A Shield of Faith (BOOK 4)

Chapter 1

ADARA

Grasslands swept through a window open to the caldera of the mountain which grew a marble rose out of its peaks. On the stand beside her bed, a book bred with wings stretched with gemstone words, which grew into teeth along a silver trimming. Dragon Knight; the single tale of a lone survivor's adversity and hope in flight. Its pages left close, carrying her old pain in the etched love someone else left upon it. Too difficult to open the tale without pricking her finger on the thorn of a rose, bleeding crimson torment, with nothing strong enough to repair the threads. On the other side of the room, a desk with a lamp swelling with warmth to give her light through the dark, chilly nights within the caldera. Dreams unbroken, she stared at the book and her shaky promises of happiness. For better or for worse, Yuven dropped heavier tomes than his monolith straight onto her desk before absconding once more without a word. Her back still screamed from carrying the last one.

Internal instinct. External focus. Do not stifle the flame. Adara sat cross-legged on her bedspread and counted each breath filled with the fires of her power. Let it ignite on a single point. Focus. In front of her, a glyph which spiraled into twilight flames bloomed on the petals of lilies as it carved a pocket of gaseous mist. Her first lesson. A magelight without an anchorpoint save for the air. Embers sparkled inside the tiny pocket of an inferno. Focus... Her gaze drew to her window at movement outside on the training grounds, what with her room on the main floor. The braziers in the claws of the wyverns remained lit for the past couple days, though when she pressed Fenrer for an explanation, he avoided the topic and switched to her training. Her magelight spluttered with a rippling rasp when Fenrer appeared from the distant walkway, shadowed by Yuven whose armored leggings wrapped with riding straps, with a heavy shoulder bag heaved around his arm. Unable to hear the words they spoke, Fenrer nodded to something Yuven said, before vaulting over one of the training fences of the archery range, taking out his bow as Yuven raised his hands into a shrug before heading to the distant stables with his thickly wrapped package.

Hm. Adara jolted when her magelight sputtered and wilted in a winter's breeze. Wait—Oh... Gods damn it. Out of bed, she ran into the corridor, a mosaic of stories and no direction. Into the open field, she ran to catch up to her two friends, though Yuven long disappeared when she reached the archery range, with Fenrer shifting with a couple arrows, nudging the small quiver at his feet out of the way before he gazed at the targets, and appeared not to notice her.

I know he's been tired recently...

As she came closer, the rose dragged its thorn through her heart when he set his feet and tugged back the nock with the arrow at the ready, pointed at the target in the distance. It whistled through the air when he loosed it, and it thunked into the heart of the target. Adara took another step closer when he angled himself against the wind. A small green glyph shone along the line.

"Good to know you've gotten better," Adara piped up. He sent a glance her way as he released the next arrow, and it whizzed past the intended target to hit the clawed feet of the one behind it. "Sorry," she said when he relaxed his stance. "I just saw you and Yuven walking past and I thought I'd see what you two were up to."

He smiled. "Oh, he went to go check on his hippogryph. I was also trying to ward him off making you run the Gauntlet, though I'm afraid I don't think that worked so well." Fenrer rolled his lean shoulders and drew his gaze along the rest of the targets, before pulling an arrow through his magick and straight into his hands as she leaned on the fence to observe.

"Do I even want to know what the Gauntlet is?"

"It's a course Storm Warden Trainees run through every so often," Fenrer explained as he got back into his stance. "It's... quite rough even if you know what to expect." He drew the nock straight to his cheek, pressing his fingers into it. Adara held her silence for his concentration as his lips pursed and he shifted his aim to the wind. Another burst of magick rippled through the arrow, and he set the next flying forward. It slammed into his original target's throat. Ruthless accuracy, but Fenrer relaxed once more with a nod at her. "If you're curious, you could try, Yuven and I will run it with you."