The Last Fang of God by Ryan Kirk

Author:Ryan Kirk [Kirk, Ryan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781953692337
Publisher: Waterstone Media
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

SEEDS OF CHANGE

Sascha thanked the exhaustion that stole the strength from her limbs because it also robbed her of thought. She followed Dad through the night, placing her steps where he’d planted his. When he dropped into a crouch, she did the same. When he ran to take shelter in a copse of trees, she sprinted after him. It was like the games she had played with other children in her village long ago. All she had to do was imitate him. It was easier that way.

Whenever her strength returned, troubling thoughts accompanied them. She was tempted to call them nightmares, but she’d been awake when they first visited.

The passages between the realms had inspired her. She’d never felt as alive as she had when she brushed her hands against the world’s roots. Her awareness had expanded beyond the boundaries of her flesh, and she’d felt whole, as though she’d found a part of her she hadn’t even realized was missing.

But for as much as she’d welcomed the insights the passages offered, she rejected the gifts of Dreva’s realm. That forest had shown her more than she wanted to see. One memory, more vivid than the rest, haunted her when she closed her eyes. A gnarled tree, standing all alone with a jagged mountain peak behind it. She’d never seen the tree before, but the sight sent a shiver down her spine.

Dad’s story had pulled her through, keeping her connected to her body as visions overwhelmed her. She’d seen parts of it as he spoke, as though she’d been there in person. She knew, viscerally, about the blood he had shed, the lives he had ended. Visions of his conquests had sickened her.

But the last sight she had seen was that of him, much younger, praying desperately to Vilkas the night before the battle. She’d seen the part before Vilkas arrived and granted him his reprieve, but the longing she’d seen on his face, the torment he experienced as he weighed his responsibility to his clan and his family, she’d never forget.

That was what troubled her most, as they put vast distances behind them. They both used Vilkas’s runes, covering more ground in half the night than she would have thought was possible to traverse in two days.

Dad finally called a stop near a stream where the trees grew thick. The sun rose on a new day. She slumped down as Dad started their meal. She rested against a tree and stared at the small stream as it trickled past them. It didn’t look like it was wide, even in spring. This late in autumn, it was barely enough for clean water.

Their meal was a collection of late-season berries from Dreva’s clearing and dried meat. Back home, Sascha would have complained about the meager feast, but after the long night of travel, it tasted like she was dining with Bonde’s eldest chief.

Once her stomach was satiated, she asked, “That story you told in Dreva’s realm. It was true?”

Dad nodded, his mouth full of dried meat.

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