The Diamond Spade (working title)

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Everything moves for the Diamond Spade.
Everything falls to its shining blade.
Only one power the weapon needs,
Bane of the reign of the Tyrant Queen.
Only one cure that the Unwise knows:
Fairer than fairest: the Painted Rose.

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BOOK 1
Diamond Spade

The wilderness rendered life, green, and calm. Sparse of inhabitants, the land's only sounds were of the teeming grasses, insects and birds. Them, and the constant stitch, stitch, shuffle of tooled earth.

The spindly figure burrowed with a speed that was scarcely human, straight into the side of a steep, grassy hill, its packed soil being torn away like so much powdery snow. He was looking for something, but it was a big hill. He didn't have all day. There was a while yet till dark, of course, but time had a way of creeping in on you. And then...

Maddac tried to remember not to become annoyed at things that might not even happen. Of course, just that thought alone might be bad luck. "Oh, perfect," he spat out, his voice close in the tunnel that grew dimmer with each step he dug. After that track of mind, he wouldn't have been surprised if something crawled out of the dirt and attacked him. But he shook his dark head. "Stupid. Just dirt."

It was some time after he had dug past all light and was burrowing blind, when he struck stone. The wide, faceted blade came alive with a soft glow, illuminating the grayish rock. "Finally." Maddac swung at it with renewed vigor, beating against the hard surface until it broke away like gravel, and he thus continued his progress through the hill. The uneven, patterned, teal-gold light revealed variations in color and texture in the narrow tunnel all around. The different veins in the rock told him he was getting closer. "This way." He angled slightly to the left, turning his frenzied assault toward a vein that had glinted in the crystalline glow. There was no ring to the sounds, just a dull thud and crumble, for with every strike the blade gashed the stone and pushed out a small pile of rubble.

A strange sensation suddenly washed through the tunnel, coming from beyond the wall of rock. Something in the sound or feel of the rock proclaimed an emptiness beyond. Maddac immediately stopped short with a throbbing in his neck, a pounding in his chest. "No...." Calm down, he told himself, it doesn't have to mean the worst. But he found himself putting everything he had into the following strikes, so that chunks of rock fell away in a constant stream. Even the denser patches heavy with ore scarcely taxed his movement. And all the while the feeling of emptiness beyond increased and increased until it was a dull roar, and all at once Maddac spilled into open air. He involuntarily gasped and jerked around to try to grab at something, but he only succeeded in twisting himself wtih his back to the ground, landing an insant later on a hard, rough surface. He had tucked his chin so that his head would be less likely to hit, but his back scraped across the ground, over what felt like claws of pain.

At what was the base of a hollowed chamber, Maddac groaned and lay back. His clothes had offered some protection, but they had to be ruined now if the persisting pain was any indication. Maddac set his jaw and sat up, taking in surroundings he had feared he would see. He growled into the emptiness. "No!"

The need to see for certain overrode the bloody protests of his body.