Chronicles of Steele: Raven Episode 4

By Pauline Creeden

Episode 4 of a 4 part Steampunk Fantasy set in an alternate universe. Peace and safety...a promise often made but seldom kept. Can Raven trust that anyone will be able to protect the young baron as she has?

Human life has value.
The poor living in the gutter are as valuable as the rich living in a manor.
The scoundrel is no less valuable than the saint.
Because of this, every life a reaper takes must be redeemed.

Raven has lived by this first tenet since she was trained by her father to become a reaper. But since his death, she’s been spending years redeeming the lives she’s taken. By her count, she’s even and it’s time for that life to end. If she settles down and becomes a wife, she might just feel human again. But on the way to the life she thinks she wants, the baron of New Haven asks her to complete a task which she cannot ignore... Just when Raven decides to give up on her life as an assassin, she’s pulled right back in.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AltWit Press
• Release date: Jan 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310123283

Pauline Creeden

In simple language, Pauline Creeden breaks down Biblical stories and applies them to real life in new ways. Her methods of teaching have brought new light to old scriptures. In her fiction, she creates worlds that are both familiar and strange, often pulling the veil between dimensions. She becomes the main character in each of her stories, and because she has ADD, she will get bored if she pretends to be one person for too long.Pauline is a horse trainer from Virginia, but writing is her therapy.She is the Admin for Spirit Filled Kindle and an administrator for Readers’ Realm. Her articles, reviews, and devotionals have been featured in RUBY FOR WOMEN Magazine,Devotionals for Bloggers, Faith Filled Family Magazine, and Christian Fiction Book Reviews.One of Pauline’s short stories has won the CCW Short Story contest. Other short stories have been published in Fear & Trembling Magazine, Obsidian River and Avenir Eclectia. An urban fantasy short will appear in The Book of Sylvari: An Anthology of Elves from Port Yonder Press, and a vampire short will appear in Monsters! from Diminished Media Group. She is currently editing and drafting several novels at various stages.

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PAULINE CREEDEN

CHRONICLES OF STEELE: RAVEN

Episode Four

© 2014 Pauline Creeden

Cover Design Copyright © 2014 by Alchemy Book Covers

Interior formatting and design by Marcy Rachel of Backstrip Publishing

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system without the prior written permission of the author.

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this novel are fictitious and are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Synopsis:

The final episode of a 4 part Steampunk Fantasy set in an alternate universe. Peace and safety...a promise often made but seldom kept. Can Raven trust that anyone will be able to protect the young baron as she has?

Chapter 1

The end is rarely ever the end.

Our troubles have a way of coming round again when we are not prepared for them.

STEPPING OUTSIDE THE shelter, Raven stretched and smiled at the sun. After two days of being stuck within the cramped space, the group of travelers had become pungent. Sweat-soaked bodies and soot from the fire mingled together into an unappetizing stew. Although the snow still was knee-deep, she was more than ready to leave.

Only faint wisps of clouds blighted the clear blue sky. The wind had died down and become tolerable as well. It was the perfect morning to embark after the continuous snowfall. Her uncle, Monroe, stepped up beside her and set a hand on her shoulder. I’m getting cabin fever, myself, but Darius is too sick for us to do much more than take turns carrying him. And then there’s the problem of the witch.

Raven’s gaze dropped to the cotton-haired crone. Deep wrinkles marred the woman’s face, and her skin was both white and thin, like paper. She’d been catatonic since the sleeping gas had debilitated her. The old woman neither moved nor spoke. She did nothing but breathe.

Monroe’s hand gripped Raven’s shoulder and offered her a grin that rivaled the sunshine. Do you think the weather acceptable to start this trek today?

More than acceptable. She laughed. No matter, though. I’d rather disembark then stay in this wretched place a moment longer.

Rupert drew up next to them, stretching his arms out and pounding his chest like a gorilla. He ran his hands through his close-cropped, dark hair. We really must go, regardless. We’re out of food.

Raven had figured as much. She turned back toward the shelter. Darius was smaller and weaker than she’d ever seen him. He still shivered in the pile of furs. The boy couldn’t seem to find the heat needed to keep his body warm, no matter how close he sat to the fire. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead from fever.

Marietta had given him herbs to keep the fever down, but claimed that she could do no more. The boy drank as much tea as they could make from the melted snow and horturf root, but it affected him very little.

Seeing Darius this way and knowing she could do little to help him made Raven feel restless. If she didn’t do something, anything, she’d scream. She met eyes with grant and pulled a knife from the holster on her leg. I believe we’ll be disassembling this shelter to make a sledge or two for the boy and the captive?

With a nod, Grant and the other guardsmen pulled knives of their own, and together, they began.

An hour later, they had fashioned two sledges; one pulled by belts buckled together, and the other by the spider wire from her winch. She braided it in a fashion to thicken it and keep it from cutting into the puller’s skin. After wrapping the boy and the still unconscious old woman in the blankets, the rest of them each donned their furs and took turns pulling the two sledges through the knee-deep snow. The azure sky had cleared and was cloudless save the vapor of their breaths as they trudged forward. Sunlight reflected from the white snow, keeping their walk blind.

With the load they carried, what had taken four hours to hike up took five to hike down. Rupert had trudged ahead a bit, playing the duty of scout. When they neared the bottom, he rushed back, a look of grim determination on his set face. Captain. A small detachment of soldiers has arrived at the inn. They were in brown coats. If I’d had my spyglass, I would have been able to tell if they were the rest of or squad or another. How do you suggest we proceed?

Grant slowed to a stop, the young baron asleep on the sledge he pulled. He had let no other pull the small child under the pretext that he did not tire and the baron was not heavy. Let us assume it is the rest of our men and continue. Harry could be trusted to track us here.

Aye, Captain. Rupert nodded.

Either way, trudge ahead to the inn and enter alone. Scout it out.

Yes, Captain. He