Journey to the stars and worlds of imagination: Hooked on Windmaster, A Parting, #MFRWHooks

From the sword and sorcery fantasy, Windmaster, an excerpt of a parting as Ellspeth comes to an insight. This scene preceds "Destiny Awaits."

Excerpt:

Dal was not running away from her. In battle he could not afford the luxury of emotions. He was walling himself off in preparation for the fight to come. She remembered the way he looked at her at the well when they made their last preparations to leave. First he pulled something from his personal pack. She couldn’t see what he held except for a flash of brown, maybe wood. An expression of regret flickered across his face. His face reddened when he lightly kissed the item and slipped it over his head to hang beneath his armor. Must be a personal talisman of some kind she decided. The wink he tossed to her matched the smile he flashed in her direction. They both disappeared as he put on his armor.

An impersonal cold emanated from the wizard, a demeanor that increased with each weapon he removed from his pack and strapped to its place. By the time he draped the carry strap of his great sword’s scabbard over his shoulder, no remnant remained of the lover...only the soldier–mercenary.

Beneath Ellspeth, Kaleigh’s sure-footed gait acquired an unfamiliar ragged footing. “It’s not far now, girl,” Ellspeth encouraged. “I hope,” she muttered to herself. Suddenly the gathering of magic swirled around her as the air fluoresced with crimson sparks. The dancing motes grew brighter until, in a final blinding flare they eclipsed the silvery predawn light. When her vision returned, the spire that had been hours away now towered above her head. “Magic can move people?”

“No,” Dal said at her ear. “I just dispelled the illusion created as part of the circlet’s protection. Dismount. We’re here.”

The buff-colored grass seemed unusually thick and pulled at her boots. When Ellspeth stepped down she had to fight the urge to leap into the saddle.

“Ignore, it,” Dal ordered. His stern voice cut through her increasing anxiety. “When I leave, don’t stand in one place too long or the tendrils will wrap around your feet. Once you are trapped, the vines will pull you down and eventually smother you. However, as long as I’m here the grass isn’t dangerous... Elle, I...”

An edge in his voice drew her attention.

His brown eyes glowed with an inner fire, a passion at odds with his controlled expression. “I know the plan called for me to follow you into the spire after you released the wall that keeps out mages. But Bashim’s people are too close.”

The cold steel of the dagger he placed in her hand distracted her from the emotion she saw in his eyes.

~ ~ ~

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