Lunamae (32 page)

Toryn, Guardian of Harper
Wood.

I rolled the parchment back up and felt a
shiver course up my spine. I was just given a divine mission and it
made me feel all sorts of emotions.
Am I even worthy?
Then I
instantly felt comforted by a message I had read in the Text. No
one is worthy, but that did not stop the Creator from loving us and
sending us the Teacher to give us the opportunity to become
worthy.

I took the document and put it under my arm
and walked out of the keep in a new determination. While this land
might have its ups and downs, I was going to responsible for its
future. I would not let the Creator down, but my time in Feyris was
getting shorter. Soon we would be in Fanarion. I had to finish
writing quickly, and find a suitable spot for the Text. Time was my
only enemy. I wasn’t going to let it get the best of me.

The End

April Sadowski was born and
raised in the Dayton, Ohio area. Books were always prevalent in her
life and so was the fondness for writing. At the age of thirteen,
April began her first novel,
Lady From
Day
. It took over ten years to write, but
since the completion of it, she has written additional novels and
has participated in NaNoWriMo, Camp NaNoWriMo, and Script
Frenzy.
Lunamae
is the result of NaNoWriMo 2009 and is the second in the
Tales of Orinda series. April is in process of writing a third,
called
Firedancer
which revolves around a Chalosian chandler
’s daughter who is able to do more than work with the wax and
flame.

April is also an
award-winning graphic and website designer and a hemp jewelry
maker. She spends her free time (apart from writing) with her
husband and meowing fur-children.

Discover other titles by
April Sadowski at
www.aprilsadowski.com

My Website:
www.aprilsadowski.com

Facebook:
www.facebook.com/aprilsadowski

Email me at
[email protected]

Learn more about Orinda
at

www.talesoforinda.com

Look out for another Tale
of Orinda entitled
Firedancer
.

As the daughter of a
chandler, Banhi
’s life seemed boring. That
is until one day when she found she could manipulate the flames
coming from the candles she made.

In a word seemingly void
of mages, magic has all but disappeared through the years. Fearing
to live as an outcast and being exiled for having such a dangerous
gift in a forest village, she decides to take a voyage beyond the
great seas.

Will Banhi find more than
she bargained for?

It had been twelve years since my mother had
died. My father had taken over the business from her until I was
able to learn the trade and become the new Master Chandler for our
city. I enjoyed watching the wicks dip into the bucket of hot wax
and slowly build up. It was a time-consuming process, but it was
fulfilling. In this new era, it was practically a lost art and we
felt as though we were preserving the history of the old ways in
Orinda. The world was all steam and electric now, being fueled fast
in a mere decade.

I was sitting in bed, staring at my lit
candle. For some reason it was more comforting than that of the
glass light above my bed. Mother would always place one candle near
me at bedtime and leave her gaze on me as she sung me to sleep with
traditional Chalosian songs. Now I’d rather fall asleep to the
gentle flicker of the candle, remembering my mother’s voice, than
any static light which produces no heat and never crackles from
moisture.

As my eyes started to drift off, I leaned
over to snuff the flame with my finger. In doing so in my sleepy
state, I missed the flame all together. Instead, my fingers flicked
against each other and then my eyes got wide from what I saw. The
flame was no longer without form, flickering back and forth with
the air—it had transformed into something different.

That was when I first saw the firedancer. It
would not be the last.

I couldn’t have finished any of my
novels without the
loving support of my husband (who has yet to read any of
them,
but puts up with my lack of socialization and attentiveness when
writing).