Free Whispers of a Legend, Part One-Shadows of the Past by Carrie James Haynes Page B

the closer I walked.
I heard rumblings of life behind the high walls. I searched at
first for a gate to lower for me to enter, but I was dealing with
Sordarins. They didn’t need a gate to enter.
    My mood, my frustration, gave way to a brief
thought of blasting my way in, but after I climbed over the last of
the rigid rocks my eyes caught sight of a small entrance way in the
far corner of the encampment, an archway covered by wild
undergrowth. It had not been used as of late. I began the arduous
trail to the opening.
    The briars caught my tunic, pricking my skin
and material. I grimaced when I turned abruptly and a branch swung
back in my face, but I trudged onward until I came to an archway.
My back crouched over for the undergrowth didn’t allow me to stand
erect, but I fell back upon the ground when my eyes caught sight
that the archway was block by a huge stone. I pressed against it
thinking what I didn’t know. All I could see behind me was a
venture back into the briars and undergrowth and before me a stone
barrier.
    I stared at the wall for only a moment before
I set my mind upon my course of action, the only thing I could do
and should have done from the first. The whole of my situation, the
emptiness within my stomach, the loneliness of having been ripped
from my family and thrown into the middle of the Forbidden world
away from everything I had known swept through me.
    A moment later, I blasted. Crawling back unto
my feet, I blasted again having not noticed the first blast would
have been sufficient. I eased over to the now well ventilated
archway. The stone lay many yards away broken into pieces.
    My eyes blazed for within me intensity built
that needed to be extinguished. I walked soundly into a courtyard.
I stared around. In front of me a young Sordarin stood in silent
amazement at my feat behind him several more eyes began to emerge
out of the clearing dust.
    Faces hung open in startled fashion although
from the corner of my eye I saw a warrior descend onto the scene.
My arms raised back…
    “It is not necessary. Please, let me keep all
intact, my dear.”
    My head tilted toward the calm voice. A man
walked in an even manner, quickly recognizing he wasn’t Sordarin,
an elderly man with flowing gray hair pulled back in a queue. Short
in statue for I was of the same height, but his face showed worn
lines of years behind him. His wrinkled hand drawn in such a
fashion to hold back an assault from me, but in my mood I cared
not. I would take on them all. Staring upon me, a smile emerged on
the older man’s face.
    “There is no need for more destruction. I can
understand your frustration. We have only returned here last night
to discover that the caretaker passed away since our last
departure. It is a shame for it was thought he would have greeted
you…”
    “Greeted me?” I corrected. “The only greeting
I have had is a harsh one.”
    “The ones that brought you should have seen
to your needs before departing.”
    My head shook, but my manner didn’t relent. I
knew not these people. Reading my thoughts, the man pressed his
lips together.
    “I’m Twiten.” His hands spend wide across his
chest. “These young Sordarins are my students although I’m certain
they have not seen the power that was just exhibited. I had been
told, held hope it would surface again, but until one sees…”
    “I don’t understand you, Old Man.”
    “No? You don’t know why you are here?”
    “I know only that I was ripped from my family
and brought here in the dead of night with little food and only a
semblance of a shelter. I hear not my brother and don’t feel my
sister’s presence. No, I don’t know why I’m here.”
    He nodded slightly, motioning to one behind
him. “Go prepare a meal. See what we have for clothing also.”
    “No, wait…My nurse is in bed,” I uttered
filled with confusion. “She needs food.”
    His smile widened. “Spoken like a true
Euchoun. Thinking of others…That is what you are is