Forsaken by Jon Kiln

Author:Jon Kiln [Kiln, Jon]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Fantasy, Epic, Historical, Sword & Sorcery
ISBN: 151195678X
Amazon: B00WJIWJEG
Published: 2015-04-30T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

: Leaps and Bounds

Nisero felt the world drop away as he plummeted over the side with Berengar. The captain connected with the slope of the wall on his back, and kicked up a spray of dust and rock chips. Nisero flattened out as he sailed past the captain in the air.

Nisero only had a fragment of a thought as the mountain rushed by under him. He thought, if this were one of his mother’s stories, a dragon would sail under him and snatch him to safety at the last moment.

This thought was interrupted as Nisero’s light armor connected with the rock. Instead of sliding, he tumbled. He felt his cheek tear. His elbow struck a knob of rock with a burst of pain, and then no feeling in his arm at all.

His sword flew loose from his grasp and skipped along the surface of the ridge’s descent, like a flat stone over a lake. Nisero saw sparks jump off the blade as it traveled away from him. Sand blasted into his face from his slide and blinded him.

Nisero thought too late that he should have sheathed his sword before jumping.

He found his back, and with his eyes closed against the sandy pain, he raised his feet to deflect the hard protrusions of rock in his path. His knees and the soles of his feet ached with each grazed impact, but he saved his head and other bones from the effects of a direct hit.

The heat increased through the friction on the back of his leather armor, until his flesh felt as if it might ignite. Nisero felt himself shift sharply up into a curve of the rock, and he opened his eyes. He had slid down into a chute on the rock face, where the sheer wall curved. Nisero undulated from side to side as his momentum drove him down into the curve like a launched projectile. He shifted his arms and legs out painfully against the rock to avoid rolling to his face.

He glanced back to try to catch sight of the captain.

His right heel caught a shallow ledge, and Nisero tumbled again, feeling soft skin and cartilage connect with rock, and his body lost the fight.

The lieutenant lifted off the stone in the air. He reached behind to grab something solid, but found nothing until he slammed into the flat ground below the ridge, exploding the thick sand into the air from his impact. He was the one skipping across the ground like a stone, but he grunted and twisted with each bouncing impact.

Nisero landed one last time on his stomach, skidding to a halt with sand jammed up against his groin, and coating the inside of his mouth. He tried to gather saliva to spit the grit out, but he tasted blood instead. Nisero spat anyway. He felt more blood drain into his mouth from his nose, and he spat again.

The captain dropped to the sandy bed at the base of the Way of Blood. His boots impacted first, and then he rolled over one tucked shoulder and back to his feet.

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.