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Today, I bring you 3 more chapters from the original draft. I would remind you again (as always, I’m sure it gets old, lol, but it bears repeating) that these are unedited, so will certainly contain typos and other mistakes that will not be present in the final version of the book. Enjoy!

Chapter 10, Taliesimon

Chapter 10 Taliesimon 4

The raft was ten spans from the tower when the boys struggling to get up the legs started to notice Taliesimon and the others. Dark looks, narrowed eyes, and grimaces greeted her on every face.
“Any ideas?” she asked. as she pushed the stake, turning the raft to angle around to the other side of the tower.
“Perhaps the raft will give us the reach to jump above the grease, assuming the legs are, in fact, greased.”
“Perhaps,” Okara said, sounding dubious.
“It’s worth a try,” Taliesimon said.
As the raft drifted by, a tall, hairless boy reached up to grab the raft as though he meant to climb up.
“No,” Taliesimon shouted and Jonah dropped to his knees, smashing them into the boy’s hand as he bashed his fist into the boy’s face. The boy fell back, limp. Jonah stood, releasing the boy’s hand. The inert form floated in the mud behind the raft.
Taliesimon blinked. “I hope he doesn’t drown.”
Okara scoffed.
“Taliesimon,” Jonah said harshly. “Do you realize he would have killed us? For someone who seems to understand better than the rest of us what we were getting into, you’re awfully naive about what these others will do to you in the name of placing in the Gauntlet.”
She flushed, her cheeks and neck growing hot. “I understand the Gauntlet. I understand using violence to secure your spot. I understand being willing to do almost anything for a chance at becoming a dragoon. But killing each other seems extreme.” She plunged the stake into the mud to stop them under a strut between two tower legs. “Other humans are not the enemy. The torthugra are the enemy. Why would they kill to become dragoons?”
Jonah looked up, eying the strut critically. “Tally, you have a good heart. I admire that, I really do. But these others here don’t see this the way you do. They don’t care about anyone else here. Especially not the three of us. They’ll do anything to the three of us to get ahead. You need to accept that.”
Okara nodded as though agreeing and Taliesimon clenched her jaw, forcing down the angry retort. She sucked in a deep breath and blew it out, pushing her anger out with it. He was right, of course. She didn’t want to admit it. She wanted to believe in the inherent goodness of humanity. But He was right. She was being naive and expecting those other boys to be as idealistic as she, when they had already proved several times that the only place that goodness existed was insider her own head.
She nodded.
“Do it,” Okara said, eyes on Jonah.
With a nod, he wiped his hands on his breeches and bent his knees. He dropped into a crouch and rose back up. He repeated the motion several times, then wiped his hand again and leaped straight up.
Just reaching the strut, Jonah’s hands grasped the strut and hung on. Okara and Taliesimon grinned at each other, argument forgotten.
Jonah slipped and fell back to the raft, rocking it to one side. The edge dipped into the mud and Taliesimon scrambled to hold on. She slipped down toward the edge.
Before she reached the middle of the raft, it tipped back the other way and leveled out.
She sighed in relief. “Everyone okay?”
The others grunted.
“Plan B?”
Okara pointed upward. “Look.” The wood of the tower glistened wetly, but only to a height of about four spans. Above that, the wood was dull and dry.
Taliesimon nodded. “Jonah, do you think the top of the strut is greased?”
He glanced at his palms, glistening with the sheen of oil, but the ends of his fingers were dry from the last knuckle to the tips. “I don’t think so.”
She nodded and glanced between her companions. Each nodded with a smile. They semeed to know what she was thinking and agreed.
Jonah beckoned to her with his hands. Nodding again, Taliesimon used his interlocked fingers to climb up onto his shoulders. With a foot on each shoulder, she almost fell, but reached up and grabbed the greasy strut above her head. “Okay, your turn, Okara.”
The small girl hopped up onto Jonah, as though her hands stuck to him without effort.
How does she do that?
Almost as though she were a spider climbing a sheer wall, Okara climbed up to share Taliesimon’s place on Jonah’s shoulders, then climbed up her back.
Jonah trembled with strain below them, but made no sound of complaint.
A moment later, Okara hopped up on the the strut. She wrapped one arm around the leg and reached the other down to Taliesimon and helped her up.
“How do we get Jonah up?”
Without a word, Okara wrapped her legs around the tower leg and lay down on the strut. She reached her arms down and took Jonah by the hands.
Taliesimon looked on dubiously. “Oh, no,” she said as she noticed a few of the boys had seen what they were doing and were moving around the tower legs to the raft.
Jonah glanced toward the boys, then nodded up to Okara.
Wrapping her left arm around the strut, the small girl gripped Jonah’s hand. He clasped both his hands around her small arm and hopped up as she pulled.
Taliesimon struggled not to laugh.
Inexplicably, the girl held on. She swung him toward the tower leg at her feet, then the other way. She repeated the motion three times, reaching greater height each them. Then on the fourth, as a tall boy climbed up on the raft while it drafted past the tower leg, she swung Jonah up to hand on the strut. He immediately wrapped his arms and legs around the strut.
From behind him, Taliesimon helped him to roll over and pulled him up to his feet. She turned to face Okara, who was back on her feet. “How did you do that?”
“Stronger than I look,” Okara said off-handedly.
Taliesimon shook her head in disbelief. There had to be more to it than that, but this was neither the time nor the place to press the younger girl for details. They had more important worries just now.
“Let’s move,” Jonah said, seeming unfazed. Taliesimon and Okara both nodded. The dry part of the legs were still two spans up, too far for any of them to get to and be able to hang onto.
Well, perhaps not, she amended. If Okara can swing Jonah up like that, then she could probably jump up and climb it.
“Turn around,” Jonah said. Confused, she obeyed and found herself rising up from a pressure between her legs. Startled, she glanced down and found Jonah’s head, his shoulders beneath her thighs.
How are these kids this strong? she wondered. To say nothing of their stamina.
Having been raised on a farm, she was no stranger to hard work. She was used to spending nearly all of the eighteen turns of daylight out on the farm working the land with Papa. And she was exhausted.
Perhaps she just wasn’t as tough as she thought she was?
With help from Jonah’s interlaced fingers, she got to her feet on his shoulders and reached up to grasp the dry wood of the leg as high as she could.
Oh, she thought as her fingers touched the wood. It was textured with roughly finger-shaped nubs. That’s handy.
She climbed up a few spans, then stopped to see how he would get up.
Okara pulled off her sandals and thrust them into the waist of her breeches, then climbed up on Jonah’s shoulders and climbed onto the tower leg. Gods, the girl made it look so easy!
Incredibly, once the bald girl got her feet just above the greased section of the leg, she stopped. As before, she wrapped her legs around the tower leg and seemed to lock her long toes into the finger nubs.
After a moment of securing herself, Okara fell backward and Taliesimon almost screamed. But the girl stopped. Her legs and toes were still secure on the leg and she stretched her arms down, lacing her fingers together for Jonah to use a a step to climb up.
“Come on,” Okara said, impatient.
Glancing down, Taliesimon found the other boys at the bottom were following their example and using the raft and each other to begin climbing the tower legs. They were running out of time.
From the tension in Jonah’s back, she could well imagine the expression on his face. He hesitated only a moment, however, before he stepped a foot into her laced hands and used the folds of her breeches as he climbed up Okara’s body. As soon as she was above Okara’s legs, he reached down and took her hand to help her up.
There were f few awkward moments as the two were in the same space on the tower leg, then Okara climbed up above Jonah and leg the charge upward.
It took only a few minutes for all three of them to get up the legs and climb up onto the platform at the top. Taliesimon fell on her back, breathing heavily.
“So,” Jonah panted. “There’s no. Way to. Get up. Here. Without. Working with. At least. One. Partner. right?”
“That’s right,” Okara said from where she stood. She didn’t even sound winded!
How is that possible?
Taliesimon finally caught her breath and stood. Okara was waiting at the open edge of the platform where vine ropes were secured.
“Ready?” Okara asked.
Taliesimon nodded and glanced at Jonah.
“Let’s do it.”
They each grasped vine. Okara offered an encouraging smile and Taliesimon pulled the vine tight, wrapped her arms and legs around it, and jumped from the tower at almost the same time as her companions.
The boiling black mud passed by below her and time seemed to slow again. The wind on her face was wonderfully cool, but brought with it a rotten, rancid smell unlike anything she’d ever experienced.
Time resumed its normal speed and the drop leveled out, then she started swinging upward. After a moment, she passed over the sharpened stakes at the end of the pit, but kept rising and flying across the path.
Is there a way off this vine without dropping the thirty spans to the path below? she wondered with trepidation.

Chapter 11, Dargon

Dargon opened his eyes and jerked bolt upright. Looking around, he found he was on a wool-wrapped couch in a small, dimly lit chamber. A granite table with two oak chairs sat against the opposite wall near a closed door.
Where am I? he wondered. What happened?
He swung his legs off the couch and stood, his legs wobbled for a moment, but he maintained his feet. Glancing about again, he noted the smallness of the room. The stone walls were bare and it was just wide enough to house the couch and leave three paces of walking space between the couch and chair. There were no windows and no decorations.
The table was empty and the chairs unmarked and unadorned.
Dargon sighed and started toward the door.
His fingers were less than a handspan from the knob when the door swung inward. He yanked his hand back and stepped backward, away from the door.
A hooded figure stood in the doorway and seemed to be watching him.
“Who are you?” he asked.
The figure chuckled. “You gave us quite a scare, your highness. How are you feeling?” The voice sounded familiar, but he couldn’t place it.
“I don’t…”
The figure reached up and pushed its hood back. Dargon knew somewhere in the back of his mind that he shouldn’t be able to to see. There was no light source in the room and no light came in through the open door. There were no windows. Therefore, there was no light whatsoever. There couldn’t be. Yet he saw the man’s features clearly.
“Trevan! Where am I? How did I get here?”
The Trevan smiled. “Your highness, by chance I was on my way to the library to find a recipe for burn relief, as there was a fire in the town this morning, and I found you passed out in the library doorway. I brought you straight here. I didn’t expect you would want your father to see you like this. What were you doing down there, my lord?”
“I,” he paused. Did he dare reveal this to the Trevan? The man’s true loyalty was to the king, after all. “I frequently go down there to… to read.”
“Ahhh,” the Trevan said, as though it explained everything. “Do you remember what happened down there? What were you doing in the doorway?”
“I don’t remember,” Dargon said. “Gah!” he shrieked, clasping his hands around his head as excruciating pain pierced his skull.
Through hazy vision, Dargon saw the Trevan pull a dripping wash cloth from just outside the room. He placed it on Dargon’s head and gently pushed him back to the couch and down to lie with his head on the arm of the couch.
“What’s happening to me?” Dargon whispered. His vision flared pure white, obscuring everything in the room. He sensed the Trevan still there, but couldn’t see him.
“It’s all part of the process,” the Trevan whispered, cryptic as ever.
“Part of the… what are you talking about?”
“You’ll understand when it passes.”
“When what passes?” Dargon growled.
“Dargon,” the Trevan said gently. “I know you have questions. But please, just trust me. The headaches will pass. Soon your body will ache as with influenza. You’ll be nauseated. It will all pass. Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do to speed the process nor avoid it. I will do my best to help you feel more comfortable while it runs its course. When it is done, we’ll talk about all this and I will do what I can for you.”
“But-” Dargon gasped, making his head hurt even worse.
“Shhh,” the Trevan whispered. “Just hush. We’ll talk when you feel better.”
Dargon tried to nod, but his head didn’t seem to move.
A strip of something colder than ice covered Dargon’s forehead and, amazingly, the pain in his head seemed to abate just a bit.
He said this would get worse! he though with trepidation.
He closed his eyes, hoping to sleep it off, but then the pain reflared and magnified to an ache in his shoulders came as well.
“Don’t try to sleep,” the Trevan whispered.

