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    To Birth a Destiny: Sacred Knight, #3
    To Birth a Destiny: Sacred Knight, #3
    To Birth a Destiny: Sacred Knight, #3
    Ebook407 pages4 hours

    To Birth a Destiny: Sacred Knight, #3

    By Dawn Blair

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    About this ebook

    The Sacred Knight series continues with this third installment. 

    Ensnared by an enchantment, Steigan rides out nightly to fight the demons emerging as a thousand year old spell begins to break. But the primeval creatures aren't the only ones awakening.

    After being wounded, Steigan's quest for a cure to heal his magical aura lands him face to face with The Destroyer of Civilizations. What other secrets does the land of Dubinshire hold?

    Far too soon, Steigan returns to Lilinar only to find all he once held dear turned askew and crumbling to pieces. Can he save the city he loves from destruction, or will he be too late? How far and at what costs will he go to in order to save the world?

    He will leave the past drenched in blood…

    To Birth a Destiny continues the epic fantasy saga of the Sacred Knight series.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMorning Sky Studios
    Release dateOct 12, 2013
    ISBN9781536541397
    To Birth a Destiny: Sacred Knight, #3
    Author

    Dawn Blair

    Come take an adventure with your multi-dimensional, time-traveling tour guide, Dawn Blair. Telling stories of noble hearts and fantastic places, Dawn enjoys creating stories full of action, fantasy, quests, and maybe a touch of technology.  For as long as she can remember, she's been telling stories, starting with tales of cats and dogs. No one ever dared to ask her to "imagine" something because it would send her creativity spinning. One fateful day, her grandmother, certainly tired of listening to the endless prater, sat Dawn down at a typewriter and told her to write the story out.  Growing up on a ranch in rural Nevada, she had plenty of time and space to let her imagination roam free. When she wasn't out playing or working in the alfalfa fields or swimming at the pool, she was at home typing away at her novels.  Dawn moved to Idaho and, after a second fateful day where an instructor taught her to see as an artist, her life expanded to include other creative endeavors: painting, illustrating, animating, and photography in addition to writing. They all became mediums for the way she could share stories. Soon, she had won numerous awards for writing, painting, and photography, as well as gaining readers and collectors worldwide. All while raising her two fantastic boys as a single mom.  Dawn decided to start recording audiobooks. Knowing nothing about the process, she began learning and transformed a simple home setup into a home studio, a sequence marked by a third fateful day in her life when she decided to quit dabbling and get serious. Dawn aims for improving her audio with each narrative tale she completes. Still in Idaho, Dawn spends every moment she can exploring strange worlds, seeking out brave lives and magical civilizations. She wants to touch your life with magic, open your mind, and make sure you will never be the same again. Let her show you the sights. Let's be on our way, shall we? Sign up for your adventures at: www.dawnblair.com

    Read more from Dawn Blair

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      Book preview

      To Birth a Destiny - Dawn Blair

      Prologue

      There are only two mentions of St. Steigan in the journals of Queen Keteria. This is one of those entries:

      I don't often write of my own personal life like many women do, for it is not my life that matters so much as what I do with my life. As such, this journal has always been a record of the magic in my life.

      Today I dare to make an exception.

      I give pause to wonder if I should preface this with a Dear Diary or not. Or maybe To Whom It May Concern would be more appropriate. Either way, I guess it doesn't matter as I do not know whose hands this journal will pass into when I am gone from here. Maybe it'll be lost among my many other books and shelved away, never seen at all. Maybe it'll be lost between dimensions where no one will ever find it.

      In the end, this is probably my own personal confession anyway. Who would notice one passage among hundreds?

      I think I am ready to write about it now.

      Dear Diary,

      Today I buried my father.

      Today I became Queen of Lilinar.

      Today I crushed the man who loved me.

      Three painful events on one day. I saw Steigan leave the Temple dressed in his dominus armor. I fear I may never see him again.

