Khirro's Journey: The Complete Trilogy by Bruce Blake

Author:Bruce Blake
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Epic, Fantasy, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Sword & Sorcery, Literature & Fiction
Publisher: Best Bitts Productions
Published: 2013-04-21T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

The copper-sized circle of sky visible through the opening high above was barely distinguishable from the sides of the pit itself. Hours had passed. Khirro’s head hurt; he rubbed his temples, tentatively moved first one arm, then the other. When both worked, he did the same with his legs.

I’m lucky.

He pushed himself to a sitting position, wincing at the pain in his head. Other than the headache, he'd have a bruise on his hip, but nothing else hurt too badly; he seemed to have survived the fall relatively unscathed. That made twice now he’d taken major falls and survived. He hoped Athryn fared so well.

Athryn!

Khirro lurched to his feet, the sudden movement making his head spin and throb. He paused a moment to settle himself, then turned a tight circle, surveying the dimly lit pit. He saw nothing, so shuffled a wider arc, feet leaving divots in the pile of straw and moss that had cushioned his fall. Still no sign of his companion. He fell to his knees, looking for signs of the magician and what happened to him, where he had gone. His fingers grasped dry straw, sifted through loose dirt, but the lack of light made his search difficult as he scuffled around the thick layer set at the bottom of the pit.

This pit isn’t here by accident. But why? The only answer he could think of unsettled him: hunting.

His thoughts were interrupted when his hand found a wide path cut in the mossy pillow, like a track left when something was dragged away. He followed it a few feet until his hand touched a wet and tacky spot of dirt that stuck to the palm of his hand.

Blood.

Khirro held his breath and reached for the Mourning Sword, but his fingers found an empty scabbard. His mind searched back through what had happened; he recalled having the sword in his hand when he plummeted into the pit. He must have dropped it during the fall.

Damn lucky I didn’t land on it and kill myself.

His eyes flickered across the dark ground. The black blade would be invisible in the dark, but he hoped to catch sight of the faint red glow of the weapon’s runes. With his foot planted firmly on the bare dirt to keep from losing the track left on the ground, he groped through moss and straw, praying his fingers would touch cool steel. Nothing. He settled back on his haunches, despair threatening at the edge of his mind.

What am I without the Mourning Sword?

He set his jaw and forced the thought from his head. A sword could be replaced—even one such as the Mourning Sword—but without Athryn, all was lost.

He crawled tentatively forward along the track in the moss, eyes fixed straight ahead, until he saw the mouth of a tunnel. It was nothing more than a shadow in the pit’s black wall leading another unknown place, to unknown dangers. Khirro sighed. In his experience, nothing good happened underground.

After a moment steeling himself

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.