Free The Sword of Sighs (The Age of the Flame: Book One) by Greg James

shadow.
    “Woran? Barra?”
    Her call was the slightest whisper. If Esiah was still about, she didn't want him to know she was here. He might have others with him, and there was no sense letting them get the jump on her. Dim light leaked through the canopy of branches and leaves.
    Just like the Wood Beneath the Worlds , she thought. Three years ago now, and I’m back where I started. Except I started at home, and I don’t know how to get back there.
    Biting back tears, Sarah swallowed hard and ducked low before creeping on into the undergrowth, rising onto the balls of her feet.
    A scattering of twigs crackled underfoot.
    Loud, she thought. Far too loud.
    She waited, looking and listening, barely breathing.
    Nothing. No sounds. No shouts. No cries.
    Time to move.
    She went on, deeper into the trees. It wasn’t until she had gone on for some time that she realised what had made the woods seem like the Wood Beneath the Worlds. There were no sounds of animals or birds, no rustling leaves, not even a nightingale’s song.
    It wasn’t right.
    She emerged into the open of a clearing.
    The bodies of the dead had been left where they had fallen—Taproots and Saltwines, all of them. Sarah tried not to look at them. She tried not to think of what their presence meant. She crept on past the dead, as if she were still in the trees. A hand snatched out and wrung her ankle, tight and hard. She didn’t scream, although she really wanted to. She kicked at it, tried to shake it off. It held on, tighter and tighter. She tugged at the fingers, trying to ignore the glottal choking sound coming from the throat of the dark-haired woman the hand belonged to.
    Elssa Taproot.
    Sarah could see light in Elssa’s dead eyes, flickering and dim.
    “We are the dead.” Elssa spoke . “We are with you. Always with you, Sarah Bean. We are the same. We are the same, O Flame.”
    Then, the fingers went loose. Sarah shook them off. Her worried eyes were on the trees ahead.
    That light in Elssa’s eyes, did I see that? Did I hear her speak? Was that real, or is this still the dream? Am I still back at the house? Am I still on the bus on the way home from school in Okeechobee?
    Wake up, Sarah! Wake up!
    Sarah shook her head violently and then opened her eyes. Tears were running down her face. She was still in the dark, in the woods of the Norn Valley, in a strange World she didn’t know. She wiped at her nose and eyes. Then she closed her eyes and pinched herself. Breathed in. Breathed out. Opened her eyes.
    Still here. This is real. Not a dream.
    A dead woman talked to me.
    Jesus fucking Christ.
    “It’s okay. I’m fine. I’m fine.”
    Sarah crept across the rest of the clearing’s open ground, making sure she did not look at the dead again. Trees loomed ahead, their branches and boles looking like colossal stalactites dangling from the lightless cavern of the sky. No stars were out tonight. It had been a clear enough day, but now there were masses of craggy grey clouds overhead. Keeping her breathing as steady as she could, Sarah went on into the heart of the woods.
    I don’t want to go on, she thought, but I must.
    The stilled woodland folded in around her, brushing her face with leaves. The air tasted of mould. Sarah could feel the sweat pouring from her. Shadows clung to her like trailing ghosts, making her feel stained and soiled.
    Then, the gathering storm broke overhead.
    Rain tumbled from the heavens, a barrage from on high that cut into her as surely as if the rain had been cold swords and freezing knives. The undergrowth churned into thick rivers, soaking through her boots, catching at her with vines and the knotty fingers of tree roots. Head bowed to the downpour, Sarah slogged on.
    Maybe they’ll be just up ahead .
    As the storm pounded at her, she came to another clearing, and there were Woran and Barra. The corpse of Esiah Taproot was not far from them, on its back. The eyes stared upward, the face fixed in a pained expression of