by Mary Akers
Table of Contents
Dedication
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
Copyright © 2019 Mary H. Akers
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of quotations in a book review.
ISBN: 9781698532165
Book Design by TeaBerry Creative
For Jamie.
My husband, my partner, my friend.
Thank you for helping me make this dream a reality.
Chapter 1
She could hear it. The whisper of leaves rustling in the wind. The gentle creak of branches weaving and swaying as they danced in the breeze. The undulating waves of sound filling her ears, calling to her soul. She lifted her face to the sky and breathed deeply, filling her lungs with air that had been cooled in the shade of a thousand trees. The scent of moist earth and growing things filled her nostrils. She slowly exhaled, basking in the tranquility of the moment. Never had she felt so grounded and at peace. It was as though her feet had sprung roots, as though she were a part of the very forest itself.
Through her eyelids she could sense the beams of light breaking through the shadow of the canopy overhead. How she longed to open her eyes! She fought the urge, taking another deep breath and drinking in the sensation of being alone in a place that she loved. The secret refuge to which she could escape. A break from reality.
What was that? Her brow wrinkled as she listened more intensely. There it was again. It was her name. It was muffled by the wind, but it was definitely her name, being called by a voice she didn’t recognize. It was the voice of a man. She held her breath, staying perfectly silent so that she could hear him. Who was he? Did he know her? Could he see her?
“Elora!” Over and over he called to her, louder and clearer each time. “Elora!” He was coming closer! She could feel her pulse quicken as excitement, tinged with fear, began to well up in her throat. Still she battled the urge to open her eyes. She could hear his footsteps now, the crack of twigs beneath his feet as he neared her. “Elora!” His voice was rich and deep. “Elora!” He sounded frantic as he searched for her. And then suddenly the footsteps ceased. “Elora.” There was relief in his voice. A few purposeful footsteps followed, and then silence. Her breath caught in her throat, knowing how close he must be. She suddenly felt his fingers slide across her palm as he took her hand and with a gasp, she opened her eyes.
He was gone. As were the peaceful forest and the cool breeze. In their place was a hot, smothering gust of wind and the stone wall she had been leaning against when she’d closed her eyes. Elora squinted, momentarily blinded by the light of the sun beaming down from a cloudless sky. She took a moment to gain her bearings, disoriented by her sudden change in surroundings. She looked down at her hand, rubbing her thumb across her palm, his touch still fresh in her mind. The warmth of his voice still hummed in her ears.
She had visited the forest many, many times in her daydreams but never before had she encountered someone else there. She felt a pang of disappointment that she hadn’t been able to see his face, but then, she’d never actually seen the forest either. At least, she thought it was a forest that she escaped to in her daydreams. She couldn’t be certain, having never actually been in a forest before. There were no forests in the Grasslands. There were scrubby little bushes and an occasional tree, but the wind and the soil in this place made for wide open plains, not mighty forests.
Elora turned and began walking over the hard, rocky ground along the stone wall. It was about 20 feet high in most places and stretched for nearly 3 miles, surrounding the entirety of Windom, protecting the citizens of the small town from the wilderness beyond. She took slow, absentminded steps as she puzzled over her daydream. It hadn’t really felt like a daydream. The sounds and the sensations had been so vivid, had seemed so real! It was always that way when she escaped to the forest. But why couldn’t she open her eyes when she dreamed of that place? She could only remain in the forest dream if she kept her eyes closed. And she only ever dreamed of the forest when she was awake.
Perhaps they weren’t dreams. She stopped and propped her shoulder against the trunk of a small tree. Maybe they felt real because the place she escaped to actually was real! Could they be some kind of vision and not just a creation of her imagination? Could the man she just encountered in the forest truly exist? That last thought thrilled her.
But she quickly checked herself for even entertaining such a foolish notion. She couldn’t be having supernatural visions. That was the stuff of fairy tales and legends, not the reality of a simple girl from the Grasslands. Sure, she’d felt a little different all her life, but that was only because her arrival in Windom as a child had been so unusual. There was nothing extraordinary about her, and honestly, she was comfortable with that fact.
Elora was a typical and utterly normal young woman. Aside from a somewhat unique birthmark, there was nothing singular about her. Which is probably why she was nearing her 19th birthday and had yet to be seriously courted. True, she had only been eligible for a year and it was hardly uncommon for people her age to remain unbound, but her best friend Alysa had received no fewer than 4 letters from hopeful suitors on her 18th birthday.
It can be quite humbling, friendship with an exceptionally beautiful person. Fortunately, Alysa was both sweet and kind as well. The girls had always adored each other with equal fervor, and so jealousy had never gained a firm foothold between them. Though Elora’s lack of suitors did sting a bit.
“Everything alright down there?” Elora looked up to find a member of the Guard peering down at her from atop the wall. The Guard was tasked with keeping Windom safe, both from outsiders and from citizens alike. Ordinarily Elora would have felt intimidated being called upon by a Guardsman, but when she recognized the face of her childhood friend she smiled.
