Honor Crowned by Michael G. Southwick

Author:Michael G. Southwick [Southwick, Michael G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781499757590
Amazon: 149975759X
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 2014-06-25T14:00:00+00:00

************

When Jorem returned to the small building, he started by doing a closer examination of the stove. It was basically a small metal barrel on its side. The center of one end had a door in it. The other end had a pipe coming out on top. Four legs held the whole thing about two hand spans above the floor.

Jorem knelt down and marked an X on the floor planking directly under the stove. After removing the kindling and sticks from the stove, he dragged the stove out of its corner, leaving the pipe dangling in the air. Hoisting the stove up, he turned it over and set it on the table. His shadow danced around the room from the light of his flickering candle.

Taking up a second candle, Jorem lit it from the one burning on the table beside the overturned stove. Once it was burning well, he held it sideways allowing the melted wax to drizzle into the bottom of the stove. Pulling a length of string from his pocket, he then gently pressed one end of the string into the still-soft wax.

Once the string was fixed in place, Jorem added more wax until the string was well-seated. Walking back to the corner where the stove had been, Jorem finished prying up the last of the planks. Taking the plank he’d marked with an “X”, he seated himself between two beams.

With the plank resting on his lap, Jorem took a blade and began gouging at the “X”. Bit by bit, sliver by sliver, he worked away at the plank. The deeper he went, the slower he seemed to progress. After what seemed like hours, his blade finally broke through the other side of the plank.

As he worked at carving out the sides of the newly made hole, something in the room changed. It felt as if someone was staring at him. Wedged between two beams with the floor plank on his lap, there was no way to move quickly. Sliding the plank off his lap, he got a good grip on the blade in his hand. Leaning forward, Jorem swiveled himself around while leveraging himself to his knees.

Jen stood just to the side of the table. Unless she had come through the wall, she must have appeared there, for he had been facing the doorway. At the sight of her, Jorem froze. She looked so… regal, yet sad. She wore a light-colored green gown with billowing sleeves. A golden braided band encircled her narrow waist and light glinted from gem-like bits covering her dress.

Her face was pale and serious. A wisp of her light brown hair dangled between her soft brown eyes. Her hair had grown so it now just brushed her shoulders even though it was curled. She looked like a fairytale princess out of a storybook. Jorem’s breath caught in his throat as he stared at her.

“When did you become so beautiful?” Jorem said, unable to look away.

He stood and took a step toward her. His foot caught on a beam making him stagger and nearly fall.

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.