KINGDOM OF THE STONE -- a Wattpad featured novel

Epilogue

Dedicated to @jmorrey the first person on wattpad to brave this entire book. Thank you for your continued support and enthusiasm. Anyone who liked this story should check out her book Gallel's Heir. I know you will like that one as well.

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Porthman untied the line and started searching for a place to hide his boat when he saw a lone woman walking down the pathway to the river landing. He glanced over his shoulder at the lowering sun. If he took a crossing now, it would be almost completely dark by the time he came back. If he hadn't already wasted half a day hiding out in the deeper water from a reaver who had tried to steal his boat, he wouldn't bother. As it was, he held the line loosely, prepared to shove off at the first sign of trouble.

The woman held a large baby, or a small child, bundled up in a blanket so that no sight could be had of the one she carried. She stopped half a dozen steps from the water's edge and called out to him as if he were far away. "The oracle has need of your boat."

"Wonderful. So do I."

"His child needs to cross this river."

"I have needs as well. I need a good meal. I need a house to live in. I need my wife and child back!" The last came out as more of a scream than he'd intended. "The oracle has much neglected my needs it seems."

"Will you not help us?"

"What do you have to trade?"

The woman slipped a hand up her sleeve, pulled off a bracelet of lapis-lazuli and handed it to him.

He looked it over. It might be hard to trade, but it should feed him for nearly a sennight. "Very well," he said. He tucked the bracelet into his tunic and pulled the boat up to the dock. "Come aboard." He rose and gave her a hand, showing her where to step so she didn't tip the boat. He poled out to deeper water, unshipped the oars and pulled quickly for the far shore, hoping to get back before dark.

"So, that's the oracle's baby is it?"

She didn't look at him, keeping her nose in the air as if pretending he wasn't there. "Yes."

"Give us a look, then."

She ignored him and pulled the blanket tighter around the baby.

"Come on. I just want to see the baby. I used to have one of my own, you know, before your oracle took her. I've never seen an oracle's baby before."

She tried to turn away while still remaining on the narrow seat.

Porthman rose, deliberately rocking the boat. She clutched the gunwale with one frightened hand and he reached over and yanked back a corner of the blanket and recoiled at the thing in her arms. It looked like a squashed, gray, lumpy potato. He even counted its eyes to make certain it had the correct number, or tried to before she covered the thing up. "Lord above!" he gasped. "What's wrong with it?"

"Nothing. Don't talk that way."

Porthman went back to rowing and shook his head. "I almost feel sorry for him now."

"Don't be. You should be in awe. He's the future."

Porthman pulled harder on the oars eager to leave her on the far shore. "I sure hope you're wrong. The future doesn't look very good."

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Thank you for reading Kingdom of the stone. I'm truly grateful that you found it worth your time and I hope you'll continue to support me and my stories. If you're curious about the ultimate fates of Apaidia, Pronos, baby Andrall, and Garanth, of Eiraena's true nature, Theris' redemption (which two get married-to others, and which two become betrothed-to each other,) what happened to Ctonos, Macander and the rest, and how Karux will deal with the spreading curse that Amantis called down, be sure to check out part two, The Stone King, for the conclusion of everything. I'll be posting a couple of bonus chapters here soon.

Don't forget, you can always buy both Kingdom of the Stone and The Stone King now on Amazon in ebook, or buy the paperback and get the ebook for free. Every tiny penny goes toward making more of these stories. Check out my website at: www.japartridge.com for links to Amazon and more information about other stories I'm working on.

Thank you for your support. There is no doubt that my readers are the smartest, most loyal and the best looking of them all! :)