The Herald of Autumn (Echoes of the Untold Age Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

shards.
    My thoughts scattered and broke as
the emaciated horror tore its way into the clearing, ripping a small ash from
the earth as it did so. Here, in the moonlight, its true form was the
monstrosity. The man became a faint shadow, somehow existing within and behind
the creature.
    Its keening cry grew louder, more
real. When I turned to flee, it hurled the uprooted ash at me with strength I
could scarcely believe.
    Stunned, I blinked up from the
ground.
    Strange, darkling dreams reached into
my mind.
     
    They seem human but are not. Behind
their guise, they are monstrous creatures, alien to behold. Yet the city is in
their grasp, the people little more than playthings —
     
    I wrenched my head, pulling it away
from the image that clung like tar in my mind.
    The keening cry came again, and it
lumbered close, seeming certain. I could smell the blight on its breath as it
leaned in, as it had in Mount Chase before I fled.
    It breathed in, a wet, hollow,
drawing sound. From some lost passage in my heart, despair whimpered softly.
    And then, pain.
    Art, memory, and glamour tore its way
from my mouth and nose, drawn by the abominations’ sucking breath. It tasted my
golden autumn, maple sweetness. It tasted the Hunt and stories around a blazing
fire. It tasted one thousand nights and one thousand beginnings.
    It dragged memory itself from my
deepest well, clawing and screaming as it was taken. Parts of me, so inherent
that I couldn’t imagine being without them, somehow were drank from the vaults
of my mind and heart.
    That day I lost baubles, forgotten
stories that hadn’t been told since my kind first came to these western lands.
It took the names of women loved and the glories of battle and the Hunt.
    Lost.
    The creature had begun devouring
everything I had ever been.
    Panicked, I wrenched myself away,
half-rolling, half-stumbling.
    My bow. I scarcely had time to reach for it
before I felt those warped talons open the skin of my back.
    I screamed, flooded with pain like
nothing I had ever known.
    I could no longer dally with the
thing. I no longer cared about leading it anywhere. All that mattered, foremost
in my world, was escape. I didn’t know what would happen if the thing kept
feeding from me, and I had no intention of finding out.
    All I had to do was reach for my bow.
I was faster than the empty thing. It would be nothing for me to remain out of
range… or so I hoped.
    If I were wrong, however, my bow
would bring me a step closer toward the Great Hunt. The Hunter was far beyond
my control. If I accidentally called him from fear or anger, he could sweep
through Mount Chase, dragging every man, woman, and child with him on his mad,
frenzied Hunt. People would die without question.
    I needed another weapon, another
option. I needed something else I could use to end the creature.
    I would only draw my bow as a last
resort.
    My feet pounded the soft earth,
secret terror hurling me away from the shadowed monster. I ran blindly,
panicked, I made the nearby rise in three leaps, fleeing like prey. Then, I
slid toward the gully before I fully realized what had happened. I scrabbled
along the ground as I slipped down, trying to slow. The mud-slicked earth,
however, slid me full force into an ancient spruce tree.
    The abomination’s keening chased
behind me. It was relentless. It did not tire.
    I needed help. I needed—
    Spruce tree.
    That was a slender chance.
    I wove my way into the tangled morass
of boughs and needles, pushing my way next to the trunk through the tight fit
of branches woven densely into each other. I hugged myself to the trunk, feeling
rough bark and sticky tree tears against my naked skin.
    Please.
    I could use some help here, old
friend.
    Faint. She felt so faint. I had no
idea of how long she had slept; it could have been years.
    She might never awaken again.
    I didn’t have time to be gentle,
unfortunately. The fetch had crested the hill and would have me in moments.
    I had her Name; I knew it