Season of Sacrifice (Blood of Azure Book 1) by Jonathan Michael (best ebook for manga txt) 📕

hit Stone in the shoulder like I want to, I just narrow my eyes at him. Hopefully, he’ll keep his snide remarks to himself from now on.

“Will do. Follow me.” Goose doesn’t seem to notice Stone’s facetiousness. “Oh…before it’s too late. Here you go.” He unstraps a pair of sheathed swords from his shoulder harness and hands it to Stone.

“Life Bringer,” Stone mutters to himself. A small grin makes its way onto his face.

“I’m a man with many connections to the guard. You can thank me later,” he says.

What arrogance. Stone is obviously grateful, but Goose’s attitude almost negates it.

We quietly head through the open doorway and down a long corridor with windows. It’s dark outside, either late evening or early morning with a slight glow leaking into the windows. It’s eerily silent. Stone nor Goose are making noise with their footsteps. And Helios would never. The only sound comes from the calming current of the thunder lanterns hanging on the walls.

We sneak down the corridor and up a flight of steps without any trouble. It leads directly to the Grand Atrium of the Redwood Chamber. I recognize this room from previous visits with Stone’s family.

Stone halts and presses behind one of the large petrified redwood pillars.

Harris Martelli stands across the room, talking with a woman clad all in red from head to toe. She wears a garment comprised of wide silk ribbon wrapped tightly around her, as opposed to tunic and trousers. The ribbon consumes her entirety, including her head, save one eye. The only reason I know it to be a woman is the contours of her figure.

“Helios, hold.” Stone whispers dominantly. Helios stops. Both Jaymes and I freeze on his back and Goose too. Stone quickly yanks on Helios’ reins, pulling him back to duck out of sight.

The Grand Atrium is large. At least forty paces across with pillars large enough to conceal the lot of us. They’re arrayed every ten paces or so along the perimeter of the room. The Taoiseach and the Woman-in-Red are on the opposite side, standing at another entrance to the hall.

We cautiously move from one pillar to the next, maintaining our cover. Two more before we’re close enough to dash to the exit—and freedom.

The chamber is well lit due to the dome of sky-blue, translucent glass centered above the room. Signs of morning sun flood the space with light.

It’s quite an exquisite room once I give it my full attention. The stone floor is a terra color with patches of rune grass at the base of the pillars. The pillars themselves are the ancient redwood trees that once grew in abundance throughout the city. These few preserved for eternity. And with the ceiling and dome the same color as a cloudless sky, it feels as if we’re in an ancient redwood forest. I half expect to see birds flying above.

As we slip to the next redwood pillar, Stone stumbles over his own feet. His long bird-legs are unable to keep him balanced and he crashes to the floor out in plain sight. Stone immediately pushes himself up and heads for the exit in a dead sprint. Helios right beside him with Jaymes and I on his back. Goose, trying to comprehend what is happening, hesitates, then sprints toward the exit as well.

“Stop!” Harris yells in an emotionless, threatening tone.

Planks of ironwood slam down, barring the doors in front of us. We’re trapped.

The Taoiseach rips a handful of rune grass from the nearest pillar and hands it to the Woman-in-Red. With a flick of her wrist, the steel-edged rune grass fires toward us with an incredible velocity. Is the Woman-in-Red a Hiberneyt? Her green eye says otherwise. And the Taoiseach is a Dihkai, so he wouldn’t be able to manipulate the grass in that way. Would he? They’re flying like daggers.

“Duck!” someone yells. Everyone falls to the ground, save for me. I, unfortunately, remain on Helios’ back, incapable of any other option.

Helios, like all tigers, attacks when threatened. He charges, bulling through the rigid blades as he rushes the Taoiseach and the Woman-in-Red. And I am lucky enough to charge with him.

Not fond of this onslaught, I roll off, hitting the stone floor with an abrupt thud. The pain is minimal compared to what I’ve experienced recently. I check myself for lacerations from the rune grass. I don’t see any blood, but both my tunic and trousers are littered with slices. Then, a deep-red color propagates around each of them. I hadn’t even noticed the grass slice through my flesh.

The Taoiseach fixes into a defensive stance, preparing for Helios’ attack. He’s a confident, skilled, and powerful man, but it’s suicidal to wait for a full-grown tiger to attack you.

The Woman-in-Red has more common sense and eludes Helios with a graceful tuck and roll to her left.

Helios leaps toward the Taoiseach with claws the size of daggers fully extended. The Taoiseach parries too late, receiving a large gash in his left shoulder. In retaliation, the Taoiseach grabs the cat’s reins as he blazes past him. The tiger jerks to a halt, and the Taoiseach leaps onto his back. The tyrant handles his mane with one hand, the other still holding the reins. Helios’s rage subsides rather quickly. It’s no surprise if it’s anything like what I experienced. But from the Taoiseach? Is he a Grim? Capable of both Hiberneyt and Dihkai talents. The most feared of the Graft races.

The Woman-in-Red runs toward us, bringing my focus back to the threat at hand. I shout to the others for them to find an alternate escape route, and I see Jaymes doing everything within her power to take down the ironwood barricade blocking our way. Despite her minimal training at age eleven, she makes great progress, slowly breaking down the wood into rotten mulch.

“We need to buy Jaymes some time,”