Phoenix Briar [Briar - A Heart of Stone

A Heart of Stone

PHOENIX BRIAR

Night and Day Trilogy: Book Two

A Heart of Stone

Printed by Amazon

Charleston, SC

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved

Copyright 2015 by Phoenix Briar

Cover art 2015 Phoenix Briar

Inked God font Segments Designs

ISBN 978-0-9905631-3-6

Other Works by Phoenix

The Night and Day Series

A Heart of Ice

A Heart of Stone

The Beauty Series

Rose Borne

Short Stories

The Perfect Seashell

Acknowledgments

When God puts someone in your lifesomeone wonderfulwe always hope that its for eternity. But sometimes its only for a few years, maybe even a few months.

I knew a woman named Blenda Sing for about eight months.

I was hospitalized in December of 2016 for a severe anxiety attack. A few months after was when I found my therapist, Blenda Sing. I made more progress with her in eight months than in the entire previous eight years Id spent working through mental and emotional disorders.

She saved my life.

I am a better person, a better wife, a better mother, teacher, sister, and friend all because of her.

The last time I saw Blenda was in December of 2017. She called to tell me that she had the flu and couldnt keep our next appointment. A few weeks later, her husband called all of her patients to let us know that shed contracted pneumonia and had been placed into a medically induced coma.

She passed away the following spring.

Most of you probably dont know who she was, and shes not alive to even appreciate my gratitude for everything that shes done for me.

So my acknowledgement is to those of you who help others walk through the darkest parts of their lives; and to those of you who are willing to let others help you when you need it.

Thank you. All of you.

For my husband.

You were my new beginning. You taught me how to live again. I love you.

A Heart of Stone

A Question

A voice said, Look me in the stars,

And tell me truly, men of earth,

If all the soul-and-body scars

Were not too much to pay for birth.

-Robert Frost

Prologue

One thing alone not even God can do, to make undone whatever hath been done

- Aristotle

Chapter One

Scarlet

The Last Month of Spring

The Catacombs of Castle Karnei, Flora

I will never quite become used to the cold. By now, it is an ever-present companion. First, in Crystalice, and now even in Flora. There is cold everywhere. It has followed me since that first time I dared to venture out into the wastelands and challenged Gabriel. Since then, I do not think that I have ever not been cold. It follows me constantly, like death looming over my shoulder, waiting for a moment to steal my life.

Hnnn, I grunt as I shift my brow upon the damp, frigid floor. I can hear water dripping from stalagmites nearby, and the sound is soothing enough to have me wishing for sleep and yet too obnoxious to permit me rest. With a sigh, I manage to wedge my hands underneath me and push myself up into more of a leaning position, getting off of my side. My whole left side hurts and throbs, having laid in one place too long. My skin is damp and slick with water that mists the caverns and slimes the walls. Red hair sticks to my face and back in roped clumps, peeling off my skin when I turn my head to look around, only to stick back again.

I push myself through the aching weakness in order to sit up. I am naked and cold, shivering with my hands and feet bound in irons. I tuck my legs up close to my body for the illusion of warmth and for some form of stability. As much as I would like to lean back against the wall, the cavern wall is icy and jagged. So I forgo the wall and lean over my knees and tremble while my thin arms wrap around my legs to try and curl up, trying to protect the lifefire burning in my chest.

The hole in my side is burning, and it aches something fierce. I can smell infection, but its not yet in my blood. I tried to use what little of my strength I had to cauterize the wound when I first woke up here, mostly burning it closed. But it needs proper tending, and I used all of my strength on that.

Dripdripdrip-dripdripdrip-drip-drip

The droplets do not fall in a steady pattern. It is maddening, really. I have nothing to do with my time but to listen and to wait. So I close my eyes and try to sort out a pattern in the droplets. I lean my eyebrows against my slick, gritty knees and close my eyes.

How did I get here?

Drip-dripdripdrip

A Few Hours Later

A loud bang from the mouth of the cavern startles me, and the sound echoes through the whole place. I jump a bit, not quite sure if Id been sleeping or merely resting my eyes. Heavy footsteps clomp and splash their way carefully down into the lower parts of the cavern, and I push myself up. I am weaker than I thought, like a new fawn, trembling and shaking all over on thin limbs

Two men approach the mouth of my little hole. I cannot see them, but I can hear them. The solid stone wall separating my chamber from the rest of the catacomb pushes away from itself with a scratching, grinding sound that has me clenching my teeth.

Ere, lassie, an old, raspy voice growls. Some hot gruel.

I press myself into the back of the cavern, hiding in the darkness. A shaft of light from the hole connecting my chamber to the outside world above is the only thing that offers even a scrap of vision. I stare past it into the faces of the two Flora men who stoop at the entrance, one carrying a stone bowl and one carrying a sword.

I eard shes a pretty thing, the other said, younger and a bit more impish looking. The kind most women would never stop to gaze at. Or perhaps it was their own instincts that warned them away from the lecherous madness in his eyes.

I eard shes quite mad, the older one rumbled dryly, setting the bowl down. Ere, kitty, kitty. Wellna bite. Gots to report yer condition to the duke. Makin sure yes alive an alls that.

The chains on my feet make it difficult to move too well or too quickly. The smell of sulfuric water confounds my senses. Who ever thought to call for a tiger: here, kitty, kitty? I ask in a rasp of a voice, crouching forward on my knees with my hands bound in front of me. I move a bit more into the light so that they can see that I am bound and still quite alive, but no further do I venture.

The younger one recoils a bit and looks upon me with a mixture of disgust and fear. Shes all cut up in ribbons, he hisses to his older companion, without any sense of modesty or decency. Not that I am sensitive to either.

The older one clucks his tongue. Aye an ayemost soldiers arehere, pretty thingcome an eat. Well leaves ye lone. He nudges the clay pot closer to me.

What of Alistair? I demand, leaning forward a bit. Has he woken yet? Is he well? Has Gabriel sent word?

Duke Alistair, the young one snarls.

The older one frowns a bit at him beyond his bushy, gray brows. Nay, lassie. He looks back to me. Alistair sleeps an nay word from the prince. The dukes amight burnt all over an is fightin a fever

Alistair His name is a soft sound of agony pulled from my chest, and I slump onto the ground, sinking against the wall. Its all my fault

The older one sighs. If ye are who ye saysyeve nothin to fear. Jus wait a wee bit longer

I ignore the bowl of gruel despite my growling stomach, curling up against the wall again. I amScarlet Anita Snyana mei KaRosene LasarInferno I close my eyes and press my brow to my knees. Ward of Gabriel ne Crystalice Ceruleanand murderer of Alistair ne Maeghdra Flora