Chapter 12, Taliesimon

Taliesimon fell.
Her time clinging to the vine rope felt like an eternity of flying through a maze of trees, yet somehow she hadn’t struck a single one. At last, she had come to the end of the rope. The vine had snapped tight and though she hung on with all her might, the rope slip through her palms, burning them until she could no longer hold on.
The fall ended so abruptly, she didn’t even have time to scream. She clenched her teeth against the impact, but it never came. Her back struck something soft and water splashed around her. She sunk below the surface and only just stopped herself breathing in the blue water.
Angling her body around, she kicked toward the surface. The crimson light of Kaustere above turned the world above her a bright, beautiful purple.
Within moments, her head broke the surface and she sucked in a delicious breath of air. The rushing river dragged her along, white foam obscuring her vision and and threatening to push her back below the surface of the water.
Where are the others? she wondered, but keeping herself above the surface consumed so much of her focus that she couldn’t even try to seek out the others.
With each kick of her feet and paddle of her arms, she pushed toward the bank to her right. With her flagging strength, she knew it wouldn’t be long before she could no longer remain afloat. She had to get out of the river before that happened or she’d drown here.
Her muscles burned with every kick, ached with every stroke. Her lungs felt as though they were full of steam. From nowhere, a boulder appeared in front of her. She tried to push past it but it was too close. After a left stroke, her shoulder struck the rock and followed by the side of her head. Pain exploded above her ear and her vision was obliterated by a blast of bright white and she felt herself slip below the surface.
A moment later, she flew out of the water and breathed in. She seemed to be suspended in midair. What’s going on? she thought, and clenched her eyes shut.
When she opened them again, she found a roiling pool rising up to meet the wall of water cascading around her and a rough, rocky wall behind it.
A waterfall?
Then she belly-flopped into the pool. A flurry of air bubbles surrounded her, obscuring her vision. She prayed the pool was deep enough to not be deadly.
Her feet struck the rocky bottom, jarring her knees painfully.
With what she hopes wasn’t the last of her strength, she pushed off the bottom and kicked toward the surface.
Within moments, she once again broke the surface. But this time, she found cool, calm water around her. With a sigh of relief, she looked around and found herself alone. She took a deep, burning breath, and swam toward the left bank as it was nearer than the others.
Finally, her feet touched the muddy bottom and she stood. After only a few steps, she stumbled and fell down to hands and knees. She crawled the rest of the way out of the later. Once her body fully cleared the water, she fell to her belly and rolled over. Asmodere partially covered Kaustere in the sky above. She cringed a moment before she relaxed her expression and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath and released it slowly. Before her next breath, she was asleep.

Through a wonderful dream of being a regional commander of the dragoons, Taliesimon heard the brunch of boots on wet sand and knew instantly it didn’t belong. The dream vanished and her awareness returned to her battered, exhausted body. She still lay on her back. Her clothes were dry now, warmed by the burning cousins in the sky. She made an effort to keep her breathing slow and even. Whoever was there, she’d be better off if they thought her still asleep.
“Do you think she’s okay?” a familiar voice whispered.
“I’m sure she’s fine. Just exhausted. Her road here was rather more difficult than ours, I’d wager.”
“Do we wake her?”
“Unless you want to carry her or leave her. We have to move. There are still a lot of potentials ahead of us. It’s hard to say for certain, but I think it’s still too many for us to make it without overtaking more of them.”
He sighed. “Okay.” She heard someone kneel in the sand next to her. She counted out the seconds, then flashed her eyes open and shot her hand up to hatch his before he touched her shoulder.
With a grin, she caught his hand in hers. The startled, wide-eyes expression on his face brought a laugh of genuine mirth to her lips.
Jonah grinned at her and laughed as well.
“Yet another very touching moment,” Okara said scathingly. “But can we get moving, please? Our time is running out and we’re still behind.”
Sobering, Taliesimon nodded.
Jonah extended a hand, which she took, allowing him to help her to her feet. The two followed after Okara, who had already moved toward a trail leading away from the pool.
“How did you find me?” Taliesimon asked.
“Everyone passes this place,” Okara said.
Jonah flashed a mischievous half-smile. “You missed something. There was a new rope to rump to near the end point of the first. That one dropped us up there.” He pointed to a platform suspended between four trees next to the waterfall.
Taliesimon nodded. “Of course.”
Jonah raised his brows.
She sighed. “I always manage to take the more difficult path, somehow. So missing the easier route is in perfect keeping with my usual luck. Or lack thereof, to be more accurate.”
Jonah chuckled lightly and grinned. “At least we’re still together.”
Taliesimon offered a half-hearted smile.
“I’m serious!”
Okara scoffed.
“Right,” Taliesimon said, not even trying to disguise her sarcasm.
Jonah reached out and grabbed Okara by the arm. She tried to pull free, but he held her fast as he grabbed Taliesimon’s arm with his other hand. He turned her and Okara to face each other, his face set in a grim line.
He glared at them. “Now you two listen to me! Whatever this thing is between you two, you need to settle it. Do either of you think you could have gotten up the tower without the other?”
“Yes!” Taliesimon said, and was surprised to hear the younger girl say it with her.
“Excuse me?” she said, and again the words were reflected back at her. She glared into Okara’s glowering eyes.
“Really?” Jonah said, annoyed. “Tell me, Okara, would you have taken off your breeches to tie up the raft? Would you have even thought of using our clothes?”
“And Taliesimon. Without Okara’s idea with the stakes, I doubt I ever would have even thought of putting together a raft. And Okara was the one who thought of climbing on each other’s shoulders to get onto the strut and above the oil. Would you have come up with that without her?”
“And finally, if either of you think we could have gotten up onto the strut without all three of us, then you weren’t paying attention. Look, girls, my whole point here is it’s the three of us, all three of us, that has allowed us to make it this far, against all odds, against all that anyone else wants to see happen. It’s the three of us. Together. That is our strength. Unity. Teamwork. Any one of us alone would have failed already.”
“So I say again, whatever this is, settle it. We need to be a team to get through this.”
Taliesimon wanted to fight. She wanted to argue. She wanted to refute his words. To tell him he’d been sniffing too much mud. But she couldn’t. Jonah made too much sense. He was right, damn him. They had to at least put this… whatever it was, on hold until after the testing was finished. Right now, like it or not, they needed each other.
While she reached that conclusion, she watched a similar battle take place on Okara’s small face. The girl glared, then her face blanked, her eyes rolling upward. By the time Jonah finished speaking, her expression had turned thoughtful and she looked at Taliesimon with something resembling acceptance.
Taliesimon guessed her expression was much the same.
She nodded at the very moment Okara did, but while she smiled, the younger girl grimaced.
Is that what my forced smile looks like too? she wondered.
“Until the testing is done, then,” she said, and Okara nodded again.
“I suppose it’ll have to do,” Jonah said angrily.
Taliesimon shrugged and followed, letting the boy lead them for once.

For a time, Taliesimon limited her movement to a fast walk while she got her body used to the exertion again. Blood flowing through her warmed her hands and feet and slowly the aches and stiffness worked their way out of her muscles.
Judging herself ready, she picked up her feet in a measured jog and her companions did likewise.
Within minutes her thighs were burning again, but she ignored it and maintained her pace. The also ignored the pain beginning in her lungs.
Turning the fourth bend since leaving the pool, she saw the backsides of several boys jogging down the path ahead of them. Taliesimon glanced to her companions, who moved back even with her. With a nod to them, she took a deep, painful breath and pushed her body harder to increase her pace. She ran with all her strength.
Within moments, sweat broke out on her forehead, her pulse thundered in her ears, and the painful burning in her thighs increased and spread down into her feet and up into her sides and shoulders.
In spite of the pain, she smiled. They were gaining ground on the boys ahead of them, and quickly.
The pain in her thighs was approaching unbearability, but she did her best to push the sensation to the back of her awareness. Now was not a time for such weakness, they needed to push themselves forward. They needed to overtake these boys and keep moving. It wasn’t too late! They still had time to improve their standing enough to move forward past the Gauntlet, she was sure of it.
Now is not the time for sympathy, she thought. If I don’t take these boys out of the competition then Okara will.
And she’ll continue to think me weak.
So would Jonah. He hadn’t expressed such things before, but she felt it had to be true. Her already hot face flushed with more blood and heat at that thought. I will not be thought weak by some… boy! she insisted.
The boys were put a handful of paces ahead of her when she finalized her decision. She committed herself. She had to act.
A few more seconds passed and she leaped, her foot flying out ahead of her. It connected, all of her weight bearing down on the side of the boy’s knee. She felt the crunch beneath her foot before she heard it. The snap was a grotesque sound, much like the snap of a chicken leg at supper.
The boy shrieked in agony and crumpled. He tumbled through the dirt, raising a huge cloud of dust. Another snap came, but she didn’t look back to see what it was. A second voice joined the wails behind her.
At her right, another boy fell with a snap and a scream. Okara treated her with a genuine smile and, inexplicably, her spirits soared.
Within minutes, the trio turned another bend and found themselves alone once more. Taliesimon couldn’t help feeling optimistic for the first time since the Gauntlet began. It seemed she actually had a real chance now.
She let herself slow to a jog again as she turned another bend and found nothing more than another short straightaway, which led to another bend in the path.
She rounded the bend and skidded to a stop, dust rising around her.Jonah slammed into her from behind, nearly knocking her over.
Ahead was a wide patch of gravel, the tiny rocks glittering in the crimson light of Kaustere. At the edge of the rocky patch was a dropoff to a frothy stretch of whitewater river. At the far bank of the rapids, a long series of vine ropes were tied into loose hand and foot holds that stretched across the path from one broad tree to the other. The vines rose out of the water and reached as far up the trees as she could see.
“It looks like that goes all the way up over the tops of the trees,” Taliesimon whispered.
There were at least three dozen aspiring dragoons at various points of the vine netting ahead. Most were quite low, however.
A strange choking sound behind her made Taliesimon turn around. Jonah was down in a crouch with his head between his legs, dry heaving.
Okara slapped him on the back with decidedly more force that was necessary to offer support.
Jonah coughed and spat, then stood back up. He looked queasy still, but he set his lips in a thin, grim line. Taliesimon gave a single nod.
“You ready for this?” she asked, her eyes on Okara.
The smaller girl gave a slow nod, though her eyes looked uncertain.
Taliesimon held out her arms. “Until we are on that net, we hold to one another. As I see it, our only chance of getting through these rapids is together.”
Taliesimon looked to Jonah first. He gave a shaky nod.
Then she looked to Okara, who gave a curt nod.
She held out her hands, and each of her companions grasped one. She started toward the gravel field. Her first steps were shaky, her body seemed to be trying to argue with her determination to proceed through these obstacles.
We can do this, she thought.
We will do this.
We can do this.
We will do this.
She continued thinking the words over and over and over, as a mantra to convince herself that not only could she make it through this, but that she would. Not only would they make it, not only would they survive, but they would come through this unscathed and none the worse for wear.
By the time she reached the gravel, she almost believed it.
At her second stop onto the gravel, her feet began to grow warm and she almost lost her nerve. Those stones were not gravel, she realized. What were they?
With a swift downward glance she found the answer.
Beneath her feet, rather than gravel she found dully glowing, red-hot coals which distorted the air with waves of intense heat.
“Oh, torthugra guts,” Okara swore with something approaching despair.

