A Knight of the Sacred Blade Read Free Page A

First Day

    Anno Domini 2012

    Ally lay on the ground, her hot blood pooling beneath her on the cold stones of the castle courtyard. Her limbs trembled with exhaustion, and pain burned through her with every breath. 
    A shadow darkened the sky. 
    Ally tried to scream, blood bubbling from her lips. An armored nightmare with huge leathery wings and burning eyes stood besides her. Ally’s lips moved and a strange voice shouted words. The monster’s face twisted and its hand plunged down. Iron claws plunged between her breasts, shattered her ribs, and grasped her pounding heart. 
    Ally screamed as the monster pulled…

    ###

    Whispers of madness filled the air.
    Ally ran, a boy of three years screaming in her arms. Her bare feet slapped against the cold crimson marble. A man’s voice rang out in rage and pain. Demons of shadow crawled along the walls, floor, and ceiling of the vaulted chamber, converging on an old man with two swords of burning blue light. 
    “The door, damn you!” shouted the old man, his swords whirling. “The door!”
    Ally saw five ornate doors of carved stone in the wall ahead. “I…I don’t know which one. I don't know which door to open!” 
    A blast of icy air caressed her neck. She whirled as a shadow-thing reached for her, cold claws extended. Ally screamed in terror and dropped the boy. The shadow leapt over the toddler. They didn’t care about him. They didn’t care about the old man.
    They wanted her. 
    She sprinted for one of the doors. Her feet slipped on the cold marble and she cracked her head. Her vision cleared just as the shadow-things leapt upon her…

    ###

    Ally Wester sat up in bed, trying to bite back the shrieks just behind her lips. Her legs tangled in the blankets, and sweat covered her from head to foot. Her eyes darted back and forth over the room. For instant it seemed like waiting shadows, winged and clawed, lurked in the corners…
    Ally closed her eyes, bit her knuckles, and waited for the shakes to pass. Shards of memory beat against her mind. She remembered an old man with a grim face and kindly eyes, two swords hanging at his belt, and a gaunt man with a black staff.
    Then the images faded away into nothingness.
    Dreams. Just dreams. 
    Ally forced herself to open her eyes after a while. She saw her desk against the wall, her dresser, her bookcase, and nothing else. 
    “Just dreams,” muttered Ally 
    She grimaced and rolled out of bed with a grunt. God, but her throat was dry.
    The window caught her eye. Snowflakes danced in the street light’s glow, and a white blanket already covered the streets and the neighbors’ roofs. Ally grinned. Maybe they would cancel school tomorrow. Another day of Christmas vacation would not trouble her in the slightest. 
    She slid out the door and padded down the upstairs hall. Faint snores rattled from the door to Lithon’s room. She never understood how an fourteen-year-old boy could snore so loudly. Complete silence came from Katrina and Simon’s door, since Katrina would not return from the mystery writers' convention until tomorrow afternoon.
    Ally slid into the bathroom and filled a paper cup with water. She drank it all and caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror. Her hair was a mess, but it never pleased her. It had turned flame-red around her twelfth birthday, but she often thought of changing it back to dark brown, the way it had been when she had met...
    She remember a massive tower, larger than any human hands could build, and whispering shadows...
    No. Just dreams.  
    She went back to her room, trying to to ignore the fear fluttering in her hand. This was ridiculous. She was eighteen years old, and she would graduate from high school in five months. She was too old to run crying from nightmares. 
    But not too old to have them, it seemed.
    “Just dreams,” whispered Ally.
    She looked over her room. There was no trace of winged creatures or whispering shadows or black towers or any of the other