Salome at Sunrise by Inez Kelley

Author:Inez Kelley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Carina Press
Published: 2010-08-26T04:00:00+00:00

Bryton’s skull split wide and tiny men with pickaxes were chiseling away at his brain. He groaned and rolled his head. His tongue felt wrapped in heavy leather and his stomach twisted into a rope. Cheap-ass whiskey. Had he really drunk the whole bottle? Damn, he’d forgotten how miserable a hangover was until he tried to move…as in blink.

A harsh hand scrubbed across his crusted eyes and scratched at his bristled chin. He must have stumbled in from the entry ledge but had no memory of it. The last thing he could recall was that song. He cracked his eye, wincing in anticipation of blinding pain. His bedding sat deep enough in the cave that no morning glare assaulted him. In fact, the chamber was dim, none of the lanterns lit and the fire ring held nothing but smoldering embers.

He lay on his pallet, covered with the new blanket. Leaf was curled into the crook of his neck and he peeled the furry body away. The kitten blinked at him then stretched on the coverlet near his knee. His boots rested to his left, right side up. He never did that while on the trail. He always either kept them on or turned them upside down to prevent spiders—or worse—from crawling inside.

His sword! Panic ripped through him and he reached for it. It wasn’t at his side. Not since the age of fifteen had he slept without a blade within easy grasp and he bolted upright. Dizziness dropped his ass back to the ticking. Leaf meowed her displeasure.

Movement drew his eye toward the entrance. Salome stood just outside the cavern, the first fire-tinged rays of dawn slipping over the mountain peak. She lifted her face to a teasing breeze. Loose curls flicked in the air, dancing to a tune of morning birds. A smile closed her eyes. A daybreak palette of peach, copper and pink streaked across a violet sky and a rim of gold burst over the ridge top. A spark hit her gown and it erupted into a glistening shimmer of dawn. His breath caught.

Salome at sunrise was a near-holy experience. She was serenity and elegance wrapped in creamy skin and living sunshine. The light played over her in prisms of gold, tinting her hair to polished bronze. She inhaled the dew-crisp air, tiny nostrils flaring. His heart thudded with an increasing power. Candles held not one half her beauty or her light. All the murky dregs in his mind slipped away as he drank in her splendor.

She turned her face toward him, her eyes flickering with the flames of first light. The curve of her lips widened in joy and his chest squeezed. She smiled for him.

“Good morning, my charge.”

“’Morning,” he mumbled, rubbing at his eyes. “Did you…have you been here all night?”

“I flew for a while but returned. I worried for you.”

He looked back toward his pallet. No pillow and his pack sat along the cave wall. The answer to his unspoken question was in the subtle sweet scent of his blanket.

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.