      Ithanes once told me that if I didn't help the champion, the champion of my heart, he would die.

      I am at a loss as what to do now. Never have I felt my magic seeping from me, nay, dying until now and I know it is due to the breaking of my heart.

      He is so powerful and yet so ignorant of that power. He is changed from the boy I knew. I fear what he might do. In the end, I am ultimately responsible for all the destruction he causes. Let there be no doubt: our world is about to break.

      This is the second of those entries:

      The magic, once my friend and ally, has now turned. With bitter heart it lashes out at all I love. It gushes from the bloodwave and sickens the world. If this continues, people will die.

      I know what I must do.

      Steigan, forgive me.

      That was also her last entry.

      Chapter 1

      They hate whom they fear.

      Quintus Ennius (Roman poet)

      There comes a time when memories do not serve a man. He must forget what he has seen in order to live again.

      Steigan knew unwanted thoughts chased him, plaguing his every waking moment, even into battle. Steigan wished tonight’s fight would clear his head and give him a moment’s reprieve, but it didn’t seem to be working.

      He wielded his swords, one in each hand, and hacked through the gargax before him. It crashed down at his feet and Steigan twirled the weapons to sink them deep through the gargax taking the blades all the way to the earth. The beast melted away. Drawing his swords out, he heard more behind him and turned. Two were flying in for him, a third wounded on the ground, and two more circled above the treetops.

      Welcoming the battle lust rising from Rivic’s enchantment, Steigan screamed as he ran forward toward the gargaxes within his reach. As he went, he plunged his sword into the wounded gargax on the ground. His hand came away from the hilt, leaving the blade planted in the ground. He grabbed his dagger from its sheath at his back and tossed it toward the nearest gargax.

      The small blade landed in the beast’s chest, not far from where its heart would’ve been if it had been a mortal creature of flesh.

      They were growing smart. He’d wanted the dagger to take out its wing, but instead, it had turned and flew into the thrown weapon, knowing that the blade couldn’t really hurt its body.

      Or could it?

      He’d been waiting to test this. Fas’co chilstrada raktu.

      The dagger turned bright, brilliant red. The gargax reached for it with its small claw-like hands to pull the blade out. The beast screamed as it burnt itself.

      If only he’d had magical training, understood his magic and had this fantastical control of it, then maybe he would’ve been able to save King Cirello.

      His own anger over the past rushed in and reinforced the compulsive need of Rivic’s enchantment to destroy the gargaxes. A new surge of energy fortified Steigan. Elixe'ist praten karmiden val'orishem noctada raliest, he said, focusing on the other gargax. Several blazing hot pellets whizzed through the air and slammed through the second gargax, putting multiple holes in its wings and body. He rounded back and pulled his sword out of the ground.

      The first gargax slammed into a tree, still panicking over the hot blade planted within its chest. Branches quivered as the beast fell out of the tree. Steigan walked over to it as the second gargax exploded into several rock pieces which pelted to the ground behind him. It would take a moment for the disassembled gargax to reform giving Steigan time to deal with the demon twisting and withering on the ground before him. It tried to shuffle away from Steigan while straining to get the dagger out.

      Steigan sighed. The spell wasn’t having the result he wanted. The magic needed something more. He knew of only two ways to successfully kill a gargax: pin it to the earth with a metal blade or use one of the quick burning cazidor spells. He really wanted a spell that would disintegrate all the gargaxes in the vicinity but had yet to find the sorcery that would do that.

      Fas’co chilstrada raktu cazidor noctada raliest. He watched as little stars seemed to shoot from inside the dagger directly into the gargax. It wailed as it too observed the instrument of its death working through its gray body and raised deep red eyes pleadingly to Steigan. For half a moment, Steigan felt pity for the beast. It didn’t last long.

      Steigan turned as the gargax exploded into a shower of pebbles which splattered like rain over him and pelted off his armor. He shook grit from his hair and swept dust from his shoulders.