Finally, please do remember that while the finished book will be available everywhere ebooks are sold, I’m not doing pre-orders on Amazon due to peculiarities of Amazon that make doing so not beneficial. If you’d like to pre-order on another retailer, you may do so here: books2read.com/calamity1-shadow

Today, I bring you 2 more chapters from the original draft. I would remind you again (as always, I’m sure it gets old, lol, but it bears repeating) that these are unedited, so will certainly contain typos and other mistakes that will not be present in the final version of the book. Enjoy!

Chapter 8, Taliesimon

I’m going to die, Taliesimon thought as she flew through the air above the chasm, though certainly much to low to make the jump.
She felt as though she were hanging, frozen, over the sharp stakes at the bottom. Surely, in a jump like this a person shouldn’t have so much to think. So much time to dwell on her failure, to recognize her jump was much too low to make it.
In a near-panic, she arched her back and stretched out her right leg in front of her. She prayed to Trevandor to save her from her folly and let her survive this.
Her foot struck the edge of the pit and her leg crumpled beneath her. Her left knee crunched into the hard stone a pace back from the lip and she feel forward, he face striking the hard ground yet again.
Darkness began to encroach on the edges of her vision and she ground her teeth together, determined not to black out again. The sound of clapping next to her helped to keep her conscious. Driving her palms under her chest, she pushed up to get back to her feet. Blood dropped down her chin, darkening her tunic.
“you’re trying really hard ot mess up that pretty face,” Okara laughed above her. Taliesimon grimaced, supposing it was working, whether it was intentional or not.
With a grunt, she pushed her way to her feet. Her knee almost crumpled beneath her when she put weight on it, but the smaller girls caught her by the arm.
“You okay?”
Taliesimon nodded. “I will be. Just have to walk it off.” Turning back to the chasm, she almost jumped. A hand gripped the hard clay at the lip of the pit.
“Gods,” she whispered as she limped toward the edge of the pit, where she dropped to her belly, wincing against the pain her knee. She reached down and grasped the boy’s forearm with both her hands. The blond boy jerked his face up and stared, wide-eyed, into her eyes.
“You’re… helping me?” he gasped.
She smiled. “Am I that transparent?” Before he could respond, she turned her head and called, “Okara, help me.”
The girl growled softly behind her.
“Okara, come on,” her voice was pleading now. She gritted her teeth and wanted to kick herself for allowing such a weak sound to come from her mouth.
“He’s one of them,” Okara growled.
Sweat slicked Taliesimon’s palms and the boy’s arm started to slip from her grasp. “Okara,” she called, desperate now. “He didn’t hurt us. The older boys hurt him as much as they did us! He can help us, Okara!”
This is hopeless, she thought. Does she just hate all boys? Why is she even here?
Soft footsteps to her right surprised her, and she smiled when Okara crouched and reached her hands down to the boy. “Give me your other hand,” she said.
The boy offered a grim smile and swung his left hand up to Okara. She pulled him up almost a pace, then held steady. Still gripping the boy’s arm, Taliesimon struggled to her feet and adjusted her grip on the boy’s arm.
Together, they pulled the boy up and over the edge of the pit. As him feet cleared it, Taliesimon fell backward in exhaustion, the boy lying on the ground half on top of her.
Okara cleared her throat pointedly and the boy raised his head from Taliesimon’s shoulder and flushed bright red, the rolled off of her. He panted for breath, which didn’t seem to come, regardless of how hard he breathed.
“What’s… your… name?” Taliesimon gasped between breaths.
“Jonah,” he whispered in a ragged gasp.
“This is very sweet,” Okara said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “But if we want to have any chance of moving forward in the testing, we need to move. Now.”
Taliesimon took a deep breath and nodded. She rolled onto her stomach and pushed her way to her feet. Jonah followed after her, his arms trembling with the strain. Okara turned away, but Taliesimon saw the disgust on her face.
So he’s weak! she wanted to scream. So what! After how long he hung there, from that ledge, you would be too! Wouldn’t be so bad if you’d helped him sooner!
She clasped the boy’s shoulder and gently pushed him forward. She limped forward herself, pushing her steps to a jog as often as she could handle the pain of it. She winced with the agony every time, but with each once the pain in her knee lessened a bit more and her steps grew a bit more fluid.
Unsurprisingly, Okara loped ahead easily.
Taliesimon clenched her teeth in frustration and tried to focus her mind. But try as she might, she couldn’t recall which part of the course came next. She still had the various obstacles in her mind, at least she thought she did, but couldn’t recall the order they came in.
“Jonah,” she gasped.
He nodded, but kept silent.
“Do you… remember which… which part of… of the course… comes next?”
He shook his head, and she clenched her jaw tighter.
What is wrong with these kids? Did they think they’d just come in and figure it out as they went?
By the time they turned the next curve in the path, Taliesimon’s knee had stopped hurting and she was back up almost to full speed.
Okara stopped her sandals skidding to a stop in the dirt path. Taliesimon slowed and stopped next to the smaller girl, Jonah doing likewise beside her. She stared at the shocked, wide-eyed look on the girl’s face for a moment before she turned to look at what had caught the bald girl’s attention and felt her own jaw fall open.
“Oh, gods. How could I have forgotten this?”
The other two nodded vaguely, as they though barely heard her. She supposed they probably did.
She gazed out over the field before them and only just repressed a shudder.
For hundreds of spans ahead was a huge mud pit, but it didn’t look right. The mud was too dark. If it wasn’t black, it was near enough as to be indistinguishable. How did mud get so dark? She couldn’t fathom it. Around the edge was a row of thick logs sharpened to points and angled into the inside of the mud pit. At several points across the center of the pit, the mud roiled and steamed, but everywhere else it was smooth and still. At the center of the pit stood an oak tower with smooth legs sticking down into the mud, which roiled more violently under the tower than anywhere else.
A number of braided vine ropes seemed to be tied to the other side of the tower and stretched up to the trees several hundred spans above, but there seemed to be no way to get up to the tower aside from walking the mud, as several boys were doing. The black mud coated their bare backs like nothing she’d ever seen. It glistened wetly in the crimson light, as though it had no intention of drying.
“Maybe we can go around?” Jonah asked.
Taliesimon shook her head. “It would take too long. And besides, they want us to ride out on those vine ropes.
“Are we even big to push through that mud?” he asked. “Look how deep they are in it. That would probably come up to my chest, and Okara’s chin.” He shivered.
Taliesimon nodded. “I’m open to suggestions.”
Okara stepped over to the stakes at the nearest edge of the pit. She rubbed her palm across her mouth several times, as though in thought. She ran a hand over her bare scalp, leaving it to rest on the back of her neck for a moment.
Jonah looked helpless and Taliesimon watched Okara. What is she thinking?
Okara reached out to grasp the stake and pulled on it, but it didn’t budge. She tried again, but with no more success. A third try, but still nothing. “Help me,” she said.
Taliesimon shrugged as she glanced at Jonah. He nodded. They moved around to either side of Okara and gripped the stake above and below Okara’s hands. “Ready?” she asked.
Taliesimon nodded, and Jonah did likewise.
Okara nodded in turn. “One, two three!” and the three pulled together, each grunting with the effort.
Slowly, excruciatingly, the stake began moving toward the trio. Taliesimon tried not to smile, but she couldn’t stop the grin spreading across her lips. The farther the stake moved, the easier it became to pull. After almost a minute, the log pulled all the way out of the mud and the solid earth beneath it. The suddenness caused the stake to flip toward them and all three stumbled back and fell. Taliesimon’s backside struck the earth with a numbing thud.
Okara held the stake tight to her chest, hugging it. Taliesimon giggled madly at the sight as the sticky, black mud clung to the girl’s bare chest and leather breeches.
After a moment, Jonah sat up, looking confused. Then he glanced from Okara to Taliesimon and joined her helpless giggling. Looking down at herself, Okara joined them as well.
“What are you doing?” asked a deep voice to Taliesimon’s right.
She froze. the silence was palpable. Slowly, she sat up and looked. There stood a dragoon clad is a diamondwood chest plate who carried a spear tipped in shiny black bone.
Okara cleared her throat. “I’m going to use the stakes to speed through the mud. Unless, of course, that is somehow against the rules?”
For a bare instant, the dragoon’s eyes widened. His lips remained a thin, grim line. “You are welcome to try. But,” he gestured to the boys who’d reached the legs of the tower in the center of the mud pit. “I’d suggest you hurry if you want to proceed.”
Taliesimon nodded, and found her companions nodding with her. as the dragoon withdrew, disappearing behind the treeline next to the pit. She turned to face her companions and found them looking at her, Jonah expectantly and Okara with wide, hopeful eyes.
“So what’s the plan?” Taliesimon asked.
“Let’s get one more stake, then we’ll see if it’s going to work.”
Taliesimon sighed. She didn’t like not knowing what the younger girl had in mind, but since she didn’t have a plan of her own, she stood and followed, repeating the process with the other two, pulling a second stake from the ground. Having already learned the process, the second one came easier.
“Now what?”
Instead of answering, Okara stood with a stake in hand and stepped to the edge of the pit. Raising the stake in both hands, she plunged it straight down into the mud. It stabbed in deep. Okara leg go and turned back to grin at Taliesimon.
The stake held but a moment, then tilted to one side as it began to fall.
“Okara!” she snapped, pointing at the falling stake. The smaller girl jerked her head around and snaked her hand out, only just snatching the stake before it was lost in the mud.
“Well, so much for that idea,” Okara said, despondent.
“Let me try,” Jonah said.
Taliesimon nodded. “Me too,” though she still couldn’t see what the other girl intended.
Okara eyed her askance, then shrugged and sat down. She stared at her knees with narrowed eyes.
Taliesimon and Jonah each took a stake and stepped to the edge. She let Jonah go first. He thrust down with all his might. Without waiting to see if his stuck, she lifted her own stake, took a deep breath, and slammed down with all her strength.
She released her stake and it leaned a moment before Jonah’s did.
“Tevandor’s axe!” Okara swore.
“Other ideas?” Taliesimon asked, forcing the despair from her voice.
Jonah pawed at the ground with a sandaled foot. “I think… maybe I might have one.”
Taliesimon wished he didn’t sound so meek. What hope did his idea have if even he didn’t think it was good? But she nodded. “Go ahead. Let’s hear it.”
“I’m sure it’ll be better than mine,” Okara muttered.
Jonah shrugged. “Well…” he trailed off before he’d even begun.
“Come one, Jonah,” Taliesimon said. “Any idea is better than nothing, and we’re running out of time.”
“Okay,” he said with a tentative smile. “Well, even diamondwood floats, doesn’t it?”
Taliesimon thought for a moment. “I… think so. I think I remember hearing father talk about it once. About river rafts made of it. Maybe.”
Okara nodded, her face uncertain, though she kept silent.
“What do you have in mind?”
The boy stood a little straighter. “Well, assuming they do float, we could lash three or four stakes together and ride them across. Like a raft, as Taliesimon says. It’s the simplest water craft that might work here, I think.” He lowered his eyes to his feet.
Taliesimon considered, looking for any problems with the plan.
Okara stood. “What will we lash them together with?”
Jonah’s slight smile faltered. “Oh. I didn’t think about that.”
“Our shirts,” Taliesimon blurted without thinking. The other two turned to look at her, eyes wide and mouths agape. “What? Will it work?”
Okara’s face lit up. “You. Are. Brilliant!”
Taliesimon allowed herself a congratulatory smile.
Jonah pulled his shirt off immediately and started tearing it into strips for maximum length.
“Come on,” Okara said. “We need at least two more stakes, maybe three.”
“Right,” Jonah said. “We’ll need a pole.”
With a smile, Taliesimon went to the edge with her friends to work on the additional stakes.
When they finally pulled the fifth stake out of the ground, Taliesimon collapsed into the dry dirt near the edge and stared out into the pit.
The last of the boys in the mud were just reaching the stilted legs of the tower. A larger boy pushed a smaller boy into the violently roiling mud between the tower’s legs and the victim shrieked. He leaped up from beneath the mud, his flesh crimson.
His shriek ripped at Taliesimon’s heart, her soul wailed with the boy, and her eyes filled with tears.
“You okay?” Jonah asked from above her, somehow still standing.
“It just disgusts me. I understand hurting others in the competition. I understand violence.” The boy shrieked again, louder than before. “But that was just sadistic. There was no reason for him to do that! Cruel bastards.”
Okara sat up and shrugged. Clearly nothing about this bothered her.
Jonah nodded. “I understand, but this is the world we live in, Taliesimon.”
She grimaced. “I know. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
With a shake of her head, Okara leaped to her feet and rolled the stakes next to each other. That done, she collected the strips of Jonah’s shirt and started lashing the stakes together with them. She yanked on the strips as she tied the knots, color rising to her cheeks.
Jonah turned from Taliesimon and knelt at the end of the stakes opposite Okara. “We need your shirt, Tal.”
“Oh.” I didn’t think mine would actually be necessary, she thought. Hmm. Perhaps this wasn’t such a good idea. “Um, are you certain you truly need-”
“Tally,” Okara snapped. “There’s nothing else we can use. Unless you’d rather lose you breeches. I sure don’t. Come one, we’re both shirtless. Stop being such a grauk and take off your damn shirt so we can get to that tower!”
Taliesimon nodded and gritted her teeth as she pulled the wool shirt over her head. The rush of blood warmed her neck and face and she imagined her flesh must now be the color of ripe strawberries.
She struggled against her instinct to cover her almost-flat chest with her hands as she tossed her tunic down to Jonah. She winced as he tore it into strips and began lashing the stakes together.

