Exiles & Empire by Cheryl S. Mackey

Author:Cheryl S. Mackey [Mackey, Cheryl S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-07-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Jadeth’s sobs broke free. Not even the sleet laden wind could hide her now. Tears hundreds of years in the making streaked down her numbed cheeks.

She choked out, “Oh, gods. Mother. You knew.”

Snow crunched. Footsteps. Jadeth peered up at the red-headed god through a veil of tears.

“Yes, she knew.”

“Why? Why did she have it, Tanari? She knew I’d find the hammer in the chest, knew what I would do?”

“Yes.”

“Did she know I would become this?” Jadeth slapped her palm over her breast with a moan.

Tanari nodded, her lips thinned with sorrow.

“How? When?” Jadeth asked. Her burning gaze studied the others now standing immobile in the snowy clearing. “What’s happening?”

They were unmoving, frozen, but not from the cold. A shimmering dome of light encased them. Jadeth’s spine stiffened. She recognized that barrier.

“What must. Good bye, Jadeth.”

Tanari turned away, her shoulders stiff and unyielding, but not from the cold.

Atil’s voice, one Jadeth might not have ever recognized before the fateful night they had received their orders to locate a map, rang out over the mountain tops. Large brown wings filled her vision as he landed with a thud. His wings snapped shut. The sleet laden wind churned and swirled in a cloud of fog and ice. The shimmering barrier between the others and Jadeth evaporated.

Empty eye sockets fixated on Jadeth. She shrank away from his unearthly glare. Finally he rounded on Tanari.

“They’re coming, we’re out of time.”

Tanari turned to Jadeth one last time, her scarlet hair tangling into the sleet laden wind. Jadeth’s shocked gasp was lost in its howl.

Tanari’s eyes were empty orbs and within wheeled all the universes in all the worlds. Tiny pricks of light swirled and spun. Galaxies rotated and stars flared to life and died in glory. Her voice, hollow with the weight of all the ages, echoed off the cold stone cliffs.

“Go, Jadeth. It is our time now. Yours is coming. Remember who you are. The others must do the same. Use this tome as a guide on your quest for the Crown of Gods. As you have seen, it will show you the knowledge you seek but only when you need it. You must use it wisely.”

Jadeth’s tears burned hot against her skin. Her ears flicked wildly. Torn between this last chance to see her mother one more time and the knowledge that this was but a piece of the past that had already come to pass, she hesitated, then nodded.

Shrieks and the flapping of many wings from high above drowned out all sounds.

A swift motion beyond Tanari and Atil caught her eye. She watched Jawyna shove the giant hammer into a stunned Esbetha’s arms and push her bodily at the still open portal. Her words filled the screech laden air.

“Go Esbetha! Run! You will give it to me later! Run!”

Her mother cast one last desperate glance at Jawyna and toppled through the spiraling glow. It popped shut behind her with a blast of heat and fire. Between the twin stones the fog lifted, giving everyone a stunning view of a distant Citadel perched amid stone and ice.

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.