Blood of the Dragon: Book 1 of The Dragon of Faery by Jay D. Pearson

Author:Jay D. Pearson [Pearson, Jay D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-02-28T16:00:00+00:00

♦ ♦ ♦

Instead of stepping from Faery into Earth, as she expected, Wu Zhao felt as if a giant hand had yanked her into a tunnel dark with mist, a formless gray world that sucked her in then hurtled her through. She had no control of her body; it would suddenly zig one way then zag another, and she quickly grew nauseous. Muffled, terrified screams filled the tunnel and vague gray bodies hurtled through the space around her.

Other than the tunnel and the sense of speed, her senses felt deadened. There was no heat, no cold. She was barely aware she could smell nothing. No sense of time. Just this awful sameness. She grew numb to the speed, the screams, and especially the grayness.

At first, when the gray began turning to green, she didn’t realize what was happening. The screams had long since stopped. Then she was aware of water falling, and mist on her skin. The sound of the water grew into a roar. The tunnel’s gray/green void broadened. Shapes gained structure: broad, giant, dark forms that dwarfed her. The moment she realized she had stopped moving, a veil lifted from her eyes. She knew instantly she had arrived in the forest she’d seen through the circle of fire. Enormous trees—cedar, fir, hemlock, and spruce—rose around her, their boles as wide as any five trees on Faery.

Water dripped from every leaf and frond. Mist drifted lazily all around. She realized the roaring she’d heard was behind her. Turning, she saw a waterfall rise above the distant treetops, pouring through a narrow gap in a sheer cliff that formed a “U.” Thick dark clouds swirled above the gap, threatening rain. The water thundered down, smashing the slate gray walls and ledges of the cliff into a broad, deep pool. The cold green water churned and swirled through sharp rocks out of the U in a roiling river over moss-tinged boulders and fallen trees.

The river descended rapidly through what she now recognized as a long valley between two steep arms of very rugged mountains. The gap seemed widest here, but the height of the trees and the thick undergrowth made the width uncertain.

Then she heard the groans. Somewhere to the left, away from the pool and river, moans of misery floated with the mist. She strode in that direction to see what creatures were in such agony, unafraid of any potential threat.

Her march through the thick undergrowth was short, a hundred yards maybe, and certainly heard by the whimpering creatures as she crashed through the bracken and small deciduous trees. Then a broad bowl opened before her, a rich grassy sward bereft of any trees or vegetation. Scattered across the bowl were several thousand blue-clad bodies. With a sudden realization that turned her gullet cold, she recognized them as faeries; not her allies, but the Sluagh Sidhe.

They were beginning to rise, pushing themselves to hands and knees, but there was a dazed, confused look in their eyes. She recognized pain and fear as well.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.