Category: Rune Breaker

Ru’s words tore into Taylin’s stomach in ways that the hounds would never have accomplished. She stumbled back from him until her back found the wall. “No!” The statement echoed off the domed roof, reporting again and again. “That isn’t right. I don’t want this.”

From where he’d come to kneel, Ru lifted his head. His face was without emotion, his eyes, not quite the right shape for a human and a barely luminous amber besides, observed her. In the link, she could feel his measured curiosity overtaking all else.

“You made the bargain, Ms. Taylin.” He informed her.

Taylin’s back slid along the wall until she found herself in a crouch. Years of conditioning and berating made it difficult to sit fully. She quickly noticed just how much of a hold the masters still had on her and forced herself to sit. To Ru, she said, “I didn’t know what you were talking about. I didn’t know the Rune Breaker was a person.”

Ru laughed and the coldness in the sound came through in the link as well. With little apparent effort, he stood up smoothly from kneeling. “I’m not, Ms. Taylin. The man died so long ago that … Continue reading

Loose stones skittered under her feet, the sound amplified by the closeness of the cave. Though it was pitch black, she had no trouble seeing. Her kind wouldn’t; they had been bred to march through day and night if necessary with no need of fires or torches.

That wasn’t all they had been created for and part of that breeding suddenly informed her that this was no cave she had found herself in. It was a mine. Or at least some sort of hand-made tunnel. An adolescence spent hewing iron ore from the earth was the preferred method of strengthening her kind for military training.

In the darkness behind her, there were other noises. Claws on stone, growling, and snarling breaths of canine effort. The guard hounds of the masters were no more mere dogs than she was a mere human. They did not bark, or yap, or whine and they were cunning and viscous in a way most thought only demi-humans were capable of.

A frontrunner of the pack took the bend in the tunnel at speed by running up the wall, then leapt toward her. She was only warned by the sound, whirling and meeting paws half the … Continue reading