Sneak Peek

Excerpt 

Chapter 2

Well, I should continue or I will never get through this tale. I am still in Castle Raja and I am already tired of talking.

After escaping the centoogres I wandered the halls of the castle, searching for anyone I recognized. Though my initial assessment of the castle’s layout proved correct – the corridor I took did lead me further into the castle – I was quickly lost. The hallways appeared to be the same and eventually none of them made sense. I was sure I walked in circles and yet when I attempted to retrace my steps, I could not find my way back. No signs of tracks remained on the stone floor.

The worst thing about it was the lack of anything distinguishable. No tapestries, no carpets on the walls, no windows, no archers’ slits and worst of all, no doors leading anywhere else. There was nothing natural about the castle at this point.

When I found a place with multiple ways leading out, I resorted to marking which choice I made – turned left, marked it, turned right, marked it. However, I never encountered any of my marks. Turning around did little to assist me. Eventually, I was hopeless lost in a twisting maze of passages that appeared all alike. I have never encountered such a castle as Raja! What a horrible, frustrating place.

In retrospect, I think I was already captured by Raquel and did not realize it. Otherwise, how would the rest of you have even found the throne room? Perhaps it was the White Dragon who led you there, or Lady Joeanne could see through the trickery of the castle’s mazes. I had no such luck.

Whether I was wandering for so long or some further enchantment was cast upon me, I do not know. However, soon I was weary. So weary my legs refused to support me. Perhaps by now others would have called out, sought their allies – as Illynallah teaches, I know Warren – I did not. I still have trouble relying on my allies, though I should by now what with all we have been through searching for the statues and jewels, eh Kinet? Perhaps things would have been different if I had sought help.

I did not and they were not. The weariness overcame me and forced me to my knees. I crawled. No one was around to see and I refused to give up. The air itself weighed heavy upon my shoulders and back. I continued to crawl, the weight ever-increasing until I simply crumpled on to the corridor’s floor. Breathing was difficult, I heard the breath from my nose as a laboured wheeze. I refuse to die here. I attempted to keep going, sliding my hand across the floor, my fingertips searching for the cracks in the stone to pull myself onward.....

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Nightmare Through Memory Lane, Bookworld Volume III - Coming December 2013....