When the knotwork was finished, Taliesimon helped her companions push their makeshift raft into the black mud, with she and Jonah each carrying an additional stake to push the raft across the surface with.
The raft slid into the thick stuff without resistance. Jonah stepped onto it and plunged his stake into the mud. The raft seemed stable, He tested pushing and pulling the stake and the raft obediently moved forward and back, if a bit slower that Taliesimon would have liked.
Okara leaped the short stretch of mud and landed, cat-like, with bent knees in the center of the raft. The craft drifted a few spans out with her momentum, but was otherwise unaffected.
Taliesimon took a deep breath, stepped back a few steps, and ran toward the pit. At its edge, she leaped toward the raft.
Oh, no, she thought. It’s still drifting!
After a small eternity, she landed at the left edge of the raft with her feet only half of its surface. The raft dipped toward her with the added weight and a foot slipped off the raft. Her arms pinwheeled as she tried to maintain her balance, but she leaned farther and farther out of the raft. She shrieked as the bubbling mud came up to meet her.
The screaming face of the boy who was pushed in below the tower to boil alive flashed through her mind and she prayed it ended quickly. She slammed her eyes closed to wait for the end.
But that agonizing end didn’t come.
She hung, suspended. The heat of the roiling mud warmed her face and she became aware of the pressure on her right hand, an insistent squeeze.
Am I already dead? she wondered.
“Come on, Tally, you’re killing me here,” Jonah grunted.
Taliesimon snapped her open open and found the roiling black mud less than a pace from her face. She turned to her right in a daze. Jonah had a hold of her right hand and Okara gripped him around the waist, anchoring them all onto the raft.
“A little help here,” Okara growled.
Taliesimon blinked and finally comprehended what had happened. Glancing down, she realized her feet were balanced around the curve of the stake at the end of the raft. With a mental cringe, she turned her body and reached up to grasp Jonah’s hand with her other hand and pulled. With their combined effort, the three finally pulled her up onto the raft and all three fell to their knees, panting with exhaustion.
“What in the nine hells was that?” Okara spat, furious.
“Sorry,” Taliesimon panted. “I though. I was dead.”
Okara rolled her eyes and turned toward the front of the raft. “Let’s go.”
Taliesimon nodded and climbed to her feet. She reached down for her stake before she realized there was a problem. “Oh, torthugra fangs!”
Turning, she found Jonah with his stake in the mud, pushing the raft toward the center. More than a dozen boys were there now, struggling to climp up the tower legs. They tried to jump up, out of the mud, to grasp the legs, but slipped down. One boy gripped the leg leth his feet and struggled to pull himeslf up. He did well, pulling himself upward until just after his feet cleared the mud and he slipped back down to the laughter of his peers.
“Are the legs greased?” Jonah asked.
“So it would seem,” Okara said grimly.
Taliesimon nodded again and said distantly, “I’ll take over the paddling whenever you want, Jonah.”
Okara scoffed. “Why?” Her voice was bitter and deprecating. “So you can lose the other one too? We’ve wasted enough time already.”
Taliesimon’s mouth fell open. But… but I didn’t… Even her thought faded as her vision clouded with tears. She wiped at them angrily.
Jonah smiled at her, sympathy in his eyes, and nodded toward the tower. I’m a lot more worried about how we’re going to deal with that.”

Chapter 9, Dargon

Dargon’s rage cooled in an instant, and he stared at the raging flames in shock. Above the flames, a glittering image appeared of a winged serpent the color of lustrous, shining gold. It’s crimson eyes glared at him.
“By holy Trevandor,” he whispered in horrified awe.
The natural-looking flames flared up and turned bright red, then dimmed down to cobalt blue as it engulfed the metallic serpent which grinned at him, showing its long, sword-shaped teeth of ivory-white.
Then the flames flared even higher and burned pure white. Ina moment, the serpent vanished and the flames died. All that remained of the book was a pile of white ash in a roughly rectangular shape.
“No!” he wailed, tears filling his eyes. Several thoughts came to him then in rapid succession, so fast it made his head spin.
First, the tales of Veralon! Dammit! Now I’ll never find out how the story ends!
Then, how am I going to explain this? That book was older than grandfather!
Then, Wait, no one comes down here. I don’t have to explain anything to anyone.
And finally, but while we’re on the subject, just what in the name of all the gods happened here? How did that fire start in the first place?
“Sparks,” he said, seizing on an idea. “Father always says not to stand too close to a fire because the sparks can fly and light clothing on fire. If that can happen to a tunic, then surely a book is equally susceptible. Of course. That must be it.”
And what about the serpent? asked a small, insistent voice.
“My imagination. Brought on by the image carved into the library doors.”
And the leaping blue flames, followed by white? Have you ever even seen flames that hot before? How does fire go white, exactly?
“Look,” he said, frustrated with himself. “I don’t know. Maybe I imagined that too. I didn’t even feel the heat of the flames anyway!”
If you didn’t feel the heat, why is the book ash now?
Dargon growled. “Of course. This is me, sitting here arguing with myself because I can’t explain what in the nine hells I just saw.”
Not true, the annoying voice came again. You have an explanation that makes perfect sense. You just don’t want to think about that.
Dargon huffed an angry sigh. “No. Just no. I’m not a bad person. The gods would not curse me so. No. I refuse to accept that. It can’t be.”
Fine. Bury your head in the sand.
Dargon growled again, but otherwise ignored the thoughts. It didn’t happen often, but this was one of those times that made him wonder if there was another personality in his head. How can a person argue with themselves as strongly as he did? He couldn’t understand it.
Standing, he took the stone-handled hand broom from the mantle above the hearth and its matching ash pan and stooped to clean up the remains of the book. “Dammit,” he said again as he dumped the ashes into the hearth.
Replacing the tools on the mantle, Dargon rested his arms on the mantle and rested his forehead on his arms.
It seemed a long time passed while he stood over the hearth, alternating between watching the dancing flames and squeezing his eyes closed against the surrealism of the day.
Strange images danced in the flames, with his eyes open or closed, they continued. Images of armies of war, or numerous races uniting against… what? The creatures were strange, in many ways they resembled the torthugra. They were more or less serpentine, with long necks and tails and narrow, scaled bodies. But these also had four legs each and most of their heads were horned. And there seemed to be numerous types of them. Of different colors and shapes.
What are these things? he wondered. He closed his eyes and saw a battle between three of the creatures and an army of odd creatures that seemed almost human, but not quite. Almost like the mythical races of elves and dwarves, perhaps. The creatures were immense, easily hundreds of times the size of the humanoids.
“What?” he whispered. Such strange creatures, working together in battle. Even according to the myths, that never happened. But what were the things anyway? Everyone knew elves and dwarves weren’t real. But what were those strange winged creatures? He felt certain he’d never seen anything like them, the closest thing he knew of were the torthugra, and calling them similar was like saying trolls were similar to gnelwyn. Technically there were similarities, but they were so different they could have been from different worlds.
Opening his eyes, Dargon turned from the hearth to leave the library.
Raising a hand to the door, he froze. The torches, he thought. The room darkened behind him and a dozen sparks flew into his hand from all directions. They burst into bright azure flames around his hand.
“I am not a sorcerer!” he screamed vehemently.

