Sample Sunday - Ravens snippet

Time for a snippet from the upcoming Crescent book. Usual warnings apply : there may be typo's, this may not make the final cut, or it may be changed when it gets to that stage.

In this particular snippet, I reckon the wolf family from Blood Moon Dance have mellowed the Brute a bit.

Have fun.

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The whip-crack of air rushing to fill a large vacuum hissed through the night, and what was left of the pond crumbled into so much white dust. The mouth in the step shuddered and fell inward, suddenly toothless.

Jadah watched the spiders mill aimlessly for a bit. One of them noticed her and jumped upwards. She could have sworn it had a faint look of surprise on its face as it sailed through her and splattered itself on the ground.

“Heh.” She put her hands on her hips and revolved slowly, looking around. Most of the creatures were ambling towards the house now, and the sanctuary of their webs.

She drifted slowly away from the yard and through the town. The inn where Amber had stayed the first night was over-run with rats. The landlady was a pile of white bone behind her counter.

Brin had taken the squad horses with him, but the Brute had been stabled behind the guard-house. Jadah headed that way with a heavy heart, but knowing Amber would ask, made herself go and look.

The stable-lad was nowhere to be seen. Jadah sighed, and moved down the stalls, a brief glance in each showing her all she needed to know.

The Brute stuck his head over his door and sneered at her. Jadah stared back.

She moved inside the stall, surprised when he only snorted and tossed his head. He’d never gotten out of the habit of trying to bite her.

The stall walls were splintered and gouged where he’d kicked and pounded against them, and the ground was littered with squashed furry bodies.

“Mice, eh?” Jadah asked him.

He snorted.

“I know someone who’ll be glad to see you,” she told him, and watched his eyes gleam. “She’s safe. Well, as safe as she can be, all things considered.” She looked at him. Putting a saddle and bridle on him was pointless; she could move faster than he could, and she’d yet to meet the horse that would carry a ghost on its back. “Shall we go?”

The Brute stamped a foot and rumbled, and a bit of the straw behind him stirred. A small, furry head poked out of it and whimpered at her.

Jadah looked at the horse, then at the walls again. He’d been fighting right enough, and not just for himself.

“Really?” She said to him. “A puppy?”

He snorted and stamped again, and Jadah grinned and went to get the saddlebags. This was going to be an interesting reunion.