21 October 2026
We begin a new chapter in this week’s installment from the third book of The Redemption series, The Morgle Unmasked, as Rokwolf returns with news of how they might enter the school to look for, and help, any survivors. . . . (9 May 2016) The full ebook version of this book is available for purchase from all ebook sellers. We remind all that the first book in this series, Chosen of the One, and the second book, Staff of Shigmar, are both free from Smashwords! Glossary links: Book 3, Book 2, Book 1
Chapter 6, Part 1
It is unfortunate that too many take the offenses of others as excuses for their own poor choices. . . .
Saying attributed to Shigmar
“There is a way,” Rokwolf said, walking in several hours later, clothes wet from his waist down, “but not through the dungeon.”
“The passage has not been cleared?” Klaybear asked his twin.
Rokwolf shrugged. “It might have been,” he noted, “but that area was touched by the wave that destroyed the rest of the city, so everything above it has collapsed. I could get into the barracks and office, but that is as far as I could go in that direction.”
“You said there is a way,” Klare said.
He nodded. “Through the south guard tower and over the wall around the school,” Rokwolf replied, barely glancing at his sister-in-law. “The main gate and the main entrance to the school have collapsed, but the side entrance, along with the west end, and most of the south side of the building are still standing.”
“What about the Infirmary?” Klare asked.
Rokwolf shook his head. “From what I could tell, it was completely destroyed,” he replied.
“Karasun!” Klare cursed; both wethem stared at her in shock. “That was where all the healing supplies were stored,” she noted to herself, then saw them staring at her. “Is there some problem?”
Klaybear was so surprised that he could not respond, so Rokwolf voiced their thought. “We have never heard you . . . ,” he started to say but stopped when he saw her eyes flashing dangerously. “Nothing, my mistake,” he finished, turning to his twin. “Let’s go and get this over with, before I dry anymore, since we are going to get wet.”
Klare’s eyes narrowed and she folded her arms over her chest. “Dear,” she began in her sweetest voice, and Klaybear knew instantly he was in trouble. “You know how I feel about getting wet?”
Klaybear nodded mutely. “You don’t like it.”
“I hate it!” Klare shouted, then her voice went sweet again. “So unless you two can carry me through the sewers without getting a single drop of water anywhere on my person, find another way!” she shouted the last phrase, making the two wethem stagger back in surprise at her vehemence.
“But, dear,” Klaybear stuttered, “there is no. . . .”
Klare cut him off. “No other way? The most powerful kailu, with the most powerful staff ever created, breath-giver, and you want your beloved wife, who hates getting wet, to slog through the sewers and get soaking wet, simply because you haven’t stopped to think of some other way? Mother was right: you are slow, but then she says the same thing about Father.”
Klaybear stood stunned, his mouth hanging open; Rokwolf looked at them both: his twin standing flustered, looking down at his diminutive wife, who looked up at her husband, eyes still flashing. Rokwolf doubled up with laughter. Klare shot an irritated glance at her brother-in-law then snatched breath-giver from her husband’s limp fingers. She turned without another word and used the staff to open an archway; she stepped through. Rokwolf continued to laugh.
“I ought to just lift the staff,” Klare’s voice came back through the gray shimmering arch, “and let you slog through the sewers,” she added, letting her words hang in the air.
Rokwolf mastered his laughter long enough to grab his still stunned twin and drag him through the archway.
“Where are we?” Rokwolf asked after stepping through the gray archway.
Klare spoke the word and magluku around the room flared to life. “It is . . . ,” then she stopped, “was, I should say.”
“Master Avril’s room,” Klaybear supplied.
“You haven’t lost your tongue,” Klare quipped, trying to cover the catch in her voice. She turned away from them quickly. “My master always kept a store of healing supplies in his room.” She paused, mastering her emotions. “When you said that the Infirmary had been destroyed, but the south part of the school had not, I thought we might come here first for supplies. Besides,” she added, “I thought this room would be a safe place for us to appear.”
Rokwolf shook his head and looked around warily. “I’m not sure how safe it is,” he said. “Since the front of the building has collapsed, I fear the entire structure has become unstable.” He looked back at his twin; Klare had moved toward a cabinet opposite the bed and door into the hallway; the room had another door that connected it to the next room, which was the Headmaster’s room. “Where are we, precisely, in the building?” Rokwolf asked.
Klare had reached the cabinet, opened it, and removed a pair of worn, brown leather shoulder bags. “My master’s traveling bags,” she whispered to herself, handling both bags with great care; both were filled with healing supplies.
Klaybear glanced at Klare once before answering his twin. “Southwest corner of the second level above ground level; the master’s quarters,” he intoned softly. He pointed to the door by the bed, to the south, “that door opens into a hallway that runs the length of the school, a stairway in the southwest corner going down to level one and the main level; the novices are housed in the front two-thirds of this floor, where the master and mistress of novices could keep a close watch over them. The apprentices are housed above, on the third level above ground.”
Rokwolf nodded. “I visited your room upstairs,” he noted, a grin twitching at the corners of his mouth.
Klaybear flushed and touched his twin’s arm; he spoke in a low, soft voice. “Better not mention that, considering . . . ,” and he rolled his eyes toward Klare, who was inspecting the contents of one of the bags.
Next week we will continue with these heroes, as they prepare to reenter Shigmar’s school Until then, we remind all that the first two books of this series, Chosen of the One and Staff of Shigmar, are free from Smashwords. Get this book, The Morgle Unmasked, from the links provided. Good reading!
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