2026-09-05 19:17:23
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014 The Fool
Ansel's house leaned at the end of the last lane, with weeds grown against the door and half the shingles gone.Kingsley told Gina to wait outside. Whatever lived in there, it was a man's hovel.He knocked, and someone looked through the hole. Then a bored voice answered through the wood."Nobody's home, my lord. Go and eat your grain while you still have teeth to chew it."Halbert put his shoulder to the door, and it fell inward off one hinge.Three-quarters of the roof was open sky. Rain had rotted the floor black. In the one dry corner, a thin man in his twenties lay on a mattress between walls of stacked books, and he didn't get up for his baron."Ansel," Kingsley said. "Don't hide from your baron. You told the village Thornmere will be wiped out inside a week."Ansel pushed a curtain of white-streaked hair out of his eyes."Yes, I did. The sky has turned its face from the valley, my lord. The pressure is dropping. The heavens will fall, and the water will stand over us."He scrat
013 Farmland
On the way to Thornmere's only green field, Halbert struggled to keep up, breathing hard through his nose."The blast at the gate burned the Mist's curse out of me, my lord," he said.But you haven't healed yet, Kingsley thought. Because there is not one healing potion in the whole village. That has to change.A thick crowd of villagers stood around the field at a careful distance. Inside the ring, something spectacular was happening. The ground trembled, and dust rose and fell off the shaking soil.Frightened whispers ran low through the crowd."The damned girl died under the prison mine, didn't she? Maybe she has come back to punish us.""No, it's the gate. Closing the north border has woken something evil in our lands."Then the villagers saw their baron and his following. They parted to let the three of them through. Perhaps it was because they didn't want to be trampled by a giant man like Halbert.Kingsley stopped and surveyed the field. It was as he expected.Only he could see
012 The Other Side
The Mist closed over Kingsley's head, and the last light of Thornmere disappeared.He was on the other side, his hands and knees in black mud. The first breath of the Mist burned down his throat like smoke.He coughed, and blood splattered across his fingers.Get up. Get up.Kingsley's limbs wouldn't listen to him.The growling and snarling started, and it rose from everywhere at once.The beasts shouldered out of the grey fog and the thorn bushes from all directions.Wolves and foxes big as horses, black scales pushing up through their fur. Patches of hide had rotted off, and the meat under them steamed.Their eyes glowed a sick yellow. Black drool swung from their teeth, and where it hit the mud, it sizzled.Rats the size of hounds skittered forward, screeching.More beasts pressed in behind them, and their toxic muzzles and putrid breath closed around him like a tomb."Stay back," Kingsley croaked.He jerked aside just as a wolf's fangs snapped shut above his neck.A hound lunged fr
011 Ten Seconds
Halbert grunted and pushed himself up on his ax.His voice was calm but distant. "Play time is over. The Mist infected my blood, so I've been a dead man for months. Let me die doing my job. Run and save yourself."Gina's knives shook in the air around her. She turned to Kingsley. "My lord. He's right. We can still make it to the main road if we retreat now. Please, let's go."The baron of Thornmere didn't move. His mind raced with conflicting emotions.Mara had spoken of the north border with her dying breath. She had wanted him to locate the Shields family's last survivor. It was a clan that had protected the Carmines and their lands for centuries.What kind of leader would Kingsley be if he abandoned them and let the ancient bloodline become extinct? He couldn't run away while his young protector was eaten alive.But what could he do before these impossible odds?Then the moon slipped from under a cloud and lit up the north border. Kingsley's eyes suddenly noticed something he had c
010 Stay Behind Me
Halbert looked at Kingsley and Gina, slowly and painfully shaking his head."Are you thrill-seekers from the capital? Have you never faced a real threat to your lives before?"Kingsley didn't answer. He stepped forward and stood beside the giant young man. Gina followed suit."If you're really going to be stupid, then stay behind me," Halbert said with a sigh. "If even one of those mist monsters gets past me, you will die screaming."Without any further words, he turned and strode toward the wide gap in the treeline.Kingsley could tell that every movement cost Halbert. He could hear the wet, ragged strain in his breathing and see the pain locking up his stiff legs. Yet the young man kept his back straight, refusing to give up.The ground trembled beneath Kingsley's boots. A heavy thudding echoed from inside the fog. Something fast and massive was charging toward them."Prepare for the worst," Halbert muttered, planting his feet deep into the soil.The first beast burst through the gr
009 The Warrior Ghost
Kingsley set out for the north border soon after the funeral, with Gina at his side.Word had gone around in Thornmere about the baron's travel plans.Five young men stood waiting at the crossroads with staffs and wood axes. Not one had an awakened talent, but they were broad in the shoulder."We'll walk with you, my lord," the boldest one said. "The roads aren't safe."Kingsley could read the real reason on their faces. He had turned a white field green and summoned water from a dead well in front of the whole village. After a long drought, the villagers finally had hope.A lord who could work miracles might stand between them and the capital's collector, and so the men wanted him alive.Kingsley allowed them to escort him.Gina kept her chin high, but her voice stayed low. "The men keep staring at me, my lord. Do they suspect my identity?""Let them stare. You're wearing my family's colors proudly. Nobody is looking at Ginny Finch. All they see is Gina Carmine. Never forget that."S
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