Poison and Exile

Katie Webster

Description

'Poison and Exile' is the sensational second book of the fantasy series, 'Lucy's Crypt', which follows the vividly imaginative first book, 'The Invitation'. Lucy wanders perilously among the deranged creatures of Josso Jungle. An eerie luminescence perforates the damp dark. When she stumbles across a team of ecologists from Trimany, she longs to earn both their trust and friendship. But what will happen when they find out who she really is and what she has been sent to do? Meanwhile, miles north in the rocky mountains of Rumustica, a precious secret waits to be discovered.

Informations

• Publié par: Distributed by eBookpartnership
• Date de parution: 28 novembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781839785863
• Langue: English

Extrait

Book Two of the Lucy’s Crypt series
Poison and Exile
Katie Webster


Poison and Exile
Published by The Conrad Press in the United Kingdom 2022
Tel: [phone]
www.theconradpress.com
[e-mail]
ISBN 978-1-839785-86-3
Copyright © Katie Webster, 2022
The moral right of Katie Webster to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved.
Map illustrated by Kerrie Turner
Typesetting and Cover Design by: Charlotte Mouncey, www.bookstyle.co.uk
Map illustrated by Maria Priestley and Kerrie Turner
The Conrad Press logo was designed by Maria Priestley


Map of Rumustica




Eminence, I hope this finds you well.
I had very much intended to find an opportunity earlier to put a message together for you, but I’m afraid I have been in a limbo of sorts. The wind hasn’t been blowing in the direction I’d like, and for many nights I’ve not seen a single albatross overhead.
Never mind. Enough prattle. I have found Lucy, we have reunited. Though perhaps not yet reconciled. She is in fair spirit, albeit a little moody, and I dare say it could be sometime before I am forgiven for having left her in the snow. But we have safely descended the scramble slopes at the edge of the frozen world beyond Yerkey and have now reached the plateau.
Lucy has undergone a tremendous adjustment since you last saw her. She is not the shy and weepy adolescent brought into this world some eighteen nights ago. She is slowly coming to terms with her new reality. However, no doubt it does not shock you to hear she has, still, a long way to go, and many skills to acquire before she can be self-sufficient.
As we expected, the past revealed to her in Yerkey has also had a profound impact. It is clear to me that remembering these truths about her childhood has affected her. As yet, whether it was for better or worse, I cannot say. She has a long way to go. She has been gifted a sword by the Reichi for protection, and I intend on teaching her how to use it. But rest assured, the prophecy and her destiny remain at the forefront of everything I do.
When I can find a path to return and debrief before you I will, but in the interests of maintaining rapport, I propose to stay beside her, at least until we reach the jungle.
Yours in the spirit now and forever,
X. Bear


