Chapter One

Pretty self-explanatory, this is the first chapter of my novel. It is available for sale at www.publishamerica.com

 

Shadozan

 

A Novel

 

By:

Rob Rudkin

 

PART ONE

Exodus

 

 

            There should have been thunder. Lighting should have lit the sky, writing across it in a blazing show of infuriation. The peals of the Tide Bells should have shattered the clamor of the evening, and sent the rats scurrying into their burrows. The soldiers should have tossed rose petals into the stone streets during the egress, or perhaps rode in escort beside them. People should have cheered … or jeered … or cried. Even without thunder and lighting, it should have rained, trumpets should have pealed, proclamations been read. There should have been something!

            But there wasn’t. The night was simply hot, and the jungle purely dense. The heady scent of night-blooming lotus perfumed the air, their fragrance sweetly tinting the constant and corpulent decomposition of the forest. The diffuse, flickering orange glow of the torches clasped at each corner of the six wagons threw prismatic light into the gloom around them, but the night muted the green lush of the jungle into an inky, impenetrable black.

            The few faces that had watched them leave the city had been curious and anxious, pale ovals with hidden eyes that had peered out from the corners to watch them walk by, and ready to run at a moment’s notice. It could have been a grand exeunt, a masterpiece of the age, a legend ready for the poet’s pen. But it wasn’t.     

            It was a humble departing. Theirs was the walk of men who had been weighed, measured, and judged that their contributions to the civilized world were no longer necessary. 

            Stalsha, a short, dark-haired, and lightly built Apprentice Knight, hesitated as his caravan, the only one of its kind, crested the first hill outside of the only city he had ever known. He hesitated for a moment, and let the other black-clad men who marched behind him flow to either side, as though he were a rock in a stream. For the last time, between the trunks of the mighty hardwoods and the vines of the jungle, he looked at Desh. 

            The miles between himself and his city had not diminished her in size, but rather, the spark of her torches and the golden haze that hung above her suggested a vastness that was amazing even for him. She stretched out for miles, a gently lounging crescent of light folded into the bent bosom of the mighty, muddy River Desh. She was the capital city of her namesake Empire: prominent, influential, daunting, and ancient. A fortress of humanity surrounded on all sides by the savage, soaking wilderness … the wilds Stalsha now found himself traveling through. For Desh was home to Magic, no longer.

            “Come along, apprentice,” the firm, commanding voice of Stalsha’s Master, Anastash, came to his ears at the same moment that he felt his hand squeeze his shoulder.

            For a moment, Stalsha almost spoke, as he looked up into the shadowed face of his master, but he could find no words to ask a question, and his master could not give him an answer that would help. Stalsha turned his gaze away, glanced back to the trail, and flinched infinitesimally as a pair of laughing eyes; full of passion and anger stared into his. His black-clad kinsmen had all passed him by; the man who now approached him was wearing silks that appeared to have been saturated in fresh blood. 

            “You’re holding up the line, boy,” the mouth attached to those eyes growled, and Stalsha turned quickly away from them, quickening his steps, brushing past the other men and women who belonged to his order, until he had reached the side of his fellow apprentice, the blonde-haired Magician Loman. Though younger than Stalsha, Loman had already reached a height several inches beyond six feet. The two young men walked in silence for several moments, adjusting their pace as they stepped over and around the heavy ruts of the Jungle Road. 

            “I had to look at it,” Stalsha said in response to Loman’s uncharacteristic silence.

            “I know,” Loman replied heavily. The tall young Magician adjusted the pack on his shoulders, and sighed. “Outlaws,” he added in a flat tone. 

            “Thus far, it’s not living up the suggested romanticism,” Stalsha replied quietly.

            “I’ve never been out of Desh before.”  Loman tried to keep the tiny flicker of excitement inside him out of his voice, but he failed. Stalsha glanced sideways at his partner, but he didn’t say anything. Loman thought this would be an adventure, but Stalsha knew it wouldn’t. An adventure was something told to friends on a patio in the gathering dusk, sipping on berry wine and ale while the river gurgled in the distance, and the caddis flies swarmed the lanterns. An adventure was only an adventure when the travelers came home, and for Loman and Stalsha, going home was out of the question.

            Both men walked in silence for another moment, and then Stalsha turned his gaze towards the front of the caravan. 

            Like their exodus, the caravan was a humble affair. Only six wagons … two for each order, and no horses. Only the most precious of their artifacts had been granted this place of high honor. Surrounding the wagons marched the Knights of Skhean and the Sky Magicians, men and women wrapped in black silks and black robes that matched the uniforms of Stalsha and Loman. Ahead of the wagons, the ash-white uniforms of the White Knights shone luminescent as the feather-soft moonlight split through the broken canopy above the Jungle Road.           

            Stalsha glanced over his shoulder once more, at the masses of Blood Knights who marched behind, and then he turned his gaze back to the White. The White Knights and the Blood Knights. The most ancient of enemies. Traveling together … an event surreal enough to overshadow even their banishment. And over the next three hundred miles, at least, the Knights of Skhean and the Sky Magicians would have to attempt to do what they had always done … stay between them. Their failure to do this within the city had been the corner-stone of their dismissal, and this did not inspire the two young men with a great deal of confidence.

            Though only one of them knew where they were going, they all continued marching through the night.

Author's Note

If anyone is interested in purchasing this novel, but wishes to read more of it first, let me know. Also, feel free to leave any thoughts, negative and positive.

Reviews

[Fallen Angel]

This is really good can't wait to read the next chapter. Keep writing and be happy. =D