The Forgetting Moon by Brian Lee Durfee

Author:Brian Lee Durfee
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Saga Press

They found Zane and Dokie waiting in a meadow at the top of the trail. With them were Shawcroft’s two chestnut ponies, Lilly and Bedford Boy, both munching grass. Next to the meadow were the ruins of an old fort. Its walls were crumbled in spots and covered in growths of ivy. The terrain was sprinkled with large rocks and pines and a layer of moss and fern and dewy undergrowth.

“Look at you,” Liz Hen said to her brother. “You are hurt.”

Zane’s eyes, usually laughing, were tightly closed, his face a grimace of pain as he tenderly favored his left side. From mid-chest down, the left side of his armor was coated in a sheet of dried blood. There was a gash in his armor and an open, seeping wound underneath. “I tried to help Ma and Pa flee into the mountains,” he said. “But some of them knights caught up to us before we even reached Puddleman Pond. I didn’t fare well in the fight . . . neither did Ma. Pa fought like a bear. But he was kilt. After I got struck, I played dead. Not that heroic, really. But I’m alive, I reckon.”

“Ma and Pa.” Liz Hen looked resigned to the news. “At least they’re with Laijon now, together with the great One and Only.”

“What about my folks?” Gisela asked, eyes wide and worried. “Did anyone see them? What about my little brother?”

“We should go back,” Dokie said, scratching his own rear end vigorously. “See if anyone is looking for us.” He favored his leg, wincing as he limped around Bedford Boy. Dokie had been hit with the arrow on the beach. But the thin boy seemed in much better shape than Zane, even with the row of teeth marks crossing his chest and back, the wounds barely visible under his ramshackle armor and torn tunic. Any evidence of the lightning strike was long gone.

“We should see who’s left alive down there,” Gisela said.

Nail’s mind flew immediately to Ava Shay. Is she still alive? Or was she now as dead as Polly Mott, a spear in her back? I could have saved her. . . .

“Everyone is dead or captured,” Liz Hen snapped. “We should flee as Shawcroft wanted. Those knights still chase us.”

“Shawcroft killed fifteen of those knights himself,” Stefan said.

“You probably killed ten too,” Nail added, and then wished he hadn’t, for his words brought immediate tears to Stefan’s eyes. Nail felt a lump well in his own throat now, thinking of his master. A shudder rippled through him as a vision of the Bloodwood sprang forth. He shook it off, looked at Zane. “Your dog was down there.”

“Beer Mug?” Zane asked with hope-filled eyes.

“He fought alongside Shawcroft,” Nail said, his voice cracking.

“What a good boy, that dog.” Zane smiled, but that smile only slightly covered the pained look in his face. “I hope he wasn’t hurt. I’d sure love to see him again.”

“Shawcroft won’t be coming with us,” Stefan cried. “He’s dead.”

Stefan’s words were met with a grim silence.

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