KINGDOM OF THE STONE -- a Wattpad featured novel

Chapter Thirty Five

"Well the baby is asleep and Thysia wants you to tell her one of your stories before she goes to sleep," Asophra smiled wearily.

Theris set down his drinking bowl, grinning. "Sure."

Asophra paused, seeing something in his eyes. "What are you looking at?"

"Just the most beautiful woman in the world," he said with a goofy grin.

"Stop making fun of me," she laughed. "I'm an old woman."

"Not at all. You're perfect."

"Now I know you're mocking me. Either that, or you're blind."

"No," Theris laughed. "I'm just very, very lucky."

Asophra blushed and looked away.

Though they had been married for two years, he took it as a personal victory that he could still do that to her.

"Where is Iyanni?" Asophra asked.

"Has she not come back in?" Theris looked around their small house. "I'll go find her." He rose and stepped outside, pausing on the threshold to look around the common area. "Iyanni!" he called.

Aulein, his neighbor, sat on a stump outside his house smoking his pipe. "Missing something?"

"You haven't seen my daughter, have you?"

Aulein pointed over his shoulder with his pipe stem. "Last time I saw her, she was chasing lightning bugs along the edge of the fields."

"Thanks."

"I'll help you look." Aulein rose and strolled along beside him smoking. They took turns calling for Iyanni. Aulein waved at Georgos, coming in late from the far end of his field. As they neared Onos' house, they heard a young girl scream.

"Iyanni!" Theris broke into a run. Aulein and Georgos raced to catch up. The silhouettes of a half-dozen men leading animals crossed their paths in the gloom.

"Iyanni!" Theris called. A smaller figure made muffled cries as it struggled in the grasp of one of the men. Theris froze seeing a glint of moonlight off a copper knife.

"Stay back," warned one of the men.

Theris froze and noticed Onos lying face down on the ground. "Take what you want, just let the girl go."

"Hey! That's our food!" Georgos shouted, and ran up to the silhouettes. Aulein followed. The dark figures produced clubs and beat Georgos, then Aulein to the ground.

Theris dropped to his knees and pleaded. "Please, let the girl go. Take what you want, just don't hurt her."

"Pshaw! We didn't want her anyway. Just one more mouth to feed." The figure shoved Iyanni to the ground. "But don't follow us or worse will happen to you." He kicked Georgos, grabbed a donkey's leads and followed the others.

-=====|==

Kaelis walked next to Ctonos who led the soreav on the path between the withered weed-choked fields lined with stunted keleos trees. Shriveled black keleos nuts crunched stubbornly underfoot as they neared the next village, surprising a young boy of about ten or twelve years old. The boy hastily shoved a net, in which a pair of doves fluttered, under a tanglethorn bush. He appeared to be trying to hide them.

"We don't want your food, kid." Ctonos chuckled. "We brought plenty to share." He slapped Artos on the chest and said, "Give the boy some bread"

Artos tore off a lump of bread and handed it to the kid who sniffed it suspiciously before taking a bite. He shoved the rest into his mouth and looked at the bundles strapped to the donkeys they led. "Is that all food?" he gasped.