The Monster Of Selkirk Book 2: The Heart Of The Forest Read online

  The Monster Of Selkirk

  Book II: The Heart Of The Forest

  C.E. Clayton

  Copyright © 2017 by C.E. Clayton

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Edited by Rob M Miller

  cover by Dane at ebooklaunch

  Created with Vellum

  For Megan, who is still the best big sister a girl could ask for.

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Enjoy this sample from the first chapter of: “The Monster of Selkirk, Book III: The Machines of Theda” Coming this Winter/2017 from Devil Dog Press

  About the Author

  The Monster Of Selkirk Series

  Also From DevilDog Press

  Acknowledgments

  My village of book-loving warriors has done it once again. Through the help and support I have received along the way, Tallis’s story lives on!

  Thank you to my parents, brothers Joe and Cameron, brother-in-law Brad, lovely sister-in-laws Aimee and Murti for their support, and thank you to Doug and Deb, for being such fantastic cheerleaders. Thank you to my husband for putting up with my rants and philosophical debates on what I should torment my characters with. My incredible friends Colleen, Sophie, Andy, Frank, Sydney, Jessica, Sammi, John, Karla, Brie, Erin, Mandy, Kendal, and Toni, whose friendship and support means more than the world and helps keep my creative fires burning.

  Thank you to my great editor Rob, and all the people who read, gave feedback, and touched this book. Your work is, as always, invaluable to this process.

  And thanks to my dog, Dobby, who can’t read, but is excellent at always remaining by my side as I type away. Writing can be a very solitary experience, so I’m thankful that Dobby would take me on walks when my eyes began to burn from staring at my computer too long. I highly recommend getting a little furry friend that will be there for you the way Dobby was for me, and there are many such companions waiting for you at your local shelter.

  Adopt, don’t shop!

  Also, thank YOU, dear reader, for following Tallis along as she grows and battles literal and figurative monsters along the way. If you want a soundtrack to go along with your experience, I’ve got you covered. Check out the “Selkirk” playlist I created on Spotify: http://spoti.fi/2pijlOG. Music was instrumental in capturing the mood, the spirit, and the essence of what it was like for Tallis growing up as she did in a place like Selkirk.

  Chapter 1

  OLD SCARS AND NEW WOUNDS

  He skulked behind the injured knight as the man nursed his damaged arm and stomped through the streets with a purpose. He followed from a safe distance, hugging the shadows as if they were friends. His gnarled fingers brushed the dirty facades of the buildings, the slickness felt beneath his fingers having little to do with the muck on the walls and more with his own anticipation.

  We’ve got you now, Tallis.

  The words rang in Jon’s head like a monastery bell as he stumbled after the knight he recognized as one who could always be found in close proximity to Baron Maric and his family, specifically that blighter Henrik. The knight had not been on active duty when the tremps attacked, that much Jon remembered. Due to the injury the knight had suffered, the man could barely swing his blade. It had probably saved his life, keeping him at Henrik’s side rather than out with the other knights as they attempted to make sense of what was happening, and all while trying to save as many people as they could.

  Jon had wondered if Tallis survived in those first few hours after the initial onslaught, or if she had somehow managed to get out of Kincardine. When he had not seen her with the other townsfolk who had hoped to take ship, he believed she had died. The thought was not all that upsetting; with her to blame for the loss of his wife, Wodan’s Pits could take the girl for all he cared. Instead, the loss of the girl was just another wash of disappointment, especially when he considered the coin forever lost from not being able to sell her to the highest bidder on the Bride Block.

  No, instead of finding Tallis, he had come across Baird with Donovan’s sweetheart, Nessa, waiting impatiently to board one of the crowded vessels.

  His heart sank, thinking his nephew had been one of the dozens of unlucky people to find themselves cornered by the tremps as they burned the little village to the ground. But Baird had only grinned, assuring him that Donovan was safe.

  That he was with Tallis.

  It boiled his blood even now to think that Tallis yet lived while his Lana lay cold and buried at the hovel he had fled. A tear rolled down his cheek just thinking of his poor wife, alone in her grave in a home that he doubted he would ever return to.

  And it’s all Tallis’s fault. Wretched creature has taken my wife and my home … taken everything! Let the tremps have her.

  Jon ground his teeth on the thought, savoring its bitterness as he trotted behind the knight, still oblivious to the old man following behind. Jon had always been easy to miss, amusing to ignore. It had annoyed him when members of the carpenter’s guildhall lifted their noses at his talent, but now he was glad that so few paid any mind to the feeble old man never good enough for their company.

  He had to see her for himself, the girl he had raised, but never considered a daughter. He had to see for himself if it was truly her, and if so, if his nephew was, indeed, with her. Tallis may have had an unnatural talent for wrapping Donovan around her finger, but Jon was sure that if Donovan were there, knowing his father and would-be-bride were waiting for him would convince his nephew to abandon Tallis once and for all.

