Amidst The Rising Shadows (Book 3) Read Free

she sprinted away. The others called out to her, but their calls trailed in her wake. She burst through the doorway, elbowing her way through a throng of Hythariam. The molten-yellow eyes of the Drake glared at her from the faces of the Hythariam nearby.
    No! You won’t take me again!
    She burst through the doors and ran out into the gardens beyond.  
    Faster...I must go faster.  
    She drew in the energy around her and put on the speed, blurring through the gardens. She could hear sounds of pursuit behind her. She needed the high ground. Sarah leaped to the tallest branch of a tree nearby and stopped. Slowing her breathing, she squatted down upon the tree branch and closed her eyes for a moment, taking in the sounds around her. After a few moments, she opened her eyes and scanned the way she had come. The white dome building peeked above the tree line. She ignored the shouts of her name that came from a short distance away. There was no sign of the Drake, but she could feel its eyes on her, watching and waiting for a moment to strike.
    No, the Drake is gone. Aaron killed the Drake.
    Sarah dropped down and sank to the ground, wrapping her arms around her body. She rocked back and forth at the base of the tree, telling herself over and over that the Drake was gone.
    Where is Aaron? she kept asking herself, and the silence was her only answer.
    “My Lady,” a voice called to her softly.
    Sarah looked up to see Verona squatting before her.
    “Are you all right, my Lady?” he asked.
    Sarah could feel her heart thundering in her chest and her arms clutching her sides. She took a deep breath and suppressed the urge to keep running until she collapsed from sheer exhaustion.
    “It’s okay, you’re safe now, I promise, my Lady,” Verona said, and sat down across from her. “Take as much time as you need. We can head back whenever you are ready or not at all, if that is what you wish.”
    Sarah nodded and took another deep breath that shook in her throat, “I’m sorry. I kept seeing... it. Verona, I can’t get those eyes out of my mind. It’s as if there were thousands of Drakes pressing in all around me. Even now at this moment, I feel it will come out of nowhere and drag me back into its clutches, while I claw helplessly to escape.”
    Verona watched her for a moment. “The Drake is gone, my Lady. Aaron saw to that before he came for you. The Nanites that made the Drake possible are inside Aaron, who is now on Hytharia.”
    Sarah leveled her gaze upon Verona, “And that means they will turn Aaron into the Drake. Don’t you see we have to go after him,” she said rising. “I have to find him,” she said, and started to head back toward the dome-shaped building.
    “Sarah,” Verona called, halting her in her tracks. “We will do this together, you and I, but we can’t do this alone and certainly not without the help of the Hythariam.”
    “What if they won’t help?”
    “I believe that if they can help, then they will, and if not then we’ll find another way. I have the utmost faith that if anyone can find their way back to Safanar, then Aaron could, my Lady.”
    “You don’t understand, the Nanites are too strong,” Sarah said.
    Verona reach out and put his hand gently upon her arm, “You haven’t seen what I have seen, my Lady. Please don’t lose faith. Aaron will find a way back.”
    Sarah searched Verona’s eyes, but his faith in Aaron was absolute and would not falter. They didn’t know what the Nanites could do. Aaron needed help, but like Verona, she believed in Aaron, she just didn’t know how he was going to get back. She slowly nodded, and together they headed back to the Hythariam council building.
    On their way back, Sarik and Braden joined them. She could sense them all drawing upon the energy, and each gave her a knowing look. They had come so far since the decks of the Raven. As they approached the building they saw Roselyn and Gavril standing together.
    “Are you all right?”