Underlord (Cradle Book 6)
Page 33
So long as she escaped with her life.
Kelsa looked quickly for the largest stretch of shadows. Wherever she could see a gap, she'd take it.
The shadows were deepest to her left, so she dove into them, cycling her madra to her limbs and urging them to move faster and faster. A dull red light rose up from the darkness in front of her, but it wasn't green—at the very least, this wasn't Fallen Leaf madra.
Still, she altered her course to run around it. The guards weren't the only threats out here. Wild beasts, Remnants, and rogue sacred artists wandered the Valley, each presenting their own kind of threat.
Last fall, two young outsiders had torn through the Heaven’s Glory School, breaking their way into Sacred Valley. They were still at large somewhere, hiding just as she was. If she ran into them, she would fare even worse than the Heaven’s Glory Jades had.
It was best to avoid anything unknown.
A bulky shadow stepped out of the trees, cutting her off.
It looked like a mound the size of three horses side-by-side, glowing dull red and giving off a haze of smoke. She staggered as she tried to turn away at the last second, catching herself against a tree.
Two eyes, like circles of red in the darkness, moved toward her. A voice like rumbling earth said, “Wei Shi Kelsa?”
Kelsa jerked to a stop at the sound of her name.
“Took me long enough to find you,” he grumbled, “but a dragon does not give up.” Kelsa heard crunching. When she focused, she could see that this creature had leaned down and snapped up a tree branch. It chewed and swallowed a moment later.
Now the beast stepped forward, and she could see it in the light of Samara's Ring, paler and brighter than moonlight.
It was a turtle.
Kelsa gathered up her madra again. It must have been the Heaven's Glory School who had sent the sacred beast to hunt her. He hadn't attacked her yet, but that only meant he was under orders to take her alive.
“I am called Orthos,” the turtle said. “I come from your brother Lindon.”
Her madra trembled, her technique dissipating. She was still tense, her body telling her to run, but she also couldn't move.
“He's alive?” she whispered.
Green light swelled in the forest, and shouting voices grew closer. She spun and saw that she had already wasted too much time; the net had tightened.
“We have to get out of here,” she ordered. “Can you run?”
Red-and-black eyes surveyed the people following her, and the ground began to shake. After a moment, she recognized that it was the turtle laughing.
“I am pleased by you already, Wei Shi Kelsa. And I cannot run.”
He walked forward, brushing past her, facing her pursuers.
“Not when I can fight.”
THE END
Cradle: Volume Six
Underlord
Lindon’s story continues in…
UNCROWNED
Cradle: Volume Seven
Available soon!
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Bloopers
“A wild natural treasure,” Mercy said, looking down at the tree a thousand feet below. “It doesn't look like anyone is harvesting it. You couldn't ask for anything better for a fire artist!”
Lindon leaped over the side.
~~~
The Skysworn Captain’s expression darkened. “Take them,” he ordered.
The other Skysworn exchanged glances.
“I don’t know, they have a giant fire-breathing turtle.”
“Look at that guy’s eyes, he looks like he wants to eat me.”
“What if we accidentally hurt a member of the Akura family? Won’t we all be executed?”
“I recognize her, that’s the Sword Sage’s disciple. I, uh, think we’re going to sit this one out, Captain. They’re all yours.”
~~~
[And now the owl's back!] Dross said. [There are so many birds around here. Maybe the bird aura is strong here.]
Dross drew Lindon's attention up, where he saw the silver-and-purple owl swooping down from the clouds above them.
Mercy saw him turn and followed his gaze. “Is the owl back? Where is it?” She sounded doubly eager to see the bird, almost like she was afraid to miss it.
[Don’t worry, it’s coming toward us! It’s fast, too. Is anyone else alarmed at how fast it--]
In a flutter of intangible wings, the owl dove past Lindon’s shoulder, catching Dross in talons of silver madra. Before Lindon could react, the owl grabbed Dross in its beak and tilted its head back, swallowing the spirit down its gullet like a mouse.
“Aunt Charity!” Mercy cried. “Make it spit him back up!”
The owl burped.
~~~
“Starting to get hungry out here,” Yerin said, as they marched on their patrol route through the Night Wheel Valley.
“Not me,” Lindon replied. He pulled the object from his soulspace and popped it into his mouth. “I have a bean.”
~~~
From his armor, a purple light shone from Lindon’s wrist. “This is the communication construct,” he said. A cloud manifested from behind him, flowing beneath his feet. “And this is the built-in Thousand-Mile Cloud.”
A parasol unfolded over his head. “For shade.” A blue light bloomed from around his neck, and icy wind blew past his face. “In case it gets hot. I’ve also got a detachable knife, a heater, a light, a telescope, a towel, and twelve books in case I get bored.”
Yerin looked him up and down. “What if you get thirsty?”
From the construct on his wrist, Lindon sprayed water into her face.
~~~
“I’ve been thinking about splitting my core again,” Lindon said.
Eithan raised his eyebrows. “You don’t think you have enough on your plate as it is?”
“It’s strange…every day I don’t split my core, I hear these screams, as though thousands of people far away were shrieking in frustration at once.”
“Well, have you tried splitting your core?”
“I have. Watch.”
He sat down and began cycling according to the Heart of Twin Stars technique. Just as his pure core began to stretch apart, there came a chorus of distant screams.
“Are those the same voices you heard before?” Eithan asked.
“No, I think that’s an entirely different group of people.”
“You’re right,” Eithan said. “That is strange.”
~~~
With a flourish, Eithan flipped open the lid of the box.
A disc floated within, suspended in midair. It was made of two flat, black discs on the outside, containing between them a layer of creamy white. It smelled sweet and tantalizing, and Lindon began to drool.
“Ladies, gentlemen, turtle: for your enrichment and education, I present to you the greatest spiritual elixir ever invented by mankind. Behold…the O’ree’o.”
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