Thorn Bearer: Sneak Peek 3

Lilian sinks into the buttery soft leather, unable to avoid comparison to the spartan militia ground transport that carried her to the incarceration halls four years gone. At the time, the overcast sky was an ominous slate green, the distant spires threatening.

This day I live. The sky is clear pale mint, the air crisp, the warm season known as summer giving way to the harvest season.

I will not fall. Four years gone, she was trapped in a transport racing through a claustrophobic tunnel of rusty stalks heavy with bronze seeds and pods. This day, the plains spread out below in geometric patterns of rust, gold, and bronze divided by the slender silver strip of the high-velocity transitway. In the distance, the escarpment rises several hundred feet to a plateau crowned with glittering spires.

I will not fail. Four years gone, she entered the spire shadows in fear and humiliation. This day, she flies in the sun at Lucius’ side having achieved far more than her highest ambitions from those dark days.

I will be consort. Breath by breath she shreds the echoes of the past in favor of the present and the future.

Lucius clasps her hand. His dark eyes hold inquiry.

Lucius loves me. “It is a lovely day.”

The LAT rises as the escarpment nears, a shade between midnight and peacock known as Socraide blue. Glimpses of the Tethys ocean’s indigo waters appear on the horizon. The LAT crests the lower plateau, the rooftops of the warehouse section giving way to modest residential areas. The delicate spires of the upper plateau gain detail and dimension, the soaring structures of stone, metal, and glass glow against the sky. In other two bells, when the sun passes its zenith, the shadows of those graceful spires will crawl across the lower plateau bringing early twilight.

Lucius’ fingers tightened. “Are you chilled?”

Did she shiver in recall of those shadows stealing what little light reached in her cell? “Naught but an echo.”

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