Souls of Aredyrah 3 - The Taking of the Dawn Read Free

Dayn said softly. “I
shouldn’t have talked about you and Reiv like that. I know it
wasn’t easy leaving him.” He knelt beside her and placed a hand on
her shoulder. “But he said himself that we would see each other
again. And you know Reiv has a way of knowing things.”
    Alicine looked up at him. “He does, doesn’t
he.”
    “I don’t think he would lie about a thing
like that would he? I mean, you did manage to straighten him out on
that little issue of his lying, didn’t you?”
    Alicine smiled. “That I did.”
    “There, you see?”
    She nodded. “I’ll see him again,” she said
with a sniff.
    “Get some sleep,” Dayn said, pulling the
corner of the blanket over her.
    He rose and made his way back to what was
left of the campfire, pushing the wayward sticks and coals back
onto the pile with his foot. With fresh kindling and a few gentle
breaths, the fire billowed back to an orange glow that radiated a
perimeter of warmth and sent a trail of smoke into Dayn’s face. He
wiped the sting from his eyes with the back of his hand, then
curled up on his bedroll. But he found he could not sleep, and he
could not stop the tears from trailing down his cheeks.
     
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Chapter 2: Jewel of the Valley
     
    D ayn and Alicine
traveled for three more days before finding the pass that led them
between the mountains. As Dayn had suspected, they’d simply not
gone far enough north. Reiv had told Dayn to look for the pass
between the two peaks east of the smoking mountain. But the closer
they got, the more difficult it was to tell where one peak began
and another ended.
    At last they found the passage they were
seeking, but when they reached its end, they could only stop and
stare. Below them was a vast green valley, its wild grasses rising
and falling like waves on an emerald sea.
    “I swear, if I wasn’t so tired I’d gallop
right into it,” Dayn said. He twisted around in the saddle to look
at his sister. Her grin was stretched as wide as his was.
    They wound the horses down the mountainside
until at last they were standing at the edge of the vale. It spread
across the landscape like an endless palette of teal upon teal,
spotted here and there by patches of red and white and yellow. A
ring of snow-capped mountains surrounded it, rising like a great
crown tipped with sparkling jewels.
    Dayn pulled a breath through his nostrils,
relishing the sweet scent of clover mixed with early autumn
wildflowers.
    “It’s so beautiful,” Alicine said, gazing
out. “Think of the crops Father could grow in a place like
this.”
    “Anyplace would be better than that rocky
patch of ground he struggles with year after year,” Dayn said. Then
his hopes lifted. “Do you think he’d consider moving the family
here? I sure wouldn’t mind it. Then we could live closer to…oh,
never mind.”
    “Closer to Tearia?”
    “Well, if we lived halfway between…”
    “I don’t think that’s going to happen, Dayn,
so you might want to put that little fantasy to rest.”
    “Just a thought,” he said.
    The valley proved to be rich with life, and
it soon drew Dayn into a sense of contentedness he had not felt
since they had left Tearia. But he knew better than to linger. If
what Reiv told them was true, and it probably was, they had only to
make their way between the two ridges directly ahead of them and
they would be in Kirador. From there they had only to go west,
then—
    “What’s that?” Alicine asked, pointing to the
ground in front of them.
    Dayn squinted in the direction she was
indicating, toward a patch of faded pink flowers with pale yellow
leaves. A reflection could be seen glinting in the sunlight,
appearing and disappearing with every step he took.
    “Where did it go?” Alicine asked, rising in
her saddle.
    “There…over there,” Dayn said, his arm
outstretched. “See it?” But he didn’t wait for a reply and
dismounted his horse.
    The glimmer vanished, and Dayn searched the
area in slow circles.