by K L Reinhart
“Our contact, she is alive?” Terak said hopefully.
“She is.” The father nodded. “But she could not return with us to the Black Keep.” He frowned slightly, licking his lips as though debating what to tell Terak. A silent nod to himself brought the man to a decision. “Mother Galda is a leading figure amongst the Everdell Elves, but one who does not follow the same Old Ways that Lord Alathaer of the Brilliant Host does. She has had to return to the Everdell to maintain her secrecy, but she allowed us to begin translating the Loranthian Scroll.”
“And we’ll be able to close the gates?” Terak asked hopefully, trying to push himself up again. His limbs felt more like his own now and less like warm custard.
“We intend to destroy the gates, Novitiate.” The Chief External’s voice was serious. “Every last block. But it will take time. Not even Mother Galda knew how to use the translator, and we have an even smaller inkling of its workings. The scroll might take many months to fully offer up its secrets.” He looked up, his serious tone giving way to a grin. “But we can now start the process of fixing the world, and that is thanks to you and Father Ella.”
Another strange feeling surged through the elf: pride.
“Now, I must attend to my own bed, and you must rest,” the Chief External said, turning to leave.
But there was another thing on Terak’s mind, and one that wouldn’t wait. “Chief, sir, Novitiate Mendes . . .”
The chief halted with one hand on the door. He turned slowly back around.
“What of him? He vanished the same day that you left with Father Ella, and even though the Enclave has sent out search parties, no one has found his body.” The chief frowned at Terak. “Do you know something of his disappearance? We thought perhaps he went mad with grief from the loss of his friend at the shrine.”
He did, Terak thought as a wave of icy cold dread settled through his body, eradicating the warm comfort from just moments earlier.
What would the chief do if he knew the truth? Terak thought. That the Mordhuk killed Mendes and saved me—twice! But Terak knew that this man had dedicated his life to completely removing any trace of Ungol—such as the Mordhuk—from his world.
Would he understand that Terak and an Ungol demon had together killed a novitiate of the Enclave?
“Only the dead know all the paths we must take in this world,” Terak quoted, looking out the window.
Father Jacques stayed silent for a moment, and when his voice came back, it was grim. “Yes, we all walk our own paths, and Novitiate Mendes has chosen his,” he said firmly.
When Terak looked across to Father Jacques’s eyes once more, he saw the man regarding him carefully.
“You should be very proud of what you accomplished for the Black Keep, Terak. You and Father Ella chased off an orc warband! And I know from experience that orcs can be very hard to kill.” The man’s hand unconsciously went to the ruined knuckle of his severed finger. “Having an orc warband so close to the Black Keep is a dire warning indeed. It means that we must decipher the scroll quickly!”
“The Hexan sent them,” Terak remembered Rukmol saying.
“What did you just say?” A new intensity took over Father Jacques’s voice.
“They captured us, all of us,” Terak explained what had happened that night, leaving out the bits about the Mordhuk and his fight with Mendes. “The orcs said that the Hexan sent them to capture Mother Galda. They were to take whatever trinket she had back—to the Hexan.”
The Chief External made a low growl in the back of his throat.
“I wish Mother Galda had known this and told us earlier!” he said.
Terak stared in alarm at his human mentor.
“Why? What does it mean?”
The Chief External turned away, looking up at the open window, which displayed the cold, gray mountain skies.
“The Hexan are a cult that we thought had been eradicated from the lands. They serve the demon princes and monstrous lords of Ungol. If they are back, then they will be hell-bent on keeping the gates open and ushering in their nightmare masters.”
The man’s voice went low.
“And if they sent the orcs, then it means one thing: others know that we have the Loranthian Scroll and are already working to stop us.”
THANK YOU
Thank you so much for reading Night Born, the first book in the Dagger of the World epic fantasy series. As an unspeakable horror approaches, Terak must discover his destiny if the world stands any hope of repelling the demonic hoards from the Ungol realm.
The next story in the Dagger of the World series is called Battle Born and will be available soon, so keep an eye out for it on Amazon.
While you’re waiting for the next story, you should check out the Brindle Dragon series which follows a girl destined to fly with dragons and save the world. But before any of that can happen, she must be chosen by a dragon.
Get Chosen here:
amazon.com/dp/B07LCT7ZCN
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