The Crimson Shadow Looms

By Lady Wynter

When they walk, Shadows kill.

Kendrew learned this growing up on the streets of Vereholm. But not everything is as it seems in THE CRIMSON SHADOW LOOMS.

When Kendrew is drawn to the center of the Vereholm, he finds a temple and a book that he can't let go of. He leaves behind a wake of blood on his way out of town, in order to find the one who came before him. In the process, he finds the girl he loves, that he doesn't have to fear the Shadows, and that he is connected to dragons

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lady Wynter
• Release date: Aug 31, 2021
• ISBN: 9781733518727

Lady Wynter

Lady Wynter is a fantasy author. She is currently pursuing a BFA in Creative Writing from Full Sail University. Lady Wynter is the author of the coming-of-age novel, Bound in Fire. She enjoys escaping into her fantasy worlds to bring light to the Alaskan darkness that she lives in. When she’s not crafting stories for fans, she is taking care of her partner, her two children and her blind dog.

Book preview

The Chosen Shadow Looms

By

Lady Wynter

Copyright © Lady Wynter 2021

All Rights Reserved

First Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Dedication

To all those who believe in magick and dragons.

To my partner, who has lovingly supported my love of writing, and to my children for patiently dealing with my craziness.

Table Of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Table of Contents

Prophecy

Chapter One: Death and Mystery

Chapter Two: A Seeking Mind

Chapter Three: A Bloody Destiny

Chapter Four: An Open Trap

Chapter Five: Stress and Relaxation

Chapter Six: Backbone and Patience

Chapter Seven: Love of Prophecy

Chapter Eight: Movement and Darkness

Chapter Nine: Rhythms of Vengeance

Chapter Ten: Learning and Surprises

Chapter Eleven: Rumbles and Confessions

Chapter Twelve: Fighting Regrets

Chapter Thirteen: Spreading Fear

Chapter Fourteen: Old to New

Chapter Fifteen: Risky Safety

Chapter Sixteen: The Sacrificial Awakening

Chapter Seventeen: A New Beginning

About Lady Wynter

Discover Other Titles by Lady Wynter

Connect With Lady Wynter

When honor is perverted

Legend will return to the wight

Hope will be obscured

Suffering through the Chosen

The taking of a Tome

Will unleash the great divide

And the immolation of restoration

Chapter One: Death and Mystery

‘Days will darken. Slumbering dragons release the grave. One abandoned, another chosen. The turning of an age will ignite the ashes of reanimation.’ ~ Prophecy given by Oris.

Twilight descended on Vereholm. The day’s end brought the mists, and the Crimson Shadows began to walk. Hooded figures that blended into the mists so that eyes slide past them. They stopped at every door, swinging them open. They moved into the buildings with each hooded figure as they searched for newborn babes. Women cried out as the Crimson Shadows took their babes. Men railed and attacked. The Shadows only left them dead on the floor before moving on to the next house, never emerging from the mists, never seen as anything other than shadowy figures of crimson mists.

This was not how it was under Dunmore and the dragons, old men muttered. Though only they remembered what it was like not to fear the Crimson Shadows. The sun rose in the sky as the Crimson Shadows returned to the center of town and the Temple with the babes. The sun shone into an alley where a babe whimpered, too weak to cry. A barmaid picked him up, looking around the empty alley, her brow wrinkled. Who might his parents be and where were they? The alley was empty, save the two of them.

Well, she said. I be taking you home. I will call you Kendrew and I am Gavina.

Stepping out of the alley, she met the eyes of an old man and gave him a nod.

***

The old man stood on the street across from the alley as Gavina took the babe. His back stooped from age, and his joints ached. Norrie’s Shadows failed to find one. Though from the whispers going around, Norrie no longer walked the streets with his Shadows. The old man smiled; glad something trapped the usurper in the Temple of the Crimson Shadows. Still, Norrie’s corruption of the Crimson Shadows in Vereholm remained, and fear of them rippled through the streets. He wrinkled his nose at the stench. The old man and his companions remembered what the others could not: Dunmore’s peaceful rule of the Crimson Shadows under the dragons. His wandering mind needed to focus like it used to in the days of his youth.

He brought his attention back to the retreating barmaid and the babe she carried. The babe flailed an arm, revealing a red and yellow ouroboros, two dragons eating each other’s tails, etched on its palm. While the babe’s other hand remained hidden, the old man knew it matched the flailing palm. Only the colors, green and blue, made it different. Thank the dragons, the Chosen One brought hope to the world again. Gavina’s nod told him she recognized the babe’s importance. He needed to inform the others. They would need to watch the babe as he grew and steer him towards his destiny. Kendrew, the barmaid had named the babe. He needed to remember that.

It was long since time for the past to become the future once more.

***

Kendrew shivered in his woolen clothes under the windowsill. Wind blew across his wrists and lower arms, snaking up the threadbare sleeves of his shirt. Pressing his back against the house, he rubbed his shins where they showed under the hem of his pants. The faded and distorted boards, weathered by time, bit into his skin. The roof was caving in, he had noticed when he had approached the building earlier. Every now and again the old men of the city would meet in the abandoned house. He wondered if they ever worried about the roof falling on their heads.

Most nights the old men complained as the old were wont to do. He wanted to go inside to warm himself by the fire and ask them questions. The old men had much to teach him, but outcast, everyone called him. Only Gavina talked to him. Most people only said what was necessary to get him on his way.

The wind gusted. Kendrew refused to let his teeth chatter. He strained his ears. The old men whispered among each other. What did they know about him? Why was there no one else his age? Gavina said he was special. The haunted look in her eyes telling him she was hiding something from him. At fifteen, he was an adult. He deserved the truth.

