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Excerpt: Book 3, The Ruins of Evermore, MaidenHeart Destiny

Spinning aside, Heather was swift to elude the deadly edge of sword that cleaved the air. Attempting to stand and square off against her surprise opponent, she tripped over her cloak tail and staggered rearward, dropping her freshly drawn dagger. Leaving it to lie, Heather was able to recover her balance, and bending slightly at the knees, raised her hands in confrontation, fully prepared to fight. With a glance, she saw there was now another figure approaching, joining the first, the two men dressed in dun-colored clothing. Both had brandished their swords.

“What do you want?”

“Simple,” said the man closest. “I want to kill you.”

“I get that.” Heather was backpedaling, buying time while glancing down, looking to locate her dagger. She spotted it. “Why? You don’t even know me.”

“Because as soldiers of the Crown, youngling, we loathe Maidens, have lost comrades in the fight against them. You have a ‘Braid. You’re one of them. And, now, you can zig, you can zag, but either way, you can’t outrun this SharpDart. Rest assured, it will ruin your day.”

Heather looked to see that, from a robed pocket, the stranger had produced his DartBow and had the handheld weapon trained on her, his sword having been transferred to the opposite hand.

“Forget the talk, just shoot her, already, Grabe,” urged his accomplice. “Or step aside, and let me do away with the leggy thing. Won’t take but a skip-beat.”

Come the next instant, Heather instinctively flinched and crouched — one arm protectively flung crosswise over her head — as from above she detected a flash of movement.

••••

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Excerpt: Maiden of a Darkness Shining

Over her shoulder, watching her friend pass through the wide arch and begin a prickly retreat through the bedroom, Heather said, “Molly, wait…”

She looked on as the petite brunette paused, only to recommence her walk towards the door.

Heather took a step toward her. “Molly…!” And then, in a gentler tone, “Molly, wait, okay?”

Molly stopped. Hesitating, she turned and began to slowly retrace her steps. The girls locked eyes, Heather instantly looking away, her hands fumbling before crawling into her back pockets.

“Okay, I’m…” Heather nodded and drew a breath, “I’m sorry, Molly.” Her roving attention found her companion and starting at her feet, worked upward. “I…I know I haven’t been a very good friend…haven’t been very nice to you ever since, well, ever since you and your Mom came here, really.” Her voice became soft, quiet. “I don’t know why… And I, I’m sorry for being like that, sorry for…for how I’ve been acting, for my bad behavior, and how I, uh…how I spoke to you just now.” Her gaze now running along the circular baseboard, Heather cleared her throat, her eyes misty. “It’s just…well, it’s just that I really want to find Grandma Dawn…and I keep trying and trying, but I can’t…can’t get any closer. I don’t know what else to do. And Aria hasn’t been much help, either, because, well, she’s never around anymore. I don’t understand why she’s gone…she’s never been away this long…”

Heather suddenly felt her fatigue. “I, um, I haven’t been sleeping all that great…and when I finally do get to sleep, lots of times I dream of her…of Grandma Dawn. And when I’m not dreaming about her, I’m thinking about her…a lot. I feel like I should be there in Evermore, and that she needs me, and-and I don’t know why, Molly, but the Bristol House doesn’t want me to…well, to get to her.” Heather took a deep breath in an attempt to check her emotion. “So, if you’d be really nice…a lot nicer than I’ve been to you…um, would you please share with me any ideas you might have that would help me find my grandmother? I’d really appreciate it.”

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Excerpt: Maiden of a Darkness Shining

Heather shed her weaponry and boots, her BodyTote and Adaption˚Suit, leaving them with Archie at rest upon the silt. Walking ponderously to the river’s edge, she gazed up at the vast and mysterious expanse of moon and stars that soared across the heavens in unspeakable majesty. Before her, amid the currents and eddies, the glittering waves robbed the sky of moonglow, stealing in bits and pieces the jewels of its opulent splendor. She released and let fall her Maiden cloak billowing on the breeze, and it swelled and swept to shore.

Then the youngling waded into the cool dark wetness of the river, the liquid rushing to embrace her, to welcome her, slowly rising up past her knees, her waist, her shoulders. There, tilting back her head, closing her eyes and ears to the world this night, she stood in place and drifted, giving it all away to the waters, letting it bleed all the way away.

