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

Goose responds without delay and uses the Woman-in-Red’s own weapon against her. He grabs a handful of rune grass from the patch nearest us and squelches. He attempts to throw them, and they flutter to the ground. Frowning, he looks down at his hands covered in blood and balls them into tight fists. He raises them in front of his face, readying himself for hand-to-hand combat.

Behind the Woman-in-Red, Helios gathers enough strength to buck the Taoiseach, throwing him against one of the redwoods. The Taoiseach lies at the base of the pillar like a dark shadow. Motionless and harmless, for the moment.

The beast charges after the Woman-in-Red. She’s only paces away from Goose with a hybrid claymore in hand raised high above her head. Her arms drop, the blade with them. Goose stands frozen, acting the part of a training dummy. Then, Helios leaps through the air and pounces on her back, and her blade falls away, nearly cutting through a stupefied Goose. She smashes the ground at Goose’s feet and he regains his wits, leaping out of the way. Helios pins her down. She lies still as a corpse.

Right behind Goose, Jaymes drops to the ground as well, fatigued. The door is weak but still bars the way.

Goose retrieves the large claymore lying next to the Woman-in-Red. With much anguish, he heaves it into the air and swings it at the ironwood door. But his attempt is meager. The blade is too heavy for him. He cannot wield it with authority the way she handled it. He tries piercing through the ironwood next. The point of the blade barely punctures it. Hopeless. He looks at the blade as though there’s something wrong with it. Then he drops it and shrugs his shoulders.

The ironwood is living up to its reputation. How are we going to flee now?

Suddenly, I see it. The massive beast that is our ally. “Stone, what about Helios?” I grumble from the ground.

Goose’s brow twerks inward as he gawps at me like I’m a halfwit.

“Helios?” Stone questions my scheme too. “Helios! You’re right!” Helios perks up with his name being repeated. “Helios, attack!” Stone points toward the door. The tiger looks at him, tilting his head with confusion. Stone starts banging on the door with his fists, and repeats, “Helios, attack!” The tiger tilts his head with confusion. He steps forward to the barricade and paws at it with one paw, then sits.

“No, Helios. Like this.” Stone pounds on the door some more. The tiger watches him, but nothing more.

Goose flares. “Lousy beast! Get off your ass and help!” The two glare at each other for a long moment. There’s an odd silence. Then, Helios stands on his hind legs and claws at the door with hostility.

The three of us gape at Goose. Befuddled.

“That was great, Goose!” Stone escalates him.

“It really was,” Jaymes agrees with a tired voice.

A wide smile sits on his face. Goose shrugs his shoulders with the subtle addition of a muscle flex and minute fist pump to congratulate himself.

“That’s it! That’s it, boy.” Stone continues to beat on the door.

Helios shreds at the door with more vigor. He tears at the thin layer of remaining ironwood and breaks away larger chunks periodically with his massive teeth. Within moments, he has a small hole in the barricade. Goose and Stone help peel away the ironwood until there’s a hole large enough for all to squeeze through.

Goose compresses his body and pushes himself through first. Once through, he assists Jaymes. Helios leaps through the hole with the rim pressing hard into his fur. But he makes it. Then Stone gestures that it’s my turn. Instead of trying to crawl toward him, I slump to the ground. Light-headed. Exhausted. He rushes to my side. “Elder? Elder?” he says as he drags me to the door, leaning me upright against it. He can’t get my limp body through on his own.

“C’mon, Stone!” I hear Jaymes’s voice calling from the other side.

“Too much blood,” I respond, followed by a small cough. I pull my hand away from my mouth and see blood. I gesture down to my tunic with a nod of my head. Stone sees it. My entire tunic is red. The lacerations are too many. “Don’t let them execute me, Stone,” I grumble.

“No. I can’t leave you.”

He presses his palms to my flesh, needling his fingers through the holes in my tunic. He understands what I’m asking for. It would be hard for most men, so I don’t judge him for trying to save what is already lost.

“I don’t want to burn, Stone. There isn’t any time.” I point to the rising Woman-in-Red behind him.

Stone looks, and his breath escapes him. He freezes. The Woman-in-Red rises to one knee, gathering her wits. Her one visible eye narrows in on us.

“I’m sorry, Elder.” Stone unsheathes Life Bringer. He looks to the Woman-in-Red. Then back to me. He plants the tip of his blade above my collar bone and presses down, piercing it through my heart. I see him scramble through the exit and make his way to freedom. I let out a muffled sigh. A weight lifts. Crimson shadows envelop me, giving me my own freedom to return to Azure.

Not all my colleagues, if I can call them as such anymore, approve of the path we have taken. Nonetheless, we—the first four—are still here. I urge them to run. To go into hiding. To carry that power, a destructive power in the hands of man, and protect it as faith makes its climb.

49 Goose

F airview is planted in her wooden rocking chair outside her hollow. Thunder lanterns are aglow, but not quite needed yet. The chair she sits in looks as tired as she does. Her aging skin, sunken below her eyes, hangs