Valley of Embers (The Landkist Saga Book 1) by Steven Kelliher

Author:Steven Kelliher [Kelliher, Steven]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Steven Kelliher
Published: 2016-08-12T06:00:00+00:00

As it turned out, the air got no fresher the higher they climbed, the appearance of another arm of the subterranean river proof of how violently and how deeply the River F’Rust had delved in its decades of captivity.

The three of them knew the river completely now: the smell of its waters—metal and gravel mixed—and the cool kiss of its spray. They knew its taste—tin and copper—just as they knew its sound as the roar of the earth itself.

The feeling of elation Linn had experienced upon finding a tunnel that moved up instead of down days earlier had entirely dissipated, leaving her struck with the helpless reality that they were hopelessly lost. Their food stores were nearly depleted and their bodies bore the scrapes and bruises of creatures unused to the darkness of the Deep Lands.

Linn hated the river. She hated it as she had never hated another person. She hated it as she had never hated the Dark Kind. She hated its indifference, most of all. Even as it provided her its lifeblood, she accepted it grudgingly. It felt like drinking poison.

“I think we should rest here,” Jenk said when they came to a particularly wide berth of the same featureless black rock they had come to loath.

Nathen dropped the small pack that represented their combined possessions and sank in a slouch against the tar-colored wall without a word. His eyes were vacant and his stomach spoke louder than he did.

“Works for me,” Linn said. She leaned against the same wall and watched Nathen out of the corner of her eye. His breathing was slow, deliberate. She worried about him.

Sighing, Jenk stripped off his boots and went to the edge of the platform, sinking his feet into the flowing black water with a sigh. He did this each day they stopped to rest, and each day, the hiss the water made upon contact with his skin grew fainter. He needed light. Needed it badly.

Watching him, Linn had to admit that Ganmeer had surprised her. She had never much liked him at the Lake. But then, she had never truly known him as a separate thing from Kaya. Perhaps he had played at being a hero in the vein of his grandfather long enough in youth that it had come true. His face bore the haggard look of exhaustion, but, unlike Nathen and, perhaps herself, there was no defeat to be found in the Ember.

It was ironic, in its own way. Linn knew that men and women showed their true colors when pushed to the limit, and those colors were rarely bright. Though his heat had cooled, Jenk seemed to be the exception.

A sound that was keener than the low rumble of the river and more muted than the echoes of splashes among the black rocks snaked its way through the chamber. It was a pitiful sound, Linn thought, squeezing her eyes shut. She did not realize it was coming from her until Jenk put his arm around her shoulders and it stopped.

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.