Unfettered (Unfettered #1)

by Shawn Speakman

<Listen to the clever apprentice,> Oberon said.

Since I’m a horse, I spook easily.

Let us sally forth, my good horse! Follow the road west. To danger and glory!

<Are those villages?>

Danger and glory? No. I was being dramatic. <Please stop. That coul...

Point ...

<It’s a conspiracy,> Apple Jack said. <They want mold to grow in my ears.>

Paranoia is my specialty.>

Instead of running away from this obviously perilous chapel, I think I’ll stick my neck in and see if it gets chopped off!”> If I die, you have my permission to run away. Hush now and let me think.

“You know the one I mean, Domech? The wheel keeps turning, doesn’t it?”

He was philosophical about it. Every cat had to go at some time. His time had just come. At least it happened so fast he didn’t feel any pain. And he had died a hunter’s death. Live by the claw, die by the jaw, he’d always said.

“With Michael Stein, it’s better to have known love and lost it than to never have loved at all,” Lucy’s mother said.

Unrequited love. Life moves on.

And, in my debut novel, Struck, the villain, Rance Ridley Prophet, would have been a lost and lonely soul without his twelve adopted Apostles, particularly the twins, Iris and Ivan.

Why bother with superficial relationships when she had such a unique bond with another human being? How could any other friendship compare?

I can still think practically, he tells himself, on the verge of another scream. Lupescu. Pigs. Why such horrible nonsense?

He makes a slow first draw. There. The sound, the embrace of pure joy.

“You imagined living it. You read something similar.”

“An expert on women, Lord help us.”

Posnr is singing. Horrible, unspeakable. Posies for the mayor, poppies for the king Three. Two. Violets for the merchant-man One. With his golden ring!

Legend of Asahiel trilogy.

Weight and speed—” “Breed power,” she said. “Yet you never advise I grow thicker. If I were to sprout breasts or belly, would you still fawn over me as you do?”

“Suffer the weak…” He left the sentence hanging, waiting for Kylac to complete it. “And you will suffer their weakness.”

“It’s me, sir. Kylac.” “Don’t you hiss at me, viper, or I’ll give your hide a tanning that’ll have you pleading for the next molting.”

And yet, how long could he stand idle when they might be torturing his father toward a confession even now?

“Hypocrites,” he heard Traeger say, as though from a great distance. “You sow death amid the shadows, yet weep when the harvest comes home.”

Henceforth, he would be his own instrument, and not theirs to wield.

He could have made different choices. Of all the Forsaken, I find Demandred the most tragic.

Mintel’s smile broadened, lines spreading from his eyes and mouth. “To want, to receive, to understand.” It had the way of a quote about it, likely one of the proverbs of Kongsidi, the great servant. Mintel was abrishi, after all.

“And that means?” Bao asked. “All men want something,” Mintel said. “All men receive something. Not all men understand the nature of what they have received. You came to us for one purpose, but it was not the purpose that the Grand Tapestry planned for you. That is not uncommon.”

It was what we were created to do, since the days of the very first Sh’botay. Go, my son. Go and be victorious.”

You will execute a man for failing you, but you will not allow us to give you the title you seek?”

Darkness within, Bao thought. She is so earnest. She believes it.

A piece of him laughed that he thought of it so. What cared he for such rules?

He arrived at the point where the river descended into the cavern. The stone face of the rock here was worked into the shape of a man and a woman kneeling, heads bowed. And…was that the image of a chora tree, carved behind them?

Laughter. How long had it been since he had laughed?

Through it all, he had sought this one object for a single purpose. Finally, Lews Therin, thought Bao—once named Berid Bel, and later called Demandred, now reborn as the savior of the Sharan people. Finally, I have the power to destroy you.

On the inside, they proved terrifying.

Myra pulled candles out of her pack and began lighting them. She must have a million in there.

“By Mar, I hate this short bastard. First Manzant prison and now this—I’m really starting to develop a dislike for dwarves.”

How long has it been?

Royce shrugged. “It’s just a common choice for women.”

Cowardice and greed will drown one’s soul. The greatest treasure a person can possess is freedom. I stole mine by playing the fool. Now, so have you.

At first, when Eliot had gotten the news that the Lorians were invading, it had seemed grimly exciting. Rally the banners, Fillory’s at war!

They brought up with them a lot of dust and a thrilling smell of great deeds and legendary times. An epic smell.

Eliot smiled, shuffled his feet humbly for a second, and then punched the guy in the face. It took the man by surprise. “Get the fuck out of my country, asshole,” Eliot said.

I guess it doesn’t pay to stand around looking all impressed on the battlefield.

“You. Killed. A. Hermit. You. Weird. Sweaty. Bastard!” Don’t go down, cocksucker. Don’t go down, I want to hit you some more.

“No time for applause,” Charles said, catching his breath. He gave the fairy a dark look. “Don’t let that happen again, Trill.” “My fault, no doubt,” the fairy agreed, already guiding up the passage.

“You have killed many men this day, your own as well as those from the Swiss Guard. My fellow knight lays wounded. Not the best way to ensure aid in your quest.” The creature shrugged. “I had to gain your attention, Heliwr.” Charles did not like the sound of that.