A thump on wood brought his attention back to the old men. He dared not risk them seeing him or he would not find out what he wanted to know.

We should not be talking about any of this, an old man snapped.

How do we know he is listening? another asked.

He has the way of them, a third whispered. We must have faith the dragons will guide him.

Silence settled for a few moments.

So many years have passed since that night, one old man said. Fifteen years.

They took all the babes, one old man said. As the Shadows do every so often.

Yes, they regularly take babes. That year the Shadows missed one, remember? the one Kendrew took as their leader said. And there are his hands.

Kendrew brought his hands up. With the light coming through the window, Kendrew could see the dragons eating each other’s tails, one on each hand. The old men called them ouroboros. Red and yellow etched his left hand while green and blue etched his right hand. Bringing his hands together, he thought, Just another way I am different.

Then why has Dunmore not passed his knowledge on to the boy?

We all know that Dunmore is outside the city walls. Norrie cannot reach him now.

Kendrew gritted his teeth when the old men fell silent yet again. Rubbing his hands together to warm them, he figured there was nothing for him to learn tonight. Pulling his legs under him, Kendrew crouched, getting ready to leave.

The boy has had a hard path, the leader said from the window above his head. Kendrew jumped and rubbed the top of his head. The path ahead of him is still more dangerous. We promised Dunmore that we would help the Chosen One.

Are you sure he is the Chosen One?

Only the Chosen One shows all four dragons on his palms, the old man said. The ouroboroses are the dragons’ way of showing us and the Shadows who they have chosen.

So, the dragons chose him, but for what? Looking up, Kendrew noticed the old man’s hand on the lip of the window, a piece of paper sticking out between his fingers. Kendrew reached up, taking the paper from the old man.

We can only do so much for the boy.

Dunmore knows that, but he is still counting on us to guide the boy.

Kendrew snuck away after the old men started murmuring to each other again. The paper crinkled in his hand. He walked several blocks away, keeping to the darker shadows as much as possible. Stopping at a street corner where a candle flickered on a tall post, Kendrew stayed at the edge of the light. He opened the note and slowly read:

‘Your destiny lies ahead of you. There is more you need to know before you go to Dunmore. You know where and when we meet. Come in the back door next time. Stay hidden. I am not sure I can convince the others to help. The years spent under Norrie and his Shadows have been rough on us.’

Why did they keep mentioning this Dunmore person? What could he know that the old men did not know and would not tell him? Kendrew moved forward, looking for something to keep him busy until dawn.

***

In the black darkness the citizens of Vereholm saw on rare occasions, Kendrew slinked past homes of faded and distressed wood, thinking about what the old men had said and the note one gave him. Did what they know have anything to do with why he wanted to join the Shadows in the mists?

Several years ago, a man stepped into the crimson mists with the Shadows and began to blend in as they did. The man, only halfway blended, got a dagger sliced across his throat. The Crimson Shadows walked away, leaving the man dead on the street. Kendrew had not been able to look away, his muscles frozen as he stared at the dead man. There was a green dragon etched on the man’s right palm. What did it mean?

Kendrew was still asking himself that question and wondering how the ouroboroses on his hands tied into everything. Kendrew kept this incident firmly in his mind every time he thought about joining the Shadows because he was not ready to die. Gavina needed him.

Two buildings ahead of him, a door opened, and two men staggered out of the inn. Kendrew melted into the darkness of two buildings as the two zigzagged past him.

They say the Crimson Shadows used to protect us, one slurred.

They are foolish old men, the other said, though his words were not as slurred. What do they know?

What if they are not as foolish as you think? the first one asked, then belched.

His friend had to wait for him to stop laughing before he said, Please, dragons and us in the same world? We see how the Crimson Shadows are. If they get their power from the dragons, then it is the dragons they will protect.

Kendrew did not hear the response for the two men were well past him, stumbling through the darkness. The old men spoke of the legends all the time. Legends that dragons once lived among them, not just slumbering in the Temple in the center of town. They said the dragons used the Crimson Shadows to communicate with the humans and the Shadows also talked to the dragons on behalf of the humans.

The old men believed it. Kendrew was not sure what to believe. All he knew was that he was different. Outcast. I’m always the outcast. Stepping up to the inn, and taking a deep breath, he pushed inside.

What are you doing here, boy? the innkeeper bellowed.

Kendrew froze, his eyes widened, and the room grew silent. His found his mouth would not open to say anything. The innkeeper lumbered to the end of the bar as Gavina came bustling down the stairs. She took in the room in a single sweep of her eyes. Looking over the shocked patrons who were showing outrage at his presence, sitting at low slung tables around the room. She hustled over to him and grabbed his arm. She turned him to the door.

Out with you, child. Here is not for you.

Kendrew bristled at her calling him a child, especially in front of so many people. On the sly, she passed him a few coins. His shoulders slumped as he stepped back into the chilly, windy night. He wanted to talk to Gavina, had gone to her hoping things would be different tonight. Boys a few years older than him went in there. They received food and drink.

Gavina was distancing herself from him. She made me stop calling her mother when I was little. Why? She gave him a home and raised him. Why the coldness now? Stepping into an alley, he leaned against the wall of a house near the inn. With little else to do, he squatted down and thought about everything he had learned from the old men.

***

Kendrew huddled next to the three-story wooden boarding house where Gavina rented a room. The building loomed over those around it, an imposing structure that Kendrew felt was not a home. Gavina let him stay with her, though the mistress who ran the house did not like him. Shivering as the sky lightened to predawn colors, he continued to wait for Gavina to come home. The innkeeper released her from work around this time as most of the customers were asleep or headed home themselves.

Kendrew thought of what the old men said, the way they said it. They believed him unique for having the ouroboroses. It made him wonder