Finally, please do remember that while the finished book will be available everywhere ebooks are sold, I’m not doing pre-orders on Amazon due to peculiarities of Amazon that make doing so not beneficial. If you’d like to pre-order on another retailer, you may do so here: books2read.com/calamity1-shadow

Today, I bring you 2 new chapters that were not part of the original draft. I would remind you again (as always, I’m sure it gets old, lol, but it bears repeating) that these are unedited, so will certainly contain typos and other mistakes that will not be present in the final version of the book. Enjoy!

Graumdor #1:

In a narrow ravine near the summit of the Spine of the World Mountains, a small semi-permanent community stood as a testament to the hardiness of Graumdor’s people. The huts were mostly composed of mud and straw with a bit of dung thrown in for mortar. At the center of the community a wide pit had been dug into the rocky soil to be used as a fighting arena.
Today, the day of all days, new recruits into the tribe’s military force fought to prove themselves worthy of full entrance into the ranks of soldiery and to be sorted into whatever rank they earn in the battles.
Two hulking men circled one-another in the pit, each wielding a fire-hardened spear of ash. The older of them thrust forward with his weapon but the other dodged to the left. The older man came up with the butt of the spear, slamming it into the younger man’s jaw and blood spurted from the man’s mouth.
Graumdor cringed. Did he truly want to do this? That could be him out there losing teeth in the competition that, in the scheme of things, really didn’t mean anything. Rank could be gained after their service began.
“It isn’t too late to back out of this foolishness,” Mother said from his side.
“Nonsense,” he replied immediately. “I am committed. This is my choice, Mother.”
She sighed.
He knew her feelings on the matter. The life of a warrior was not what she wanted for him. He had tried to walk the path she had chosen for him. He truly did. He just didn’t have it in him to live such a boring life. He needed action. He needed excitement. But more than anything, he craved conquest and battle.
Not that his puny arms were likely to lead him to that, but the musculature would come with training. Wouldn’t it?
Out in the pit, the older man thrust a knee into the other’s face, spurting more blood, then spun and slammed the haft of his spear into the back of the younger man’s head. He fell to the dirt and this time did not rise again.
“Victor!” Cried the Editor as he entered the pit again, then moved forward to raise the arm of the winner.
“Kraudish,” Graumdor growled. “He will be the one to defeat if I want top spot.”
Mother turned to him in horror. “No,” she breathed. “You cannot be serious. Look at the size of him. He will destroy you.”
He chuckled darkly. “Thank you for the vote of confidence, Mother.”
She frowned. “Just trying to be realistic, Son. You should not seek this man out.”
He shrugged. “It isn’t as though I have a choice in who I face. The Editor makes those decisions.”
Mother sighed. “True enough. Let us hope he makes choices that keep you alive.”
Graumdor shook his head in annoyance. Sometimes her lack of faith in his physical abilities was quite insulting. Though he was perfectly aware that he was not exactly the shining example of a burly man whose physique guaranteed a successful military career, he had something none of these other warriors did. He had learned to use his mind. He had studied tactics and strategies that few, if any, of the military were even aware of. Those strategies were what would carry him through to victory.
“Graumdor!” the Editor called. “You shall face Eklindiss. Both of you. Into the pit.” He turned and moved from the pit without waiting to see if the young men were coming to the pit. There was no need. No man of the tribe would shirk his duty and not come to the pit when called.
Shedding his cloak, Graumdor took the provided spear and moved toward the center of the pit. He was not familiar with Eklindiss, but assumed he would find out what sort of man he was being faced against in the first round.
When the other man emerged from the crowd on the other side of the pit, Graumdor struggled to hold in his shock. The Editor couldn’t be serious. How was he supposed to defeat this man?
Eklindiss was about his own height, but the man was built like an ogre. The man’s arms were bigger around than Graumdor’s thighs and his strongly built chest was almost twice as wide as Graumdor’s.
Gritting his teeth, Graumdor cleared his mind and closed his eyes. He needed to focus. He needed to center himself. Calm assessment and planning would see him through this. There was always a way, he only needed to find it.
Opening his eyes, he watched the way the man moved, analyzing him. He moved slowly, though that was probably an affectation. He watched the man’s movements as he took hold of the proffered spear and twirled it in his hands. The big man was confident in his abilities and was skilled with the weapon, that much was clear.
Okay, Graumdor thought. He has to have a weakness of some sort. There has to be a way to defeat him. I just need to find it.
He stepped forward to the starting position and waiting for the hulking man to stop across from him.
Eklindiss flashed a wicked grin. “Quit now while you’re ahead, Scholar,” he twisted the final word as though it were a curse. “No one will think less of you. Just quit. Go back to what you’re good at and leave war to those who have the stomach for it.”
Graumdor clenched his teeth in frustration. The warrior’s words came much too close to mirroring his thoughts for comfort. “Don’t worry,” he said with as much false bravado as he could muster. “I’ll try not to make your defeat too humiliating. It will be bad enough being defeated by me, of course, but I’ll make sure I don’t beat you too badly.”
Eklindiss snarled in fury, but held his position. He turned to the Editor, his lips twisted in fury.
The Editor nodded. “Begin!” he shouted.
Without delay, Eklindiss rose his spear and leaped for Graumdor, a word of fury escaping his lips.

Graumdor #2

Graumdor stumbled back, his spear flashing first to one side, then the other in desperation. Only just fending off Eklindiss’s attacks, he had no time to analyze the larger man’s attack pattern for weaknesses.
The older man spun around and swung his spear toward Graumdor’s face. He tried to get his spear up in time to deflect the blow-
He looked up from the ground, a line of fire burning in his cheek. Leaping to his feet, he spun to face his opponent once more. The older man gave a wicked smile, his dry, cracking lips dripping blood down his smooth-shaved chin.
“Quit while you can, scholar. The fighting pit is no place for you.”
Graumdor shook his head. “No. This is where I belong. I want combat. I want battle. I want blood.”
Eklindiss’s smile widened and turned savage. “As you wish, Ink hand. Blood you shall have.” Without warning, his spear flashed toward Graumdor’s face again.
Once more, it connected before he could get his spear up to defend. This time, the shaft slammed into the side of his head and he tumbled sideways to the ground.
With a growl and a shake of his head, Graumdor climbed to his feet. Feigning more weakness than he felt, he leaned on his spear, digging its tip into the soft soil beneath his feet.
The older man chuckled. “Are you truly so weak? Even a lowly ink hand should have more strength than you.”
Swallowing his anger, Graumdor kept his face neutral. Perhaps it would seem more natural if he did not, but he could not afford to lose his mind to anger now. His chances of coming out of this alive were exceptionally slim as it was. He backed up a few steps, almost to the limits of the pit before he stopped and raised his spear a hand-width out of the dirt. He spat a mouthful of blood into the dirt and waited for his opponent to come.
Eklindiss shook his head, as though in disbelief, and advanced on Graumdor. “If you truly wish to die, I will grant your wish, whelp.”
Graumdor clenched his teeth to keep himself from hurling furious insults at the larger man. Now was not the time. He wasn’t likely to get more than one chance at this.
The older man leaped at him, bringing his spear down in a deadly arc.
Through the beating of his pulse in his ears, Graumdor no longer heard anything else. The leaping man’s mouth was open wide in a scream that he couldn’t hear. He imagined the crowd around him were likely roaring and jeering at the two of them, but he couldn’t hear that either. The thudding in his ears drowned all of it out.
He struggled to force himself to wait until the last possible moment. The leaping man was several paces above him now with the spear driving down toward him. If it connected, it would impale him. This was it. He held his position for just a moment longer, until he could be certain his adversary would be unable to correct his course.
Now! Graumdor thought as he spun to come around behind his opponent, spinning his spear toward the man’s head.
In an instant which seemed to go on through all the ages of the world, the butt end of the shaft of his spear connected with the back of his opponent’s head with a thunderous crack that resounded in his ears over the thumping of his heart.
Eklindiss pitched forward face-first into the dirt.
Without hesitation, Graumdor leaped forward with his spear in both hands and plunged the weapon deep into the older man’s back. It slid into the thick cords of muscle almost without resistance to well beyond the sharpened point before it hit something solid and the spear stopped.
Graumdor leaned all his weight onto the spear, pushing it deeper. It moved down less than a handspan before stopping again. The fallen man’s body trembled, a foot kicked and his neck twitched, then he stilled. His dark flesh paled to almost white.
Releasing the spear, Graumdor turned to look at his audience. Without exception, shock colored the features of the onlookers. Each and every one of them stood with drooping jaws and wide eyes.
Graumdor spread his arms wide and stared accusingly at each and every one of them. Had they all known how overmatched he was? Did they all know that he was supposed to either give up or die? Did this happen every time? Did they intentionally try to weed out everyone they considered unsuitable for the position?
Rage boiled in his veins. Was this truly what his people had become?
The Editor came forward, but when he reached for Graumdor’s hand he snatched it away, raising his hand in victory himself. He stared accusingly at the Editor and spoke in an undertone. “I know what happened here. You’re going to tell me everything.”
Ignoring him, the Editor moved around the fighting pit announcing Graumdor as the victor.
He gritted his teeth. This was neither the time nor the place, but he was going to find an answer to this. He would not rest until he had answers. If this was truly what his people had become, then he needed to do something about it. Stabbing each other in the back for advancement was one thing, but conspiring to keep those perceived as weak from advancement was not acceptable.
You and I will have words, Editor. Make no mistake.

