Secret Things--Short Stories from Panamindorah, Volume 2 by Abigail Hilton

Author:Abigail Hilton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fantasy short stories, short stories, epic fantasy
Publisher: Pavonine Books
Published: 2013-08-11T00:00:00+00:00

The Secret

Spring, 1682

It has been five days since I arrived on Maijha Minor, and I feel that I should begin to keep a journal, lest I forget the many things I am learning about the island of my birth from which I have long been absent. I cannot begin to express my excitement regarding this endeavor. For years, I have read all I can find about Maijha Minor. These writings are often fragmentary, incomplete, and censored—even in the private libraries of the elite. They hint at secrets hidden on the island—secrets that would unsettle our cruel grishnard masters and their immortal wyvern gods.

Wyvern hostility towards Maijha Minor is well-documented. It seems that the gods would like nothing so much as to have the island’s inhabitants eradicated. It is a great irony that the blood-lust of their chosen lackeys works against them. Grishnards will hunt, and Maijha Minor’s status as a game park protects it, even as its inhabitants suffer yearly depredations. As a result, Maijha Minor has been preserved like a doorway into the past—a picture of what Wefrivain might have looked like a thousand years ago, when secret things were not so secret.

I am aware that writing about such things could result in my death, should this journal fall into the hands of the gods or their agents. I realize that my words could endanger those who have been my friends and allies, and I will attempt to disguise their identities.

However, my purpose in this journal must ultimately be truth and clarity. I am continually frustrated by mysteries from the past that have been wholly or partially obscured by those who were too frightened or too lazy to record what they knew. This only puts more power into the jaws of the gods and the hands of the grishnards as they seek to dominate every living creature in Wefrivain. If fauns are to ever be more than trophies for grishnards and meals for wyverns, we must consolidate our victories. We must tell each other what we know.

It seems likely that I will die young and violently. I intend to hide this journal in hopes that some likeminded person, searching for clues as I have done, may find it. I hope that you, dear reader, will improve upon my studies.

Knowledge is power. I want to know everything.

Day 6

I realize that I began this journal with an essay on Maijha Minor, which told the reader exactly nothing about my person or situation. I am the rarest of all half-breeds. My mother was a shavier faun from Maijha Minor, and my father was a grishnard. Of their identities, I will say no more, except that my mother was shot by hunters when I was six, and my father is both alive and willing to give me some assistance.

I am now eighteen years old. I left Maijha Minor when my mother died and have only recently returned. I have arrived in the spring, when very little hunting is allowed, in order to appear as non-threatening as possible.

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.