Pyre of Truth

By Gabriella Bradley

When Doctor Jayla Tralukan fails to cure a child, she is betrayed by her best friend as being the daughter of the couple burnt at the stake twenty-six years ago. A couple accused of magic, shapeshifting, and witchcraft, and killing the former queen.

The people of Djambadora are superstitious and dwell in fear of magic and shapeshifters. When the gossip flies that she is the daughter of the couple who killed the queen, they ready a pyre to give her the same fate.

All Jayla wants is to defend herself, to stand trial. But the gods and her grandfather have something else in store for her.

• Language: English
• Publisher: eXtasy Books Inc
• Release date: Jun 13, 2021
• ISBN: 9781487432485

Book preview

Jayla’s grandfather pushes her over the parapet and sends her tumbling down to an angry crowd...

When Doctor Jayla Tralukan fails to cure a child, she is betrayed by her best friend as being the daughter of the couple burnt at the stake twenty-six years ago. A couple accused of magic, shapeshifting, and witchcraft, and killing the former queen.

The people of Djambadora are superstitious and dwell in fear of magic and shapeshifters. When the gossip flies that she is the daughter of the couple who killed the queen, they ready a pyre to give her the same fate.

All Jayla wants is to defend herself, to stand trial. But the gods and her grandfather have something else in store for her.

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Pyre of Truth

Copyright © 2021 Gabriella Bradley

ISBN: 978-1-4874-3248-5

Cover art by Martine Jardin

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

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Smashwords Edition

Pyre of Truth

By

Gabriella Bradley

Chapter One

Jayla leaned over the low parapet to look at the furious mob below in the courtyard. They threw stones up at her and waved pitchforks, shovels, sticks, and picks. The men shook their fists at her and shouted obscenities while the women cursed and tossed up rotten vegetables and fruits. Most of them were farmers. The few that owned weapons held up their swords or knives in threat. There were none there with laser weapons. Only the royal guards and the soldiers had those. It was as if every farmer and citizen of the suburbs of Djambadora, Syntanoga’s capital, were congregated in the courtyard of her home, Tralukan Manor. The shouts drifted up to her ears.

Kill the witch!

Liars!

Kill them all!

Just like her evil parents!

She is a demon!

Jayla stepped back, though she was too high up for anything to reach her. She just did not want to see their hatred and anger anymore.

They wanted her.

Wanted to kill her.

Burn her.

They even threatened her grandparents.

The people blamed Jayla for causing the death of a little girl, the child of one of the king’s counselors. A little one who she had fought so hard to save. But conventional medicine had done nothing to eradicate the child’s cancer, and sometimes Jayla’s healing magic was not enough. It always saddened her if it was an elderly person she could not help, but a child... that broke her heart. There was no logic to the will of the gods.

Now the people also held her responsible for every hardship and death that had befallen them over the years.

Men carrying a massive log began battering the doors. It would not be long before they broke into her home.

Jayla’s best and only friend had betrayed her. It was her own fault for recently trusting Zanella with her big secret. She was the daughter of one of her grandparents’ tenants, and they had been friends since they were toddlers. Jayla had confided that her parents were not her adoptive father and mother but were actually her grandparents. She had poured her heart out to Zanella as to why they had posed as her adoptive parents all these years. She had not told Zanella the complete truth but had kept up the lie that her birth mother had been adopted by her grandparents. She had also been wise enough not to reveal that she herself was a bird shifter and that she had magic and other abilities.

After her little patient had died a few days ago, gossip ran rampant. Zanella had broken Jayla’s trust and had told others that Jayla was the child of the two burnt at the stake so many years ago. The word adoption never came into play. Zanella’s parents had spread that Jayla was the child of the two demons responsible for the death of the old queen.

Both her parents had died at the stake not long after she had been born. They had been accused of sorcery, demonic possession, and satanic practices, and after a quick trial, had been condemned.

It did not mean anything that they had healed so many, helped the needy, took care of orphans, and did nothing but good... Like her. When Jayla had come into her powers, she decided to continue their good work. This went against the warnings of her grandparents, who had raised her like their own. She had not heeded them, told them that what happened to her parents had happened a long time ago and people had changed... And she had been so careful to mask the real reason for opening the clinic—to be able to use her magic and healing powers. She had gone to university to study medicine, then interned in the hospital, earned her doctor’s degree, and posed as a regular doctor.

But people had not changed... and death by burning at the stake continued to be the most severe punishment. Although some of the so-called witches on Earth had been executed by hanging, on Syntanoga the pyre was the most popular execution. Not just for women accused of witchcraft—often just innocent women who dabbled in herbs and salves—but it was also the main punishment for those who dared to commit heinous crimes.

Superstitions and fear of the unknown still flourished among the people of Syntanoga.

I have been looking for you. What are you doing on the roof? You have to flee, child.

Jayla startled and turned to face her grandmother, who had silently come up behind her. Where to? Where can I go?

As far as I know, you are the last of our species. If you are executed, our line will die with you. You cannot suffer the same fate as your father and mother. Her grandmother’s eyes filled with tears.

Jayla reached out and gently wiped a tear off her cheek. I can place a spell on the crowd. That would stop the persecution for now. I still fail to understand why my parents were burnt at the stake. They were powerful. Why did they not save themselves? How is it that you and Papa were never persecuted?

Her grandmother sighed. Placing a spell on the people below will not stop any of it. Look at the road. Many are on their way to join the angry mob. When we told you who you really were, we should have told you everything. Alas, there is no time now, so I will be brief. When the last remnant of our species first settled on Syntanoga, very few chose to conceal their abilities. They paid dearly. Many of them were killed in a mass execution. A few fled but were pursued and killed by the king’s soldiers. She stopped for a moment to wipe a tear from her cheek. When your mother came into her powers, we advised her to hide that she had magic and could shift. But she was stubborn, rebellious, and wanted to use her powers to help people. She met your father, who was a bird shifter like us but had managed to evade capture by hiding his abilities. Your parents wed and then opened the herbal clinic in Djambadora, and for a very long time, all was well. None of their patients suspected that the remedies, salves, potions, and the elixirs given to them at the clinic were not really behind their recovery.

Then how did it come out that they had magic?

"It didn’t. Their birds gave them away. The queen fell ill, and the royal physicians could not heal her. She was near death, and the king grew desperate. He knew of the clinic and how people praised it, so he summoned your parents to the palace and told them to make haste. To get there fast, your father and mother shifted. A young couple witnessed it and saw them spread their wings and fly away. When your father and mother could not save the queen, the two people who had seen them shift and