“Yes,” the girl sighed, squirming in tired excitement. “And they will tell me everything.”
Honai kissed the child’s forehead but paused at the doorway to the chamber. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled, and the wrongness she sensed quickly became a sound. It mocked the flapping of Lord Kartney’s banner in the wind, posted high above the watchtower. Many nights, it was the only sound outside the castle. But this noise was no banner. It was louder, thicker, splitting through the air with intent. In a matter of seconds, a calm night of normalcy shredded into terror. It had finally come.
She turned toward the window, knowing the truth and fearing it all the more. There hovered a great red drackan from the High Hills, head stretched out tight on its neck, body hovering with the rhythmic beat of its wings. The drackan’s armored scales shone in the firelight—brown with a tinge of fiery, metallic red. The broad wings almost scraped against the cold outer stone of the tower as it pushed a dignified head through the opening almost too small for it. The length of its neck crossed the room toward the child’s bed.
The girl had pushed herself up, wide-eyed and glowing with excitement.
The seconds stretched long and thin before Honai’s wits scattered, and she screamed. A voice, much louder than it should have been, echoed through the room. It came from the beast itself, though the bone-crushing jaw never moved, the eyes never left the child’s face. A bodiless, sexless voice, dark and ancient.
‘You do believe in us, fledgling. I think it high time you had your wish.’
Honai stared in mute horror as the beast’s ridged snout hovered above the child’s legs. The girl reach out a tiny hand, steady and calm. Glassy, intelligent eyes passed between the hand and the small face. Judging. Waiting.
“I am not afraid,” the child stated boldly and lightly touched the creature.
When finally Honai could move again, her terror rushed her out of the chamber and through the castle. She ran down the stone halls, bumping against the corners as she turned through the corridors.
She finally reached the dining hall where Lord Kartney sat drinking with his men. “Milord,” she gasped.
The dark-haired lord turned from the table to look at her with a half-smile still playing across his lips. He noted her concern and stood abruptly, the smile fading into a worried frown. “What is it, Honai?”
The woman stumbled and fell to her knees at his feet. “Milord, a... a drackan... in the child’s room...”
He whispered his daughter’s name and brusquely turned to his men. Wordlessly, they followed him through the castle halls. The drackan’s diminishing tail vanished through the open window just as they burst through the door. Kartney unsheathed his sword and rushed to the window, wildly slashing out, but the bare steel caught only the frigid night air.
A scream of fear and misery echoed from the tower of Brijer Turret, lasting almost as long as it took for the child’s bed to grow cold.
Dedication
For anyone who has ever had to make that impossible decision. May you remember why you did it.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to everyone who read this book before publication and to all those who have traveled east and farther east with Kherron to the end.
To the original Miehel (he knows who he is), who literally asked to become part of the journey, thanks for all the support. May you and Morin raise many yaks together.
As always, I must and forever will thank my husband Henry, who puts up with my one-track writer’s brain and makes it possible for this to be my sole focus.
About the Author
International Bestselling Author Kathrin Hutson has been writing Dark Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and LGBTQ Speculative Fiction since 2000. With her wildly messed-up heroes, excruciating circumstances, impossible decisions, and Happily Never Afters, she’s a firm believer in piling on the intense action, showing a little character skin, and never skimping on violent means to bloody ends.
In addition to writing her own dark and enchanting fiction, Kathrin spends the other half of her time as a fiction ghostwriter of almost every genre, as Fiction Co-Editor for Burlington’s Mud Season Review, and as Director of TopShelf Interviews for TopShelf Magazine. She is a member of both the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and the Horror Writers Association. Kathrin lives in Vermont with her husband, their young daughter, and their two dogs, Sadie and Brucewillis.
For updates on new releases, exclusive deals, and dark surprises you won’t find anywhere else, sign up to Kathrin’s newsletter at kathrinhutsonfiction.com/newsletter.
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COPYRIGHT
Books by Kathrin Hutson
GYENONA’S CHILDREN (Dark Fantasy)
Daughter of the Drackan
Mother of the Drackan
THE UNCLAIMED (NA Dark Fantasy)
Sanctuary of Dehlyn
Secret of Dehlyn
Sacrament of Dehlyn
BLUE HELIX (Speculative Sci-Fi/LGBT Thriller)
Sleepwater Beat
Sleepwater Static
THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2018 Kathrin Hutson
Cover Design by Consuelo Parra
Model: Miss Mosh
Photographer: Marcus Ranum
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
ISBN 978-1-7322016-4-4 (Exquisite Darkness Press)
Sacrament of Dehlyn (The Unclaimed Book 3) Page 29