Alayke Tru lost everything in her life with a single bullet. All her family is dead. She's ignored by almost everyone. All she wants to do is go home but home doesn't exist anymore.
If Alakye is willing to take the risk, she can disappear in...
I worry the pieces of The Dragon's mail in my hand. The papers rough textures gets smoother each pass of my thumb. The full moon shines high in the sky. It lights up the night almost as well as the sun. My hungry eyes are locked on that little driveway to The Dragon's lands. The distorted bit of fuzzy space is the beginning of deep magic.
[RIP]
A tug at my pant leg pulls my eyes down. The jean leg is in Rhain mouth. She takes careful tugs. She sits back on her haunches next to Riverh. Her little tail tucks under her. She whines at me in her little puppy voice.
"It's ok," I tell her. "Go ahead on back to the house. I will be back soon." The terrifyingly cute duo don't move an inch. I head across the street. They follow me reluctantly.
"Go back," they follow with their little snouts in the air. Deep sniffs of the air as they guard.
This is Old Kingdom Territory
Trespassers will be subject to
Magic Law
I pass the sign and close my eyes. This isn't a good idea. It's a really really bad idea. My brother always told me to stay out of deep magic. The heat wavy lines of deep magic distortion are a little ahead.
My hand touches my back looking for the cold bit of carbon steel. Two knives secure in the sheath at my back aren't much protection. It will have to be enough.
"If anything happens, you run. As far and as fast as you can." The puppies whine their tails tucked down. The path changes from dirt to squishy grass under my feet.
At the end of the driveway, a tree rises from the grassy ground. It's old and gnarled. A door sits at the center of the tree. A continuous whine emanates from the little puppies behind me. The difference between entering someone else's territory and protecting your own. It's not a thought I can walk away from. The real life and death consequences of me walking into a trap.
The gnarled bark of the large tree door is carved into a dragon. It's almost like a story can be read on the door. Piles of skulls surround the dragon. The tree is stabbed through with swords like a porcupine. A gold-hilted sword thrusts down into the ground. It has a skeletal hand wrapped around the hilt. The boney arm is followed down by skeletal hand wrap perfectly around an open page. Wood inches across the hand in a slow movement. Only a tiny bit of decayed leathery skin is still visible on the hand.
The page waves in the moonlight. I look down at the puppies. They look back up to me completely unhappy with this bad idea. "Let's go around the tree."
The dragon on the door pops out. Its golden eyes watch me. The little dragonflies up the tree. Its lazy wing beats and lands on a branch. The tail wraps around the framed crest. Seven little cards surrounded the framed.
"I guess not around then, huh, little dragon?" The page of the book in the skeletal hand blows in the wind.
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil, for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
I walk forward to the door. It opens without my touch. My eyes lock on the last few lines of the page.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
Psalm 23:4
We go through the door.
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A/n: This was a hard chapter for me. It's hard to explain one day I just got stuck. It wasn't that I didn't know what happens next. It was that I got weird about jumping off the ledge.
