Chronicles of Den'dra - Spencer Johnson Page 0,189
with a shocked look in his eyes as he raised the dirk to meet Mosn. He wasn’t fast enough, Mosn’s blade was already piercing his chest. Mosn stepped back and saw what he had done. His side hurt. Not like it had been cut but rather like he had run into a blunt edge like a table. The thug’s hand that held the dirk was encased in a light blue crystal that matched the crystal dagger handle that was sticking out of the man’s chest. If it hadn’t been blunted by the strangely flickering crystal… Mosn absently rubbed his bruised side. The reprobate was gasping for breath and coughing up blood now. Veins of the blue crystal were quickly growing out from around the dagger. In the span of a few seconds, there was a man shaped pillar of crystal. A moment later, the crystal shattered into dust and disappeared leaving no trace of the man.
“What are you?” Minean was looking in terror at Mosn where he sat in the dust of the road where he had fallen after the frantic attack.
“I don’t know.” Mosn cast a glance over his shoulder and saw no trace of the other attacker.
“Take it. It isn’t much, but take it and leave. You have to leave. I won’t tell anyone what I saw. You have to leave!” Mosn looked back and stared blankly at Minean. She was holding her blouse closed with one hand and held a handful of coppers and silvers in the other hand. A couple of the coins fell out of her hand she was shaking so badly.
“I don’t want it.” He didn’t want what had happened. He didn’t want pity. He didn’t want charity. Most of all, he didn’t want to be Gifted. That was the only explanation for what had happened.
“Don’t be foolish boy. Take it and get out of this valley. You heard them. The landmaster wants you dead. He will also want to know what happened to the men he sent after you.” Minean pried Mosn’s hand open and dropped the coins into his palm before picking up the ones that had fallen from her shaking hand. Adding these to the ones in his hand, she pulled up her skirts with her free hand and ran towards her farm leaving Mosn sitting in the dust. He realized that she hadn’t been scared of him. She had been scared by his Gift’s manifestation, but she was more terrified of what she knew about the landmaster. If he would have an innocent boy murdered, there was not likely to be much that he wouldn’t consider unthinkable. The fact that he was willing to do it for a favored relative meant no one was safe if they ran afoul of his plots.
There was nothing to do. Mosn pulled himself to his feet. Swatting some of the dust off his clothes, he started back down the road following his original course. Three silver and eight copper. Enough for a couple meals or a sack of flour. Not that it mattered. He was Gifted. He expected that people would see it on his face. Unconsciously he scrubbed his forehead to try and remove the mark that must be there. Something caught the sun. A bright flash of blue.
The ring glinted in the light the same way that the sallow man’s dirk had. It conformed to his finger like it had always been there. He couldn’t remember if it hadn’t. The smooth polished metal wasn’t ornate. As smooth as it was, the light reflected as if off of irregular facets on a gem he had once seen on the landmaster’s finger. An oval flattened spot fit facets that rose out of the metal to hold the only adornment. A light blue gem that blazed in the light. Not quite a gem, more of a crystal. Mosn fingered it and frowned. It looked old and new at the same time. He didn’t remember putting it on. He couldn’t remember how long it had been since he received it. For that matter, he couldn’t remember how he had received it. It was on his finger and was of no more consequence. How long it had been there wasn’t important.
The road sign he passed was nothing more than characters that he couldn’t read. It didn’t matter. The road only went to one place. Away from Yrany and anyone that knew him.
####
And so here it is at long last. The second book in the series. I made the mistake of giving myself a deadline for finishing it. Deadlines are very annoying things. They have the power to enter your dreams and cause stress. Next time someone asks when my next book is going to be released, I will politely tell them that it will be when it will be and no later. Don’t get me wrong, I greatly appreciate knowing that people are interested enough in my work to ask about the next installment. It is just that I do my best work when I am not worrying about arbitrary deadlines.
Thanks for reading Chronicles of Den’dra and please leave a review. The stats supposedly suggest that at least one in twenty readers will leave a review. I am at less than one in a hundred. Even if you don’t leave a review, I hope you enjoyed the book. Know that I am working on the next one in the series. In it, I hope to wrap up events in Den’dra, but there is an expanded storyline that I am exploring. Perhaps a follow-up series.