Captured Memory: Fated Touch Book 2 E-Book

Flynn

• Herausgeber: Crescent Moon Studios, Inc.
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

The Shifting World holds many wondrous mysteries and magics, but Jane finds herself unique among them in her power to touch an object and have visions. That unique ability intrigues her grandfather enough to lead them to the city of Rubris, a metropolis buried underneath an unhealthy fascination for junk.

They search for an item that will activate her ability and find one in the most unlikely object, an old compass. The compass points in an unknown direction, but they quickly learn that it leads to trouble. A mysterious guild wants the compass and will do anything to have it, including killing them.

In the middle of all this trouble is Jane’s growing feelings for the dragon shifter, Caius.  She can’t ignore the intense looks of lustful longing he gives her nor the way his handsome features make her blush.  There’s no way she could have fallen so quickly for the sly dragon.  Could she?

Leseprobe

Captured Memory

Fated Touch Book 2

Flynn

Copyright © 2019 by Mac Flynn

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.

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Contents

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

Appendix

Continue the adventure

Other series by Mac Flynn

1

I knew where I was and that it was the last place I wanted to be. Still, doubts lingered in my mind. Doubts that would lead me into trouble.

That was how this adventure began. Well, that and on the road. There were a lot of roads in the Shifting World, all of them primitive but with the familiar potholes of home. Some of them were large enough to swallow a unicorn, which happened to be the animal I rode at that time.

“Don’t exaggerate, pumpkin,” Sage scolded me as we traipsed our way down the dirt highway.

Even after just a little more than a week in this new world I’d learned that a flat stretch of road was considered a four-lane freeway. If two carts could pass each other and not be forced into the mud that hunkered on either side waiting to swallow an elephant then that was considered modern technology.

I leaned over the left side as we passed a pothole. There were a few white bones in the deep depths. “I don’t think I’m exaggerating, Grandpa.”

“Sage,” he corrected me.

“I don’t think I’m exaggerating, Sage.”

“Isn’t this wonderful?” Bee spoke up as she beamed at us. She rode in front of Sage in the same saddle. A few birds sat on her shoulders and a butterfly was perched atop her head.

Sage wrinkled his nose at the menagerie. One of the birds turned around and snapped its beak at him. “Do you have to bring so many friends with us, Bee?”

She breathed in the fresh air completely oblivious to the glares bird and man gave each other behind her. “It’s just like old times.”

“Too much like old times. . .” I heard him mutter.

I tilted my head back and looked up at the early morning sun. Sunrise was only an hour behind us, and the long day stretched before us. I sighed and my shoulders slumped. “I’d kill for some coffee.”

Sage shooed away the offensive bird and glanced over at me. “As we told you before, pumpkin, there’s no coffee in this world.”

I still cringed at that fact. “Maybe we could head back and I could grab a can from home?”

“That’s a week’s ride back to the tree,” he reminded me.

I shifted in the saddle and winced. “Don’t remind me.”

“What about your handsome young man?” Bee suggested as a dragon-shaped shadow flew over us. “Perhaps he’ll give you a nice ride.”

I watched the bone dragon fly over the road that stretched out before us. The Plains of Fiora were several days back and had been replaced by a narrow valley. A few rugged hills on either side teased us with the tall peaks of the mountains high above us. Trees lined both sides of the road and through their thick foliage I glimpsed ponds full of strange snake-looking frogs and geese that made a noise like a squeaky tire. The winding road followed a river on our left that rounded a rocky bend a mile ahead and went out of sight.

“I feel like I’m just using him like a horse if I ride him too often,” I argued.

“Pish-posh!” Bee assured me as she waved my concern away with her hand. “Male dragons are very fond of having pretty girls on their backs. Why, I remember the first time I rode a dragon shifter.” She leaned back against Sage’s chest and sighed. “What a wonderful feel it was with the breeze against my cheeks and his smooth, strong scales beneath me.”

“Naturally, this was before my time,” Sage mused.

Bee tilted back her head and smiled up at him. “Naturally, my love.”

The sweet looks they gave one another made me return my attention to the dragon above us. Caius turned as smooth as a spirited kite and returned to being in lock-step with our steeds. I bit my lower lip as I thought about his handsome features and that teasing smile of his. A slight blush came to my cheeks.