I hope you’re enjoying these excerpts. Just a reminder that while the book will be available everywhere at release, due to retailer peculiarities it is currently available for pre-order everywhere except Amazon. If you’re interested, you can pre-order at your favorite non-Amazon retailer at: http://books2read.com/calamity1-shadow

 

Shadow of the Overlord, Chapters 5, 6, and 7

(Just keep in mind these are very rough, unedited drafts)

 

CHAPTER 5

Quillliaurran raced over the final stretch of the Thurgian Strait. The bowl-like shape of the rocky beach here seemed a perfect example of what the bonded sometimes called a ‘natural harbor.’ Not that they had need of such things now. With dragons reaching sizes adequate to carry dozens of riders and more, travel by ship was rapidly becoming obsolete.
He zipped over the tops of the lush trees, though he still enjoyed their sharp scent. It was a smell he associated with life, with growing things, with the light and pleasure of being one— at peace —with the world around him.
If only the Overlord could learn that, he thought. Rather than always craving more, if the Divinity Himself could learn to be at peace with what he has…
Blasphemy! shouted a menacing voice in the forefront of his mind. If anyone, anyone, heard you say such things, they’d roast you alive! The Overlord wants, the Overlord gets. It’s that simple. Don’t be an idiot!
Doesn’t mean I can’t dream, he thought wistfully.
Ahead loomed the Overlord’s towering spire. Only those who’d been summoned were allowed within three leagues of the Overlord’s mountain. And since Quill had no wish to test the stories of what awaited those who disobeyed, he turned north to fly a wide detour around it.
He raced past the trees to the north of the Overlord’s mountain as fas as his wings would carry him. The red sun was directly overhead now, which meant he was out of time. He struggled to flap his wings harder, faster, as he climbed upward to pass the increasingly taller and thicker trees beneath him.
Although still a fraction of the height of the Overlord’s spire, he estimated the trees below at close to four leagues in height, and the tallest among them might have been close to a league in width.
How do trees grow this tall? he wondered, not for the first time. In no other place on all of Val-Harra did the trees and mountains grow so tall. He had never understood how or why it should be so.
Finally, Quill thought as the huge clearing finally came into view. For leagues around, the trees vanished with no trace of root or leaf, and on the north end of the clearing they started up again, but at almost double the previous height. It was there, he knew, the malachite wyrm made her lair.
The clearing itself was actually an immense canopy of trees bent and twisted together to form a ceiling as dense and strong as any stone.
He dropped from the air almost a league before the entrance to the canopied lair and walked the remaining distance.
Two wingspans from the entrance to the canopy, a pair of agate wyrms snaked their heads out from the shadows to halt him.
“I’ve been summoned,” Quill said, trying to keep the indignation in his voice. It helps to cover his quaking terror.
“You’re late,” one of the dragons growled.
“Do not delay,” the other hissed. “The mistress is not known for her patience.”
Quill nodded and clenched his muscles to keep his scales from clicking together with his trembling flesh. He moved forward, his gait awkward and stiff. Gritting his teeth, he tried to stop all the telltale signs his body was giving that we was utterly terrified.
The inside of the canopy could not have been more different from his expectations. While the trees on the outside were green with leaves and covered in fresh, moist bark, the inside was dead. No branches jutted in, no bark survived. The trees and other foliage were mostly gray and rotting.
He entered a tunnel formed by thickly massed trees and followed it through a maze of twists and turns, all the while it sloped downward. After a few minutes, the trees vanished and he was surrounded by walls of earth and a while later, going deeper and deeper into the ground all the while, the walls turned to solid stone.
After a short while, the stone walls opened into a wide chamber. The entire cavern wavered, as though he saw it through the fumes of a bonfire. The stone walls were smooth and even, the ceiling and floor free of stalactite or stalagmite. At the far end, a massive green shape huddled in the darkness, crimson eyes wide and staring. They looked through him as though he didn’t exist.
Although Quill felt certain there must be more to the chamber that he wasn’t seeing— the wavering was an obvious illusion. So obvious, in fact, it was a certainty that she wanted him to see it. Was it an expression of her power? —he immediately dropped to his knees and prostrated himself before her.
“Mistress Underlord,” he breathed, forcing his voice to convey respect rather than terror.
“Do you know what I do with dragons who cannot figure out how to be on time?” she asked conversationally.
Quill gulped. “Mistress Underlord, I-”
“Don’t waste your breath,” she hissed. “I have no care for whatever your excuse happens to be. At the request of one I hold in high regard, you shall not be punished. This time. But do ensure it does not recur.”
Quill gulped again. “Yes, Mistress.”
“I trust Sindorriaunna informed you of why you are here?”
“She… mentioned it.”
“Good. I’ll hear no protestations. He requested you specifically.”
“Who?” Quill was confused. Who had requested him? For what?
“The human you’ll be bonding.” The Underlord’s voice was matter-of-fact, as though he should have known this already.
Quill coughed in surprise. “A… human?”
The crimson eyes bored into him. “If that is a problem, you’ll take it up with him. I have no interest in hearing it. He made the request, I approved, and so it is decided.”
Quill’s mind reeled. What human could even make such a request? He didn’t know of any humans, outside of the Overlord’s pet, who even had any freedom here. There were others, of course, that had been recruited to the Overlord’s cause. Elves, ogres, trolls, gnelwyn, even the occasional dwarf. But a human? They generally couldn’t be kept alive long enough to convert them. Most of the fools insisted on fighting to the death the moment they saw a wyrm.
“Understood, Mistress,” he said, trying desperately to cover the quaver in his voice. “But, why did he choose me, of all dragons?”
“Ask him yourself!”
Quill clamped his mouth closed. It was clear now that she would answer no question she did not find important.
“Where will I find this human?”
“Behind you,” called a small voice from his rear.
Ordinarily, Quill would never turn his back on the Underlord. Nor on any other wyrm in a position of authority. Strictly speaking, it was not allowed. Dragons had been killed for less. But the Underlord’s attention had gone elsewhere. Either she was pointedly ignoring him, or he was no longer within her notice. Clearly, that was his dismissal. It might as well have been just Quill and the human in the chamber.
He spun around to face the human behind him.
And found himself decidedly unimpressed.
The man was small, even for a human. He was slight of build and short, with greasy gray hair and a thick, bushy beard which together gave the impression of a hyena. He was dressed in black cow leathers and carried a silvery sword which reflected every drop of light shone on it a hundred-fold.
The human smiled, his black eyes crinkling. “Greetings, Quill.”
Quill narrowed his eyes. One I hold in high regard, she had said. Perhaps at least a modicum of respect was expected here.
“Greetings, master…?”
“Lord Novarel,” the man said. “During informal meetings such as this, you may refer to me simply as Novarel, but in public or in front of our troops, the title is mandatory.”
Though he seethed at being forced to pay a mere human such respect, Quill nodded in silence.
“I understand your reluctance, Quill. I know you are used to humans being the enemy. Please. Allow me to explain. I have been here in Thorutia for a very long time. I know things few living humans remember. I have been personal adviser to the Overlord himself for a great many years. I’d be surprised if anyone alive enjoys as much of his Divinity’s trust as I do. As such, I am held in high regard by all on the isle.”
“And why does the Overlord trust you so much?”
“I serve him willingly, as I have from the beginning. I allow him to plumb the depths of my mind for my true motivations. He knows he can trust me. And I have made myself… useful. My information is much of the reason we control so much of the southern reaches of the continent. I helped him secure the loyalty of certain tribes of ogres, trolls, and more.”
“How?” Quill wasn’t trying to be suspicious, but he couldn’t help it. This all seemed awfully convenient.
“Insight,” the human said simply.
“You know that much of the humanoids?”
Novarel shrugged. “I have an understanding of what motivates them.”
Quill sighed, and Novarel raised his brows.
Lowering his head, Quill looked the human in the eyes. As he’d thought, those eyes were pure black inside a white sclera. Were his irises black, or did he not even have them?
So very strange, he thought. Aloud, he asked, “Why do you want me?”
Novarel chuckled. “My dear charoite, that is a conversation for another time.”
Quill clenched his teeth.
“Now, now,” the human said. “We have more pressing concerns.”
Quill narrowed his eyes. “Such as?”
“Getting you ready for the bonding ritual.”
“Ready?” Quill asked, confused. “What is needed for me to be ready?”
The human chuckled again, darkly this time. “It is truly sad, dear boy, how little you know of your own kind. How long has it been since you Eskerialized?”
Quill stared blankly. “Um, since I what?”
Now the human roared in laughter.
After nearly a minute of uninterrupted, almost sobbing laughter, Novarel had tears streaming down his face but he finally calmed the choking laugh enough to speak. “No one told me you were funny!”
Quill stared, more confused than ever.
Novarel’s laughter continued for another long minute before he finally sobered. He wiped the tears from his grinning face.
The human looked up into Quill’s eyes and the mirth vanished, his eyes going wide. “Do you truly mean to tell me you have no idea what I’m talking about? How can you possibly know so little of your own species? Or your own existence, for that matter?”
Quill swallowed his indignation as best he could. “I’m afraid I don’t know how to answer that, Lord Novarel. I haven’t the slightest clue what you’re talking about.”
The human’s eyes narrowed. “Have you never wondered at why young dragons are shaped differently than you? Or how they become as they do when growing to adulthood? By the Overlord’s tail, do you remember nothing of being a wyrmling?”
“Actually, no,” Quill said. “I have no memory of being anything other than I am. And I assumed the wings just took time to grow in. What am I missing?”
Novarel sighed. “Not now, Quill. We have more important matters to attend to.”
Quill couldn’t stop the growl from rumbling up from his chest to the back of his throat.
“Enough,” Novarel barked and Quill quieted. “The bonding is our priority just now. The rest can come later. We’ll deal with your education soon enough.”
He nodded, embarrassed by his outburst. “What must I do?”
“Bleed,” the gravelly voice said, and Quill shivered.