      The second gargax had started to reform. Steigan waited while all the fragments rolled together and rejoined, then said, Cazidor. The gargax erupted into flame and vanished.

      He glanced up to the evening sky and discovered the last two gargaxes had flown off. Go tell your friends that I’ve got a new trick, he said with a smile. Time to go find another nest. He collected and slid his three weapons back within their sheathes, one sword at his side, the other at his back just below the dagger’s scabbard.

      Telimas, his unicorn, came up to Steigan. He swung up into the saddle and took up the reins, sighing as he turned Telimas. The problem with going from one nest to the next meant he had way too much time alone with his thoughts. Now he was back to them.

      Could he have done anything differently? Could he have been faster, been better, anything to save Keteria’s father? What could he have done?

      How could he make himself stop thinking about all of it? How long would he torture himself? If he could just start over fresh…

      Deep in the forest outside of Dubinshire, he pulled Telimas to a halt and took a quick look around the darkening trees before rubbing his hands over his face. He wished he could erase all his memories again. The one good thing about having amnesia, he now realized, was that when he felt so alone in the world he didn’t know who missed him or who he should miss. It would be so much easier if he could forget about Queen Keteria.

      Whatever had happened to him before he’d come to live at Searn’s, he’d forgotten intentionally. Now, if only he could forget the short life of Saint Steigan. Fortunately, Lord Ithanes of Dubinshire hadn’t insisted on him carrying that title.

      He knew it had only been two months since he’d come to Dubinshire, yet to him it felt more like three cycles. But neither time nor distance seemed to give him any reprieve from the thoughts he wished to leave behind.

      Keteria, on the other hand, seemed to have no second thoughts about him. She hadn’t even sent a letter inquiring if he was there. Did she really not care? He had been played for a fool.

      Telimas’ ears drew back at the same moment that Steigan realized they were not alone. Even more, he sensed that something had moved through this area very recently.

      Steigan hoped it was the gargaxes.

      He searched the darkening evening sky once more, listening for the leathery flapping of their wings, praying the Goddess would bring him a good fight, one more exciting than any of the skiffs he’d been in recently.

      Because you’ve developed a death wish, a little voice muttered in his head. How bad would she feel if Ithanes returned your dead body to Lilinar? You want the answer to that question.

      He knew it would do no good to argue with himself, especially when the voice was right.

      Dismounting, Steigan got down on his hands and knees to examine the underbrush. Something large had passed through here. He adjusted his sword and scabbard as he moved to follow the trail.

      Behind him, Telimas snorted. It made Steigan look up. He felt it too. Something else out there, something watching him. There, beneath the tangle of vines –

      A crack sounded behind him. Steigan whirled, his hands going to his sword hilt even while he remained in a balanced crouch. Staying low, he searched the forest.

      Two bright blue orbs watched him from beneath a bush. Before Steigan could move closer, they vanished.

      Steigan pulled his sword and used it to lift the overgrown branches. There was nothing there. Had he imagined the blue glow?

      Telimas skittered anxiously sideways. Steigan moved quickly to avoid where his nervous unicorn stepped. He continued searching both on the ground and in the sky above.

      The pockets of sky between the leafy branches revealed nothing in flight. Not even owls, though he could hear the birds in the distance. The crickets near him had silenced in the last few moments.

      The thick forest looked heavy and dark. Trees looked more like silhouettes in greenish-black, branches bowed under the weight of old, overgrown vines with broad leaves. Several beeches stood like skeletal remains pointing toward the sky after having been strangled out by the undergrowth. Even shorter pines seemed to struggle here.

      Walking through the forest a little ways, he noticed scuffled steps in the leaves. He picked some up and examined them. They had tiny snapped folds meaning someone had been taking quick steps without fully picking up their feet. Yet, the dirt that clung to them indicated they’d been crunched down beneath heavy weight. Whatever the creature, it had been at least as large as a man, fast, and scared.

