Promise: The Fighting Girl E-Book

Maya Shepherd

• Herausgeber: Maya Shepherd
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Promise: The Fighting Girl

Leseprobe

Maya Shepherd

Promise

„The Fighting Girl“

Table of Contents

Title Page

Promise: The Fighting Girl

What Happened Before...

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Epilogue

Afterword

Thanks

Translated by Bradley Hall

Copyright ©2014 Maya Shepherd

Coverdesign: Cover-up! by Bianca Holzmann

All rights, including full or partial reprinting in any form is reserved.

Facebook: Maya Shepherd

Blog: www.mayashepherd.blogspot.de

Twitter: MayaShepherd

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For my wonderful readers

who have ventured with Nea

on her journey to Promise.

What Happened Before...

Before being burned at the stake, Miro managed to rescue Nea and brought her into a Carris government building. While Miro lives, he is no longer the same person Nea once knew. He now calls himself Ereb and is not only the god of the Carris; he is also the father of Kasia’s child. At first, Nea tried to take him to task, but it soon became clear that Miro was just a puppet of Urelitas, a high priest of Carris. Miro and many of the Carris followers are under the influence of Memoria, a drug used to quell uprisings before they start by making the user into a mindless drone.

After Nea’s wounds have healed, she is sent with the other slaves to work in the fields. Together with Arras, the twins, and other slaves, she plans her escape. They want to set fire to the whole town, not just their buildings, but the lab where Memoria is produced as well.

Before this can happen, Nea is brought into the government building on a pretext. Urelitas locks her away because he considers her dangerous. He then spreads a rumor amongst the slaves that she fled alone.

The day of the escape comes and the other slaves stick to the plan and set a large fire across the city while Nea is stuck in prison. Miro frees her and they escape. Together with Kasia and the baby, they flee to the agreed upon meeting place. But on the way, Miro remains to stop Urelitas and the Carris.

The rebels seek shelter in an old farmhouse. While Nea forges her plan to liberate Miro, Irina and Harold fall ill. It appears to be an ordinary flu, but quickly it turns out to be Polyora, the deadly disease has somehow come back. The oldest two members of the group die.

Arras admits to Nea that there was a rumor in Promise that an antidote to Polyora exists, but remains silent as to his sources for the information.

Together, they return to Fortania to rescue Miro. They are just in time to see a large parade that will culminate with him being burned at the stake, having been branded a traitor. They manage to prevent Miro from being killed. Urelitas is also suffering from Polyora. Panic ensues among the Carris and many flee the city. Of those who remain, many help Nea and her friends around the city.

After Urelitas becomes even more ill, Elias falls sick. He was Kasia’s first love, but is now with Emmi who fled to Promise to seek the elusive antidote. In the face of his impending death, Kasia admits to Elias that he, not Miro, is the father of her daughter. Nea overheard the conversation and implores Kasia to tell Miro the truth, but she steadfastly refuses.

Nea struggles with her conscience and her feelings. She feels connected to Arras, but at the same time she feels love for Miro, and for the first time he also seems to reciprocate her love. But when she tells him what she found out about Kasia and her baby, he becomes angry, not only at Kasia, but Nea as well, because she did not tell him directly. After Faith falls ill, Nea decides to leave the city to search for the antidote herself.

Miro goes after her and confesses his love. Nea is overwhelmed by her feelings and remains to give their relationship a chance. Thus they not only anger Kasia, who cannot bear to lose Miro, but also Arras, who had hoped that he and Nea could be more. He leaves the city in order to not stand in the way of Nea’s happiness.

But the twins are also disappointed in Nea’s decision. Under these circumstances, Nea cannot enjoy her relationship with Miro. She suffers from guilt. Miro also senses this and releases Nea so she may search for the antidote. They promise to remain true to each other. While Nea sets out on her journey, Miro remains with the others in the city.

On her way, Nea meets a group of brigands, who have somehow managed to capture Arras. Nea manages to free him and flee with him. Arras offers his support to accompany her to Promise.

One

It’s a starry night as Nea and Arras walk on the lonely highway. Since there is no electricity, the nights are dark. Not only is there no light from street lamp, but there are no lights on in shop windows or homes or illuminating billboards. Looking out at the horizon is like looking into a black hole.

They pass at least one abandoned car every mile. Their owners fled long ago. They fled in search of food or they ran out of gas and decided to continue the rest of their trip on foot Where were they going? Who knows? The cars are all smashed, broken up, the useful pieces picked up by scavengers. There are pieces of glass everywhere. The wind has scattered it every which way over the past several years. All of the cars are covered with rust. Some are covered with plants.

In the period after the outbreak of Polyora, the people did not want to believe the whole world was affected, instead hoping, praying, that the contagion was limited to a single country or a single continent. They tried to flee, hoping it would be different elsewhere. But soon word got around that there was no place that wasn’t affected.

Nevertheless gasoline is a very rare, and therefore, valuable, commodity. It has been years since Nea last saw a moving car.

Several feet away a wreck stands out of the shadows of the night. It is a Jeep. It is only when they stand in front of it do they see that the windows are still intact. The driver’s door is unlocked and the glove box is open. It’s almost as though someone had been sitting in the car a few minutes before.

Arras’ hand lies down on the cool metal of the door.

“I doubt we will find something useful in that car, let alone discover that it’s still usable,” Nea says critically.