The Darkness Comes (The Second Book of the Small Gods Series) (39 page)
Read The Darkness Comes (The Second Book of the Small Gods Series) Online
Authors: Bruce Blake
Death’d soon be his and, even worse, he did a shit job o’ warnin’ Thorn ‘bout the man creepin’ up on him. As the air in Horace’s lungs began to burn, he wished he’d never’ve let the little feller go off on his own. If they’d stayed together, maybe thin’s might’ve turned out different’n both o’ them endin’ up dead.
Horace closed his eyes, awaitin’ his end to come, when the hands holdin’ him under jerked him up. His head broke the surface, the briny sea runnin’ outta his hair and offa his cheeks, and for the second time in his life, the ol’ sailor gasped a breath he weren’t never expectin’ to take. He blinked hard a bunch o’ times to clear the ocean outta his eyes and breathed as many times as he could, thinkin’ he’d get submerged again.
He didn’t.
“I can’t do it,” the man holdin’ onto him said.
The feller appeared to be younger’n Horace himself and didn’t look no different’n anyone else. His face didn’t hold no monstrous aspect—no deep scar, no nasty-lookin’ eyes like Horace might’ve expected from a man meanin’ to kill him.
The same might not be said o’ the giant loomin’ behind him.
The man—if he were a man—didn’t respond to his companion. The skin on his muddy-brown forehead wrinkled as though he didn’t appreciate what the feller had to say. He blinked his muddy-brown eyes once and straightened, adjusted Thorn’s limp body what he carried thrown over one shoulder.
Horace opened and closed his mouth a couple o’ times. His brain told him he should do somethin’—fight or try to escape—but his muscles’d gone as liquidy as the sea lappin’ ‘round his ball sack what was tryin’ to crawl back up inside him. He’d nothin’ to do other’n suck air into his chest and consider beggin’ for his life, but his lungs never got full enough for his mouth to consider makin’ sounds.
The giant took a step back and gestured with his free hand for his companion to stand Horace up. The tiniest spark o’ hope flashed to life deep inside the ol’ sailor—did this mean they was fixin’ to let him go? Maybe, but they wasn’t seemin’ they’d do the same for Thorn.
The man who’d tackled Horace shifted himself ‘round behind the ol’ sailor, grabbin’ his arms and holdin’ him upright, fully exposin’ him to the giant standin’ before him.
The big feller were the same muddy-brown all o’er, as though he’d fallen in a dirty puddle after a hard rain and never bothered washin’ himself. Sunlight glistened on his smooth skin, accentin’ muscles what looked sculpted rather’n grown. Not that he cared ‘bout such thin’s, but danglin’ between his legs, the man had the biggest cock the ol’ sailor’d ever seen.
Horace shook his head and finally found his voice.
“Let Thorn go,” he wheezed.
The big feller didn’t act as though he heard, but the man holdin’ Horace leaned his lips in close to his ear and spoke: “A Small God shall fall so the Small Gods might rise.”
A mighty shiver found its way along Horace’s limbs, one not caused by the sea breeze blowin’ on his wet self. The big feller standin’ in front o’ him raised his arm and extended a finger toward Horace’s chest.
“Don’t kill him, Ves,” the man at Horace’s back said. “You don’t need to kill him.”
The clay-lookin’ man hesitated, his big, brownish finger hoverin’ in the air a few handspans from Horace. The ol’ sailor stared at it hangin’ there and the world ‘round him became more clear. Waves washed up against his legs, movin’ his breeches; gulls cried out o’erhead, their calls near drowned by the splash o’ the ocean rollin’ onto the shore; he caught a whiff o’ clay and knew the thin’ weren’t no man.
“Please,” Horace squeaked before the muddy-brown fingertip touched his breast bone.
It didn’t hurt. It didn’t feel like nothin’. The cold o’ the sea water soakin’ his clothes went away. The achy exhaustion in his limbs disappeared. The painful rib pokin’ him stopped hurtin’. He stared at the man standin’ in front o’ him and sensed the one holdin’ him from behind; he heard the waves lappin’ ‘round their legs, but there weren’t a thin’ he felt, inside or out.
The big feller nodded and then Horace were fallin’ backward because the man what’d been grabbin’ him let go. The ol’ sailor hauled a breath in before his head went back under, the sea rushin’ in ‘round his face, though he couldn’t feel its chilly salt fingers. A few skippin’ heartbeats later, Horace bobbed to the surface, floatin’ on his back. Water ran outta eyes he were unable to blink and he stared straight up into the sky.
Horace attempted speakin’, but his mouth and tongue and throat refused to work for nothin’ but takin’ breaths. Weren’t nothin’ movin’ on the ol’ sailor, though the splashin’ o’ the two men wadin’ back to shore reached his ears as they carried his friend Thorn away.
They mean to kill him.
He didn’t understand what the feller meant ‘bout Small Gods risin’—it didn’t sound too good to Horace—but there weren’t nothin’ to do right then. After near thirty-five turns o’ the seasons with his feet on the deck o’ one ship and another, Horace knew enough to realize the tide were ebbin’ and the current were goin’ to carry him out with it.
