Adventures Of Nathan Saint-cloud

Eusebius Webster

Description

In the distant world of Tell Horizon the Paladins, long guardians of justice, mercy, and wisdom, the keepers of the light, have fallen after a great civil war. Now a new power rises, the power of darkness.Nathan Saint-Cloud, a mysterious serf working in the Great Tower Kitchen, in the ruling city of XanderDark, is anointed as the traveler, and given the mission to restore the Paladins, by two unlikely prophets: Nestor Smyth a palace dog, and Magnus Leeds, a cat who helps oversee security for the Great Tower. To accomplish this Nathan must find the Book of the Paladins and safely escort it, through a landscape dominated by monsters, secretive cannibals, and demons, to the sacred city of Woodford. But the traveler and the book are also sought by the agents of a new darkness: Haydrack Reddin, king of the Eternal Empire, Grand Master Splenter, keeper of demons, and the Inky Pitch, the essence of evil, which seeks to blot out the light forever. They seek to use Nathan and the Book of the Paladins to forever seal their control of Tell Horizon, and the people and creatures who dwell there.

Sujets

• Fantasy (canción de Mariah Carey)
• Fantasy

Informations

• Publié par: Palladium Imprint
• Date de parution: 24 mars 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781495148026
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

THE ADVENTURES OF NATHAN SAINT-CLOUD
In the Age of Monsters, Demons, and Cannibals
A Serial
By Eusebius Webster
BOOK ONE
Monsters in the Kitchen
The Adventures of Nathan Saint-Cloud: In the Age of Monsters, Demons, and Cannibals by Eusebius Webster
2015 by Palladium Imprint LLC. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any written, electronic, recording, or photocopying without written permission of the publisher or author. The exception would be in the case of brief quotations embodied in the critical articles or reviews and pages where permission is specifically granted by the publisher or author.
eBook Cover Design: ebooklaunch.com
Publisher: Palladium Imprint, LLC
Contact Information: [e-mail]
ISBN: 978-1-4951-4802-6
1. Fiction 2. Fantasy
First Edition
Table of Contents
Chapter One: Awaiting Execution
Chapter Two: A Matter of the Second Earring
Chapter Three: Potatoes
Chapter Four: Dogs
Chapter Five: Kitchen Monsters
Chapter Six: Tidy Up
Chapter Seven: The Missing
Chapter Eight: Child Persistent
Chapter Nine: Enemy of the Soap
Chapter 10: Mask of the Dark
Chapter 11: Mysterious Nathan
Chapter 12: The Butler s Hat Box
Chapter 13: Big-Headed Ravens and Sharp-Winged Rooks
Chapter 14: Dangerous Salad
Chapter 15: Kidnapped
Chapter 16: Crisis
Chapter 17: Exile
Chapter One: Awaiting Execution
In the 17th year of the reign of HaydrackReddin, King Immortal and Wrath Keeper, Nathan Saint-Cloud, accused murderer, thief, liar, and ally to monsters awaits execution in the Factory of Perfect and Severe Justice.
A machined scream climbs the courtyard below, all stone, metal, and burnt smoke as the executioner s thick hands sharpen the four-handed cleaving axe. That scream is stuck in Nathan s head, a deep cut to the brain before the swing of the axe.
He smells the heating caldron of green-black bog tar that will seal his upper half after the executioner cuts him in two: one half to keep alive, one half to burn in the fire.
Guards patrol the corridors around Nathan s cell to prevent escape; and the clang-walk of armor plate sounds like the axe striking the stone of the executioners block.
The clerk of severe justice stands right at the cell door, mouth up; wearing black silk embroidered with blood-red tears, face hidden behind a chalk-white mask. One of Haydrack s soul catchers stands behind the clerk whispering invitations to the inky-pitch; making claim to Nathan s soul.
Each hour, the clerk shouts the approaching execution like a carnival barker. Nathan notes that the clerk s enthusiasm has not waned.
Consort of monsters
Despicable thief
Murderer of the king s people
Haydrack s blade is your clean and perfect justice
Inside the cell Nathan is jammed face-up into a coffin-sized restraining space in the back wall, six feet off the ground. A grinning skull, carved in the stone ceiling reminds him of his fate. Every time Nathan looks at the skull s face it seems to change its expression. This could drive you mad.
A slit window behind Nathan s head admits reluctant light. Outside, big-headed ravens find their way to a nearby perch. They stutter a cracked chorus. You will die! You will die! The snapping flutter of their wings rolls through the small cell.
Cold walls crush the cinnamon roll in Nathan s pocket. The smell of cinnamon, the best smell, is a benediction reminding him of Agatha Chill s recipe for a delicious nice-socks salad that began his troubles in the Great Tower Kitchen. He longs to be back there, on his feet and with his arms free, peeling potatoes and watching them stack. He would give back all the trinkets he stole; everything.
It s not surprising at all that Nathan s life should end this way. It is, after all, the notorious age of monsters, demons, and cannibals, when life s worth is determined by the entertainment value of the death that ends it, and darkness is cherished over light.
Nathan prays, If you are listening, all I ask is that you let me die before they cut me in half. Nothing else and please make it fast. I cannot take this.
A voice replies. Are you in there?
Not a magic answer to prayer. It s the squeezed-pitch voice of Qualm Severing Mallet, Nathan s kitchen master.
