Griffin's Destiny

Leslie Ann Moore Griffin's Destiny

The third book in the Griffin's Daughter Trilogy series, 2009

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual persons, organizations, and/or events is purely coincidental.

To my friends at Ridan Publishing. You saved my series and for that, I am eternally grateful.

Prologue-Memories

“ Help me, Brother!”

Across a fire-blackened landscape, the cry echoes. He scans the charred surroundings, trying to locate the source, but the sound comes from everywhere at once.

“ Help me, Brother! They are killing me!”

“ Where are you?” he cries. “I can’t see! It’s too dark!”

Flames crackle to life before him, drenching the scene in lurid, crimson light. A ring of shadows twists around the figure of a man whose blood-spattered face he knows as well as his own.

“ Little Brother…”

He stands frozen, hands by his sides. The shadows howl in triumph. They engulf their victim, pulling him down.

“ Why do you not help me?” his brother screams as he falls. “Why are you letting them kill me?”

The shadows twist and heave, devouring their prey.

He steps backward and tumbles over the edge of a cliff…

Sadaiyo Sakehera jerked awake then sat upright, drenched in sweat.

“Goddess’ tits,” he whispered. Curled beside him in their bed, his wife Misune stirred but did not wake.

I remember!

Shaking with reaction from the flood of images in his head, he slipped out of bed and crouched on the floor beside the hearth. The fire had burnt down to a pile of glowing coals. Pushing a stray lock of hair from his face, he took a deep breath to slow his galloping heart.

He stared into the red light, but his eyes focused inward.

I remember all of it, just as the old man said I would! Goddess…What have I done?

What will I do now?

Sadaiyo crawled back into bed and pressed himself against his sleeping wife. He thought of his parents and how they would recoil in horror if they learned the truth.

They must never know. No one can ever know!

Will you haunt my dreams from now on, Little Brother?

Damn you!

Part I

***

Escape and Pursuit

Magnes awoke with a start and nearly toppled from his seat on the wagon bench to the hard earth below. Knuckling the sleep from his eyes, he yawned and looked down on the stocky brown rump of the cart horse, still in harness and dozing. With the rapidly fading shreds of an unsettling dream drifting across his mind’s eye, he swung his legs over the side then dropped to the roadbed.

Damn it…I didn’t mean to fall asleep!

He spent a few moments stretching and kneading the kinks from his neck, then tramped off the road to relieve himself in the weeds.

When he returned, he found Gran standing beside the wagon, facing back toward Darguinia. Something about the way she held her body warned Magnes not to disturb her.

After several heartbeats, she shook herself then turned around.

“Oh, Magnes. Didn’t realize you were there.”

“Sorry, Gran if I startled you,” he replied.

The old elven woman shook her head. “No, no, you didn’t. I was just performing a farscan. I don’t sense any fast moving groups heading this way from the city, praise the One.”

Like a slave-catching posse , Magnes thought.

“It seems that Aruk-cho has come through for us,” he said, stroking the drowsy gelding’s nose. The beast shook its head and whickered.

Poor wretch , Magnes thought. You hauled us and this wagon most of the night with no complaint,