High o’erhead, the black bird Thorn’d called Father Raven circled once, twice, then straightened his course, flyin’ in the direction o’ sunrise and leavin’ Horace alone with the sea.
***#
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Epic Fantasy Also Available From Bruce Blake:
Khirro’s Journey:
Book 1 –
Blood of the King
Book 2 –
Spirit of the King
Book 3 –
Heart of the King
Blood of the King (Khirro’s Journey Book 1)
;“Blood of the King is a masterpiece. It is as close to perfection as I would consider a book to be.”- Ella Medler, author of Blood is Heavier
A kingdom torn by war. A curse whispered by dying lips. A hero born against his will.
Khirro never wanted to be anything more than the farmer he was born to be, but a Shaman’s curse binds him to the fallen king and his life changes forever.
Driven by the Shaman’s dying words, Khirro’s journey pits him against an army of the dead, sends him through haunted lands, and thrusts him into the jaws of beasts he wouldn’t have believed existed. In one hand he carries the Shaman’s enchanted sword, a weapon he can barely use; in the other he holds a vial of the king’s blood, the hope of the kingdom. His destination: the Necromancer’s keep in the cursed land of Lakesh. Only the mysterious outlaw magician can raise the king from the dead to save them all from the undead invasion, but can Khirro live long enough to deliver the vial?
Can a coward save a kingdom?
;“Blake has a knack for bringing you into the story”
;“Mr. Blake’s writing is masterful and clear, he draws you into his story and when its finished you feel like you’re leaving an old friend.”
Urban Fantasy Also Available From Bruce Blake:
The Icarus Fell Novels:
Unfaithful Wings (Icarus Fell #1)
;“The next book in this series cannot come out soon enough for this reader. Not just my favorite Kindle book of the year, but one of my favorite books ever.”
;“I loved this book.”
;“Bruce Blake’s On Unfaithful Wings is a great urban fantasy novel. I love good character development in a story’s protagonist and Blake nails it with Icarus Fell. I found myself rooting for him from the get go and laughing out loud at some of his observations.”
;“On Unfaithful Wings was an impressive first novel. All of the characters were interesting and engaging, but in particular the main character and his struggle to reconcile with his new identity/job. This is one of those stories that stays with me long after I read it and I’ll be on the lookout for more from this author.”
To some, death is the end; to others, a beginning. To Icarus Fell, it should have been a relief from a life gone seriously awry. But death had other plans.
Icarus doesn’t believe that the man awaiting him when he wakes up in a cheap motel room is really the archangel Michael, or that God’s right hand wants him to help souls on their way to Heaven. Icarus doesn’t believe there’s a Heaven, so why should they want his help?
But the man claiming to be the archangel tempts him with an offer he can’t ignore—harvest enough souls and get back the life he wished he’d had. It seems Icarus has nothing to lose, until he botches a harvest and the soul that went to Hell instead of Heaven comes back to make him pay by threatening to take away the life he hoped to win back.
To save the wife and son he already lost once, Icarus will have to become the man he never was. Somehow, he will have to learn to believe.
;“This is just, simply, amazing. Icarus is one of the best characters I’ve ever “met”, chock full of virtues and faults and doubts and worries and a simple HUMANNESS that comes through so clearly, I almost expect to run into him around the next corner.”
“Icarus Fell is a flawed man but a wonderful character. From the moment I started reading On Unfaithful Wings I was pulled along by this interesting character and wanting to know what would happen next.”
About the Author
Bruce Blake lives on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. When pressing issues like shovelling snow and building igloos don’t take up his spare time, Bruce can be found taking the dog sled to the nearest coffee shop to work on his short stories and novels.
Actually, Victoria, B.C. is only a couple hours north of Seattle, Wash., where more rain is seen than snow. Since snow isn’t really a pressing issue, Bruce spends more time trying to remember to leave the “u” out of words like “colour” and “neighbour” then he does shovelling. The father of two, Bruce is also the trophy husband of burlesque
diva Miss Rosie Bitts.
Bruce has been writing since grade school but it wasn’t until five years ago he set his sights on becoming a full-time writer. Since then, his first short story, “Another Man’s Shoes” was published in the Winter 2008 edition of
Cemetery Moon
, another short, “Yardwork”,was made into a podcast in Oct., 2011 by
Pseudopod
. His first Icarus Fell novel, “On Unfaithful Wings”, published to Kindle in Dec., 2011, was selected as a semi-finalist in the Kindle Book Review Best Indie Books of 2012. The second Icarus Fell novel, “All Who Wander Are Lost”, was released in July, 2012, and “Blood of the King”, the first book in the three-part “Khirro’s Journey” epic fantasy, followed in September. He has plans for at least three more Icarus novels, the rest of The Small Gods series, several stand alones, and a possible YA fantasy co-written with his twelve-year-old daughter.
License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to the ebook store and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.
Second Edition, 2015
Copyright 2013, Bruce Blake
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form of by any electronic or mechanical means, including information and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review,
This is a work of fiction, names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
ISBN 978-1-927687-11-6
Table of Contents
VIII Danya - Temple of the Goddess