      He knelt down to examine the ground further. There were no heavy pushes in the dirt which would indicate a battle. If attacks had been made, there would be deeper dents in the ground where the earth had been pushed outwards as the combatants dug in and pressed into their attacks. These tracks were all even, like someone had heard something and circled around to look for it.

      Steigan realized he did the same thing now.

      What was with this spot? Why had he and someone else stopped here, turned, listened? Turned again?

      Telimas broke, rising up on his back legs while pawing wildly into the air with his front legs. Steigan rolled away to avoid the unicorn as it dropped back down then bucked again. Telimas’ eyes rolled madly as the unicorn screamed. Once again he came down as though smashing something beneath its hooves.

      Steigan jumped up and grabbed the reins. Telimas pulled against him, digging his hooves into the earth, but he didn’t rear again.

      The forest seemed dark, too dim considering the sun had just set.

      Close. Whatever it was, it was close.

      He felt the strangeness coming. And fast.

      He watched the treetops, waiting for the leathery wings to break through the branches. He still heard nothing. Where was it?

      The entire forest grew quiet.

      Pain shot through Steigan. His back arched as he screamed and fell forward, pitching forward onto the ground. He’d seen nothing.

      He flipped from his stomach to his back and fought to pull his side sword from the scabbard at the odd angle. He expected to see something.

      There was nothing.

      He shifted his position to sit up.

      The tearing agony started in his back and worked its way through to his chest. He saw his attacker rise like a specter through the metal of his breastplate. Reflex jerked him backwards, slamming his back into the ground.

      The white ghost surged from his chest like a thread being sewn through cloth with ever so slight a tug. He saw it whip around to drill through him again. He moved, keeping it in his sights, and tried to knock it away but it dove into his arm then needled into his chest. Enduring the agony, Steigan found his way to his feet. He whirled and found the wispy-white ghost behind him, dark holes where its eyes and mouth should have been.

      Steigan swung his sword and it passed right through the ghost. He swung again. Like smoke, the ghost separated, then merged again. It darted for him. He sidestepped but it turned to match him, shooting forward and entering. He screamed as red hot pain exploded in him.

      He thought he might lose consciousness.

      Chapter 2

      Ashadow moved through the forest trees beside him.

      Steigan’s heart jumped as he wondered if more of these ghost-like attackers were coming for him. He didn’t know how to fight one. How could he take on two or three, or five? What if the gargaxes were approaching? He had to look, but that meant turning away from the pale wisp.

      Ra’chek nee, a familiar voice said.

      Steigan felt a blast of wind whip by him, as if it were coming from the ground itself. Leaves and grit shot into the air along with the white ghost. Steigan covered his eyes with his arm.

      When things settled around Steigan, he turned to see a centaur smiling. Laurient watched the ghost flit among the thorny branches of a strickleberry bush and lose its form.

      ’Tis almost fun in a sick sort of way, Laurient said. Send them into strickleberries and they kind of explode in the brambles. Poof! He made sort of an exaggerated gesture in demonstration.

      What was it? Steigan asked.

      That, mate, was a Shant’olin, Laurient began, but when he saw that Steigan wasn’t understanding, added, an early form of gargax.

      Early form?

      You know how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly? Same thing, except the Shant’olin takes on a rock form and when it comes out, ‘tis a gargax.

      Steigan nodded, trying to take in this information though he already felt on overload. So watch what rock I sit on?

      Laurient walked around a tree and when he emerged from the other side, he was a man. Something about you looks different, mate. He looked Steigan over. You’re not quite the pipsqueak I remember. Dual swords, very nice. What’s been going on?

      Steigan had hoped Laurient wouldn’t see the truth written so plainly on his face. I got everything I wanted and more, he said, trying to keep the explanation simple and limited to what had happened in Lilinar. Then it was all taken away. What are you doing here near Dubinshire?

      Could ask you the same thing, mate. Laurient tried to move around in front of Steigan. What are you doing here in Dubinshire?

