Chapter One Excerpt from Arising From Darkness

The Riftrider's Return Series Book 1

 

 

She jumped as thunder clapped overhead. Gavid, the one who lorded over the lands, kept her captive. She finally had enough and escaped. She heard the king of the realm was in town and she needed to get to him to report everything she learned days ago.

 

Distracted, she ran and tripped over an elven man’s fruit stand. As she stumbled, she did her best to try to clean up the fruit and he helped her. He didn’t recognize her and spoke gently, “What has gotten you so upset?”

 

She cried as she spoke, “I heard King Ledric was in town. Do you know where he is?”

 

He could see that her body was not in any condition to see the king and tried to help her, but she pushed him off. Her wet curly hair was matted to her face and her lavender eyes sparkled from the tears as she looked at him. He sighed. “The king is at the Hunted Fox Inn.”

 

She thanked him in a quiet voice then ran off to finally see King Ledric. She began to run toward him when she heard a voice behind her speak. “One more step and it will be the end of you!”

 

The elven woman paused as if in thought for a moment and shook her head. She darted toward the king. The king, in turn, looked at the man who spoke to her. “This is what you have been up to,” he said as he sneered at the man. The man laughed as he watched Meranda. Ledric commanded the guards to arrest the man as he began to wave his hands. The dark elven man knew he had to get the spells out before he was captured and was successful, he shocked the woman before him. Then he vanished, laughing, which made the entire town shake in fear.

 

Before the king, the woman shook in a frenzy and fell to the ground. He quickly ran and caught he poor child, looking up at his guards who stood still in disbelief. Ledric grumbled and screamed at them, “Capture that man! Go to the keep and get him! I don’t care how you do it, just do it!”

 

The guards left to find the keep as Ledric picked up the woman. He looked around and shouted to his aids to find a healer then took her up to his room. Gently, he laid her down, seeing an arch in her spine. He turned her over gently, questioning her, “What did he do to you?”

 

“More than I care to think about,” a voice behind him spoke.

 

Ledric turned around to see an elven woman with soft white skin, bright blue eyes, and soft gray hair. He turned back to the woman then replied, “Who is she? The lady of the lands?”

 

The elven woman sighed. “This is the daughter of a lord, yes, Meranda. She has been treated poorly by Gavid for years. He knew there was something different about her, but couldn’t place his finger on it. There were times I would heal her while he was away, yet there were times she had healing from someone or somewhere else I could not explain.”

 

Ledric continued to stare at the girl when the woman spoke again, “Help me get her healed up this time. Perhaps we can get her away from here and get her some training. She is a Riftrider.”

 

“What?!” he shouted loudly. “She is a Riftrider? Where was help when she needed it? Where are those who are like her when she was crying for help?”

 

Erissa touched his hand. “My dear, where were you? We sent several messages about her and you never came. She was in need of you and you didn’t even send someone to see if the rumors were true.”

 

He jerked his hand away as if she shocked him and looked down at the girl. This was just as much his responsibility as it was others.

 

She smiled as she glanced at him. “Come on, we can fix this. She needs it once again.”

 

Ledric snapped from his thoughts and nodded. “What do you need me to do?”

 

He thought for a moment and she looked down at Meranda then spoke, “Flip her over gently then hold the pin. I have become practiced at healing this out of her back.”

 

He contemplated what was said and gently flipped her over. Together, they healed Meranda slowly.

 

As the pin came out, Ledric’s rage slowly set in, not only at himself but the desert elf who did this to her. He silently vowed he would fix all of this and help her get what she needed in training. Once the healing was done, Erissa covered her up, glanced over at him, then spoke, “Get her some clothes and you need to find some way to get her to Elmwick. That’s where they train. She had some training, but it’s all been unconscious. Now, help her get back on her feet and make things better.”

 

He watched as she gently healed the girl and noticed other scars on her back. He turned to her. “How are all of these scars possible?”

 

She finished spells and sighed before she answered. “Some are unexplainable, but others are from Gavid, he really did terrible things to her.”

 

Anger, once again, clouded anything Erissa had to tell Ledric as she spoke, “She needs to get to her father as well, your majesty.” She looked at him. “Sire, are you okay?”

 

Again, he suddenly looked at her. “Yes, whatever she needs to do, I’ll help her do it.”

 

Erissa touched his hand and spoke quietly, “See, she knows that she’s safe this time. Speak with her and find her some clothes as well as some transportation to get her to Elmwick and to her parents.”

 

“What about her father?” he questioned to her. “Surely he is dead.”

 

She took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and replied, “She’ll know what to do. Just let her know it’s okay.” She stood up and continued, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must go check on the healer area and get prepared for the trip.”

 

He watched as she walked out of the room and looked at Meranda. Ledric then thought to himself, How could I not see it sooner? How come I never followed up on those rumors? Something more has to be done. This is just as much my fault as anyone else’s.

 

With that, he sat on a chair and watched her. Thoughts ran through his mind and soon he was fast asleep.