“She’s blushing!” Bee squealed.

I shook my head and frowned at my grandparents, both of whom looked at me with wide grins. “I’m not blushing! It’s. . .it’s just the sun! It’s too bright!”

Sage chuckled. “Then you’ll be glad to know we have only a short while until we reach your first town.”

“Please tell me it has indoor plumbing,” I pleaded.

He shook his head. “I’m afraid not. The town of Rubris is a rather trashy place as most towns go, even in the Shifting World.”

I wrinkled my nose. “So why are we going there? Is it the first stop on the road?”

“No. I thought we might test that strange ability of yours in the trash shops for which Rubris is known,” he revealed.

My face drooped. “Come again?”

“This will be such fun!” Bee spoke up as she clapped her hands together. “Rubris was where your grandfather found me a wedding ring, you know.”

I snorted and my eyes flickered mischievously to my grandfather. “No, I didn’t. He always told me he had to pay a mortgage on it.”

Sage cleared his throat and tightened his grip on the reins. “Yes, well, my memory isn’t what it used to be. Perhaps I was thinking of a different ring.”

“But it’s the only ring you’ve given me,” Bee reminded him.

A faraway look slipped into his eyes and a slightly lecherous smile adorned his lips. “Well, there was that one dancer girl, if you’ll recall, and the witch with the luscious-” He noticed the growing look of ire on Bee’s face and coughed into his hand. “But those were unimportant women, and beside the point. We should see if Jane’s abilities can be controlled. And speaking of Jane, perhaps we should figure out a new one for you.”

I blinked at him. “A new what?”

“A new name,” he reiterated as he swept his hand over the hills.

“What’s wrong with Jane?” Bee argued.

“It doesn’t exactly strike anyone as being of this world,” he pointed out. “I hardly remember finding any Jane, even in the largest cities.”

“So I should do like you did and add a noun to the front of my name?” I teased.

He flashed me a grin. “We can’t be all talented at what name we choose for ourselves, but perhaps something a little shorter will work just as well.”

Bee crossed her arms over her chest and looked ahead with a frown. “I still like Jane.”

“What’s wrong with Jane?” Caius asked us as he landed close beside our beautiful steeds. The unicorns didn’t even blink at the large dragon landing on all fours along the road. Caius shrank down to his human form and trotted along side my steed.

“Nothing a little name change won’t fix,” Sage assured him.

“I’ll think about it,” I promised as we neared the bend in the river. “But where’s this town supposed to be?”

Sage leaned forward and pressed himself against Bee’s back as he gazed around the corner of the rock bluff. “You can see it right. . .about. . .now!”

We rounded the bend and the narrow valley widened into a huge bowl. The side of the bowl in front of us dipped down a hundred yards in a gentle decline that ended at a stone wall. The wall wrapped itself around a town some ten miles wide and twenty miles across. Houses and trash piles stood side-by-side in the winding, haphazard streets.

I stopped my unicorn and studied the sight. “That is a really big hole.”

“I suspect a volcano once occupied this area and blew its top several millenia ago,” Sage mused as he led his unicorn onward. “Now let us see what we can make of your unusual ability.”

2

I followed them on Menander, but glanced down at the dragon man who followed alongside me like a vassal. “I’m guessing you’re not afraid of anyone seeing you in your full dragon form anymore?”

Caius nodded at my grandparents. “With the Storm Sage and Bee nearby I don’t think we’ll have a problem with poachers.”

“So you’re just going to trot along beside me like a faithful dog?” I teased.

“So long as you don’t have me fetch your kill I’ll manage,” he returned.

I patted the front of my saddle. “You could get up here.”

He eyed the unicorn with distrust. “I’d rather keep my feet on the ground or my wings in the air.”

“You’re not trying to tell me you’re afraid of a little old unicorn, are you?” I teased.

He smiled. “I’ll ride one when my wings fail me.”

“Then I won’t either,” I quipped as I reined in my steed and slid down. I grasped the reins and walked beside Caius.

“You don’t have to walk beside me,” he assured me.

“Nope, but I want to, and that’s all I need,” I told him.

