Sam Bowring - Destiny's Rift

Obligingly she waved her hand. The vines dropped away, Nindere giving an extra shake to be rid of them.

‘So,’ Charla said. ‘Who’s next?’

Corlas.

His head turned slightly at the call.

Charla looked into his distant eyes – these days the grey was flecked with gold.

‘The Lady wants you?’ she said.

‘Yes.’ He refocused on the group. ‘Carry on with your training – but be careful not to hurt each other!’

The Sprites nodded, and Charla reached to tug his bushy green beard.

‘See you tonight,’ she said breathily. ‘Maybe I’ll tangle you in some vines.’

Corlas smiled and departed, heading off through the trees to where he would find Vyasinth. It was an hour’s walk or so, but he did not mind. He loved this wood and the happiness it brought him …but he feared the trouble that would soon come, feared the reason why he trained his people. Stopping at a broken frond, he gave a little waggle of his fingers. Green sparkles ran along the tear, and the leaf knitted itself back together.

He found her, as expected, kneeling beside her scrying pool, which was clear and still and untouched by floating leaves. She raised her earthy face as he arrived, her twig hair crackling.

‘My Lady,’ he said, bowing his head.

‘Your brethren will make fierce warriors, Corlas,’ she said.

‘They will.’

‘If they remember there are no smiles in battle,’ she added, a touch of amusement in her voice. She was no less fond of them than he was, and he chuckled.

‘Yes,’ he agreed. ‘I do wonder how they will fare when it is real foes they face. They have no true experience of battle.’

‘Perhaps we’ll soon know,’ she replied, her tone turning serious.

‘You have seen something?’

‘Yes. Bel has found the Stone, and your sons have just vied over a fort called …Holdwith?’

Corlas felt the last trace of good humour fade from his face.

‘Holdwith,’ he echoed. Strange to think of these places in a land he had once defended.

‘Do we move yet?’ he said. ‘Is it time?’

‘No,’ she said. ‘We must wait a little longer. They are each still far away from here, where our power is strong …but, if I’m right, fate will soon conspire to bring them closer to the wood. And when that happens …’

‘When that happens,’ said Corlas, staring hard into the pool, ‘we will make things right once more.’

Sam Bowring is a television writer, playwright and stand-up comedian. His previously published works include two books for children, Sir Joshua and the Unprofessional Dragon and The Zoo of Magical and Mythological Creatures . The first book in his Broken Well trilogy, Prophecy’s Ruin , was published in 2009. He lives in Sydney, Australia.