  Tallis was not worth the trouble that Donovan would find in her wake. This, Jon knew from experience. She had always been odd, that adopted daughter of his. There was always something a bit strange about her. It was just an itching in the back of one’s mind when they looked at her, when she spoke to them. Jon had felt it and had noticed when others squinted at her as well; they had the same feelings he did. But unlike Jon, most shrugged it off and either waved Tallis away or teased her.

  Until she had grown, that was.

  Once she matured, most felt uncomfortable around her because she looked like she belonged in places like this, like Fordoun, not Kincardine.

  Now they’ll know better.

  Jon grinned as he skirted around another building, keeping the knight in his line of sight. After the monstrous tremps flooded through Kincardine, ravaging their homes and slaying their people while hissing her name, none would look at her and see an enchanting young woman. Not anymore. No, now they would see what Jon saw.

  A monster.

  Jon could not guess at how Tallis had managed to get out of Kincardine, not unless she were somehow responsible for the elves suddenly rising up after three centuries of madness, and the Clearing that followe
d to eradicate them from their borders. Perhaps she had done something when Lana died, or the elves had done something to her before Lana found her in the Brethil Forest, Jon did not know. All he did know was that she could be involved in nothing good, especially if she were in Fordoun.

  It brought up the memory of the last time Jon had seen her. She was declaring she would not stand on the Block. That she was leaving and he would never see her again. At the time, Jon just believed it was a teenager’s last act of rebellion before succumbing to her familial duty. But no sooner had she made such a declaration, than the tremps stormed their village in force. It made Jon wonder if Tallis had somehow planned for the coming of the elves.

  As the tremps ransacked the villages, everyone fled to the cities for shelter. If Tallis were here, Jon doubted Fordoun would be safe for very long.

  I should see about getting to Isildor with Baird and Nessa.

  He watched as the knight approached the pens where they kept all the drunken sods that did not have the grace to drown their sorrows in silence. A young woman with wavy, diamond-bright blonde hair sat upright at his approach, and Jon could not hide his sneer.

  Tallis.

  At her side was a dark-skinned woman Jon recognized as one of Tallis’s no-good friends. He had seen the two racing through the market of Kincardine on occasion, getting into trouble. The lass was not the only one Tallis had managed to bewitch on whatever doomed journey she was on. For Donovan was there, too, pressed against the side of the other cage with a rapidly swelling eye, but Jon dare not approach, not with Tallis so close. No, much better if she did not know he was there.

  Jon had often wondered if the rumors floating out of Dumfry by the few older folks who had managed to escape were true: That a woman, as beautiful as she was deadly, had followed after the tremps as they burnt the monastery to the ground. The rumors said that as soon as the tremps poured into the nearly deserted town, that the woman they had been hissing the name of appeared, as if they were heralding her arrival. Some said she had saved them, but no one really believed that. Her appearance had been too well timed. Some said she had killed a few tremps, but how could she have? How could such a tiny woman kill such foul beasts?

  Unless they let her. Unless it was all for show.

  Like many others, Jon believed Tallis’s supposed act of bravery, had only been a farce. Tallis had not been able to save Lana; he doubted she was capable of saving anyone other than herself.

  He watched as she regarded the knight and noted her haggard appearance, as if she had been recently ill. Part of him wondered what she had been doing all this time, if perhaps she had been hiding due to a crippling illness, or if she were looking for someone instead of…. Jon shook his head, it did not matter if Tallis was sick, or if she were trying to find something. He knew what his heart told him to be true: Tallis was cavorting with the same bloody creatures who had killed his wife. She deserved no pity, no mercy. Jon vowed to tell Baron Maric exactly that, in case they needed any further convincing to hand Tallis over to those monsters.

  Jon melted against the shadows as the guards began moving, opening cell doors, and shoving Tallis and those accompanying her away. He frowned as Donovan and another young man were roughly pushed after Tallis and her dark-skinned friend. Jon growled in the night, knowing that if Baird found out he had let Donovan be arrested, that his little brother would never forgive him.

  Peering from around the darkened building, Jon followed after Baron Maric’s knight once again.

  Chapter 2

  Tallis bolted upright the moment she saw Raghnall. Then her heart sank to the pit of her stomach and she felt her face go ghostly white as she watched him hand a notice to the guard in charge of her cage. Taking Rosslyn’s arm in a vice-like grip, causing her to growl in pain, Rosslyn turned to look at what caused Tallis such a fright. When she saw Raghnall, her dark features paled and she gripped Tallis’s hand in return. They were fools to think that no one from Kincardine would have heard of the fight, and even bigger fools to think none would try and take advantage of their incarceration.

