Grace's Quest Read online

the ground buckled and I fell to my knees.

  “Mecca!” Mecca, are you alright? I called out to him using telepathy.

  One down…two to go. He replied with determination.

  It was then I mustered up the courage to reenter the fray. I took the deepest breath I could handle, readied my bow and arrow, and launched myself through the branches back into the opening. Lying lifeless was the lead troll. Mecca was now attacking a second. I looked up to find the Vampire bats…they were still there watching and jeering.

  I slid to a stop and pulled back upon my bow. My first shot missed badly and worse than that it drew attention to the fact that I had returned. I aimed again, this time striking a troll in the neck. It howled in pain. Mecca dashed forward and slashed at its ankles while sliding underneath the giant creature. This troll joined its slain brother falling upon him in the center of the clearing.

  Now only one troll remained. We flanked the ugly beast. The troll swatted at us, flailing about angrily. I could sense its fear. We had destroyed two trolls; he knew he didn’t stand a chance.

  I heard a rustling noise from behind me. Mecca’s face beamed. When I turned, Delza stood just inside the clearing. She looked awful, but was still alive.

  “You will pay for that,” Delza sneered in an unusual voice.

  She no longer had her bow, but brandished a short sword and came charging at me. I deflected her attack with my bow, but she swung again knocking my bow free. I winced in pain, grabbing my side as she continued to slash at me in rage. Her eyes were burning with anger.

  “LaCroiux?” I muttered to myself. He had overtaken her mind. Delza was now the sorcerer’s prisoner. “This is a new trick sorcerer.” I grabbed a branch from the ground and swung. Delza’s sword sliced through, cutting the branch in two. “Delza, fight him!”

  She reached straight back over her head, sword held high. I kicked her in the chest.

  Meanwhile, Mecca finished off the remaining troll. I knew by the heavy thud behind me. All three trolls were now heaped upon one another. My friend strolled over toward me confidently, twirling his sword at his side. He attempted to sheath it when I stopped him.

  “You may need that.”

  Delza lay unconscious sprawled out on the ground; her sword now in my hand. She looked battered and beaten. I only hoped that LaCroiux would now leave her alone.

  The forest had grown very quiet; only heavy panting from the Vampire bats above could be heard. My ears began to hurt. Pressure building up inside them pushed all sound out like a void. The branches began to lurch inward toward us at all sides. Then a flash of light burst forth; the tall trees bent backward. Mecca and I were knocked to the ground.

  I struggled to my knees. There standing atop the fallen trolls was the sorcerer. His strength was impressive. LaCroiux moved down the troll bodies and stopped just before me.

  “Commander,” he mockingly bowed, staring at me. “You have done quite well. I never thought, with all your injuries, that your group would have been able to destroy these trolls. I guess I was wrong.”

  “What have you done with the King and Queen?” I questioned through gritted teeth.

  He snorted. “Well, you will be disappointed to know that they are not here.”

  “Where are they, LaCroiux?” Mecca shouted.

  The sorcerer swung his arm, swatting Mecca high up into the air. A Vampire bat clutched him and flew off. Another swooped down and snatched Delza from the ground.

  “You are all alone, Grace.”

  I wasn’t about to go out without a fight. I gripped Delza’s sword in my right hand.

  “You wish to use that against me do you?” LaCroiux snickered. He had always been arrogant. “Do your best.” His voice deepened.

  I swung, and he dodged effortlessly. Pain shot across my chest. I swung again but missed. LaCroiux punched me in the chest with a spell. I flew through the air, landing on my back. He slowly strolled toward me. I rolled onto my side and struggled with all my might to get back to my knees. I had no strength remaining…at least not enough to fend off a sorcerer.

  I swung again, but LaCroiux knocked the sword from my hand and lifted me up into the air with the flick of his wrist. He summoned the winds, which burnt as they swept across my face.

  “You are now my prisoner,” LaCroiux growled.

  A forceful wind lifted me free from his grasp pushing me back until I collided with a tree…everything went black.

  EVIL REVEALED

  8

  “Grace?” LaCroiux’s voice echoed in my head. It drifted from ear to ear as though it passed through me.

  It was pitch black, not a glimmer of light nor hope. I was Sorcerer LaCroiux’s prisoner. I felt a tingling in my body and numbness as my legs were trapped up underneath me. My arms were bound tightly behind my back. My eyes were open, but useless in this prison. I was blind. Fear began to creep its way into my heart.

