The Broken Rose by Jeremy Forsyth

Author:Jeremy Forsyth [Forsyth, Jeremy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fantasy, adventure, elves, journey, love, epic, romance
Published: 2017-10-29T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

The next morning, I walked inside our room, half expecting Lardian and Tegerian to still be asleep. I was therefore surprised to find them sitting at the table with this morning’s Headline spread out before them. Both looked up at my entrance.

“Where have you been?” asked Lardian, his voice drowsy, his hair dishevelled. Both were still in their sleeping robes.

I came to the table and dropped my recent purchase on the table’s surface, saying, “In the city.” I pulled out one of the chairs to sit and rubbed my frozen hands together, blowing hot air into them.

“Why so early?” Lardian enquired.

Tegerian smothered a wide yawn while getting up to inspect what I had thrown on the table.

“Why did you buy a book?” he asked, frowning. It was Lardian’s turn now to take an interest in it.

“And why is it wrapped like that?”

I blew hot air into my hands again, wishing these two lazy friends of mine had lit the damned hearth.

“The bookstore I bought it at does this sort of thing,” I answered.

Lardian expressed his surprise while Tegerian expressed his suspicion. “I do not recall that I ever told you my birth date. Nor have I ever given you the impression that I enjoyed reading.”

It was too early to humour him. I was more interested in what today’s Headline reported, so I dropped my gaze to the front page.

Lardian took notice and murmured, “Dark news, Jay.”

I regarded him briefly, pulling the Headline towards me. “The Destroyer….” I read, frowning. “The Destroyer killed Old Way members last night!”

“Not ‘killed,’” came Tegerian. “Slaughtered. The body count, as it says there, numbers at close to a dozen.”

I hadn’t gone that far until now. “I see.” I kept reading. “How would the Mindfinders know this black cloaked figure was the Destroyer?” My friends didn’t reply, for they knew the answer would appear to me further down the column. “Ah. His moonshined-blade…”

Moonshined-blades were the magically forged weapons exclusively owned and used by the Blademasters. They were elaborate glaives, the steel blades horizontally curving towards the wielder, branching out from a centre piece; two metal disks that the blademaster slipped his hand between to grasp.

The fact that today’s news reported a black cloaked figure possessing such a weapon, pointed to the plain truth that indeed, beneath that ‘ominous cloak’, was the face of Alepion’s blademaster.

As I read further, news of the Destroyer’s activities in the city was as intriguing as the rest of the article was unsettling. According to the Order of Nallara, now that Old Way members had been discovered in the city, it was expected that Liberation Day was set to be the day when they would conduct their infamous sacrifices to their dead gods. The Headline gave fair warning to all its readers to be on alert and to be careful.

I looked up at my friends; both watched me with inscrutable expressions. I looked down, shrugging.

“So…Liberation Day, ay?”

“The Mindfinders,” Tegerian said now,“unless some are a part of the Old Way, cannot know for sure that Liberation Day is the day this cult will strike.

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.