“Me? I’ve never …” She shook her head.
“I wouldn’t ask if I had someone else. A man named Hosea is running the town, but he knows nothing about magic. Defend as best you can and be ready to evacuate if Barius comes at you in force.”
“But …”
“I’ve got blast weapons,” Xan said, “but we haven’t recruited any blighters. One of the queen’s soldiers, Ron Kemp, is one. Go after him, kidnap him if you have to. Get him to surge.”
“But …”
“I’ve got good people who know what they’re doing. They just need someone sensible in charge, someone I trust.”
“But …”
“The strike force will kill a lot of people,” Xan said. “Would you rather be a part of that or safe lives in Eye Lake?”
Lainey sighed. “Fine, but I’ll get you back for this.”
Xan grinned. “Okay, just the fiddly stuff left, then. Logistics and supplies. Figuring out who goes and who stays. Anything else?”
Brant set his jaw. “We have to take the Dastanarian fort at the border. There’s a girl I need to rescue.”
“Works for me,” Xan said. “It’s on the way.”
Epilogue
Andre shook with rage and fear.
A line of enemy mages tore the castle apart stone by stone, and more destruction would come. No other force in the three kingdoms could stand against Dastanar.
So many good men had already died. Men he’d shared drinks with. Men who’d always been nice to him though he was just a stablehand.
How many more would die before the day was through? Andre beseeched the Holy One’s mercy that he wouldn’t be one of them.
He had to hide. The stable?
No, any building would be likely to be attacked. He needed somewhere no one would look. Or even if they did look, they wouldn’t find him.
Andre grinned. It’d be smelly. And uncomfortable. And dirty.
Luckily, he was used to that.
He ran to the manure pile behind the stable. The mound of steaming horse shit rose a score feet high in places, big enough to hide even him.
Andre grabbed a shovel and hollowed out the base of the pile. Once the hole was a half-dozen feet deep, he threw the tool inside and looked around. A tube normally used to channel water was nearby.
Perfect. He’d need that for air. In it went, sticking a few inches outside the base of the hole, and he climbed in.
His nose was generally accustomed to the smell of horse dung, but being underneath the pile was a whole different thing altogether.
He winced as he used the shovel to cave the shit around him.
And there he spent the most miserable night of his life, buried in a pile of steaming, stinking manure. Unable to see or hear. Hot. Sweating.
And there was nothing he could do to keep it from penetrating every part of him. His nose. Ears.
Mouth.
Ugh!
Finally, he could take it no more. Even his very life wasn’t worth spending another minute under the pile. He slowly poked his head out.
Daylight. He’d survived the night. And there were no soldiers about.
Perfect.
Andre looked toward the stable. Or what used to be the stable.
Scorched piles of timbers were all that remained.
His horses! His beautiful horses.
He clawed his way out of the pile and ran to the building. None of them were left. Carcasses occupied where the stalls used to be. Such a waste.
Nothing lived.
When he got closer, though, something moved. Kind of. Twitched. Face up in the horse trough. A person.
A girl.
He rushed to her. Her face was horribly burned, but she lived.
Wait. He recognized that body.
It couldn’t be.
It was.
Lady Ashley.
THE END
If you enjoyed this novel, you’ll love the sequel, Wizard’s Strike, scheduled to be published in 2018. You might miss it—and miss out—unless you’re receiving notifications about my releases. For that and a free copy of my novella prequel, Abuse of Power—not to mention other free exclusive content, sneak previews, offers, and other updates—subscribe to my email newsletter at:
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About the Author
Brian W. Foster is a speculative fiction writer whose works include the epic fantasy Rise of the Mages series and the superhero genre series, Repulsive.
Brian lives in California with his wonderful wife and two adorable kids. He is a season ticket holder for the New Orleans Saints, plays in two dynasty fantasy football leagues, enjoys strategy board games, and is a registered professional engineer (mechanical) in the state of Louisiana. He also has a tendency to write segments like this one in the third person but feels strange about doing so.
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Acknowledgments and Edition Notes
You’ve heard that it takes a village to raise a child? Well, you should see how many people it takes to write a book! There are so many people I need to thank:
First and foremost, my kids, Little Man and Little Miss, for being my inspirations, and my wife, Amanda, both for encouraging (read “ordering”) me to start writing in the first place and for putting up with all the late nights.
Second is my sister, Tanya, who is, by far, my biggest cheerleader. She’s read everything I’ve written, and her help has been a tremendous asset.
Next come my beta readers. You would not believe how many lines, ideas, subplots, and character arcs have been touched by someone making an observation as simple as, “I don’t understand why …” They made the book so much better than it would have been otherwise. Carrie and Liberty did a fantastic job for me, and I can truly say that this book would have been a lot worse without their feedback.
The first thing anyone sees of a book, though, is its cover, and you may not have even purchased it had not my artist, Kerry Hynds, done such a fantastic job.
And I really could not have provided a quality product to you without the services of my copy editor, Melissa Carmean.
A special thanks to the photographer who took my author’s photo, Angel Johnson of Angelface Multimedia, LLC.
And finally, no writer performs well as an island. The community at the KBoards Writers’ Café provided me with so much knowledge and inspiration. If you’re an aspiring indie author, you need to be reading the posts there.
Gryphon was first published on 08/17/2017 and has not been altered.
Table of Contents
Prologue
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Epilogue
About the Author
Acknowledgments and Edition Notes
Gryphon (Rise of the Mages Book 2) Page 54