Carved Amidst the Shadows (A Brands of Taelgir Novel Book 1) by M.T. Fontaine

Author:M.T. Fontaine [Fontaine, M.T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-08-29T16:00:00+00:00

The trill of bells startled Kaianne awake. She jumped from her cot on alert and reached for the dagger she always kept belted around her thigh. There was nothing there. Panic lasted half a grainfall before she got her bearings – the oversized nightshirt, the bed, the privacy of her own quarters regardless of how small. She flopped back down and slipped her hand beneath her pillow of stuffed wool to reach the hilt of her dagger and handle of her hatchet. There they were, easily accessible if needed during sleep. And slept she had.

No pebbles or roots dug into her back. There were no lumps in the dirt to misshape her bedroll, no chill through the night, and no odd sounds except those shrill bells. The bed was solid and uniform. The blankets were scratchy but glorious in their warmth and comfort. Even her nightmares had melted into the night like her tension. This amount of comfort and serenity after all those cycles in the wild was enchanting.

Voices rose from outside her two-by-two-meter den on the highest row of cave dwellings. Feet shuffled. Sandals clacked and boots pounded on the cave’s stone steps. People filed by her entryway like shadows. At a glance, it seemed everyone was evacuating their quarters and herding downstairs toward the cave’s ‘mess hall’ they had all dined in the night before. Whatever was happening, she did not want to be left out.

Daylight filtered in from above, but from the darkened clouds and strong hint of humidity, rain was not far from falling. Thunder crashed. That spurred her to dress faster. If this was a call to reach safety before a flooding, she was not going to be the fool that stayed behind.

Still adjusting her belt, she stumbled out of her chamber and into the steady stream of people on the rickety wooden platform that serviced every dwelling on her level. The wood creaked and moaned from the weight of so many. There would be no surviving a fall from that height if the platform broke. Nerves had her gripping the railing tight as they descended.

“Don’t go worrying yourself sick now, girly,” a woman whispered behind her, her cane clacking at each stride of her right leg. “We go down every morning and come up every eve.”

Kaianne glanced back at the older woman – frizzy hair peppered with white, tired eyes drooping at the edges, and a kind smile on her face – then kept moving.

“And it supports our weight? Always?”

“’Course.” The woman’s scoff mollified her, a little.

The lanterns that hung every several meters on each platform were being lit, the candlelight flickering, like they had at night’s fall the previous eve before most headed for bed. A burst of lightning lit the sky purple before a few droplets of rain plopped onto Kaianne’s cheeks. Within sandfalls, the sky was drizzling down a soft downpour. Puddles were already accumulating down below. Thunder roared, and Kaianne slowed her steps down the stairs.

“Move along, girly. Can’t stay here all day.

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