The Shackled Serpent by K.M. Lister EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: K.M. Lister
- Language: English
- Genre: New Adult & College Fantasy
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
DEAFENING. THAT’S THE BEST way to describe the silence that
wholly surrounds me—in my family’s dusty dwelling, in the barren
alleyways of Terakeld, even in my heart. The hush is suffocating, ever
present.
I shouldn’t exaggerate. Mother used to say it was impolite.
“Maeve Wyndell,” she’d say, “nothing good comes from exaggerating.
You must speak the truth. Only the truth.”
The truth is, I can hear the tedious drip from the faucet we haven’t fixed
since winter. I can hear Father’s deep breathing as he stares at the floor and
refuses to utter a word. I can hear my heartbeat pick up as I ruminate over
what’s to come in just mere hours: the trials.
My hands begin to tremble against the top of the tottering table in the
corner of our home. Dread fills me deep to the core. I see the trials for what
they are: a way for the kingdoms to remind us—the humans of Galfei
Thalor—that we are inferior to those who reign above us. Those who think
otherwise are simply too ignorant to see it.
The callouses littering my palms snag on the wood of the table as I wring
my fingers together. My teeth dig into my lower lip, and sweat beads along
my brow.
The story of how the trials began is taught to us in school, drilled into
young, impressionable minds for generations. Our teachers and Elders say
the four kingdoms came together to bring prosperity to our lands after the
Last War. They say they saved us from the dangerous lives our kind used to
live. To show our thanks, we are to serve one of Galfei Thalor’s four
kingdoms for ten rotations. Thus came the trials, introduced to determine
who we belong to.
Our time spent as servants is supposed to bring us honor. We are meant to
believe that it is our sole purpose in life and that nothing will bring us more
fulfillment. I don’t buy it. Nine rotations ago, those rose-colored lenses that
blinded me from the truth shattered into nothing. Nine rotations ago,
Mother was killed, and it was the kingdoms’ fault.
The heel of my boot taps insistently against the chipped floor of our
home. Another sound interrupting the silence. The dread that sits deep in
my stomach turns into a pulsing sorrow before twining together with a
brewing white-hot rage. Mother is dead. The kingdoms tore our family
apart. And soon, I will be shipped off to bow before those whose hands are
stained with her blood. How my brother, Arden, left for his trials five
rotations ago with eagerness in his eyes is beyond me.
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