      Steigan ignored him and kept looking around for clues as to what had happened here. Had someone else encountered the Shant’olin here?

      Not wanting to talk about it? Let me guess then, Laurient said. You’re out here on more of a suicide mission than sight-seeing I take it.

      Steigan hadn’t thought of it quite in those terms, but maybe there was some truth to it. How different was a suicide mission from a death wish? He turned back to Laurient as he found himself smiling. The funny thing about suicide missions is that one must not intend on returning from it. I do plan on going home victorious.

      Is that your game? Sadness touched Laurient’s face. Keteria’s awfully worried about you.

      Like she had showed it, Steigan thought as he made a noncommittal grunt and continued searching the area. He twisted and gave a whistle for Telimas, who trotted over.

      Laurient came up beside him. Taking on all the gargaxes alone, are you now? A man who doesn’t even know how to handle one Shant’olin? You say ‘tis not a suicide mission. Laurient slid in front of Steigan and put a hand on his shoulder to get him to stop. Do you not care that she worries about you?

      Steigan broke away. I’d been wondering why I hadn’t heard anything. Now I know. She did another heart search spell. That’s the only way she could have known I was in Dubinshire. And she sent you to check things out.

      Good theory, Laurient said with his usual playfulness returning to his voice. Mind if I come along on your hunt? You really should have an eyewitness to chronicle your heroic deeds back to Keteria. Besides, I’d love to say that I was with you before you lead armies against the gargaxes.

      Leading armies against the gargaxes? Steigan almost laughed. Sure, come along. You much of a historian?

      Ah, we centaurs know how to spin a tale. I’ll tell you some on the way and you can see for yourself. But first we must find a name for your tale. How about Dominus Steigan’s Epic Mayhem and Destruction on the Gargaxes?

      Now Steigan did laugh. He wondered how Laurient could always put him at ease like they’d been friends forever. That’s Saint Steigan to you.

      Saint Steigan? Laurient asked, raising his golden eyebrow as if in disbelief. Getting a little ahead of yourself now, don’t you think?

      Steigan shrugged. Not really. You’re a little behind. I did say everything I wanted and more, did I not?

      Laurient came to a complete standstill and just stared with his mouth open while Steigan continued walking. After a moment of letting it sink in, Laurient caught up. Nay, really? Oh! Wow. Really? What did I miss?

      The whole Epic Rise and Fall of Saint Dominus Steigan.

      Wow! Now that’s a title for you.

      A bit too grandiose for my taste.

      So what happened? Laurient asked.

      Now Steigan had a moment to be taken back. Keteria didn’t send you? If Laurient had seen Keteria, wouldn’t she have filled him in on why Steigan wasn’t there?

      I haven’t been back to Lilinar since I last saw you. I’ve been out gathering information from the tribes on the gargaxes.

      But how did you know that she’s now queen? Or that she was upset?

      A messenger I had sent back to Lilinar returned with the news along with a message to relate to you her worry if I saw you. She knew I was in the mountains near Dubinshire. Beyond that, I don’t know how she knew you were here, Laurient said. So what happened? Last I saw, you were all moony-eyed trying to impress her.

      Seeing there was nothing here, Steigan mounted Telimas as Laurient retook centaur form. Once they were traveling through the woods again, Steigan filled Laurient in on his story, from Keteria offering him land and his title until King Cirello’s death and finally to being made a saint by Holy Sapere Mierk and Keteria’s venomous follow-up.

      So you just walked away? Laurient asked.

      What else could he have done? His final argument and leaving Lilinar replayed in his mind every night when he was out here and he’d asked himself that question only a thousand more times. Unable to take it from Laurient too, Steigan dismounted and checked the ground. It provided a good distraction until he noticed Laurient waiting for him to answer. I like to think of it more as accepting Ithanes’ gracious invitation to see Dubinshire. He walked back down the direction they’d just come, getting down on his hands and knees to compare the tracks with those Laurient had left behind.

