Luminous: Book 1 [Paperback Sample]

Prologue

The sun slunk behind the castle's hill. So began the night Crosset prayed would end the famine.

Darkness swallowed men in the rear as the company swung around leafless trees, batted aside low-hanging branches, sloshed through muddied, half-melted snow. Crossbows and pitchforks jostled on their backs, falling loose from fraying ropes they'd looped underarm as makeshift harnesses.

Bailiff Johnsy's plan was straightforward. Get the boy, and they'd get food.

He didn't give directions for everything in between.

The men pooled the last dregs of their oil to feed the lamp held by Draken Armorheim, their leader. Draken had burned most of it leading them in circles. Perhaps he should pour what little was left onto kindling and wait out the night, but how many more of their children, women, and elders would succumb to hunger that night?

No. It ends tonight.

Lamplight illuminated a fallen tree on their path. Its girth reached Draken's midriff. A young branch's corpse sprung from its side, ending in a swirl like a pig's tail. Draken sighed in relief at the landmark. He set his lamp on the log, preparing for the climb. He'd swung one leg over when a commotion broke out behind.

"Move it, pig! Or I'll snap your neck-bone in half!"

The bald, hulking man tugged the leash with a snarl. The fat little boy at the other end lurched to the pull. His muddied face contorted in pain as the noose cinched against his windpipe. Having regained balance and breath, he sneered.

"Spare me your empty threats. You need me alive to bargain with my father."

His eyes gleamed silver with bravado, but tremors bled into his voice. Smirking, the man hunkered down before his hostage.

"Your body does mighty fine. Skinned, quartered, butchered, diced. Fried in lard scraped from the wall of your belly. First meal in weeks for me boys—"

"And last, Krulstaff!"

Draken marched over as the boy blanched in terror. Krulstaff wheeled around. He chastised his faltering feet, locking eyes with the giant.

"Chione ain't even half done with us. We keep the boy safe in Crosset, his father keeps us fed through winter. That's the plan!"

How many times he'd explained to his troublesome neighbor, he'd lost count. Krulstaff rolled his eyes at the Heights.

"Why don't you give me that, Armorheim?" He spat, spade-like hand swiping for the lamp. "Unlike your son-of-a-whore in Meriton, me sons are dying while we muck around this blithering forest!"

Blood drained from Draken's wind-battered cheeks. He snatched Krulstaff by the collar.

"Don't you dare—!"

Half the remaining men hauled Draken off Krulstaff before he retaliated.

"He's got a point, Draken," huffed Brodel the Butcher. His arm hooked firmly around Draken's, he pointed his pig-butchering knife at the sniffling boy. "Dun need him awake. We'll drag this sack o' shite faster than it walks."

Draken glanced at Brodel, swallowing his anger in light of all that was at stake. Sighing, he gestured carelessly at the boy.

"Cuff him one on the noggin—with the handle, mind! And give Krulstaff the blade if he dun't shut it about me son."

After one last glare at the seething Krulstaff, he barked at the remaining men. "Move out!"

Brodel had marched one step towards their squealing captive when a sharp crack rent the air. The men turned as one to the wall of trees. Crossbows raised and pointed, step by step they retreated, then an arrow sprung from Krulstaff's bow.

"For the love of—!"

The scream of a young girl drowned out Draken's feverish curse.

"Meya? That you, lass?"

Draken dashed in to see to the poor thing. A gust of wind sent him flying back. Something barreled past, crashing through the trees in a blinding flash of white, then the shroud of night swallowed the forest whole.

The moon hadn't risen. Their lamp was lost. The only pinpricks of light were two glowing green eyes, hanging high above.

The eyes darted in unseen sockets, glaring at the men spread out below as though the creature saw them, then blinked out as it roared in rage and pain.

Earth shook. Trees shuddered. Birds fled into the night. Out of the black blasted a fan of orange flames. The men flattened themselves on the snowdrift as bone-melting heat scorched the tips of their hair.

The inferno collided with the trees behind. Dying branches burst into flames, flooding the clearing with a sight so terrible, the men wished to be cast back into the dark.

A reptilian creature armored in gleaming metallic scales, trees trampled like hay under silver claws. Acid-green eyes blazed above a long, narrow muzzle. Tendrils of smoke trickled through silver fangs.

Its claws carved deep welts into the earth as its leathery wings sprung open. It leapt forth, snatched the boy between its talons and soared off, trailing his screams as it vanished into the night sky.