The Ajoiner Realm (Defenders of Radiance Book 1) by Rebekah Carroll

Author:Rebekah Carroll [Carroll, Rebekah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dragon Lily Publications
Published: 2020-09-14T16:00:00+00:00

“Cassidy, what is that?” Priamos asked, still full of fear.

“That,” Cassidy said, “is a gray-skinned dwgoon. Try not to stare at it, but don’t ignore it either. Oh, and if you have any shiny trinkets or food lying around, you may want to stash them elsewhere. Good luck.”

Cassidy walked away, turning from the unsettled child before giving way to a grin. The dwgoon wasn’t a threat, and killing one was considered bad luck. Cassidy didn’t believe in luck, but he saw no reason to kill it.

To his relief, Cassidy slept the whole night through without having to save anyone’s hide.

“From this point forward, the easy days are over. The rough terrain will keep us slow. One slip up and everyone dies, so I want all of you on guard at all times. Understand?” Cassidy said.

The men mumbled in agreement.

How does Warren do this? Cassidy hated having someone in charge of him, but he really hated being in charge.

The day crawled by with unbearable slowness. Raindrops dampened his hair, and after only a matter of minutes, water permeated his armor. Wonderful, the chafing will be absolute murder. Cassidy paused and checked his map, then rerouted their course to compensate for the flooding sure to occur on their current trail.

As he put away the map, his blood froze. A lumbering shape prowled across their path.

Bear.

The Darkness had increased its size, making it nearly as tall as him on horseback. Cassidy reached for his bow and prayed the downpour would block their scent.

Someone gasped.

“Shh!” Cassidy hissed, waving his hand to the side.

Too late.

The bear jerked its head toward them and roared.

“Watch out!” Cassidy called.

The men scrambled as the beast charged. Cassidy had trained with his horse for years and shifted in his saddle, but that didn’t stop the agony in his wounded leg from distracting him.

“Careful!” Cassidy growled to Dusty.

The sound of a stag howling turned Cassidy’s attention to the guardsmen. The bear swiped a leg clean off Silas’s stag. Cassidy shot an arrow into the creature’s back. It spun and launched at him.

Cassidy yelped in fear and pain as he steered Dusty right.

Whoosh!

A paw as big as his torso cut the air behind him.

“Jarodiic, use your magic,” Cassidy barked.

“How?”

Cassidy growled as Dusty skirted sideways and away from the beast. “Figure it out!”

Jarodiic spouted magic gibberish, and trees shot from the ground. The bear snapped a growing tree in half with a mighty paw.

Dusty whinnied and reared. Cassidy tried to balance in the saddle, but his wounded leg buckled, and he fell to the earth. His heart raced as he threw his arms over his head to protect himself from a falling tree. Crashing leaves and branches slapped him. Then, for a minute, all was silent. Cassidy panted, terrified of how close he’d come to being crushed by a tree.

“Cassidy!” Jarodiic yelled. “Cassidy, are you all right?”

Cassidy opened his eyes. Between the branches above him he saw the corpse of the bear skewered by several trees.

“Agh—I’m fine,” he said, sitting up.

Jarodiic helped him to his feet.

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.