      You need to quit lying to yourself, Laurient said, shaking his head. What are you looking at?

      Something big, something about the size of a centaur moved through the area where we were earlier and had turned around a couple of times as if to check the forest for danger.

      Generally centaurs don’t travel alone.

      You do.

      Laurient’s lips tightened. Mate, I fit in with the centaurs about as well as I fit in with the humans.

      Huh? You’re a centaur and you don’t fit in?

      Half centaur. Laurient’s head tipped slightly to the side. My father was a traveling merchant and a human. Made a lot of deals in his wanderings. One young centaur filly fell in love with him and he with her, then poof, me. My ma stayed in human form most of the time and we lived like humans tucked just a ways inside the forest outside of Hallon, right on the border between the humans and the centaurs. My ma made sure I knew the centaurs and my dad took me on his travels once I was old enough to transform and maintain the shift. Best of both worlds they liked to say. Now I still trade like my dad, but I also act as an emissary for the centaurs. Pretty good work actually.

      Steigan didn’t think he’d ever heard Laurient go on for so long, especially without joking about something. He wondered if it was a sign that the situation wasn’t as black and white as Laurient made it seem. Even if you don’t fit in, you seem to be well accepted, Steigan said.

      Laurient let this go for a moment as though pondering it over, then grunted. He pointed to a track on the ground as if to switch them back to the original topic. If it wasn’t a centaur, it might have been a unicorn.

      At practically the same moment, Steigan noticed strange markings in the earth. Unicorn prints? Nay, rather holes made by a unicorn horn trying to pierce the ground. His fingers felt around the circular edges of the hole. Some of them he couldn’t even probe his fingers into their full depth. Aye, very probably.

      Laurient looked around. So where are we heading, mate?

      Something in Laurient’s voice made Steigan pause and glance around too. This bit of forest appeared lusher than the area they had just been, brighter greens and pale yellows. Steigan checked the position of the moons, two of them tonight, to make sure it wasn’t just a trick of their light. All at once he could feel the magic rising from the ancient roots of the land. This direction, Steigan said pointing toward the south-west. Toward where I saw the gargaxes last night.

      Why don’t we circle around? Laurient asked. He really tried to keep an edge of nerves out of his voice, but Steigan picked up on it. Going straight through might not be the best.

      Steigan mounted Telimas again and turned the unicorn in the direction he wanted to go. Why?

      Laurient looked uncomfortable. That’s one of the centaur mating grounds ahead. They get a little touchy if humans get too close.

      Steigan nodded and started to follow Laurient. The last thing he needed to do now was get into a battle with the centaurs. Hadn’t he messed up this world enough?

      But like a whisper calling his name through the trees, Steigan felt the power rising again. Tendrils of magic reached up from the forest floor to wrap around him. He found himself looking back. He pulled Telimas’ reins and stopped the unicorn, then veered back in the direction he’d originally wanted to go.

      He caught a flash of a bright star between the branches of the trees. He wanted to turn and follow Laurient, but he couldn’t. It felt like the star guided him on a different path.

      I’m sorry, Steigan said. I am being led by a spirit greater than me and everything inside me is shouting to go straight, not around.

      Laurient closed his eyes and sighed. By the sacred roots, man, do you know what you’re inviting?

      Telimas sidled under him and Steigan rocked with the animal’s shift. Even the unicorn seemed nervous and Steigan tried to handle him with confidence he wasn’t sure he felt. Probably nothing I’d like. But I can’t help it. I’ve got to go there.

      Maybe we’ll get lucky and there will be no one around.

      Steigan knew if he were alone, there was no way he’d know that he was treading where he shouldn’t. For all he knew, he’d already hunted the gargaxes through this area. How close had he been before?

      Laurient led the way through the longstanding trees, the pines thinning out to more deciduous growth. Wind blew the aspen leaves as if shaking them in warning. The further in they got, the more the leaves turned to a golden color until the very trees themselves seemed to sparkle in the moonlight. Clematis circled tree trunks and hung from the branches showing off large bluish-purple flowers. Several strickleberry bushes grew at the outskirts, their prickly leaves guarding a horde of unpicked berries.

