AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A wild star, a burst of light in the darkness. A runaway comet soaring through the vast expanse of the universe.
Her energy was untameable, her beauty mesmerising, and her radiance captivating all those who crossed her path.
He knew without a doubt that her soul was untethered by the universe’s constraints.
Her luminescence burned bright with an intensity that could not be contained.
She was an abstraction he needed to avoid like all hell because he had no time for stargazing.
He’d a battle on his hands as old as time, a tug-of-war between darkness and light. His hawkstone, unasked for but now his life’s calling, bid him to prevent the scales from tipping too far in either direction.
His duty was to face the encroaching shadows and protect the planet’s fragile knife’s edge balance.
At all costs.
‘Fokk!’ he grated. Oh, to be back in Devansi, eking out his former existence as a farmer and trader.
His mind played with the concept of winging away from it all. But only for a moment before he discarded it as pure fantasy.
He glanced at the gimlet-eyed prisoners who’d been watching him with intense ferocity, like the hawks that they were.
When they snarled at him, he gifted them with a one-fingered salute.
Making a pillow with his cloak, he slid onto the floor.
He stared up at the dusty, cobweb-riddled ceiling, sighed, and, in seconds, drifted to sleep.
Chapter 6
‘Living in Kos at the foot of Mount Karth is a hollow-boned curse and tar-feathered blessing.’
Sana’a glanced up at the summit looming over the hovering black marble city.
The mountain formed a hook-like peninsula between the vast Kizum Gulf and the Karilan Sea.
Set halfway to heaven and level to some distant peaks, the metropolis pulsed with life and energy, a true marvel to behold.
The elevated urban spread shone like an obsidian diamond.
Its walls reached towards the sky and blended into the heavens that threatened to swallow it whole.
The twin rivers snaking through Kos flowed from the great massif range, forming the city’s canals.
Despite the tranquillity, the dark ranges of the sable pinnacles that loomed even higher radiated with an ominous glow.
Its snowy summit was hidden from sight by cloud, mist, and fog, and the occasional flare of red-hot lava and ash enshrouded them.
‘You’d think the home of our grand ancestor, Khiron the Krested Eagle, father of many of our Katánian heroes, would be less violent.’
‘Indeed,’ Sana’a muttered to the vendor from whom she bought a delicious-smelling dzo steak roll.
The bun was warm, buttery, and fragrant, and the dark, roasted meat inside was smothered in rich sauces. The scent had Sana’a salivating.
The merchant frowned at the glowing ebony and ice peaks as he wrapped it up for her. ‘Ay, Kos will need to raise its cloak soon so the imminent outburst of the volcano doesn’t destroy large parts of the city like it did last time. On the other hand, the volcanic ashes yield fertile soil suited for my vines, wheat and rye growth. Which have enriched my humble stall and that of my fellow merchants to feed the eyries of this vast land.’
‘I see nothing good in the cursed summit,’ the merchant’s wife cried out from behind her flaming stove. ‘Crazy ksa weather we’re having because of it. Freakin’ snow in the mornings, hot sweltering afternoons, and icy chilly nights that make my feathers shake all day.’
‘Sucks to be you,’ her partner called back.
