A Land Of Fire (Book 12) (22 page)
Read A Land Of Fire (Book 12) Online
Authors: Morgan Rice
Gwen lay nearly lifeless on the deck of
the ship, her body feeling so heavy, barely stirring as a rat crawled over her
wrist. She opened her eyes, so heavy, not having the energy to brush it off. She
felt herself burning with fever, every muscle in her body aching, on fire. She
saw that she was lying face-first on the wooden plank, her ear to the wood, the
hollow sound below echoing in her head of the ocean lapping against the ship.
The early morning sun spread out over
them like a blanket, and as she lay there, she opened her eyes just enough to
see all the bodies sprawled out on the ship. She saw hundreds of her people,
none of the moving, either too weak to move—or, she hated to think it, already
dead. She thought of the baby, somewhere with Illepra, and prayed she was still
alive.
Gwen slipped in and out of
consciousness, the gentle rocking motion of the ocean keeping her awake. A
flapping noise pervaded her dreams, and Gwen looked up, squinting, to see the
mast, high up, a lone sail, flapping in the wind. The ship was drifting
aimlessly at sea, no one manning it, at the mercy of a random breeze and
wherever the ocean tides should take them.
Gwen had never felt more exhausted, not
even when she’d been pregnant with Guwayne. She felt as if she had lived too
many lifetimes, and a part of her felt that it did not have the strength to go
on. A part of her felt as if she had already lived far longer than she was
supposed to, and she did not know how she could muster the strength to keep
going, to start all over again, even if they ever found the Empire. Especially
without Thor, without her baby, and with all her people in such a state. If
they were even alive.
Gwen let her head drop back down to the
deck, it feeling too heavy, ready to give in. She tried to keep her eyes open,
but she could not.
Thor
, she thought
. I love you. If
you find our son, raise him well. Raise him to remember me. To dream of me.
Tell him how much I loved him.
Gwen slipped out of consciousness for
she did not know how long, until she was awakened by a distant noise, from high
above. It was a lone screech, high up in the clouds, sounding so distant Gwen
did not even know if she had really heard it.
The screech came again, insistent, and
she dimly recognized it as that of an animal she knew from somewhere in her
life. It sounded as if it were trying to rouse her.
It invaded her consciousness, refusing
to let her sleep, to slip away—until finally, Gwen opened her eyes, recognizing
it.
Estopheles.
Thor’s falcon screeched incessantly,
then swooped down, until Gwen felt it grazing her hair. Gwen lifted her head,
brushed the rat off her hand, and with all her strength, she pushed hard, and
got herself up to one knee.
Gwen rose, struggling, on shaky legs,
and grabbed the rail on the side of the ship; with all her might, she pulled
herself up, just enough to see over the rail.
There, laid out before her, was a sight
she would never forget. Lying before her, filling the horizon, was land. It was
a land unlike any she had ever seen, a city perched on the ocean, and in its
center, shrouded in mist, two enormous stone pillars rising hundreds of feet
into the sky, heralding a great city, a city of shining gold, sparkling in the
sun like the entrance to heaven.
The ocean here was a foaming,
fluorescent red, and it crashed against the shore, its glowing foam shooting up
into the air, a shoreline of infinite variety, with endless contours and
terrains, making the Ring seem minuscule. The two suns were huge in this sky,
and beneath them, the red glow hung over everything, making it look like a land
of fire.
Gwen took one final look at it,
enthralled, and then she reeled, dizzy from hunger, burning from fever, and
crashed onto the deck. She lay there, feeling the tides pulling them in.
If they lived, soon, they would be
there.
The Empire.
Dead or alive, they had made it.
Thor sprinted, charging up the
mountaintop, keeping his eyes fixed on those tribesmen in the distance, winding
their way up the volcano and carrying his son. Thor gasped as he ran, his
brothers right behind him, his son in his sights, so close, hardly a few hundred
yards away, determined to reach him or to die trying.
The entourage of tribesmen bore his son
over their heads, on poles, in a small bassinet, bobbing up and down as they
hiked. Thor saw the smoldering volcano, and he knew they were taking Guwayne to
it, to sacrifice him.
Thor’s heart was breaking inside as he
urged his legs to go faster. He felt every muscle, every fiber of his being,
about to explode; what he would give now for Mycoples.
Thor knew he had to do something.
“GUWAYNE!” he shrieked.
The group of tribesmen turned and saw
Thor, and their eyes opened wide in panic. Thor did not wait, but hurled the
spear in his hand with all his might, sending it flying fifty yards up the
steep mountain slope, and watching with satisfaction as it pierced one of the
tribesmen carrying his son in the back. The man screamed and collapsed.
The rest of the tribesmen, though,
picked up the slack, and they took off at a jog, running Guwayne higher up the
mountaintop. Thor chased after them, but he had no other spears to throw.