Chapter 1
The Alexandria Plateau
L ucy steadied her breath and looked around but trying to get her bearings in this vast open darkness was unnerving. For one thing, the creature could come from anywhere. Its form seemed to blend so perfectly with the shadowy patches of the pitted desert floor, that when it set itself down it became invisible. More than that though, was the lack of landmarks to use in which to centre her direction. She was tired, obviously, a common theme, but she already harboured an innate wanting for a sense of direction.
‘Where did you say to hit it again?’ she called out to Bear. He was scanning the vicinity as well, but for all the powers and unnatural wisdom he had, his eyesight was no better than hers.
‘The neck, I would think.’
Above them a clear sky let shine a myriad of stars so profoundly entangled with one another it was sometimes impossible to ascertain where one stopped and another began. The entangled clusters formed swirling patterns that looped into one another, but the similarity between these various clusters meant that they too were no use as a guidance post. Lucy wiped her hands across her shorts. The sweat that had gathered as she gripped the sword, ready and waiting, was from nerves not the weather. Although the Alexandria Plateau did impose a unique and intense heat, it was the dry heat of an oven, much of which rushed off every night after sunset. Very different to the persistent and damp warmth that would await her in Josso Jungle. As the creature finally emerged and she drew in fast quick breaths of this hot dry air, she momentarily longed to be back in Yerkey’s frozen world.
‘Okay. Hold steady. Do not hesitate. Do not hold back,’ Bear said, as it moved into a sprint, almost launching into a gallop.
This was their third day of traveling across the plateau’s inhospitable emptiness. This was not the first of these creatures they had encountered, unfortunately. Contrary to Bear’s plans and ambitions for her training, Lucy had lucklessly crossed paths with one at a watering hole on their first day. As she raised her head from the tepid water, her face still dripping, she saw its confusing reflection on the rippled surface. A beast of a thing, somewhat ape-like, but with the golden and exuberant coat of a lion. It was perching on its hind legs, its gangly arms limp by its side, seemingly at ease. But its gaze was fixed squarely on Lucy, the deep-set eyes plainly exposing the animosity of its intentions.
‘The sword, Lucy!’ Bear had shouted. She had stumbled backwards, and then rushed to it, but she had never used a sword before. It was heavy. She had no arm strength and limited coordination. As it launched onto her, she had swung, but with the force one might put into a soft putt, not a life-saving swing. It barely even discomfited the creature, which drew back its gums to reveal a frightening set of fangs both wide and pointed. They drew down on her just as Bear shot a burst of faint blue-ish light at its neck.
Bear too was hoping for a more potent effect from his attack, but they were now a good way from Archmond Castle and the further they got, the less power he had. Luckily, the effect was enough to confuse the creature, who drew back in bewilderment as well as pain. Bear had shouted at Lucy again to get the sword, to kill it. But Lucy could only manage to stand in shock, and it was up to Bear once again to try and shock the creature with his energy. It was enough (thankfully that time) to confuse it to the point that it backed away and fled. But they were lucky. That one would have been old, he told Lucy. A younger more energetic omling (as Bear later revealed they were often called) would have devoured her and would have ignored his puny attempts to defend her.
This omling was just that. Its muscular hind legs propelled its torso with such velocity that its leap from the shadows sent it soaring, creating under the starlight, its own shadow over Lucy.
‘Strike it!’ Bear shouted, simultaneously willing his energy to his paw-tips ready to come to her aid. Defensively Lucy shot the sword upward in front of her, just in time for the creature to land across its blade. It let out a painful shriek as it fell backwards. Instantly, its blood, black in the night, began pooling beneath it. A spray of this same blood had cast across her and was starting to trickle down her chest and arms. She stared at both the omling and her defiled sword in shock.
Bear looked at her stoic figure with frustration. ‘Finish it!’
Her breath was frantic. ‘I can’t! I can’t!’
‘You have to,’ he said firmly.
But Lucy stood still. The creature writhed.
‘I’m not a killer.’
‘Then you’re a sadist? You will watch it slowly bleed to death in agony?’
Lucy closed her eyes. Her right hand shook both under the weight of the sword and under the pressure she felt.
‘Put it out of its misery,’ Bear commanded, just as it began to screech in agony again, ‘or you will be responsible for every moment of its suffering. And in any case, if you do not overcome your childlike squeamishness, it will be you bleeding to death on this parched dirt before long.’
Lucy drove the blade down toward its neck, missed, and hit its face. She wretched, but thankfully her stomach was empty. She drew her eyes nearly shut and drove the sword down four more times into its neck in rapid succession. She opened her eyes. It had stopped moving. It was dead. With a heavy gasp she dropped the sword and backed away, wiping the blood splatter from her face with her forearms. Bear let out a sigh, full of both anxiety and relief as he watched her little dog, Crumbs, emerge from behind a small rock.
‘You’ll have to get better at that. Quickly. That was half luck, again.’
That was the first time Lucy began to consider whether in fact she hated Bear. His lack of empathy. Was he really so oblivious about how horrible all of this was to her? No, she began to think, he can see how horrible this is, he just doesn’t care. He was starting to float off in the direction they’d been heading.
‘I’m not a killer, or a fighter, or a hunter,’ she called to him.
‘Then you need to become one, quickly. Tomorrow we’ll go over some more of the techniques.’
That night they slept at what appeared to be the likes of some form of abandoned cattle station. Past a string of posts that had once connected barbed wire, but now stood as lonely markers, was a vacuous empty shed, half rusted away. Two enormous entrances, the likes of which once facilitated the passing of large machinery, exposed the shed to the elements from either side. Above the dirt floor, the remnants of animal pens were all up one side, although these too had mostly fallen apart. Pockets of starlight fell through the holes and speckled the darkness inside.
The Alexandria Plateau lay below the frozen tundra surrounding Yerkey. It was many miles lower in altitude, and they had faced a steep decline as the edge of the tundra (where Bear had mysteriously re-emerged to once again guide her way) gave way to cold grasslands, before they faced the barren and treacherous rocky decline to the plateau. But the altitude difference itself did not explain the sharp contrast in temperatures. In fact, nothing did. Both the plateau and the tundra seemed to be under the influence of their own respective micro-climates.
The Alexandria Plateau