“Hi Trig!” she called. “I’m fine, just got a bit lost in my thoughts. How’s the view from up there today?” she asked.
“Nothing too exciting. I saw a wagon nearing the North Gate earlier though. I’m guessing it came from the Highlands by the looks of it.”
Trig’s deep baritone voice still seemed foreign and ridiculous to her, coming from the mouth of the boy she’d known since they were both in diapers. She still had trouble seeing him for the man he’d become. But there he was, tall and muscular and assuming one of the most dangerous occupations in the settlement.
“Where’s Alysa? Aren’t you two attached at the hip?” he asked with a conspicuous amount of interest.
Elora grinned. “You are so transparent Trig Davenport! Have you written her a letter yet?”
“No,” he admitted dejectedly. “I was afraid it would get lost amongst the heaping pile of other proposals. How many letters has she received now?” he asked with a miserable sigh.
“I think she’s up to 8,” Elora answered with a wry smile. “It really is an impressive pile.”
Elora laughed at the grimace on his face. She did enjoy tormenting him, but she’d been waiting a while f
or just such an opportunity to put her two friends out of their misery and she wasn’t going to miss it. She stopped laughing and looked up at him earnestly. “You should write her, Trig.” She held his gaze unwaveringly and willed him to stop being such a daft idiot. Slowly a hopeful smile spread across his face.
“Really?” he asked, struggling to believe her.
“I promise she wouldn’t lose your letter, Trig.”
Elora smiled happily at the surprised and then elated expression on his face. She wasn’t one for meddling, and matchmaking certainly wasn’t her calling, but she couldn’t help herself. Those two had been completely smitten with one another for the past three years but too terrified to admit it.
“Really?” Trig asked, needing to hear her say it one more time.
“Really,” she said with conviction.
“Wow!” he whispered, a bemused smile playing on his lips.
He took an absentminded step toward the edge, likely preoccupied with thoughts of Alysa she presumed, and Elora cringed.
“Hey Trig,” she called, waiting for him to look down at her. “Don’t fall off the wall.”
“I won’t,” he said, laughing and shaking his head. “Thanks Elora.”
“No problem,” she replied. “I probably should have told you when you were on the ground anyway. This stops being fun for me if you end up crippled.”
“No. I wasn’t going to fall off the wall, you silly girl,” he said, chuckling. “I’m not even close to the edge! This thing is like, 10 feet wide. I meant thank you for cluing me in. I wasn’t even going to try for her, you know.”
“I know you weren’t,” she said, shaking her head. “Why do you think I told you, you idiot.”
“Hey!” he laughed, in mock outrage.
Elora laughed along with him, giddy at the prospect of having helped her friends towards happiness.
“Did you say you saw a Highland wagon earlier?” Elora asked, an exciting thought popping into her head. “I should go check out the market and see if they brought anything good to sell. Maybe they brought something from the Woodlands!”
“Well, you’ll have to hurry. There are some ugly clouds heading our way. Looks like a pretty decent storm,” Trig warned.
Elora turned to leave but then she hesitated. The height of the wall made for a great vantage point and Elora had heard that the Grasslands were beautiful from up there. This seemed like a good chance to see for herself.
“Hey Trig? Do you think I could come up there?” she asked timidly.
She had never been atop the wall. Citizens were forbidden from being up there. And as unpleasant as spending a night in the Confines might seem, it was actually less frightening than the specter of her father’s wrath. Jonas Kerrick was kind and gentle, but he brooked little in the way of disobedience. They were rule followers, the Kerricks. They stayed within the lines, followed the law, and avoided attention at all costs. Elora didn’t quite understand her parents’ paralyzing fear of the limelight, but they had made it quite clear from an early age that their privacy was precious and the consequences were harsh for putting it in jeopardy.
Thus having a dear friend standing guard on the wall presented a very tempting opportunity to finally see the wilderness beyond. It was an opportunity too tempting to ignore.
“Please?”
“Sure,” Trig shrugged. “It’s the least I can do” he said with a grin.
He put down his rifle and dropped the pack he’d had slung over his shoulder, pulling out what looked like a jumble of rope. Elora glanced down at the brown pants and tan tunic she wore for working in the gardens, glad that they were well suited for climbing. A knotted rope slapped the ground in front of her. She squinted up at Trig who was peering down at her. The top surface where Trig was standing extended beyond the wall itself to create a lip, making the wall nearly impossible to scale. The rope dangled in front of her and she reached out to grab it, inhaling apprehensively.
“I’m nervous,” she admitted, laughing uneasily. “I hope I can do this.”
“It will be worth it,” he encouraged.
She took a firm hold of the rope and jumped, clamping her feet above the lowest knot. Carefully she pulled herself up, pushing against the knots tied every few feet.
“This isn’t so hard,” she thought to herself.