 

CHAPTER 6

 

Taliesimon stood proud, the only girl in a long line of boys, at the start line of a course of obstacles meant to test the mettle of those who wished to join the honorable order of the dragoons.
The boy to her left, like many others, had a shaved head and wore nothing aside from his torn and filthy breeches. The boy to her right, however, wore his short, blond hair combed band and his pristine linen clothing and fine, doeskin boots smelled like money.
The boy on the blond boy’s other side shied away from him, as though he had a contagious disease.
He was shunned by them as much as she was, it seemed.
“Ready?” a tall dragoon called from the front, but several voices growling from behind her brought everyone’s attention around to the back of the line. A bald-headed, shirtless boy in soft, black leather breeches and sandaled feet strode toward the line while three older boys, initiates, Taliesimon felt certain, chased after him.
Hold on, she thought. Is that a… another girl?
The shirtless youth had narrow, angular features but thick, full lips and a slightly swollen chest. The earliest beginnings of breasts, perhaps? If so, she lacked any degree of modesty or decorum.
The child hurried to the line and sidled in between Taliesimon and the bare-headed by to her left.
“Dragoons!” the middle chaser, the oldest, called. “That girl cannot be allowed to test. It is against all-”
“It is against nothing,” the dragoon in front barked. “It is unorthodox, to be sure, but young Taliesimon here had prior approval to compete. Allowing another girl in will change nothing.”
“But sir! We have never-”
“It matters not, initiate. Just because there has never been a female dragoon does not mean there cannot be. We will allow them to compete.”
The three initiates frowned and Taliesimon grinned. Glancing at the new arrival, she found the bald girl grinning as well.
“Way to make an entrance,” she said, impressed.
“Thanks,” the girl said as she ran a hand over her smooth head, looking almost shy.
Taliesimon extended a hand. “I’m Taliesimon.”
The girl touched a palm to hers and said, “Okara,” and they both grinned again.
“Ready positions!” The dragoon barked and Taliesimon spun to face forward, her right leg forward knee bent, and the left one stretched out behind her.
“Do you know what’s ahead?” Okara asked softly.
Taliesimon gaped. “You haven’t studied the course?”
The smaller girl shrugged.
She’s going to die, Taliesimon thought. They’re going to eat her alive.
From the small cart at his side, the dragoon ahead of them produced a long, ashwood staff with a long, wide banner depicting a black longsword protruding from a brown serpent’s fanged head on a field of pristine white. He waved the banner back and forth above his head three times while the lines of dragoons on either side of the narrow path changed, “From the fires of youth, dragoons will rise. Only the strong will rise.”
They repeated the phrase with each wave of the banner.
“Be careful,” Taliesimon whispered urgently. “Keep your eyes open. Don’t get in their way.”
“In their way?” The girl was incredulous.
“The boys will hurt you. It’s all competition to them. They don’t care who they hurt to get ahead.”
The girl’s eyes widened for a moment, then her expression went blank, her eyes hardened, and she nodded.
After the fourth wave of the banner and the fourth repetition of the chant, the lead dragoon stabbed the longstaff into the muddy ground and barked, “begin!”
Pandemonium erupted around Taliesimon as the boys ripped and tore at one another’s hair and clothing, throwing opponents to the muddy ground. The boy to Taliesimon’s right was pulled down by his finely groomed blond hair and trampled. Blood poured from his mouth. Taliesimon waited at the line drawn into the mud before her, gripping the smaller girl’s bare arm.
For a moment, Okara struggled against her, trying to run forward, then she seemed to notice the violence being bandied about and relaxed in Taliesimon’s grip.
All the boys with bare chests and shaved heads made a lot more sense now. She’d known the start especially wouldn’t be pleasant, but she hadn’t fully expected the amount of hair and shirt pulling and the violent trampling that had occurred.
But, if Okara didn’t expect this, why is she-
Wrenching pain in the back of her head cut off the thought and she was flung forward. The muddy ground flew up toward her face.
She clenched her eyes tight as her face struck home for the second time today. Even though her eyes were closed, the world seemed to spin around her.
A laugh sounded above her, though it seemed far away and indistinct. Footsteps pounded past her and the laughter, bitter and mocking, dissipated.
With her mouth full of thick fluid, Taliesimon choked and coughed, but the fluid remained. She tried to roll herself over, but her body did not respond. Holy Trevandor, she thought. Please don’t let me die here! Why won’t my body cooperate?
Then a small hand gripped her shoulder and pulled her over. The crimson light of Kaustere burned through her eyelids and she coughed again. This time, the fluid vacated her mouth and she sucked in a gasping, labored breath. Though the breath burned all the way down, it felt sweet and refreshing. As she drew in her third breath, she opened her eyes and found her lids sticky with a thick crimson fluid.
She lay dazed for several moments before she tried to move again. Okara’s hairless head appeared above her, eyes wide and mouth agape. Her eyes are beautiful, Taliesimon thought, and accepted the thought as the dazed nonsense it was. They shine like sapphires in the light, but brighter, much brighter.
The wide sapphire eyes blinked and Taliesimon blinked as well.
“Are you okay?” the girl asked.
She coughed again, then turned her head and spit a build-up of fluid from her mouth. She tasted blood and finally made sense of the situation.
With a slight nod to the smaller girl, she struggled to sit up. After a moment, the other girl gripped her hands and pulled her up to a sitting position.
“We have to move,” she croaked.
Okara nodded and pulled Taliesimon to her feet. “They did that purely out of spite, didn’t they?”
“I expect so,” Taliesimon rasped as she took her first wobbly steps toward the lead dragoon ahead. He now stood a pace off the path, just before it curved into the dark woods. He offered her a grim nod as she trotted past with Okara in tow.
“Our advantage,” Taliesimon gasped as she ran. “Is that we have nowhere to go but up.”
“And now we’re the ones,” Okara added, not sounding the least bit winded. “Who can crack skulls from behind. They’ll never see us coming.”
Taliesimon nodded, but kept silent. Already out of breath, the less of it she wasted, the better off she would be. And I’m not sure how to respond to her viciousness, she added silently.
turning the bend into the woods, Taliesimon grunted. “Faster, Okara. Jump soon.”
Without a sound, the small girl ran faster. Within moments, she came up even with Taliesimon then seemed to force herself to slow, as though she were unwilling to move farther ahead. “Sharpened. Stakes. In. Pit,” she gasped and Okara nodded.
Ahead, a tall, muscular boy ran. The muscles of his back rippled with every movement and his freshly shaven head was marred by numerous razor cuts.
Either he did it himself, or his father’s face must look like a torture victim, she thought in sympathy. It had to be terribly painful.
“I’d wager that’s the snake who hit you,” Okara growled.
Taliesimon wanted to smack herself. Of course he was! He must have had the same idea as she, wait for the others to bloody each other then jump ahead of them all. But that idea had clearly been a spectacular failure. Somehow, they were still the last three in the course.
How did that happen? she wondered. Surely, at least some of them had to be bloodied worse than me.
She couldn’t argue with the reality, however. There hadn’t been a single beaten or bloodied boy ahead of her on the field when she’d risen and they’d finally started moving.
Clearly, she had miscalculated somewhere and now it was going to take everything she had to come in well enough to continue the testing.
The blue-eyes girl sped up, pulling away from her. What was she planning to do? Taliesimon tried to increase her pace to match, but her thighs burned already. Her knees and feet were beginning to ache, her lungs her on fire, and the roiling nausea in her belly was too much to ignore.
Even pushing herself as hard as she could, she could not match the smaller girl’s pace.
The path curved to the left and the boy disappeared around it, followed by Okara, who was rapidly gaining on the older boy. After a few moments, Taliesimon rounded the bend herself. Ahead, three boys leaped a chasm in the path almost in unison. The two on the outsides cleared it easily, but the boy in the center, the blond boy who’d been at her right hand in the line, stumbled on his jump and leaped much lower than the others. He fell just before the far edge, only just catching himself with his arms.
He hung there a moment, still, as though in shock. Then he seemed to paw at the lip of the chasm. Over and over, his fingers dug into the dirt for purchase and came up empty. It was only a matter of time, she saw. Unless he found a stone or tree root or something else firm enough to hold his weight, he would fall.
The boy who’d hurt her was almost to the edge of the pit and Okara was little more than a pace behind him. The slight tremble in the boy’s legs and the increased tightness in his arms made it clear to her that he feared the jump.
Taliesimon scoffed silently. With that muscular body, he should have not difficulty in making the jump. Easy as spilt milk, as the saying went.
The entire world seemed to slow, as though time itself had almost stopped, as the boy’s foot landed at the edge of the chasm and he thrust up with all the strength of that powerful leg to make the leap.
Impossibly, Okara’s left leg shot sideways in the instant before her own right leg touched down for her own jump. Her left foot struck the boy’s right and a resounding crack accompanied the crumpling of the boy’s ankle and as she moved upward in her lead across the chasm, the boy fell almost straight down into the pit.
His high, terrified shriek was a loud as it was short-lived.
Taliesimon stared in shock at the spot he fell from.
I would never have, she thought, dazed. This is important, but… what am I going to do? She’s a murderer.
Taliesimon snapped her jaw closed and the world seemed to return to normal time. She glared straight forward, determined as never before to make the jump and overcome the course.
Her last few steps before the chasm passed in a blur, her pulse thundering in her ears. She shortened her last three steps before the edge, to ensure her right foot landed at the very edge of the pit. She sucked in a deep breath and held it just before her foot touched down. She thrust up from her right foot with all her might, her thigh, calf, and torso seemed a single muscle as all worked perfectly to send her sailing into the air.
Taliesimon glance down as she went up and caught sight of the broken body, and a dozen more just like it, impaled by the stakes.
Oh, no, she thought. I’m not going to make it.

 

CHAPTER 7

 

Dargon flexed the fingers of his right hand. “Incredible,” he breathed. Aside from the scab over the cut on his finger, it was as though nothing had happed yesterday. And try as he might, he could not push the image of the blue-glowing water from his mind. It was his duty, both as a Moritzan citizen and as a member of the royal family, to obey the Trevan, but in his heart he knew the priest’s answer could not be true. Even deep blue liquids never glowed blue under the light of Kaustere. At best, it would produce a purple or violet glow.
Surely the Trevan knows this, he thought as he wrapped his hand around the hilt of the wooden sword hanging from his belt.
Shaking his head to banish the thoughts, he whipped the practice sword from its scabbard. As always, the hilt felt good in his hand. It felt right. Natural.
“Is everything alright, my lord?” asked the warrior across the battle-floor from him.
“I’m fine, Gerand. Please, begin.”
The leather-clad man drew his own practice blade and the two squared off, mirroring one another’s movements. Dargon narrowed his eyes at he man and stepped toward him, wary of some trick. Gerand was no longer young, but he was still as skilled a warrior as Dargon had known.
Gerand stepped just beyond striking distance and saluted, holding the flat of his wooden blade up between his eyes. An instant later, the blade flashed down and he leaped forward.
Dargon blocked the blow with his own blade, the loud crack of wood rattling his ears. He moved smoothly into a low swing, but found his blade blocked. He swung high with a similar result.
“Speed, my lord. You must move faster,” the old warrior said.
Dargon nodded and swung with all the force he could muster.
Crack.
“No, your highness,” Gerand barked. “Not harder. Putting all your strength behind a blow makes it slower. Speed of movement will win a fight much more often than brute force. Light slashes and shallow cuts will eventually wear down an opponent, but brute force against his defenses is far more likely to exhaust you than him.”
“Yes, ser.”
“Again.”

