5 Days — & Counting Down to “The Gathering of the Lost”
Oh yes, we’re getting very close now—and having shared an excerpt from the prologue and each of The Gathering of the Lost’s five parts, I thought I’d carry on the countdown with scenes that feature various of the central characters.
This one is the featured text from the inside cover pages of the book and the action takes place in Part 1, Festival of Masks:
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from The Gathering of the Lost
(c) Helen Lowe
Chapter 5, The Guild House
” …
She stopped ten paces from the Guild House gate, which gaped at her, silent as an unanswered question, and waited.
The minutes lengthened, but Jehane Mor remained motionless until she felt the touch of Tarathan’s mind, letting her know he was inside the Guild House grounds. The moment she broke cover, slipping out of the shadows and toward the unlit entrance, she caught movement from the corner of her eye. Her head whipped around as a dense, inky blot with long tendrils trailing beneath it dropped from an eave diagonally opposite the gate. The tendrils exploded toward her in a jet of black matter and she sprang back, gathering her power to counterattack—only to drop to the ground for the second time that night as an arrow sang.
But the unseen archer was not aiming at her and the arrow flew true, piercing the attacker’s ink-black core. The creature emitted one thin, keening whistle before folding in on itself and collapsing to the street.
Jehane Mor rose to her feet, taking in the stain of black matter oozing across the cobblestones as the archer dropped from a vine-hung balcony half a block away. He fitted another arrow to the string, quartering the street and surrounding roofs with his eyes as he walked toward her, but it was not until he drew near that she recognized Tirorn of the Derai.
“Darkspawn,” he said …”