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Authors: Frank Morin

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Set in Stone

BOOK: Set in Stone
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Table of Contents

Title Page

Set In Stone

Acknowledgements

Map of Obrion

Map of Alasdair

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

Chapter 52

Chapter 53

Chapter 54

Chapter 55

Chapter 56

Chapter 57

Chapter 58

Chapter 59

Chapter 60

Chapter 61

Chapter 62

Chapter 63

Chapter 64

Chapter 65

Chapter 66

Chapter 67

Chapter 68

Chapter 69

Chapter 70

Chapter 71

Chapter 72

Chapter 73

Chapter 74

Chapter 75

Chapter 76

Chapter 77

Chapter 78

Chapter 79

Chapter 80

Chapter 81

Chapter 82

Chapter 83

Chapter 84

Chapter 85

Chapter 86

Chapter 87

Chapter 88

Chapter 89

Chapter 90

Chapter 91

Chapter 92

Chapter 93

Chapter 94

Chapter 95

Chapter 96

Chapter 97

Chapter 98

Chapter 99

Chapter 100

Petralist Stones

Sedimentary

About the Author

Author's Note

 

 

Set In Stone

 

Book One of

The Petralist

 

Frank Morin

Set In Stone

Book one of The Petralist

 

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

 

Copyright © 2015 by Frank Morin

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

 

Whipsaw Press

 

ISBN: 978-0-9899005-4-6

A Whipsaw Press Original

 

Edited by Joshua Essoe

(
http://www.joshuaessoe.com/
)

Cover art by Brad Fraunfelter

(
http://www.bfillustration.com/
)

Illustrations by Jared Blando

(
http://www.theredepic.com/
)

First Whipsaw printing, May 2015

Author photo by Jennifer Morin

 

 

 

Acknowledgements

 

As usual, there are more people to thank than I could hope to remember, but I'll make the attempt. First and foremost, my family. Kate and Kyle for helping generate the original idea and providing brutally honest feedback, Emily for her undying enthusiasm, and Jacob for comic relief. And my sweet Jenny for loving me, the biggest kid of them all.

Many people provided feedback across several versions as I tore apart the story and reassembled it like a Frenkenstein project. Special thanks to Michelle Wilber for asking the hard questions I sometimes wished she wouldn't. And for my very own team of Fast Rollers for feedback over ice cream: Jeffrey Steele, Adam Smith, Matt McLaughlin, and the Johnston clan. Remote members of the team included Truli Wright, Jesse Rudd, and Lee Ann Setzer. So much enthusiasm in such confined spaces can be dangerous.

Thanks to Joshua Essoe for a brilliant edit, Jared Blando for illustrations so much better than my hen-pecked, stick-figure drawings, and Brad Fraunfelter for a magnificent cover.

Many people influenced me for good and don't even know it. Or at least didn't openly mock me for my strange eccentricities. I count both as forms of support.

 

Prologue

 

The warm-faced midwife swaddled a screaming newborn baby boy, wrapped him in a homespun blanket, and handed the tiny soul to his eager new mother.

"You're lucky. He looks healthy despite the difficult labor."

Hendry, dressed in the worn, but clean clothing of a laborer, leaned over the birthing bed and wrapped his arms around Lilias, his wife, and their child. He blew out a relieved breath and his knotted muscles relaxed.

As they marveled at the baby's perfect, tiny hands and feet, Lilias whispered, "Welcome to our family, Connor."

The midwife crossed the whitewashed room to a small table next to a row of blocky stone cradles. She opened a thick ledger and thumbed to an empty page.

"With the rush to save the baby, I don't even have your names registered." Nodding toward the stone cradles she added, "We'll want to proceed with the testing straight away."

"Of course," Hendry said.

"You have the birth tax?"

"Of course," he said again and reached for the small leather purse at his belt.

"Good. You're a nice looking family. I hate seeing firstborn taken. Now, your formal names, please."

Before Hendry could respond, something crashed, like a door being slammed somewhere in the building. Shouting voices pounded past the birthing room, and another door slammed.

The midwife frowned and put down the quill. She headed for the paneled wood door that led into the rest of the birthing center, but it flew open before she reached it.

A young woman, barely more than a girl, stepped through, eyes wide and cheeks flushed. "It's High Lady Elspet! She's here, and the baby's coming early." She wrung her hands in her simple white linen dress and continued in a terrified voice, "There's problems."

The midwife's face paled and she rushed for the door. Pausing in the entrance, she called back to the new parents, "Wait here. I'll be back." She waved one hand toward the stone cradles. "Pick one and we'll test your son as soon as I return." She pushed past the young woman, who pulled the door closed behind them.

BOOK: Set in Stone
12.33Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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