The drills continued for hours, as they had since he was old enough to hold a sword. King Duncan had established early on in Dargon’s life that he needed to be a warrior first and a ruler second. Although the dreaded torthugra hadn’t been seen in centuries, nor had any of their expeditions returned from Thugra Isle in even longer. They had to be ever-vigilant. War was coming, his father assured him. And when it did, they needed to be ready. They couldn’t afford to be caught off their guard. Too many lives depended on them.
When Gerand finally called a halt, even he was breathing heavy. Dargon could hardly lift his sword arm. The old warrior landed at least three dozen strikes which would have been killing blows while Dargon had managed only one.
Sheathing his blade, the old warrior walked off the dirt battle floor and into the green grass of the courtyard proper to the water barrels and proceeded to scoop out several ladles full which he dumped over his head. At last, when his hair and shirt were thoroughly soaked, he slurped a dozen ladles full into his mouth.
Dargon followed his example, though with much less water going over his head. The chestnut curls were unruly enough without drenching them in tepid water.
“You did well today, Lord Dargon. You continue to impress me with the rapidity with which you learn.” He smiled. it seemed genuine enough.
“I did?” Dargon asked, uncertain. “I rarely land a blow against you.”
“My lord,” Gerand said patiently. “Are you aware of how many years I’ve been training with the sword?”
“Close to forty, isn’t it, ser?”
“I began my sword training upon acceptance into the dragoons thirty-eight years ago.”
“You were a dragoon?” Dargon asked, excited. In all the years Gerand had been teaching him, that was a detail he had never disclosed.
The old swordsman sighed. “yes, I was. But,” he held up a finger for silence. “To focus on relevance. How long have you been training with the sword?”
“Well, I don’t know if you’d call the silly exercises when I was four training-“
“I would.”
“Well, in that case then about eight years, I suppose.”
“And how many of formal teaching?”
Dargon considered. “About three or four, I think.”
“So, between my vastly greater experience and being roughly twice your size and possibly thrice your weight, do you knot think landing even one killing blow against me is rather impressive?”
“Well, when you put it that way, I suppose so.”
Gerand sighed. “Enough,” he said through a laugh. “You are a quick study, but don’t forget to keep practicing. The more you work at it, the greater skill you will achieve.”
“Yes, ser.”
“Now run along. Find something fun to do before your archery session with Jorimund.”
Dargon nodded and spun on his heel to trot back to the keep.
Although his destination was more than three dozen twists and turns and stairways into the keep, almost as though his great-grandfather had been trying to hide it in shame when he’d built the structure, Dargon knew the way by heart. He could have found the massive chamber blindfolded, he was certain. When he came to the immense, diamondwood double doors, engraved with the image of an open book with flames roaring out of it with a spitted serpend just above the flames, Dargon grinned from ear to ear. He pushed the door open and waves of bone-numbing cold rolled into him.
With a shiver, he grasped the torch from its wall sconce outside the door and stepped into the massive chamber, his elm-heeled boots echoing on the marble floor. He walked around the inner walls lighting torches, then walked through the towering wooden shelves to light the lanterns throughout. Finally, he stopped at the brick-enclosed hearth at the heart of the chamber. Stacking several lengths of chopped wood into the center, he thrust the torch between them and waited for the dried wood to catch.
He stood and placed the torch in one of the matching ivory sconces to either side of the hearth. Straitening, he breathed in a deep breath and held it. After a moment, he released the threat and felt the tension melt away.
This was his space. Few people would even think to look for him here, and it was so out of the way that the chances of anyone coming here by accident was so close to nil as to be indistinguishable.
Turning a slow circle, he took in the wonder of his sanctuary. The wooden cases stretching away from the central hearth were as the spokes of a wheel coming out from a central hub. Each one stretched more than seventy spans before ending a dozen paces before the wall. Each stood more than twice his height and consisted of eight to twelve shelves, each covered with books. Some were bound in leather and others in wood or even cloth. Some were merely loose sheafs of parchment held together by strings of hemp. At the end of each of the two-dozen cases was an oaken bin filled with rolled scrolls. Most were housed in tubes of wood or stone or bone, but some were loose, held closed only by strips of leather, twine, string, or ribbon.
Even after years of coming here, the sight took his breath away. There were even more books here— more stories, more history, more information —than existed anywhere else that he knew of, and easily more than he could ever hope to read if he lived for four lifetimes.
How can they shun this place? he wondered, not for the first time.
Then a new thought occurred to him. But, if Gaureth shunned the library like everyone says, then why would he have built it in the first place?
He froze. He attacked the thought from every angle he could imagine, but try as he might, he couldn’t find a flaw in the thought. For the first time, he was left seriously questioning the things he had always been taught.
There was no scenario he could come up with that made any sense in which Gaureth would have gone to the time, trouble, and expense to have the place built if the place hadn’t brought him either income, joy, goodwill, or knowledge.
And on that note, if it had been shunned since its creation, then where in the nine hells had all the books come from? Why wasn’t it covered in layers of dust? And why were there torches in this part of the keep?
It was yet another series of valid points that he couldn’t find a hole in. There was simply no situation he could imagine in which the library’s size, state, and truly, even its existence made sense if it was true that Gaureth had shunned books and learning.
Dargon shook his head to clear the thoughts away. He didn’t come here to contemplate such serious matters, he came here to escape his own life and life someone else’s adventure for a while.
He turned to the plush armchairs on the other side of the hearth and lifted a tallow candle from the table between them. Using the torch, he lit the candle and replaced it in its holder on the table.
The book he’d been reading for the past several weeks, the collected tales of Veralon Scale-Breaker, remained in its place next to the porcelain candle holder. With a broad, excited grin, he picked up the massive book and plopped down into the plush chair.
Pulling the red ribbon marking his place, Dargon continued where he’d left off and was immediately immersed into the adventures of the greatest dragoon to ever live.
Dargon found himself in the shoes of the great hero, stepping into a tiny, unnamed city-state near the Verdant Forest after his latest victory over the invading hordes of torthugra. He needed a rest and hoped to find it in the tiny city.
Town would be a more accurate word, Dargon thought as he gazed at the faded boards making up the facades of the homes and businesses.
That evening, Dargon, in the shoes of Veralon, sat by the hearth in the town’s single inn with his feet up on a stool, letting the warmth of the fire melt his cares away.
Any minute now, he thought, the peace is going to explode. The anticipation was almost too much to bear. He had realized early on that every story started this way, with the great hero trying to relax and get away from the conflicts that plagued his life. But it never lasted long. His peace always devolved to ever-greater conflicts.
Dargon almost bounced with excitement as he waited for the new adventure to begin.
Within minutes, his anticipation was rewarded in the form of a distraught mother bursting into the inn. Almost in hysterics, wailing about her missing daughter. It turned out that this girl was only the latest in a rash of young children disappearing. One every few days. The locals hadn’t put together that it was a connected problem until almost ten of the children had vanished. At first, the populace had suspected each other. But as it went on, they ran out of suspects. They turned their eyes to the feral gnelwyn of the forest, but were quickly informed by the local dragoons that no gnelwyn had been seen there in months.
In the absence of other options, the populace started blaming the torthugra. The villagers in the inn turned to Veralon, who had already become quite famous, for help. But he informed them that the only known torthugra in the city-states were now far to the north, since he had led his dragoons to destroy the force which had been nearby, and there had been no survivors.
The villagers were disheartened, but Veralon, Honorable dragoon that he was, offered to help. He couldn’t just stand by while their children vanished. Naturally, this task was quite different from his usual quests and would require a very different method than he was used to. Battle against obvious enemies was the usual gamut of these stories. Dargon got even more excited as he followed the Scale-breaker through his investigation of the mystery. As the tension mounted, Dargon grew more and more excited. The stakes grew with each page, as the taking of another child neared, and his pulse quickened.
Dargon glanced at the tallow candle. He’d already been reading for one and a half turns. He only had a half a turn left before he had to get on his way to archery with Jorimund.
“Please,” he whispered as he read. “I have to get to the end before I have to go.”
He made an effort to read faster, as fast as he could without missing details.
Veralon followed a sequence of clues Dargon hadn’t even recognized as clued until Veralon pointed them out. Days passed as he followed clue after clue and Dargon had to wipe sweat from his brown. Finally, the clued led Veralon beyond the town to the Cliffs of Thorutia. He climbed down the cliff to a hidden cave and snuk in, wearing nothing but his soft breeches and a long dagger, having decided stealth was more important than armor or a sword. The evidence had pointed to a single man being responsible for the whole sordid affair.
The hero crept into the dimly lit cave, dagger in hand. A short way in, an ambient glow filled the tunnel with greenish light. Veralon turned a corner and crouched down to watch in horror as an ancient-looking human stepped through an aisle between rows of stone cages which held children ranging from two to eight years of age, every last one bruised and bloody.
The man held up his arms and the stone bars shook, rattling with a deafening cacophony. The children cringed back away from the bars, almost I unison.
Dargon grimaced and Veralon with him, in combined disgust and fury.
Bastard! Dargon thought vehemently.
The human stepped to a stone altar where a boy of perhaps ten years lay calmly, free of both restraints and any sort of defiance. Dargon gritted his teeth as Veralon noticed the marks of brutal torture all over the boy’s body.
The old man placed his hands on the boy’s chest and Veralon tensed as he prepared to act. He had no intention of letting this old man kill the boy.
Without warning, the boy’s eyes bulged from his face and his back arched, his hand curling into fists. His mouth opened wide as though to scream, but no sound emerged.
The boy’s flesh shriveled and wrinkled, as though from great age. His hair grew long, turned white, and fell from his head within a few short moments, while at the same time the old man seemed to grow younger. His back straightened, his flesh tightened, and the long hair of his face and head thickened and turned from the frosty white to deep, blue-tinged black. The now-young man grinned and causually batted away the blade Veralon swung at him.
Dargon’s pulse thundered in his ears, his blood boiled. He read a detailed description of the young boy’s death, his flesh turning to dust and falling from his dry, brittle bones as the old sorcerer lost his facial ahir and his face became as smooth as Dargon’s own.
Dargon lost control.
His temper flared to rage and his vision turned crimson. He screamed, “This is why we don’t allow sorcery in the States!” before his vocalizations devolved into an inarticulate roar of fury. Leaping to his feet, the book tumbled from his lap, his hands clenched into fists so tight they trembled, and the open book before him burst into flames.