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Excerpt: Maiden of a Darkness Shining

Surprised from behind, alertly dodging a thrust, Heather gasped as the harsh slice of steel found her shoulder, feeling the biting pinch of pain as it seared and grew. She put the flesh wound out of her mind. Instinctively swinging her sword in an aggressive spin, she decapitated the RedSuit, and then surprised by her own ferocity and brutality, exerted even more energy in an attempt to bury her hostility in dismissal, lashing out to slice at the knees of a hovering Turlakk. Suffering the score, the grotesque creature reared and spun away only to smash upon his landing, left to flap and flop on the TiaraReign flooring.

••••

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Excerpt: Maiden of a Darkness Shining

Eliciting a slight groan, Heather awakened. However groggy, she felt uncomfortably hot and sweaty. Eyes closed, she reached to grab her blanket and throw it off of her curled form, but realizing she wasn’t wearing pajamas, it dawned on her that she wasn’t at home.

The ground suddenly hard below her, heat emanating from behind, she began feeling about and discovered the hairiness of a large animal beside her, its thick fur pressing at her back.

Heather’s eyes popped open. Warily, she pushed herself up, and half-turned to discover the robust, sphinx-like form of a golden Archmount directly behind her. Not bothering to cover up, Heather slowly, silently rose to her feet and backed away, the animal unperturbed. She then glimpsed about, finding that her clothes had been carefully laid out to dry, spread among the nearby bushes, most basking in the filtering sun.

Seeing the beast turn its head to calmly observe her, Heather returned its strong, steady gaze.

    You are not of this world.

Caught off guard, awed by the Archmount and his MindSpeake, Heather barely shook her head.

    And word has it you’re the One.

The girl whispered, “I might be.” She added, “If all goes well.”

••••

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Caught up in her tangle of emotions, her insignificance and powerlessness, Heather became oblivious of her surroundings, the girl a quaking, shadowy ball upon the floor, the Bristol House time crawling on in the dimness.

In due course, Heather raised a sleeve and wiped away her tears. She looked up at the ceiling.

“You’re not stopping me forever, you know. Whatever has happened to Grandma Dawn, I’m finding out—I’m finding her.” She climbed to her feet. “Besides, there are other reasons to go back to Evermore—or have you forgotten?” Heather glared, defiantly. “I am the green-eyed Maiden.”

••••

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Last to mount the windblown summit, the trailing Maiden turned and paused upon her Archmount. Standing as one, bathed in the blood-red glow of the hour, the proud and dignified pair beheld the panoramic sweep of the valley come sunset. And then they were gone.

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Last to mount the windblown summit, the trailing Maiden turned and paused upon her Archmount. Standing as one, bathed in the blood-red glow of the hour, the proud and dignified pair beheld the panoramic sweep of the valley come sunset. And then they were gone.

••••

When rising to ascend the remaining stairs, Heather stopped abruptly and, with a snap-turn of the head, she fixed her attention down the extensive stretch of hallway to one side.

Movement. Who? Or what?

Poised motionless as a graceful statue, she stared, her extraordinary green eyes parsing the confusion of shadows, waiting for more.

Legs and arms pulling her higher on a limb and above the water, she rode the buoyancy of the bough, the girl finally able to fully catch her breath. Now far downstream, following the curve of the swiftly moving creek, Heather saw the banks begin to narrow. As the current seethed below, the cluster of branches began to slowly rotate, sweeping her closer toward shore.

Approaching a spate of boulders near the Dairy Street Bridge, Heather straightened and timed her leap for the largest, landing, sliding, then scampering to gain traction and pull herself up the sloping granite face. Crouched upon the rock, stripping the sodden hair from her face, she took a moment to witness the lifesaving branches slam and wrap a stone upright of the bridge before violently being sucked under.

All systems alive, Heather swelled with sudden euphoria, with revitalized strength and a keenness of mind replacing the lethargy that had so gripped her spirit. Cloud cover breaking, she rose to stand tall in the night, her triumphant form framed against the large luminous circle of a resurgent moon.