The Last of the Guardians

By Julia E. Clements

Val De Monio has more than its fair share of demons, but Cruccius is the worst that ever existed. Summoned by accident, the Guardians manage to entrap it within a monolith, sealed with spells. And there it has remained, undisturbed, for many years.

 

The day Vera learns that the monolith has been destroyed, she realises the demon has returned. Sworn protector of the valley, the last of the Guardians, she now faces the hardest trial of her life.

 

Vera must fight the demon and defeat it once and for all, in what could be the fiercest battle the valley has ever seen.

 

An exciting upper middle-grade short story featuring Vera from Adventure in Malasorte Castle.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pink Quill Books
• Release date: Aug 29, 2018
• ISBN: 9781393740919

Book preview

The Last of the Guardians

VAL DE MONIO, 1919

The old woman bustled about her kitchen, muttering to herself as she took things out of the cupboards.

No, that won’t do, that’s not strong enough, she said, putting the bottle back on the shelf. Aha! There it is. She cackled gently as she put all the ingredients on the table.

That’ll teach ’em to call me a wicked old crone. They think they know everything... well, I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve for ’em that’ll make ’em wish they’d kept their mouths shut.

A tear trickled down her cheek as she remembered how they’d jeered at her the day before, pushing and shoving her as she left the village square. All because the milk wouldn’t churn into butter, no matter how hard they tried... as if she’d waste her powers on something trivial like that! She snorted, and wiped her hand brusquely across her face. Now they’d regret the day they turned against old Betta.

It hadn’t always been like that. When she was younger, she had been known as the ‘wise woman’, and people had come from far and wide for her healing cures. But times had changed. Men had left the valley to go and fight in the war, and those that had come back had lost their faith in humanity, having seen their country and their families ravaged