Paragon of Blood by Luke Chmilenko & Alex Knight

Author:Luke Chmilenko & Alex Knight [Chmilenko, Luke]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aetherworld Productions Inc.
Published: 2022-02-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Four

Over the mountain and through the crag,

To Ravenstead we go.

Leave safety and sense and life behind,

To Ravenstead we go.

Through the old vale and up crooked creek—

For fortune and folly and fools we seek—

To Ravenstead, to Ravenstead,

To Ravenstead we go!

—A Mother’s Warning to the Adventurous Youth of Blueridge Retreat

* * *

“It looks awfully quiet down there,” Val said under her breath as we crept forward, both of us lying flat on our stomachs. “That’s a bit strange for the middle of the day, no? Figure everyone should be out and about working.”

“They should be,” I said as I considered the homestead down in the valley ahead, something that I truly hadn’t expected to see so intact. At the moment, we were prone on the mountainside leading into the valley, hidden on a little ledge about halfway down. It was the best position that we could find that was both close enough to see something, but also far enough to hopefully not be seen by someone else. “Honestly, though, I’m more surprised to see that everything looks to be still standing. I don’t know what I expected . . . but I almost figured the place would be half destroyed, or hollowed out from fire. Really anything other than dead quiet.”

<And why would you think to expect such?> West asked me, her soft chitters and pops whispering through my mind. <Even sick and uncared for, each and every one of my brood are skilled hunters. They would leave no sign of their passage if they didn’t wish to.>

<So skilled that they even closed the door behind them?> I countered as my eye shifted towards the distant homestead’s palisade gate which even from our vantage point I could tell was closed. <Something here isn’t right.>

<It certainly is not,> West agreed. <And the fact that you can sense that means there may be hope yet for your future as a hunter.>

<Very funny,> I replied dryly before turning my full attention back towards Ravenstead in an attempt to figure out what was setting my teeth on edge.

It had been a long morning since the System had shown West and me the memory it had recovered from Len, the hours separating now and then having blurred together in my mind. After Val picked me up off the floor and I assured her there was nothing wrong with me, we had both done our best to calm West, who, for understandable reasons, had continued to scream and shout about the horde of sprabs we’d seen in the memory.

Apparently the very same horde of sprabs that Val and I had encountered during our last foray into Raven Branch Valley, who by some sheer coincidence, or perhaps design, happened to belong to the same species as West.

But the only way that I had any success in calming her was by telling her everything that we’d seen in our last encounter with them. That and also promising action, action to go and find exactly what had happened to them and how they ended up in the control of someone like Damon.

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