Halcyon Rising_Bastion of Hope by Stone Thomas

Author:Stone Thomas [Thomas, Stone]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-02-10T05:00:00+00:00

+23

An impenetrable wall of woods, I thought. How come I can pronounce impenetrable, and not impregnaral… impreganal… impregatarian… Screw it.

We continued to reorient ourselves south as the morning sun rose higher in the sky. Mamba’s description of this place as a “wall” was spot-on. No matter how many times we reappeared somewhere new, or how many times our direction changed, we stayed within the same band of trees on the map.

“If no one ever leaves,” I said, “and there’s nothing to eat lying around here, shouldn’t there be dead bodies? Or at least skeletons?”

“Maybe the forest absorbs them,” Mamba said. “This place is gusty with strange magic.”

“Can we take a break?” I asked. “We’ve been trying the same thing over and over again and getting nowhere. Not to mention, we haven’t eaten since we left Halcyon. I didn’t want to take provisions when there were so few left to begin with, then the gypsies didn’t feed us, and now I’ve missed breakfast entirely. I just need a minute.”

“I’ll see if I can catch the wind while we wait,” Mamba said. She started to dance in place, bending her whole body forward to graze her palms against the ground, then tracing her body with her hands, up her ankles, her thighs, her ribs. It was mesmerizing.

“I enjoy eating as much as the next gal,” Cindra said, drawing my attention back to the moment, “but I don’t need to. I don’t run on food like you do. If there were anything here to hunt though I would do what I could.”

“No,” I said, “there’s nothing for me here. If you don’t eat, can I ask what sustains you?”

“I expect Mercifer took care of that,” she said. “I only spent a few days with the elf that conjured me, before he sealed me up in the cave we now mine for resources. He kept casting spells over me that I didn’t understand. Each new wave of magic filled me with a blissful energy. That magic must fuel my body as we speak.”

“I’m glad you’re not hungry like I am,” I said. “It’s very distracting.”

Okay, stomach, I said in my most stringent inner voice. You can growl all you want, but you’re not the boss of me. There are body parts much larger and louder than you!

I got to my feet and walked toward Mamba. “How’s the wind?”

“Scattered,” she said. “Like I’d need to listen in a dozen different directions at once. Maybe my snakies could help.”

She reached out her arms to draw snakes from the earth, but nothing happened. Her eyes grew wide. “What kind of a forest doesn’t like snakes?”

“Maybe your snakes don’t like this forest,” I said. “If I had the chance to go back in time, I’d steer clear of it myself.”

“No,” Mamba said, “my snakes know when they’re not welcome. My welcome isn’t strong enough to overcome the unwelcome this place breathes.”

I sat back down and took the map out of my pocket. One of the small energems from the mine got caught on the parchment and rolled across the ground.

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.