Blade of Hope by S.E. Babin EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: S.E. Babin
- Language: English
- Genre: Coming of Age Fantasy
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 3.4 MB
- Price: Free
THIRTEEN YEARS LATER
Harlow had a stone in her pocket and fear in her heart. She’d taken the
last steps away from her village and into the kingdom two hours ago,
and yet it felt like she’d been gone for years. Everything felt different here,
unlike the quiet happy warmth of her home.
advertisement ( ads )
--- --- --- --- ---
She wore good boots but layered patched skirts with threadbare wool
socks and two overdresses. Her hair wasn’t coiffed in the latest style or
even in a neat braid, but she’d done her best. No one had fingers as nimble
as Nova’s. Since she’d left, Harlow hadn’t been able to make a single
straight braid. This morning, as she’d looked behind her in the small mirror
she used to wash her face, emotion had welled up at the thought of leaving
the only life she’d known behind.
Regardless, Harlow was clean. She’d washed in the spring behind their
small home this morning, though she wouldn’t stay clean for long with the
amount of dust the horses kicked up as they clomped along the road.
She’d packed only what she could carry and, on her way out, stopped by
the old church to tell the priest her parents had died two nights before.
The priest’s face had quickly masked the expression of horror. It was
strange, staying in the same house as the dead. But only a few days before,
they’d been alive. Sick, but alive, and trying to reassure her they’d be up the
next day and things would return to normal.
She was young, but not naïve. As soon as she heard the rattle in their
chest a few days prior, she’d known the gods would force another loss on
her. First her mother and father and siblings, lost in the Thornehollow
village raids, then Nova some years back, and finally the two people she’d
come to think of as parents. Nova might not be dead, but Harlow had died
inside the moment she’d seen the parchment paper note on their dented and
scarred kitchen table with no sign of her sister.
Harlow let out a deep breath. Keep going. She’d told herself this for
days now. One foot in front of the other. Keep going. She’d lasted at home
until the sweet and sickly smell of carrion began to permeate the house.
Even then she thought she’d be able to take them outside and bury them,
only to find the ground too hard to penetrate. She couldn’t bear to leave
them out there, victim to the cold and to the animals that prowled along the
village, so she’d spent over an hour pulling and tugging their bodies until
she’d laid them both in the same bed and tucked a threadbare blanket
around them.
She clutched her beat up leather satchel close to her body. Everything
she had was in there except for several oat bars and a couple of beef strips
in her pocket. If the bag were stolen, at least she wouldn’t starve right away.
Thoughts of starvation would come later. The gaze she’d felt burning
into her back finally fell away and her shoulders dropped a couple of
inches.
For More Read Download This Book
EPUB
advertisement ( ads )
-------------