Sage noticed our falling behind and pulled back on his reins. Bee swatted his hands off the controls and took the reins herself. She flicked them and their unicorn trotted off down the slope to the gates, leaving us alone.

I rolled my eyes, but Caius chuckled. “I think your grandmother likes me.”

“I think she likes grandchildren,” I quipped.

“You don’t?” he wondered.

I laughed. “I can only handle one life-altering change at a time.”

“Then you’re interested?” he persisted.

I looked up at him with an arched eyebrow. “Maybe, but why are you asking? Still looking for that dragon girl to settle down with?”

He smiled. “Perhaps, but shifters and humans often interbreed.”

My cheeks took on the hue of a firetruck and I turned my face away from his intense eyes. My gaze instead fell on his back. “So does it hurt? Taking your wings out?”

“Not at all,” he assured me, and to prove it he drew them out in a flurry of light and bone.

I stopped walking and admired the brilliant colors that acted like sinew, stitching the bones together like strings made of rainbow. I stretched out my hand, but hesitated and drew it back.

Caius smiled and drew his long wing around me, enclosing me in the beautiful, shifting colors. I dropped the reins and Menander shook his head as he stepped back and watched from afar. My hands shook as I reached up and brushed my fingers against the shimmering light. The light was semi-solid like a thick drink and as it coasted over me I could feel a warmth spread down my arms and into my body. It sent a thrill of electricity through me that made me shiver.

Caius held completely still as he watched me explore his wings. My curiosity led me to inch closer to his back where the thick, bony base protruded out of his coat. I brushed my hands against the thick knob of bone which was the source of the light.

Caius stiffened. I drew my hand back and winced. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

He cleared his throat and folded his wings behind his back. “It didn’t hurt. I was just surprised.” He nodded at the distance where my grandparents had nearly reached the gate. “We should catch up to them. It’s easy to lose people in Rubris.”

I turned around to snatch Menander’s reins, but strong arms wrapped around my waist. Caius pulled me against his chest and grinned down at me. “Why not make an entrance?”

Caius swept me into his arms and sprinted forward. He leapt into the air and flapped his wings hard so that we floated over the road. The ground sailed past and a wind whipped at my hair as we flew down the gentle slope to the gates.

I couldn’t help but laugh at the sensation of flying so quickly over the ground. It was almost as good as being the one flying. Almost.

Caius landed us just a few feet short of my grandparents. Menander showed up a second later and pawed the ground with one hoof. Bee laughed. “They didn’t mean any harm.”

“You can understand him?” I asked her as Caius set me down.

She nodded. “Yes. He’s angry that you left him behind.”

I walked up and stroked Menander’s beautiful nose. “Sorry, old boy. I wasn’t given much of a warning, either.” The unicorn snorted and looked past me at Caius.

The dragon shifter held up his hands. “What are you looking at me like that? I was only trying to make the trip enjoyable to her.” Menander reared back his head and whinnied.

“He says you’re a stink,” Bee translated as Sage and she dismounted.

“As enlightening as this conversation is, we have countless shops awaiting our perusal,” Sage reminded us.

I turned to face the imposing stone gate. The archway was decorated in early trash mound, with bits of paper, leather, old shoes, and the like adorning its stone face. A soft breeze blew out from the gate and wafted over us like an unpleasant house guest.

I wrinkled my nose against the innumerable and unnameable smells that invaded my nostrils. “What the hell was that?”

Sage chuckled as he walked toward the gate. “The scent of Rubris. There’s nothing like it in the world.”

“Thank god. . .” I mumbled as I followed.

No guard manned the gate so we walked under the archway and into a large public square. Houses had been built in a chaotic fashion so that the roads went off in all angles from the area. Most homes were only a single floor, but three-story houses made of wood beams rose up from the rubble to tower over the lowly mud homes.

Cobblestones clacked beneath our feet, as did the sound of crunching junk. The streets were littered with the same junk, piled high and haphazardly against the buildings and in the streets. The once-great fountain was now a depository for trash of all sorts, from broken dishes to pottery to old clothes.

Stalls were set up around the square where they could find room and their wares were presented on their wide tables. The sellers were in the same condition as the rest of the city-dirty. Their ragged clothes hung from their bodies and their hair was disheveled. They swept their grimy hands over their wares and smiled at us with blackened teeth.

