Shadows of light

't knock-it brands you an

d woodsmoke clung to

bed from hauling bucket after bucket into the barrels lined along the shore. His arms

soft golden fire that made the whole world seem more beautiful than it had an

llage. From this angle, Eldor looked like a fragile thing-wooden fences, mo

sig

orphaned nephew of a carpenter, destined for long days of chopping timber, hauling

...

hills like they'll gr

tur

ied back with a faded green ribbon. She wore her usual flour-dust

e said. "And I'll be

ed. "Not unless those hills com

of himself. "I cou

es to dip her toes into the water. "You'r

ippling water, the way the current caught the las

"It feels like... something's c

elong look. "That's

ger than that. I don't know how to exp

"Maybe the river spirit

a brief moment, the un

n it ha

pu

g jolt that surged through his chest like a struck bell. His

ushed forward.

dn't

g glowed. Through the soaked fabric, a mark began to emerge-spi

fell to one knee, c

k pulse

as a

, the entire

at smelled of smoke and cedar. The mark still glowed faintly beneath his tunic,

ence for decades-sat in a half-circle around him. They had brought l

is voice hoarse. "I didn't do

. Her silver hair was braided with tiny green feathers-symbols

oment again," s

second. Then the pain hit-like something was

g?" another elder ask

whisper in a language he didn't know. A woman's voi

now," he s

o hushed discussion,

ed in three generat

be a mi

e the pr

ightened aroun

phecy?" h

s. There was no amusement

f Light. A child marked by the Balance. One who will rise when the

?" Kael asked,

side su

ted silver across the current. The mark on his chest had stopp

supposed to be now? A boy marked by p

scraped, strong. But they didn't feel like a hero'

he dre

ke falling in

in a fiel

tood a woman of light-tall, graceful, radiant with power that hurt his eyes to behold. Her hair flowed

ached

and the mark on his che

th

cre

ough her body, dragging her into a c

know wha

dream, he

oved

h a gasp, clut

ut. Outside, wind howled across the tr

k still

carved from the bones of the oldest mountain-a

me was