In what felt like hardly any time at all she reached the top, throwing first one leg, then the other up over the edge of the wall. She felt Trig’s hands on her arms to steady her as she turned to sit, with her feet dangling over the edge. She rested her hands on her knees and paused to catch her breath.
“Elora Kerrick, you’ve done that before!” Trig exclaimed in an accusatory tone. “I hope I can do this” he pantomimed in a high-pitched voice, imitating her. “I can barely climb that fast myself and I’ve been guarding this wall for nearly a year.”
“I have not!” she cried. “Really!”
“Right. Well, I’m impressed either way.” He said, shaking his head in amazement.
The wall extended about 5 feet higher on the outer edge, creating a protective barrier for the Guards. As Trig had told her, the platform was actually very wide. There were metal loops protruding from inside the outer edge of the wall at intervals, which is what Trig had used to secure the rope.
“Do you always carry a rope?” she asked.
“We all do. One of the first tools they give new Guardsmen is a rope like this with a metal hook braided onto the end,” he explained, pointing to the hook attached to the wall. “Sometimes we need to get off the wall in a hurry.”
Elora nodded quietly, soaking it all in as she stood and walked the few remaining paces to the outer wall. Standing on her toes she peeked over the top of the wall. She gasped. Brown and green stretched as far as the eye could see, the blades of grass swirling in the wind like waves in the ocean.
“Here, let me help you,” Trig said, bending down and putting his hand out for her to step in before boosting her up to sit on the outer wall. “Don’t fall off the wall, Elora,” he said, mimicking her earlier comment in some good-natured teasing.
“Thank you for this,” she said, smiling at him from her perch on the wall. I know you won’t believe me, but I’ve never seen the Grasslands like this before. I’ve never been on the wall, or even beyond it actually. The view is incredible.”
He looked at her in disbelief.
“You’ve never left Windom?” he asked, shocked. “Not even just to explore? Your whole life? Why?”
“I don’t know,” she replied, shrugging self-consciously. “I mean, you know my parents.”
“They always have been very protective of you,” he agreed. “Come to think of it, you really didn’t go on any school outings beyond the wall, did you.”
Elora shook her head.
“Maybe someday, when I’m not in their house anymore, I’ll work up the nerve to venture out there,” she said, nodding to the wide open plain. “But as long as I’m in their house, it’s their rules.”
“But why wait? What’s the worst that could happen?” he challenged. “You’re 19, now. You’re not a child, even if you’re living in their house.”
“I know. But their fear of the outside world has always been so genuine,” she said. “I guess I kind of inherited it.”
She looked out at the Grasslands, a vast wilderness stretching beyond the horizon. Clumps of tall shrubs and bushes dotted the landscape. A herd of grazing animals were off in the distance. The land was so flat and open, she could see for miles.
“It goes on forever,” she whispered.
“Not really forever, but the Grasslands are rather huge,” he agreed.
He crossed his arms on top of the wall and rested his chin on his hands.
“I’ve heard it takes weeks to reach the mountains of the Highlands and who knows how long to reach the Woodlands bey
ond that,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to make that trip. It’s rife with snakes and drifters and wild animals out there, not to mention the storms. I mean, you’ve seen the merchants who arrive here. Those people have been through something.”
Elora nodded. She had definitely noticed the hard edge on the Highlanders who traded wares in the market. No wonder their goods were so expensive. They had risked a lot to bring them to Windom.
She could see riders on horseback trotting along the road toward the North Gate, returning from a hunting expedition. She noticed the workers who had been harvesting wheat from the fields that surrounded the town also making their way back to the gate.
“They’re hurrying home to beat that,” Trig said, nodding his head at the dark gray clouds swirling in the far-off sky.
“Wow! Is that rain?” Elora asked, pointing to faint blurry bands stretching from the clouds down to the ground. “I’ve never seen it like that before. It’s magnificent!”
“It really is pretty amazing.” Trig agreed. “But that storm is going to be here before you know it. You better get on home, Elora,” he said, patting her knee affectionately.
He held her hand to steady her as she hopped off the wall.
“Oh God, I have to climb back down, don’t I,” Elora realized belatedly.
“Actually,” Trig smiled sheepishly, “there’s a ladder not too far this way. I’ll walk you.”
Elora smacked his shoulder.
“Trig! Why’d you make me climb that rope?” she shouted.
“I wanted to see if you could do it! If I’d known you would be so good at it and make me feel like an amateur, I might not have.” he said, laughing.
He walked her the short distance to the ladder and unlocked the grate used to block access from below. As she grabbed hold of the railings and put her foot on the rung, he stopped her.
“You’re braver than you give yourself credit for, Elora,” he said. “Not many people would scale a wall like that just to see the view.”
“Thanks Trig. It really was worth it” she said, smiling as she started down the ladder. “Wait!” she cried, pausing as a thought occurred to her. “Are you staying up here during the storm?” she asked, concerned.