Sage sidled up to me. “Don’t let the vendors’ appearances deceive you. Many of them are as rich as Midas.”

“Then why do they dress like that?” I asked him.

“It’s the fashion,” he revealed as he gestured to a litter that emerged from one of the side streets.

Four men carried the litter on their shoulders. Silk curtains hid the traveler, but the exterior revealed the wealth of the traveler. The roof was etched in gold and the posts atop the men had silver balls affixed to the ends. The litter stopped beside one of the stalls and the curtain was pulled aside. The traveler, a woman of middle age with her elegant hair piled high atop her head, was no better dressed than the vendor except there seemed to be more layers of clothes on their person.

“So everybody here likes junk?” I guessed.

Sage glanced around us at the many stalls. “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure, and perhaps we’ll find some treasure to test your abilities.”

“What exactly would that kind of ‘treasure’ look like?” I asked him.

He rubbed his chin with one hand as he wandered over to a nearby stall. “Unfortunately, I believe the only way to tell that is for you to touch all the objects you can find.”

I followed him and looked over my choices. There were rotten pieces of clothing, old shoes, a wooden bucket, and a metal shaft. “I don’t think I’m up-to-date on my tetanus shot.”

Sage picked up the metal shaft and studied the rust. The vendor smiled at him with his blackened teeth. “You have good eyes, sir. That is a very expensive item. One of the last of that kind of metalus.”

“That what?” I asked them.

“Machine,” Sage told me as he set it down and looked over the other wares. “I’ve seen better.”

The vendor picked up the part and cradled it in both hands as he shook his head. “Surely not, sir, at least not for many a year. The empires are very eager to have any piece of metalus and snap up whatever they can find.”

Sage arched an eyebrow. “For what?”

The man shrugged. “Who knows? The empires do as they wish, and so long as it doesn’t affect my supply I’m happy to leave them to their collecting.”

“I’ll think about it,” Sage promised as he continued on to the next vendor.

I held back, unsure of my grandfather’s literal touchy-feely plan. Bee wandered to another stall with their unicorn, but Caius came up behind me.

“You okay?” he asked me.

I shrugged. “I don’t know if this will work, or even if I want it to work.”

“Your visions aren’t always pleasant, are they?” he wondered.

I furrowed my brow as I thought back to all the things I’d seen. The majestic ancient dragon flying over the dead city, the end of the dragon shifter Faberius’s career as an architect, and maybe even the end of his life, and my grandmother being dragged away by those porcine swine.

I wrapped my arms around myself and shuddered. “Not really.”

“They are just visions, though,” he reminded me as he lifted his gaze to the world around us. “And even in this world visions can’t hurt you. At least-” he flashed me a smile, “-not in my experience.”

I eyed him with a playful smile. “And how much experience would that be?”

“Let’s just say I’ve been around the world a few times.”

“So you’ve seen someone with my ability?” I asked him.

He shook his head. “No. You’re the first I’ve seen who’s able to touch objects.”

My attention was piqued by his wording. “Then someone can do something similar?”

“There are seers who say they can touch a person and experience their past memories,” he admitted.

“But you don’t believe them?” I guessed.

He shrugged. “I haven’t seen anything that couldn’t be learned with a few gelds passed to a family member.”

“So frauds?”

He nodded. “Frauds.”

I examined the junk before me and stretched out my hand. My fingers brushed against a wooden bucket, a pair of old shoes, and the scrap of metalus. Nothing happened. I drew my hand back, both relieved and disappointed. “I wish I knew how this worked. . .”

“You could try some of the shops,” Caius suggested.

“An excellent idea,” Sage agreed as he walked up to us. He looked over his shoulder and wrinkled his nose at the vendors. “These are mere scraps, but the shops often have some fine treasures for sale.”

“Look what I found!” Bee called from the fountain.

“Oh dear gad. . .” Sage mumbled before he turned to face her. “What is it, Bee?”

She held up a bird house. “A home for my new friends!”

Sage shuddered. “Perhaps we shouldn’t invite trouble, Bee.”

“I’m sure they won’t be any trouble at all,” she assured him as she strapped the house to the side of their saddle.

“Where did you even get the geld to pay for that?” he asked her as we walked up to the unicorn.

