Into the Shadows by Linda K Hopkins
Prologue
The ancient one woke slowly, drifting to consciousness from a sleep so deep she could have been mistaken for dead. Organs that had barely functioned began to labor, her heart beat a little faster, and her lungs expanded. The air around her was warm and stale, with a hint of dry bones crumbling to dust, and she breathed it in, tasting their secrets. She knew without seeing that she was surrounded by walls of stone, deep within a cave, and far from anything that might have disturbed her slumber.
A great length of time had passed since her arrival, and sniffing the air, she searched for clues of the terrain beyond. Bare rocks. Trees. The trace scent of a wolf, long since passed.
Over the course of days, she gathered all the information she could, before cracking open first one eye, then the other. Even in the dark recesses of the cavern the light seemed intense. She stared at the wall of rock rising a few feet from her face; a deep crack trailed across the surface, a black line in a sea of gray.
Cautiously she began to probe her memories, uncertain of what she would find, then stopped as loss flooded through her. She stilled, pushing against the door that she had opened, trying once more to shut away the memories, but they flooded her mind, refusing to be locked away for another moment. Images swamped her thoughts, passing through her mind in a relentless kaleidoscope that would not cease.
War.
Death.
Devastating betrayal.
Immense sorrow.
A flicker of anger.
Ah, there was something on which she could focus her pain – and she grabbed it, pushing aside the loss as she nursed the anger into rage, strong and powerful. Like a river of molten iron, it spread through her veins, thickening, overpowering every other emotion. She smiled grimly. Revenge was a dish best served cold, and she was going to serve it very, very cold.
For the first time in centuries, she lifted her head, growling as a ravenous hunger flooded her. Her body was as weak as a human babe’s, in desperate need of nourishment. She edged herself forward along the floor of rock, blinking as the first rays of sunshine reached her eyes, then sniffed the air for an indication of what lay beyond.
Keeping to the shadows, she waited patiently for some unsuspecting prey, and was rewarded a few hours later when a hare came too close, unaware of the danger lurking nearby. The small meal gave her the strength to search for something larger, and when she returned to the cave at nightfall, her hunger was sated.
She stayed close to the cave as she regained her strength, hunting each day to nourish her body. Her wings grew stronger, carrying her further afield as she sought information about her location.
But full power eluded her; without the ancient relic, she could not enjoy the strength that had once been hers. It had been shattered, destroyed by the matriarch in a desperate attempt to destroy the power it gave their enemy, and the pieces had been flung across the earth.
It would take years to gather them back together, but the Ancient had time on her side.
She would gather each piece and recreate the artifact, then use it to destroy her enemy once and for all. They would suffer as they reaped the rewards of their treachery, and she would enjoy their pain, as they had once enjoyed hers.