      The mountains resumed their climb behind this area, leaving a little bowl-shaped meadow. Ivy grew up over a stand of rocks where a little stream of steady water drizzled down from the cliff face to make a waterfall.

      Steigan and Laurient entered the grassy, light-spackled clearing. Large boulders placed around the semi-circular boundary were painted with historical scenes. Steigan climbed down from Telimas and drew closer to look at them.

      They are a record, Laurient spoke softly, something the ancient elders never wanted us to forget.

      In the paintings, there was a red-haired woman dressed in white with her hands raised to flying monsters that looked like gargaxes, which attacked smaller people. On the next rock, the same woman now wearing armor was being attacked by centaurs. A third rock showed her being sealed in a cave.

      What does it mean?

      A long time ago, a young priestess created the gargaxes and sent them out to destroy humanity. She then rose up against the centaurs and began a war with us. We fought back, captured her, and imprisoned her for all eternity.

      Steigan walked around the perimeter looking at the stones while Telimas followed closely even though Steigan had dropped the reins. Most of the other rocks had painted scenes of centaurs hunting or battles between centaurs. None drew him quite as much as the one with the woman. He returned to it.

      Something about one of the rocks seemed strange. He got down on his knees to examine it closer. There used to be more here, Steigan said. There’s still some paint remaining.

      Maybe part of the story was chipped away to make room for this one, Laurient offered as an explanation.

      That seemed to strike Steigan with an odd chill of a memory. Aye, or recreated like a palimpsest, he whispered recalling Keteria finding the books that had been overwritten. He tried to push it away. There’s something about the spacing. It really does look like something is missing.

      What do you think is missing?

      I don’t know. Steigan stood up and stepped back to look at it as though doing so would make him see the whole image as one and the pieces would snap in. He couldn’t help but see the resemblance between the paintings of this woman and the picture of Lady Alityka hanging in the hall of Dubinshire castle. Does Lord Ithanes know about this?

      Laurient shrugged. He’d only dispute it if he did. I mean, would you go, ‘Oh, yeah, he did that,’ if this showed Rivic instead?

      You’re talking to the wrong man there. I don’t know what I’d do. Other than Searn, no one’s quite invited me into Rivic’s family.

      Laurient smiled. Because a certain girl wants to keep you out.

      If only Laurient knew how truly complicated that situation was! Let’s not talk about Keteria, Steigan said, focusing a bit longer on the boulder. After a moment, he said, Besides, ‘tis probably time to move on.

      As Steigan and Laurient left the grounds, Steigan took one last look back at the painted rock. There had to be more. Something was being concealed. There was more to the story.

      He just knew it.

      Chapter 3

      W e only have one moon remaining, Laurient pointed out as they continued through the ever darkening woods. ’Tis a close moon, but we still don’t have much light.

      Steigan still felt restless. That usually signaled he was getting close to the gargaxes. Are you suggesting we return to Dubinshire?

      Laurient chuckled. A good meal, a warm place to sleep, maybe a game of cards…

      You go ahead. I have no need for comfort, Steigan snapped. The gargaxes were nearby. It might be best to get Laurient out of the way now. Just looking for a little fight.

      Laurient’s gaze swung wide around them. Steigan noticed that the centaur’s steps had doubled with nerves. Seriously, Laurient said. It won’t take long to return here in the morning. We can resume the hunt when we can see, mate.

      I didn’t travel all this way just to go back, Steigan said wishing he could make Laurient understand his compulsion to be out here. It didn’t matter if he could see or not. He didn’t need to. Telimas always led him to the gargaxes and returned him to Dubinshire when they were done. Once they found a nest, it only took one spell to light up the area enough for Steigan to fight until there were no gargaxes left. I’ve only seen them flying at night, Steigan

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