Shaper of Stone (The Shapers Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

carriage was dead on its side with
one door pressed into the ground. The other door faced the sky with
the burning wagon wedged on top blocking it. Vatrale was laying on
the ground, blood poured from his scalp while flaming oil dripped
around him. He was conscious though and started to get to his feet.
    You have to give the old guy credit, he
was tough.
    Abella was on top of me. When I
realized we were going to roll I twisted my body between her and the
ground. Her dress was torn from her shoulder, but otherwise she
seemed unharmed.
    I was not so lucky. The side of the
carriage under me had buckled on impact and I could feel something
poking into my side, pinning me to the ground like a butterfly on
display. Blood tricked down my back, but I couldn’t reach it to
apply any pressure. I hesitated to pull myself free in case it made
the bleeding worse, but I needed to do something before the carriage
was completely engulfed in flames.
    Tavi and Carvis had been riding
outside. I had no way of knowing what happened to them. I hoped they
were better off than me, but from the sounds of fighting and
screaming coming from the street, I didn’t think they were.
    “Don’t move, Devin,”
Vatrale had already climbed over to my side and helped Abella to her
feet. While ignoring the blood on his head and the flames falling
around us he leaned over to inspect my injury. “Ah, it looks
like the hinge caught you.”
    Before I knew it he grabbed me by the
shoulder and rolled me off the piece of metal. I screamed expecting
to feel my spine ripped out, but surprisingly it hardly hurt at all.
    Vatrale then slapped me on the
shoulder, “Just caught your shirt and scratched your back.
You’ll be fine once we get out of here.”
    I hung my head embarrassed by my
outburst. I swore the next time I screamed it would be for a good
reason.
    Abella climbed forward to the small
window behind the driver’s seat. It was too small to crawl
through, but at least she could see through it. “Uncle, I can
see Carvis. He is fighting two men. Most of the other guards are
gone. He isn’t going to be able to get us out of here.”
    “Tavi? Do you see the boy?”
I asked as I got to my feet while checking my back to verify that I
wasn’t really impaled.
    Abella looked around quickly, “No
sign of him. Lords! Carvis was just cut across the back. We have to
get out to help him.”
    I caught Vatrale staring at me like a
frog he was getting ready to dissect.
    “Boy, you’ve been holding
out on me. We’ll talk about that later. First we need to find a
way out of here.” Vatrale moved to what was once the top of the
carriage, but was now the side and placed both hands on it. I felt a
slight tingling in my stomach and realized he was trying to shape the
wood so we could get out.
    “Damn it! I can’t do it.
Boy, place your hands on my shoulder and relax. I need to draw
strength from you.”
    I immediately did as he instructed,
coughing as the smoke thickened around us. As soon as we made
contact, the sensation in my stomach grew stronger. It was like a
string being pulled through my belly button. It tickled a little. At
any other time I might have laughed.
    The wood in front of us cracked and
began to peel back like someone splitting a role to butter it. Within
seconds Vatrale had made a hole wide enough for us to pass through.
We let Abella go first. She squeezed through and ran to an open
doorway. To my relief Tavi was there waving her forward. He looked a
little dirty, but otherwise unharmed.
    “Devin, you are next. I will
follow right behind you.”
    The flames on the carriage were
spreading quickly. I decided this was not the time to argue who goes
first. I slipped through the hole and took off in a sprint toward the
others when I heard Vatrale yell, “Get Down!”
    I dived for the ground smacking my chin
into the earth. Dazed I looked back to Vatrale. He was only a few
feet behind me. An arrow stuck out of his shoulder. Behind him three
men with