  The guard called over his partner, who stood watch over the men. Whispering and showing him the notice, the guard nodded and went back to the other cage. By then, even Donovan had spotted Raghnall, a sneer of contempt tugging at his face. Without a word, the guards walked into the cages and grabbed Tallis, Rosslyn, Donovan, and Tomas by their collars and dragged them out of their cells.

  She could hear Tomas demanding to know where they were being taken, and arguing they had caused no permanent harm in the inn. Trust Tomas to not recognize the man he had shot in the shoulder with his crossbow the first time he had come to Tallis’s aid. The guards led them silently through the streets to a large dark stone and brick building with a ragged black flag hanging over its steel-reinforced doors.

  Tallis didn’t recognize what the building was, but Donovan did, and he began to struggle. “What have we done to be tossed into prison this way? I demand an answer!”

  The guard shoved him forward. “Baron Maric’s orders on behalf of his son Henrik. You are to be imprisoned for crimes committed in your hometown, and here you shall remain, until your lord sees it fit to release you.”

  Tallis’s eyes widened with the faintest glimmer of hope; Henrik had not told them she was the girl that the elves were using as a battle cry. Whatever game he was playing, Tallis and her true identity was one of the cards he was holding close to the chest. She was not sure what it meant, but for the moment she hoped it was a blessing from Wodan.

  Stopping at one of the first cell blocks, the guards pushed Donovan and Tomas inside. Both men sprang at the steel bars as the door clanged shut. Pressing their faces against the bars, they watched as the guards pushed Tallis and Rosslyn away. For the first time in her life, Tallis was too frightened to speak as she frantically looked over her shoulder at the fearful and concerned stares of her cousin and Tomas.

  She watched Tomas press his face against the bars as he yelled after the disappearing guards, “Where are you taking her? Where are you going?” Then he addressed her, “Don’t be afraid, I will find you.” Donovan kept silent, but she could see his mind furiously trying to work a way to get them out of the mess that Rosslyn had accidently placed them in.

  The guards stopped Tallis and Rosslyn in a dank hallway lit only by a single brazier. They were too far underground for any windows to allow natural light at this point. It was an oppressive feeling, one that made Tallis break out in a cold sweat. The guards checked them for weapons and easily found Tallis’s two knives concealed in her boots, the only article of her armor she had not parted with after her bath. She knew if she tried to take them back now, they would only beat her, or worse. She felt exposed in her simple blouse and trousers, her leather and chainmail armor tucked safely under their rented bed at the inn. Part of Tallis wished she had put her custom-made armor back on, but another part did not want to see what the guards would have done had they apprehended her while completely armed.

  Just as Tallis thought they were done inspecting her, one of the guards spied her mother’s ring and snatched it off her thumb. Tallis moved like a raging river to take her ring back, causing the guard to bring his fist down hard on her back, driving her to the floor.

  “None of that now,” he growled down at her. “Can’t leave you with anything you could use to escape.”

  Coughing, Tallis glared up at him. “It’s a ring, not a lock pick, you plonker. Give it back!”

  The guard picked Tallis up by the hair and shook her. “Scum like you isn’t allowed to talk to us like that. You’re lucky we got orders not to harm you, otherwise I’d have you ask for it back in the sweet way only a woman can. You understand me, girl?”

  Tallis stared at him, but said nothing even as her hatred for this man burned in her heart like the heat of a summer sun. She couldn’t lose her mother’s ring, not now, not to a man like this.

  Tallis and Rosslyn were pushed into a cold, damp, windowless cell at t
he very bottom of the prison. Stumbling forward, Tallis caught herself before she could fall, unlike Rosslyn. Standing, she looked around, frightened of the confined space. After being used to so much openness, after climbing the oldest trees in Selkirk and feeling their hopes and fears, this seemed like she was being buried alive. For the moment, her boiling ire at the man who took her mother’s ring was momentarily forgotten, replaced by a suffocating fear.

  Being confined under the ground, entrapped in cold stone, Tallis felt her chest tighten and her breathing become labored as she imagined the walls closing in around her. She turned rapidly, throwing herself at the stone walls and running her hands over them, trying to find a crevice where she could taste fresh air, only to find nothing. She felt Rosslyn pull her into a tight hug, and in return, she inhaled the familiar scent of her friend in order to calm her own nerves.

  She felt Rosslyn soothe her hair like her mother used to when Tallis was afraid, and then she heard her friend coo, “It’s all right, everything is fine. Calm down, Tallis. We’ll get out of this.”

  Slowing her breathing and calming her frantic heart rate, Tallis shut her eyes and kept them closed until they adjusted to the utter blackness of their cell. Disentangling herself from Rosslyn, she slid down the clammy stone wall and sat on the cold floor and stared at the thick, bound door where she could barely see the brazier in the hallway illuminating through the portal’s cracks.