottage’s kitchen. A tea kettle sat atop the fat cast iron oven, the water beginning to rumble as it boiled.

“Madhavi!”

She sighed, turning toward the front door. It could be opened at the halfway point if she wanted to allow a cross breeze through the back door and open windows. It was shut tight now, the steady pounding adding annoyance to the repetition of her name.

“Madhavi!”

She rolled her eyes to the ceiling, tail lashing as she moved to the door. The top half was unlatched, swinging open on squeaky hinges to reveal her brother’s vexed features on the other side.

“Well, well,” Madhavi purred. “Look who’s come to visit among the simple folks. To what do we owe this rare pleasure?”

“Open the door, Madhavi,” Daemodan sighed. “It is open, MoMo,” she teased. She even went so far as to lean her head on the top of the half- door, waggling her bottom in a childish enticement. Daemodan was not amused. Madhavi snickered as she stood up straight and unlatched the bottom half of the door. Of all her elder siblings, Daemodan was, by far, the one she could tolerate the most. However, that just meant she did not want to incinerate him on the spot. He was several decades older than she, handsome in his own right, and quite easily the smartest creature she knew. He also had the patience of a hyperactive gnat when he was in a mood - as he was now. He walked in to Madhavi’s small haven with someone new right on the edge of his luxurious tail. The man was clearly another of her brother’s pet projects; he had a downcast expression and black spider veins creating a mask over his eyes and down the sides of his pale neck.

“New pet, MoMo?” Madhavi asked. She closed the bottom of the half-door, letting the breeze blow through her small home. “He looks broken.”

“He won’t speak,” Daemodan sighed with such exasperation that his wings twitched in a wide spread that nearly knocked over Madhavi’s cooking shelf. She glared at him, scooting past her brother to remove the tea kettle from the stove before it began to scream.

“Could be worse,” she said, pouring three mugs of scalding water before adding several spoonfuls of tea leaves to each hand-glazed mug. “He could be like Roth.”

Daemodan glared. He looked over at his new creation then back at Madhavi. She knew what he wanted. He’d asked the same of her for Jaysen and his hunters. He’d asked

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