  Where was Mecca? What had happened to my friend? I tried to call to him, but something blocked the sound. It was as though a cloth covered my mouth. There was nothing at all, like something was absorbing it. With my hands bound, I wasn’t able to feel what covered my mouth. My lips felt like they were sewn together.

  Mecca! I screamed using telepathy. No reply.

  Delza! I waited impatiently for any sign from them, but no one answered.

  I was all alone. LaCroiux had made sure of that. His torture for me would be solitude. No one would find me here. No Elves would venture into the Deadly Spray Forest…if that’s where I was now. LaCroiux could have taken me anywhere.

  My mind was overrun with questions.

  Where am I?

  Why had LaCroiux returned?

  Why did he keep me prisoner?

  Where was he now?

  My heart was pounding like a large drum, echoing off the walls and back to me. The walls must be closing in. They will crush me. Suddenly, a force hit my chest like a Troll’s punch slamming me against the wall. A cackling rose above the thundering of my heart.

  I attempted to scream, “LaCroiux!” Nothing came out.

  The thunder dulled, but was replaced with cold and stars. My stomach flipped as I rose from the ground and floated through the nighttime sky. Horror overtook me. I was weightless, tumbling uncontrollably through nowhere.

  The laughter returned. A single dot of light grew before me, the light of a star exploding in space from a million miles away. It began to intensify and with it the sorcerer’s laughter grew stronger and louder…the sound of victory. A brilliant flash burned my eyes, which were wide open. I was unable to close them, fixated upon the intense flame.

  I screamed in pain as a wave of heat surged across my body. It felt as though my skin was burning away.

  Then darkness returned.

  I had never left LaCroiux’s prison. He was torturing me, turning my own mind and senses against me. No stars, no lights, just darkness and pain. My eyes still stung, legs numbed from the weight of my body pressing down upon them, wrists ached from the binds that tied them together.

  I had but one last question. Why did I still live?

  “That, my dear, is the question.” LaCroiux’s face emerged in the darkness, shadowed and frightening. His eyes were blazing like the sun.

  The sorcerer waved his hand across my face. I was able to open my mouth again. He had removed the spell that had made me unable to speak.

  “Set me free, LaCroiux!” I immediately demanded.

  LaCroiux laughed. “I don’t think so, Commander Tallon. You see, you’re a key piece to my game.”

  “What game?”

  “I am playing a political game. You see, I am not completely happy with our current monarch,” LaCroiux said.

  “Queen Merran? You think that you can replace her on the throne?”

  “No, no, no. I am not the ruling type. I prefer to hide in the shadows, place someone else in charge and manipulate them to do my biding.” The sorcerer’s entire body transformed from the darkness as the nightti
me sky returned. He walked before me like a constellation…a God.

  “Cragon?” I whispered.

  A smile beamed across his face. “Since the former king’s untimely departure from the throne, I have grown in my powers. I have used that time to enhance them, and perfect them. Now, I am far more powerful than Cragon Cadieux…this time I will rule through him.”

  “But the people of Mistasia have their queen!” I shouted in disgust.

  “Ah, ah, ah. It would be unwise to speak that way to your new king.” LaCroiux slowly waved his fingers in front of my face. I felt my lips tighten and close. He had recast the spell to quiet me. “Grace, the people of Mistasia have no right to decide who is to be their ruler. It is to be decided by whoever is strong enough to claim the throne.”

  I struggled to free myself, when he pushed me against the wall.

  “You were a key acquisition in this plan. Now that I have you, it is time to proceed with the last phase. You will love this part too because it involves someone you hold very dear.”

  Three figures began to form in the darkness beyond LaCroiux. Fear struck me when I recognized their faces.

  “Yes, Phillip Harper and the Whizzenmog twins. I intend to bring them back to Mistasia…using you as bait and then trap them here with you…forever.”

  THE STORY CONTINUES IN

  RETURN TO MISTASIA

  PHILLIP & WHIZZY TRILOGY (BOOK 2)

 

  www.LandOfMistasia.com

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  Keyword: Mistasia

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CHRISTOPHER M. PURRETT

  Christopher attended college at Central Michigan University, graduating with a degree in Broadcast &