I spit in his face and struggle to free myself from his grip, now tightly squeezing around my throat. I gasp as his hand closes tighter around my throat. Luthen laughs as I squirm, my mouth gaping and empty of breath. He finally throws me down onto the stone and turns to leave.
“I expect you to watch her more closely,” he says to Luka, “unless you prefer to watch me torture her… again.” His voice cuts through us like a sharpened blade.
Luthen leaves me feeling vile. I press myself against the silent, clean stone. My fire is drowned by the sorrow of what I’ve forgotten.
“Astrid,” says Luka, “please don’t slip away again.” He kneels down and scoops me up into his arms. “Please… please.”
I turn away from him and hide my face in the comfort of dark shimmering silk.
“Just let me die.”
About the Author
B.R. Nicholson has been writing and illustrating her stories since she was a child. The Shadows of Time series began one night when she was fifteen. Bored and with a bed stacked high with books, she decided to fill a notebook with what would become the first draft of Shadow Maiden.
B.R. Nicholson is currently a nursing student at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina.
Eager for more? Check out my blog at http://briana-rene-nicholson.blogspot.com/ and Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ShadowsOfTimeSeries for artwork and updates about the series.
Thank you!
Preview from Shadow Kingdom
Nathaniel shook the water from his thick leather hood. His horse, Drifter, nudged Nathaniel’s head, whinnying anxiously over the sudden stop.
“Hush now my old friend. We wouldn’t want the sky to tumble down upon us, now would we?” Nathaniel could see Drifter’s gaze turn toward him. The horse hushed his whinnying. However, he continued to twitch his tail impatiently. “Lisbeth, hold the reins while I see if the path is clear.”
A small hunched-over bundle peered shuddered as a face peaked through from the hood. “Are you leaving us? What about the storm?” Her large eyes shone like coins in her small round face.
“Hush, child, you’ll startle Drifter with your whimpering. Now stay put. I’ll be back in but a moment,” he said in a deep rumble while he patted her on the leg. “The best thing you can do is to keep calm.”
Nathaniel turned and waded through the ankle deep mud down the unkempt mountain road. He didn’t bother picking his way through the muck like a chicken and risking losing a boot to the filth. He trudged through it, leaving two wide trenches behind him like wagon tracks. His strong legs kicked through the mud as if it were water in a stream.
The wind moaned as it bullied its way through the quaking trees. Naked limbs swayed and creaked, swollen with the weight of rain water. Branches lay haphazard across the road, but none big enough to inhibit their crossing.
Flashes of lightning illuminated his way. He could see parts of the road where crumbling black rock had fallen from the cliffs above, their shattered remains left to sink deep into the mud. He waited, listening for any signs of loosened rock. It would be risky, but the worst of the rockslide had seemed to have passed. Let’s pray lightning chooses not to strike twice tonight, he thought, yanking one leg free to turn around and trudge back to his small shivering sister.
Nathaniel and Lisbeth had been alone for what had been almost all of her life and at least half of his. He remembered, years ago, being a part of a family, having both a mother and father, but those memories seemed faded and locked away in a shroud of dust. The only time Nathaniel left for remembering their former life was once a year, on the day of their death, when he would take young, innocent Lisbeth to visit the place where their parents had been condemned by the people they called friend and burned alive. He could still see his mother and father’s contorted faces, writhing in pain and anguish, blurred by the hungry flames and the tears in his eyes.
Today is your anniversary, he thought, the thunder was muffled in his ears as he pushed forward, the rest of the world numb. For twelve years I’ve come and remembered you. Why must tonight be different?
His foot stopped dead, thudding against something solid half encased in mud. He looked down, his thoughts scattered like brittle autumn leaves.
Nathaniel reached out his hand to inspect what he had found. It didn’t look like a piece of rock, but his eyes were deceptive in the varying light. His fingers touched rough leather. He retracted, thinking maybe he had come across a fallen animal, maybe a wild boar that had lost its way far above in the jagged cliffs.
Lightning streaked across the sky far above his head, flooding the forest path with an explosion of light. A white face shone through the mud in that brief moment. Nathaniel’s heart leapt to his throat as he weakened and fell to his knees. His giant muscular hands tore the limp body from the sticky mud. He propped the body up in his arms, cradling it against the pounding rain like a child.
Nathaniel looked into the pale face, studying the angles and curves, the half-lidded eyes, the round blue-tinged lips. It was strangely calm and beautiful. He waited for breath. He pressed his ear to her still chest as the storm around him stood still.
One beat, that’s all I ask. Give me a sign, he thought, his body shivering and drained from any warmth. No one deserves to die like this.
He waited, his own heart pausing to listen. He was only greeted by silence.
Nathaniel lowered her, holding her battered body close to his broad chest.
“I don’t know who you were, but I’m sorry your life ended here. I’ll make sure you’re laid to rest somewhere peaceful,” he said, his voice thin and lost on the howling wind.
The pounding of hooves on the road ahead roused his attention from the corpse in his arms. Drifter burst into his sight, head flailing and nostrils flared. Streaks of blood glistened from wounds on the horse’s body. Lightning flashed and the breath from Nathaniel’s lips was stolen. Drifter’s saddle was empty. Lisbeth was gone.
“Lisbeth! LISBETH!” He bellowed her name, roaring until his voice cracked. Without hesitation, he hung the body over Drifter’s shoulders and hefted himself up, swinging his leg over the saddle. He grabbed the reins and turned the horse around. Drifter was immediately calmed by his master’s touch and sped away with only a tap of Nathaniel’s heel.
What had seemed like miles to Nathaniel as he forced his way through the deepening mud went by in mere seconds atop the mighty beast. He soon saw the familiar clearing and pulled hard on the reins. The small field was barren with the exception of a number of small craters he guess to be footprints left behind from Lisbeth’s captors.
Nathaniel roared, rearing his horse high and stomping the hooves deep into the mud. He had always feared this, his fear driving them to live deep in the mountains, away from the ignorance of the villages, away from where they could be hunted.
He peered down from his seat and followed the prints with his hardened gaze. They veered away from the mountain road and toward the main road that led straight into the village.
Shadow Queen Page 11