Dragon Fire
by Marilyn Peake

Short Story in the

Illuminated Manuscripts Anthology

Excerpt

Stars burned holes in the black cloak of night.  The moon, like a thin sliver of glass, carved a crescent shape into the thick, dark fabric.  Smoke floated lazily from chimneys, then bled out across the valley.  The wind whispered into the night.

Within the huts, most of the villagers slept, though occasionally a baby’s cry pierced the silence.

***

“Move!  Move!  Move!”  Redford quietly ordered as he waved his right hand, motioning for his men to run.  “Be careful where you step!  Quiet!”

The men traveled swiftly through the forest like rats swarming across riverbanks at night.  They came in four groups, raced from one edge of the forest to the other, then slipped seamlessly into a field.  They ran with padded feet through long grass.  Their boots flattened wildflowers and released puffs of perfume into the cold night air.

***

Chelsea woke to the sound of her baby son’s hunger.  She groaned with fatigue, then sat up, rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and threw her long, blonde hair over her shoulders.  She reached into the cradle next to the bed she shared with her husband and lifted out their tiny, squalling son.

“There, there, little one.”

As she nursed her three-week old infant, Chelsea looked around the two-room wooden hut.  Her four-year-old twins, Ada and Ashley, slept on mattresses stuffed with straw, their blonde curls tumbling onto their pillows in the shape of haloes.  In deep repose, the twins looked like angels.  During the day it was not the description of “angels” that came to mind.  Chelsea looked at the mantel where her favorite statue had stood for years before Ashley had grabbed it and thrown it against the hearth.

The small flames and burning embers in the fireplace now sparked and crackled.  From beneath the logs oozed a soft red glow.  Shadows danced throughout the room, jumping up and down the walls and across the ceiling.  Chelsea decided that, after she fed baby Hunter, she would next feed more wood to the fire.

For excerpts from short stories by other authors in the Illuminated Manuscripts anthology, visit Double Dragon Publishing.

Copyright (c) 2008 Marilyn Peake