Encounters (The Elder Origins #3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

the edge of the stone wall and walked to the nearby clay and wooden houses. The name that Lyndon had told her was still prominent in her mind, Ascot. Knowing how the people within smaller towns had grown weary of travelers that could spread disease, she thought it best not to openly search for him by asking where he lived. Her knowledge of the language was not adept enough to ask for much more or understand a response, but she hoped that her senses would guide her, or the scent of the rayen.
    Madison allowed herself to listen carefully for everything around her. Within walking distance was an alehouse with a few men making their way back to their homes. They had obviously drunk all night. She continued to walk forward down the stone path along the city center. It was by far the cleanest one she had ever seen. With death everywher e else she had visited, she wasn’t accustomed to not having to pick up her feet every few paces to be certain she did not step in something undesirable. Nor did she need to lift her hem to avoid dragging dirt with her.
    Madison had n’t walked a long distance before she suddenly heard the sound she was looking for, the sound of cries and screams. She stopped to listen closer. These were different from the others. They were not cries of distress or grief. They were cries of fear and pain. She hadn’t known many of the sick to suffer a great deal as the disease killed so quickly and weakened so dramatically. This almost sounded as if the cries were coming from within something.
    She lengthened her hearing to within a quarter mile around her. The city itself was only perhaps a half mile long in length, but the sound was still unclear and muffled. Realizing the problem she felt her legs give a little beneath her in realization. The sound was indeed coming from within something. It was inside the cathedral cascading before her. The stone designs gave a macabre feel to the air around her without hearing what lay within it. The sound of screams pierced over every other sound within the region to Madison’s ears. A dungeon lay deep within it.
    Suddenly Madison felt yet another emotion she didn’t know herself capable of feeling anymore. She thought herself numb to it since she had awoken to find the monks within the monastery dead all about her. She was frightened, and perhaps even nervous. The large wooden poles outside the city’s walls were not meant for horses. These people meant to burn whoever was in the cathedral. Behind gagged mouths, they were screaming for their lives.
    Madison stood for what felt like minutes trying to decide what to do. She risked revealing herself in trying to find them within the cathedral’s thick walls. She didn’t care what they had done or what their crime had been. She only cared that this was no way she could perceive anyone deserving to die. The screams of her village being burned to the ground still rang loud in her memory.
    She went from house to house . Not one had the red mark from door to door, revealing which houses had been affected by plague. This city had indeed been left unscathed by the pestilence. The people were scared of it coming through. Without a doubt those in the cathedral had to be offenders thought it bring it with them. Or so she assumed.
    She approached the men walking in front of her. They were headed for the cathedral and not their homes. Looking at them closer, they were less like drunken workers and more like guards. Dressed in light armor and draped with cloaks much like hers, she imagined they knew what was taking place. She did her best to discern what they were saying, but her understanding of the language was not what it needed to be.
    She suddenly stopped where she stood. There were four more men behind her. She had sensed the few people around, but they all began to approach her at once. One called the few men in front. They spoke a few sentences to each other, and b oth men then turned to look at Madison. She was still fully