“The fountain is the dumping ground, silly,” she explained.

“I should have razed it. . .” he muttered.

Bee turned around and held out a small, smooth strap. “I also found this.”

He arched an eyebrow. “What is it?”

“A harness for our box, silly,” she cooed as she slipped over to him. She spun him around and flipped his cloak over his head.

“Hey!” Sage protested as she strung the strap around his shoulders in a criss cross.

Bee grabbed the box tucked under his arm and slipped the container underneath the loose folds. She gave a tug on the strap, causing a strangled gasp to emanate from under the cloak.

Bee stepped back and admired her work until Sage tossed his cloak over his back. “What do you all think?”

The unicorn whinnied in delight as Sage flexed his muscles and winced. “A little tight.”

Bee clapped her hands. “Then it’s perfect!”

The unicorn stomped one foot in agreement. Their steed reminded me that Menander had followed us. I looked around for the unicorn and saw him chewing on a few bits of weeds at the corner of a street entrance. Out of the dark street slipped a man in rags and a dirty face. His shifty eyes looked around before he reached for Menander’s reins.

3

“Hey!” I shouted.

The man started back and his hands brushed against Menander’s mane. The unicorn vanished in a burst of light. The stranger fell onto his ass before he turned over and scrambled away down the street.

I rushed over and looked for my loyal steed. My family and Caius joined me. I looked at my amused grandfather’s face. “Where did Menander go?”

Sage chuckled. “There’s nothing to worry about. Unicorns have the best defense system in the world. At the slightest touch by evil they disappear and reappear at the nearest stable.”

“So he’s okay?” I persisted.

“Perfectly fine. However-” he turned to their steed, “-it might not be such a poor choice to stable our unicorn while we’re here.”

“Why don’t you two do that, and Jane and I will see some shops?” Caius suggested.

Sage eyed the young dragon man with a suspicious gaze. “I’m not so sure-”

“That’s a wonderful idea!” Bee agreed as she looped an arm through one of Sage’s. She gave us a wink. “We’ll find you two later, and have fun.” Bee tugged the reluctant Sage away to their steed and down one of the myriad of roads.

Caius sidled up to my side and looked down at me with an arched eyebrow. “Has your grandmother always been that. . .unusual?”

I shook my head. “I think this air is making her even weirder.”

Caius took a step toward one of the other roads. “Ready to touch some objects?”

I cringed. “No, but let’s see what we can find.”

We hadn’t moved an inch before a fight broke out across the square. A vendor and customer were each tugging on one end of a wooden box.

“No crock, no box!” the customer refused.

“You have your cup!” the vendor insisted.

“That isn’t enough for a box!” his customer snapped back.

A crowd gathered around the bickering men and one of the people stepped up in front of the pathetic box trapped between the warring factions. “Bets! I’ll take bets on who will win!”

“I’ll wager a shoe!” a man yelled as he waved the item in the air.

“I have an umbrella!” a woman called out with her object in hand.

“They’re betting with things?” I spoke up.

“Even an eld can be hard to find around here, so they bargain,” Caius explained to me. “If someone finds themselves fortunate enough to have a geld then they’re considered nearly royalty around here.”

I turned to him and furrowed my brow. “So an eld is more than a geld?”

He smiled. “It’s the other way around. An eld is less than a geld, though ten eld make a geld.”

“So does ten geld make something?” I wondered.

“They make a gelder, and ten gelder make a geldrus,” he told me.

“And that’s as high as the currency goes?” I asked him.

He nodded. “Yeah. Most people never see a geldrus in their life, much less make one. The people who see those are the large landholders and emperors.”

I winced. “Then let’s hope we don’t find something my fingers like that’s worth a geldrus.”

Caius and I walked into the narrow street and found ourselves confronted by yelling vendors crying out their wares. The cobble stones beneath our feet were covered in paper trash and broken boxes. Posters covered the plaster and stone walls, once whitewashed but now no longer white nor washed. The posters advertised shops, sales, and even the occasional plea for a vote for the office of mayor. One particular mayoral poster showed a sketching of a bloated man with a toothy grin, and around his fat neck was a necklace with a coin looped through the bottom. The words on the top and bottom of the poster read ‘Geld Is Good.’