Second Sneak Peek: A Star of Darkness

An unedited excerpt from my WIP (work in progress), A Star of Darkness. [Content subject to change.]

Prologue

She stumbled through the trees toward the river, half blind with tears. She clutched her father’s hunting knife in its sheath, but it would be no good to her. There were too many, she was too weak, and they were gaining on her. She could hear them calling to one another. A panicked look over her shoulder and she counted four torches bobbing through the forest. Branches tore at her face, her breath came hot in her throat, her head throbbed and her thoughts were muddled. Was there smoke on the wind?

Her boots sank into softer soil, mud sucking at her feet. She bent to strap the knife to her thigh. She was almost at the river, and had to swim. She could hear it’s waters as they rushed by. A dog bayed somewhere behind her, someone called something to his companion. Overhead, her moth fluttered, keeping track of her, but where she needed to hide, he could not follow. He would wait and let her know when it was safe for her to come out, but she had to make it there first.

She reached the river and stumbled into it, the cold water rushing into her boots and up her legs, then swallowing her body. She let the current carry her downstream where the banks were thicker with old growth. She glimpsed the night sky through the canopy overhead, the many stars winking at her, celestial bodies who cared nothing of her plight. They’d seen worse come and go.

She knew the tree she sought by heart, she could find it in the light of day or the dark of night, though it looked like so many others. She and her brother Finador had discovered it years ago, before any other siblings had been born. They’d sworn to keep it secret, but when Galborn was old enough, they’d shown him too, delighting in his horror and fascination of the place. They would have shown Haleron and Finrae too, given the chance.

Gasping for air, her lungs burning, she reached the tree. It’s thick, twisted roots looked haunted and frightening, but just then they were the most welcome sight in the world. The riverbank here was a vertical mud cliff, a little more than half the height of a man, riddled with stones and laced with gnarly roots that had been exposed over the years by waters rushing by. She could hear the men arguing over which way she’d gone. Branches and twigs snapped as they approached the riverbank.

She hooked a hand under a root of the ancient bazrosh tree, pulling herself under. Water filled her ears and the sound of men was drowned out. It was too dark to see anything, but she knew what to feel for. Her mind quailed, as it always did when she went into these roots, her imagination conjuring toothy predators, water snakes, flesh-eating fish. Her fears warred with the truth: this was her home; she knew this river and this forest as well as she knew the color of her own eyes. Nothing would hurt her here, and best of all, no one would find her.

She pulled herself down first, hand over hand, she gripped the roots, pulling herself along. She slithered through until she’d felt the root with the sharp bend and knew she’d gone far enough. Now she needed to ascend. Her head broke the surface and she sucked in a gasp of dank, earthy air. She opened her eyes but remained blind as she crawled out of the water, dragging herself up into the pocket of air trapped beneath this great tree. She could hear nothing of the outside world in this cradle of roots and mud, it was fully insulated and felt as far from reality as the stars were from the soil. She lay down, panting, sensing for Morpho. He was so faint, barely a wisp. Her wet hair had wrapped itself around her neck and felt like a noose. She scraped it away and closed her eyes. Her body rested; her heart began to slow. Her head ached where she’d been struck and she found that herself unable to think. When she tried to process why had run, why she was hiding down here, her mind hit a wall. She only knew that she had to stay down here until there was no air left, because behind that wall was something very bad. It meant that she’d lost everything and everyone. She and Morpho were now utterly and completely alone in the world. She listened to her own breathing and tried not to remember. It hurt her head too much.

Eventually, she fell into a dreamless sleep.

Over her head, the men searched and the fires burned.