“GUWAYNE!” Thor shouted again, his voice
echoing off the mountains.
Thor ran and ran, and he realized that
he was gaining on them, able to move faster than the tribesmen. He was but
seventy yards away…sixty…fifty. Thor ran faster, encourage, feeling confident
that he could reach them in time. He would kill each and every one of them,
rescue his boy, and bring him back to Gwendolyn.
Barely thirty yards away, Thor was
getting close enough to see the panicked men’s expressions. They were no match
for Thor’s speed, the speed of a man with his entire life on the line. He ran
like a man possessed, more determined than he’d been for anything in his life.
Thor ran up the narrow mountain pass,
narrowing, right on the edge of the cliff, running with everything that he had.
They were hardly ten yards away now, just close enough for him to begin to draw
his sword, to leap into the air, to butcher them. Thor reached down for the
hilt of his sword—
And that was when it happened.
Suddenly, Thor felt an odd sensation
beneath his feet, and he felt himself unsteady. Thor looked down and watched,
in horror, as the path started to collapse.
Before Thor could react, the road gave
way, caught up in a landslide, a giant avalanche. Thor found himself slipping,
then falling, straight down the steep downslide, the mountain turning to mud,
softened by the rains. He slid uncontrollably, down the mud, faster and faster,
down hundreds of feet, shrieking, all his brothers sliding with him.
Thor spun around as he fell, looked up,
and he saw his boy, so far away from him now, getting farther with each passing
second.
“GUWAYNE!” Thor shrieked.
His shriek echoed off the mountains,
again and again, the scream of a father losing a son, of a man losing
everything he’d had.
*
Guwayne felt himself bouncing as the
tribesmen carried him to the top of the volcano. He squinted his eyes at the
thick smoke, finding it hard to breathe. His bassinet was hot, and he cried and
cried, wanting to go down.
Guwayne heard a distant shriek, echoing
off the mountains, and he recognized the voice. It was the sound of his father.
Guwayne wanted to be with him, wanted to
be where he was. But the shriek faded, echoing away, and Guwayne knew that he
was, once again, alone in the universe, left only with these strange men who
looked down at him with hate.
Guwayne soon felt his bassinet lowered,
and he looked over the edge and saw beneath him an endless flaming pit down
into the earth. The heat was so intense here, the smoke rising up, and as the
men set him down, he saw one of the men remove something shiny from his belt.
It was sharp, and it glistened as he held it high, clutching it in his hand.
Guwayne screamed. He did not know what
it was, but he knew that it was meant for him.
He screamed a scream to match his father’s,
and it echoed off the mountain range, bouncing back to him, a scream that he
knew would go unanswered.
*
On a lonely beach at the edge of the
Land of the Druids, there came a slight tremor in the ground. The tremor grew
and grew, as the waves receded, and the sands bristled, and the chirping of
birds and the calls of beasts quieted. Something amazing was happening, even
for here, in the Land of the Druids, something that happened only once in
centuries.
There was a sole object on this beach,
one that remained here after Thorgrin and Mycoples had left, an object that was
sitting there, alone, waiting.
As the morning sun shone down on it,
there came a slight crack in the single dragon egg. The little dragon within it
reached up and pushed against the shell, and the shell cracked again.
And again.
In moments, the perfectly still and
silent air was breached by a single sound—a long, sharp cry. It was the cry of
a new life coming onto the planet.
A dragon emerged, smashing the egg,
rearing its head, spreading its wings, as the egg shattered to pieces all
around it, sprinkling down onto the sand.
The dragon leaned back and arched its
neck, and looked to the skies. The world was new. Everything was new. He did
not understand it at all.
But he knew, deep down, that it was his.
This world was his. All his. That nothing on this planet was stronger than he.
The dragon threw back its head and
screeched, a high-pitched noise, soft at first, but growing louder by the
second. Soon, he knew, it would be strong enough to destroy the world.
COMING SOON!
BOOK #13 IN THE
SORCERER’S RING
About Morgan
Rice
Morgan
Rice is the #1 Bestselling author of THE VAMPIRE JOURNALS, a young adult series
comprising ten books (and counting), which has been translated into six
languages. Book #1 in the series, TURNED, is available as a
free
download
on Amazon!
Morgan
is also author of the #1 Bestselling ARENA ONE and ARENA TWO, the first two books
in THE SURVIVAL TRILOGY, a post-apocalyptic action thriller set in the future.
Morgan
is also author of the #1 Bestselling epic fantasy series THE SORCERER’S RING,
comprising twelve books and counting. Book #1 in the series, A QUEST OF HEROES,
is available is a
free
download
on Amazon!
Morgan
loves to hear from you, so please feel free to visit
www.morganricebooks.com
to stay in
touch.