The Awakened: Book One by Jason Tesar

sliding to a stop.  Knowing that the chase was over, he lay back on the stone and stared up at the ceiling.
    It only made the situation worse when he saw stars overhead.  The ceiling above him had a huge hole right through the middle of it.  It took a second before he saw the spiraling stairs and recognized it as the chasm with which he was already acquainted.  He could see freedom right above him, but there was no way to reach it.  He lifted his head to get a view of his odds at the last moments of his life.  Altogether, there were about fifty archers and foot soldiers surrounding the lake.  It was over.
    Adair looked around and realized he was sitting roughly in the center of the stone dais.  Its surface was polished like marble, and seemed to glow with a silver light.  Just beneath the surface, as if encased in ice, was a strange pattern of concentric circles like the rings of a tree that had been frozen, then shattered.  He ran his hand over the smooth surface and marveled at its translucency.  Even more strange was that it was perfectly clean.  Adair ran his finger over the surface and rubbed it with his thumb.  Not even a speck of dust.
    It’s beautiful.   It looked like an altar.  I guess it’s a fitting place to die.
    He struggled to his feet as the soldiers advanced up the bridges on either side of him.  They were within shooting range now and it was only a matter of seconds before he would see death.  His thoughts turned to his family.  Maeryn, with her beautiful blonde hair and gorgeous smile.  Kael, with that inquisitive look in his eyes.   Tears began to stream down his face as he realized that he would never see them again in this life.
    He looked back to the soldiers marching toward him and noticed that they looked wavy and distorted as if he was seeing them through poorly crafted glass.  He rubbed the tears from his eyes and looked again, but his vision didn’t change.  Adair looked down at his feet and saw his own reflection on the dais spiraling inward.  He suddenly felt very heavy as if he had consumed too much wine.  He looked up again at the soldiers and saw that they were retreating with looks of astonishment on their faces.  Their images continued to distort and pull inward toward Adair as he felt the weight of the world pressing in on him.  Suddenly, a burst of blue light flashed in his eyes, sending a jolt of pain through his head.  It was the last thing he saw before he lost consciousness.

Chapter 7
     
    The panel of men staring at Maeryn would have been intimidating, if she were the type of woman to be easily intimidated.  But she wasn’t.  Though she was doing her best to appear that way and the men were buying it.
    “Tell us the story again, from the beginning,” muttered one of the interrogators.
    “I already told you,” she began, using the same emotionally stretched voice that she had used from the onset of this interrogation.  “I woke up in the early morning and he was gone…”  She trailed off as tears began to well-up in her eyes.  She covered her face with her hands to show that this was all too much for her.  The emotion she felt was real enough, but if Adair wanted the council to know what he was doing, he would have told them.  He was definitely in some kind of trouble and she wasn’t going to be punished for it.  After all, she was ignorant really.  Adair hadn’t told her anything, probably to protect her.  But he did seem different before he disappeared—distant, thinking to himself more than usual.  Of course she didn’t include any of this information in her story.  These men weren’t trying to help Adair; they were hoping to catch a deserter.  The Empire had no tolerance for anyone who was not wholly devoted to it.
    “I’m sorry,” she continued after pulling herself together.  “It’s just…he is always being called out in the middle of the night for one reason or another.  His position is very demanding.  It’s as