Mask of Glass

Ch 1

McBrube here... in case you didn't know this is Book 2 to another book I wrote; Before The Truth... I suggest reading that one first, but you don't have to

The body shuddered as air was forced into its lungs. It felt so utterly wrong. In a single moment all of the peacefulness of the once still body left and it thrashed on the metal table it was chained to.

People from the sides of the room rushed to restrain the thrashing man. "Talon." A large man with a black cloak and a bone white mask said. The man, Talon, responded to the voice by lying still on the table.

"Talon." The man called out again.

This time the man lying on the table sat up and opened his eyes.

Talon's eyes were an unsettling shade of yellow and he seemed surprised when he saw them reflected back at him from off of the mirror-like surfaces of the walls.

He stared at the wall and his golden eyes for a minute more. Talon's head was tilted curiously and he blinked first one eye then the other to make sure the eyes that he saw reflected were actually his own. The eyes he saw mirrored his movements perfectly. They are obviously his... but the color just didn't seem to fit.

A cloaked man stepped forward from the side of the room and loosened the chains binding Talon's wrists. Talon slid wordlessly to the ground and knelt on the floor for a moment before forcing his stiff body to stand.

"Talon." The large masked man from earlier called out again.

The stiff joints and muscles in Talon's body protested as he turned to face the man who had called out what he supposed was his name. The white mask the man wore looked like the face of an owl.

"Talon, I am called Grandmaster. You serve me." Grandmaster said in a deep gravelly voice.

Not knowing what else to do, Talon knelt at his feet. This seemed to please Grandmaster and he gestured for Talon to stand.

Talon stood and followed Grandmaster down a dark hallway. The hallway eventually opened up into a dimly lit room with a bunch of what looked like training equipment scattered around the edges of the room.

Even the dull light in the room was enough to irritate Talon's overly sensitive eyes. He squinted and made a small hiss to express his displeasure at the brightness of the room. The small noise earned him a threatening glare from Grandmaster.

Talon visibly deflated when he saw the glare and the disappointment coming from Grandmaster. After that he thought better of making any more noise. He stood quietly in the center of the room, squinting his eyes to see if that would help them adjust to the light of the room better.

Grandmaster made a series of short vocalizations that sounded like the coos and clicks a bird might make. A door of the opposite end of the room creaked open and Grandmaster smirked before leaving from yet another door.

Talon's body tensed and moved into the semblance of a fighting stance. He turned around in a slow circle, not sure what direction an attack would come from, if one would even come at all.

The attack eventually did come. A large and heavy figure jumped onto Talon's back and stabbed a knife through his heart...

That was how his training began.