Prophecy's Promise (Prophecy of the Edges Book 1) by Lauren Amundson Page A

nickered nervously as I nudged him closer to the wagon. “What are you saying?” I asked.
    “There is something evil in that Edge. It reaches for people. It beckons them to their deaths.” The man’s voice cracked. “We must hurry.”
    I’ll never forget the faces of the two children peering from the back of that wagon as it carried them away. The folds of the wagon’s white canvas encased them. The children looked at me, their small shoulders hunched, their faces as pale as their father’s, their eyes forlorn.
    We passed several other wagons of refugees fleeing The Edge. They had abandoned their homes and livelihoods seeking anywhere that did not have The Edge for a neighbor. We approached an intersection in the road, and I heard two voices from the other road. One voice belonged to a man and the other to a young boy. I could swear that I recognized the older voice. As we arrived at the intersection, the two appeared before us.
    “By the gods! Euan!” I yelled in disbelief, half surprised that, of all the people on the road, it was my old friend and half surprised that I actually recognized him. The young man turned to look in my direction.
    “H...Hailey!” He half asked half exclaimed. “What are you doing back? I thought that I'd never see you again.” He stood in the road, no longer moving forward. The little boy looked at him strangely. I ran to him and jumped up into his arms. Altis hung back awkwardly, unsure of how to proceed.
    “You've grown!” I exclaimed.
    “It's been ten years.” Euan laughed and shook his head. “Ten years. I can't believe it.” The boy tugged at Euan's sleeve. “Of course you remember my brother, Brody. He’d barely begun to crawl when you left.”
    I did not remember Brody, only Euan. But, for some reason, I didn’t want to tell them about my memory. It felt nice feeling normal, like I had some connection to my childhood, even though it was only a small sliver of a connection. “No! You can't be Brody? You are almost as tall as me.” The boy nodded solemnly and I grinned at him, playing my part and not knowing why I played it. “You were a baby when I left. You won't remember me, but I'm Hailey.”
    “Hey, I know you!” Brody said, sounding a little in awe. “Euan talks about you a lot.” I looked up at Euan. His face went as red as his thick hair.
    “Really?” I stood up and smiled into Euan's eyes.
    “You come to see your pa?” Euan asked, changing the subject.
    “No.” Altis entered the circle. “My Journeyman and I are here on Mist Weaver business.”
    Euan considered Altis for a moment and turned back to me. “So you made Journeyman, eh?”
    “Well, it’s a little more complicated than that, but yes, I did.”
    “Euan's made Journeyman, too!” Brody piped in.
    “Just last month. I'm studying under Blacksmith Pareden,” Euan said.
    “Blacksmith?” Blacksmiths were in high demand in farm country and paid well for their services. As a second son, it was about the best Euan could hope for. “Well, you always were very strong.” The words escaped my mouth before I truly had thought of them. I felt the blood rush to my cheeks as I said it.
    “Well, nice running into you, blacksmith.” Altis managed to make the position sound as insignificant as possible. “We best make camp before nightfall. We’ve a big day tomorrow. We are to see The Edge.”
    “My ma still runs the inn,” Euan said. “She’d be disappointed if you didn’t stay with us.”
    “Great,” said Altis, sounding less than enthused.
    The walk into the village consisted mostly of Euan and me catching up on the past ten years, Brody running head on the path and then back to us, and Altis leading the animals. I was unsure as to why I remembered Euan, but hardly anyone else besides the girl that I’d seen in my memory flashes. The mind is a strange thing. “It’s been a long time, but do you remember a little girl a couple of years younger than us that we used to play with?”