Red Madrassa: Algardis #1 (26 page)

Algardis Series,
Book 2

Available May 2013

H
e knelt in a bleak, grimy sub-basement that could only be called a dungeon. Water leaked down the walls; the steady
drip, drip
from the stalactites overhead filled his ears. On his wrists, handcuffs too small for him dug cruelly into his skin. Cold stone ground into his back. His neck was chained to a wall.

A chill came over him, and his thin tunic wafted in the draft. He was filthy: dirt and dung smeared his clothing, staining his dusky skin and matting his hair. His teeth were gritty with dust and debris from where he had been forced to lick the wall to quench his thirst. Only it hadn’t helped; though he got enough moisture to survive, his frantic efforts to hydrate himself only made him thirstier.

The smell of his own body nearly overwhelmed him; he hadn’t bathed in…‌two weeks now? Silent tears tracked down his face, accumulating along the cold edge of the iron collar encircling his neck. With a ragged voice he called out once again, proclaiming his innocence and hoping that someone‌—‌anyone‌—‌would hear his call.

After a prolonged silence, he knew that no one was ever coming for him except Death. He was starving. He hadn’t been given a crumb of food in the week and a half since the sentence was passed. He was weak, and that weakness would be his undoing. He couldn’t access his magic‌—‌any magic.

He heard the slow slither of the creature moving towards him. He couldn’t see it, but he felt the vibrations in the flagstones, and knew what they foretold. A subterranean ground snake was coming. The color of stone and the length of six horses, it would devour him whole and spit out the bones and irons in a week’s time.

There was nothing he could do to stop it.

He shivered, almost mad with fear‌—‌only to realize the sound had stopped. Out of the darkness, a light flared: the headlight that hovered in front of the snake’s head on a thin stalk. His vision was filled with evil cold eyes, enormous fangs, a flaring hood. He opened his mouth to scream‌—‌

Maride Bercen lunged out of bed, throwing off the thin blanket, stumbling and falling to his hands and knees on the cool wooden floor. Wood! Wood, not stone! He panted for breath as the vision slowly faded. He was home at the Marsea Gatehouse, at the Red Madrassa Citadel outside of Sandrin.
There is no need to fear,
he chanted over and over in his mind. He hadn’t been arrested. His fiancé wasn’t dead. He and his friends had been lauded for saving an Imperial watchman’s life.

As he lay there, he felt the cool breeze again; no wonder he’d dreamt of it. He got up and went over to his open window. The cold of January was just setting in. He frowned; the campus would be getting snow soon. Even he could feel it in the air. The weather was changing from the brisk winds of fall to the icy climate of this region’s brief winter. He closed the window, and moved back into the center of the room.

As he grabbed the blanket from the floor, he heard voices drift up from downstairs. It sounded like his friends were in the kitchen below…

Red Madrassa

November 2012

About the Author

T
erah Edun grew up in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia where she learned that new worlds were always available in the next book. Now, she lives in South Sudan working in international development. She spends her spare time thinking up the next adventure for her motly band of mischief making teens.

Don’t forget to leave a review of
Red Madrassa
if you enjoyed the read.

Other Books by Terah

March 2013 – Sworn To Raise
(Courtlight Series #1)

The first full-length novel exploring the world of The Companion’s Guild.

May 2013 – Casbah Guardian
(Algardis Series #2)

The next full-length novel in the Algardis series!

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