Dolor and Shadow Read Online Free PDF Page B

river,” Rune said. “The lighthouse.”
    Bergen shrugged as if it was every day he saw a behemoth rise from the sea. “A tower extends from a white octagon that stands on a square base. There’s a room at the top where they use a kind of metal plate to catch the sun. At night, they light a fire.”
    “Your description exceeds your skills,” Rune drummed sarcastically.
    “Four statues adorn the octagon,” Bergen said, “and Odinn stands at the top, welcoming the ships to port.”
    “Your words move me,” Rune said as they entered the edge of the valley.
    A cold, empty smirk pulled at Bergen’s mouth. “Also saw the Statue of the High Mountain and the Mausoleum at Halikarnas.”
    “I hate you.”
    “You missed me.”
     

* * *
     
    In the valley, Swann made her way up a lively little brook, stepping lightly upon the stones poking out from beneath the water. With her precious egg clutched in one hand and a bundle of pussywillows bunched in the other, Swann swayed as she balanced barefoot on each moss-covered stone. As she hopped from stone to stone, she sang her sweet song, skipping to the next stone on the downbeat of each new phrase:
     
    “Sing and skip o’er Faerie mounds,
    O’er the hill and through the dalr,
    Where the Fae King’s halls are gold,
    Where they sing their songs of old.”
     
    On the final downbeat, Swann slipped and fell, ankle deep, into the water. Hopping back to the stones, she continued with the chorus, undeterred by her wet feet.
     
    “Through the wind the spriggans play,
    O’er the sea where they stay.
    The queen of Fae, she sits there still,
    Tending the earth beneath her hill.”
     
    On the last three words of the verse, Swann leapt from the stone into the cold water, and giggled, delighted at her own game. With branches fisted in hand, Swann hiked her skirts to her knees and sloshed her way to the bank of the brook, then stepped onto dry land. Skipping ahead through the birch trees, with her golden hair streaking the forest, she sang:
     
    “Sing and skip o’er Faerie mounds,
    O’er the hill and through the dalr,
    Where the mystical Fae King’s throng,              
    Fills the earth with ancient song.”
                 
    Swann timed her song so that, at its end, she fell to her knees on the ground before a mound of dried leaves and dead branches. Setting aside the willows and gently placing the egg’s chest into the grass beside her, Swann hummed as she cleared the leaves away until, bit by bit, a golden light seeped then threaded itself up and out of the earth like a spring of gold water.
     
    “Through the wind the spriggans play,
    O’er the sea where they stay…”
     
    With a wide grin, Swann fixed her silver eyes upon the golden light and sang quiet and low beneath the wind:
     
    “The Faerie queen, she sits there still,
    Tending the earth beneath her hill.
     
    “Beneath her hill,” Swann whispered as she pulled away the last of the branches.
    Too entranced by the shimmering spring, too enthralled by the glittering gold, Swann failed to see the shadows lurking as darkness moved in.
    The clouds overhead had filled the sky, blocking the sun’s warm light and casting a dismal gray over the earth. A cold, lifeless wind swept through the valley and Swann shivered as she hummed her song.
    From the corner of her eye, she saw, too late, the glimpse of a shadow. Startled, she turned, opened her mouth, and screamed as the darkness filled her lungs, plunging itself down her throat to her belly. Engulfing her, it left her screams to fill the valley.
     

 

    CHAPTER 4
     
    Lorlenalin
     
    Kallan breathed in the fresh morning air from her balcony. The clear skies permitted an unobstructed view of the jagged precipice that plunged into the waters below where the ocean’s waves slammed into the mountainside. Unyielding, Lorlenalin’s foundation stood strong against the sea.
    Kallan grinned. The scent of sea and spring and holiday clung to the