Fate's Pawn
Rick Fox
Top 10 Best Quotes
“Keira was surrounded by dozens of tiny orbs, each a unique shade of brilliant color. She was clasping her stomach with both arms, hunched over like she was freezing, trying to hold on to every bit of warmth she could. She looked up at Hoeru and her eyes were glowing with the light of all the magic she was struggling to contain. “Hoeru, close your eyes,” she said through gritted teeth. The wolf spirit realized the threat she posed and snapped its jaws at her. It probably saved Hoeru’s life. Keira exploded.”
“You got a plan?” Raziel said, his heart hammering his chest like it wanted to push its way out and take its chances on its own. “Don’t get eaten.” Raziel bared his teeth and laughed.”
“Weird grey forms came pouring out of the woods. They were only about three or four feet tall, but they were covered in taut muscle. Their heads were wider than their shoulders and their mouths, bristling with teeth, stretched from ear to ear. They chattered as they came, shrieking in voices that were at once guttural and chirruping.”
“It's a dangerous thing, going out your front door.” “Because the road might sweep you off on some adventure without time for breakfast?” “Well… I was thinking more of the monsters, but yes, that too.”
“Eggbeast!” Raziel shouted, his voice finally coming back to him. Hoeru turned, looked at the eggbeast just a few feet away and then back to Raziel. “Yes. That is the eggbeast.” There was a moment of almost silence, the only noise being the wet sloppy sound of the eggbeast’s mouth falling open and its absurdly large tongue falling out of its mouth as it panted happily. “Oh right. I guess no one told you. Kusa convinced it to help us.” “Oh. Thanks. That’s good to know,” Raziel’s words came out stilted as he tried to get his panic and irritation with Hoeru under control. “Sure.” The eggbeast let out a chuffing sound. Hoeru turned his head towards the beast, and it mewled to him, a sound like a squeaky door made for giants. Hoeru nodded. “It also says sorry for trying to eat you.” “You… speak eggbeast?” “Well no. But we both speak squirrel.” “You know, it’s really hard to tell when you’re joking.”
“Oh, you’re reading your secret book. Sorry,” he said. Though his face didn’t show any contrition Raziel knew he meant it. Hoeru was close to Raziel’s age and they’d been roommates for years, ever since Dominic brought the changeling in. He was probably Raziel’s closest friend. Reading the changeling could be difficult but Hoeru was always candid with his words. “Secret book?” “Is it not a secret?” “No! I just don’t like people knowing about it.” Hoeru narrowed his eyes and cocked his head. “Isn’t that what a secret is?” “No. Well… yes. Kind of. It’s complicated.” “Everything human is complicated. So what’s in your not-secret secret book?”
“It wasn’t that big a deal.” Raziel sat up. He stared hard at Keira until she had no choice but to meet his eyes. He could still see doubt and uncertainty there. “Stop that. If you did what you say you did, you pulled off a hell of a thing. Several hells of things. Or something like that. I’m not sure how to make that plural. The point is...” Raziel had to stop for a moment to figure out what his point was. She was looking at him with curiosity now, the self consciousness somewhat faded. “The point is thank you.” “Thank… you?” “Yeah. You got me away from Alban. You came to help Kusa. You risked your life to keep me and my friends alive. Thank you.” “You… you…” She struggled for words. “You are so weird.”
“They were all sweating from the exertion, and that concerned Hoeru. It was certainly possible that they’d be found by something that could track them by their scent. But then they were humans, and humans smelled so much more than they ever realized. “So Hoeru. What’s next?” Keira asked between breaths. “Thinking maybe a bath.” She gave him a sidelong look. “I know you were stuck in that room for a while, but I don’t think we have time for that.” The wind shifted and Hoeru was treated to a noseful of human. Still. She wasn’t wrong. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”
“Even so, it was difficult to quantify what he was feeling. Or maybe hearing. Touching? Raziel finally settled on sensing, but none of the words he could put to the sensation felt right. It was a presence, that much he was sure of. He’d felt that type of thing from his grandfather when they practiced magic together and faintly from people further away. But this was different. Slower. His grandfather had, at the time, seemed to be something solid and unmovable as a cliff face, but compared with this, he was just a leaf in late fall, holding its shape but crumbling at the lightest touch. It was, of course, the tree at his back that Raziel was sensing. Being struck by its awesome and awful enormity, the realization came to Raziel slowly. And, as he put a name to the presence in his mind, something changed. The smallest of ants, marching across unfamiliar terrain, looking up and seeing the great eye of the human whose arm was the continent on which it walked, might have felt something similar to what Raziel felt as the tree took notice of him.”
“All of the combat was stirring up the magic. It filled the air like steam. But that wasn’t all. There was magic in the trampled grass of the courtyard, in trees surrounding the fort like sentinels, and in the moon and starlight streaming down from the sky. It was all swirling down into the courtyard and down into the earth. There was more magic available than Raziel could have possibly taken in. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t try. Raziel drew in everything he could, pulling magic from every direction. It was like trying to continuously inhale without exhaling. He burst into sweat as his whole body began to burn with the effort of containing the magic. The air around him was swirling, turbulent and constantly shifting directions. Soon it felt like his veins were filled with liquid fire and thunder pounded in his head. When he couldn’t take anymore, he began to force the energy up his shoulder and down his arm into his right hand. Everywhere the magic left felt like it was freezing, but his arm felt like it was being dipped in molten metal. Raziel opened his eyes to find his hand engulfed in a blazing ball of blue light. Hoeru was transfixed by it. There were a few gremlin bodies on the ground nearby, but they weren’t attacking anymore. They were running from the light Raziel held.”
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Book Keywords:
action, adventure, world-building, fantastic-beasts, fantasy, humorous, escapism, great-characters, young-adult
