FOR A LONG time Meagan remained in the position the soldiers had left her, stunned and afraid to move. She huddled alone in a cold, gritty underground cell, buried in catacombs beneath the amphitheater. Her shoulder ached from her fall, and her forearm was raw from a soldier’s hard grip. Her nightgown was torn and filthy.
Muffled cheering surged at intervals, coming from all sides of her prison. Meagan hugged her knees and rocked when the sounds came, reliving the images in her mind. I’ve seen the worst that people can do, she thought numbly. People can do anything. She rocked as another roar rose to surround her. Things could never be normal again.
In time the cheering ended. Long hours passed in silence. Scurrying cellmates skittered around her, tiny shadows in the gloom of flickering torchlight. This isn’t real, Meagan still told herself, making it a mantra. Promise will come back for me. She will come back…
The scraping of a latch startled her. “Salve!” a voice greeted her gruffly. Two men entered, their armor gleaming dully in the torchlight.
Excerpted from Eclipsed by Shadow, the award-winning 1st volume of “The Legend of the Great Horse” trilogy. (Hrdbk pg. 117)
Book II: The Golden Spark will be published December 2010.
Read the 1st Chapter online!
Copyright © 2008 John Royce