The master and I are here to drink your tears. Great, not only Mallet, but Mallet s ghost-colored manservant, Newfound Snout. Who let them in? Where s all that percussive security when you need it?
Afraid to speak up? mocks Mallet. I ve seen many executions but none this delicious. First they will cut you in two and pour on the hot tar just to keep you alive. Burn the bottom half while you watch and scream. Then they ll ask the crowd what to do with the top half. You know there are always hungry cannibals waiting outside the city walls.
They prefer living flesh, whispers Newfound Snout.
Snout must you be so graphic? You frighten our friend. Tight enough in there for you? Getting a little hard to breathe? Sometimes they use these coffin cells to crush men to jelly. Are the walls getting closer?
Nathan tries to cover his ears, but his arms are trapped by the stone.
And they stop the air sometimes just to move things along. Suffocation. It s like trying to breathe through wet towels. So helpless.
Nathan gulps air.
Or, and this is my favorite, they let a little friend in to visit; a cranium snake to eat your brain, while you re still alive. The pain is fantastic. You can dine on it for weeks.
Nathan starts to cry.
Crying? That s so weak, so pitiful. You are begging for me to despise you.
Blubbering lips, whispers Snout, sniveling lips. Tiny, hiccupping face. Little baby face.
Shut up Snout. You.Are.So.Evil. To poor Saint-Cloud. Much better for us to watch his guts turn inside out when they cut him in two. Better to see him die in so much pain that no scream can help it. Mallet leans close to the restraining cell door and speaks softly. You can tell me Saint-Cloud, it s alright you know. Are you a Paladin? I think so and you ve been hiding. Now you can t. When you are dead I will keep one of your hands to remind me that you are a thief, and one of your feet to remind me that you are a coward. A coward who runs and hides.
Nathan bites his lip, and hears a new sound, just above his head. A cranium snake? Jasper is that you? Nathan raises his head and is knocked unconscious by the biting skull.
Chapter Two: A Matter of the Second Earring
It all begins in a very big kitchen.
Can you get the other earring?
One s enough, look at it. It must be worth a fortune. Diamonds, and emerald inlay, big as your thumb.
Matches her eyes.
How do you know? They re closed.
They are closed. Wetherington Pope is asleep. She is one of two associate executive chefs in the Great Tower Kitchen, but will soon be on her way to Haydrack s palace to cook for the king immortal and wrath keeper. This terrifies Pope, causing her to drink the mellow-tongue cooking wine, and then to sleep; floating across dreams that make her weep. Dominic Rhoads, Pope s assistant, usually watches over her, but he is wine drunk too; both of them asleep in the dried fig pantry with the door locked.
Nathan knows the secret back way into the pantry, and so does his confederate in theft Magnus Leeds. Magnus is a security cat assigned to the tower mapping section two floors above the kitchen. He is a green-eyed tabby with noble posture, a red plaid vest, and a tail that curls to the left. Tonight he is here because Nathan has promised a special swap.
I m tired of stealing for you, whispers Magnus. It s indecent.
No you re not and it s worth it, says Nathan. I have a fantastic map to share.
Alright. Magnus pads up to Wetherington Pope and gently unclips the second earring. The poor woman is crying in her sleep.
Wetherington bats with sleep slewed inaccuracy at her ear. Naughty monsters, stop licking my ear. She slumps back against the big burlap bag of dried figs.
I wish we could help her, says Nathan. No fun to cook for Haydrack.
What? So you can keep stealing her jewelry? She is a beautiful woman, even when sleeping, says Magnus.
This earring is beautiful.
What do you want if for?
To bribe the guards, of course, says Nathan. It s the only way I get to cook or bake. Oatmeal, chocolate chip, cranberry cookies tonight.
Got it, says Magnus shaking his head. You will get caught you know. There are other ways. What do you have for me?
Let s go out. They exit the pantry into a hidden passage where Nathan lights a candle.
Here. And you won t believe it. Oriel Sampson s crypt.
No! says Magnus. He puts on gold rimmed glasses and looks at the candle-lit map with all the awe a cat would ever dare show.
Yes, and apparently you were right about its existence.
Usually am, says Magnus. After Sampson built the Great Tower he knew that Haydrack was going to kill him.
That s what Haydrack does, says Nathan.
Don t interrupt. Anyway the rumor was that Sampson had himself placed in a crypt hidden in the tower, in a place that Haydrack and his demons couldn t find. But it s just been a rumor, like the rumor that Sampson is not really dead at all. And here is a map showing crypt as under the kitchen, in one of the chimney spaces, not far from the dumb waiter.
They say Sampson was an agent of the Paladins.
Haydrack claims that about everyone he wants to get rid of, says Magnus. Can t be. My research says the Paladins are mostly dead. Besides they were destroyers, not architects.
What happened to them?
What I hear is that no one could stop them until they stopped themselves. They destroyed one another. Before Haydrack became king.
Rumor says that Haydrack keeps one alive.
Rumor, says Magnus.
What are you going to do with this map?
Nothing. It probably leads to a trap. This tower still belongs to Oriel Sampson; not to mention the monsters that get in. Very dangerous. And it s still the tallest tower in Haydrack s city; unti