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    Heart of the Mountain: Under the Mountain, #1
    Heart of the Mountain: Under the Mountain, #1
    Heart of the Mountain: Under the Mountain, #1
    Ebook74 pages59 minutes

    Heart of the Mountain: Under the Mountain, #1

    By Jeanette O'Hagan

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    About this ebook

    YA Fantasy Adventure in the lost realm deep under the mountain.

    Twins Delvina and Retza’s greatest desire is to be accepted as prentices by their parents’ old crew when they stumble across a stranger. Trapped under the mountain, young Zadeki’s only thought is to escape home to his kin. Peril awaits all three youngsters. Will they pull apart or work together to save the underground realm?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBy the Light Books
    Release dateJul 29, 2016
    ISBN9780994398949
    Heart of the Mountain: Under the Mountain, #1

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      Book preview

      Heart of the Mountain - Jeanette O'Hagan

      Heart of the Mountain

      A short novella

      by

      Jeanette O’Hagan

      Story 1 Under the Mountain series

      By the Light Books

      Contents

      Copyright

      Dedication

      Heart of the Mountain

      Author Note

      You might also like:

      Coming Soon

      Acknowledgements

      About the Author

      Other Publications

      Copyright

      Heart of the Mountain: a short novella

      By Jeanette O’Hagan

      Story 1 in the Under the Mountain series

      Cover design: Jeanette O’Hagan © 2016

      Typesetting and Layout: Jeanette O’Hagan

      Copyright Jeanette O’Hagan © 2016

      http://jeanetteohagan.com

      All rights reserved. No part of this book and cover image may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval, without permission in writing from the author or publisher.

      All events, characters and entities portrayed in the stories are fictional and any likeness to any persons living or dead, events and entities are entirely coincidental.

      National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

      Creator: O'Hagan, Jeanette, author.

      Title: Heart of the mountain: a short novella / by Jeanette

      O'Hagan.

      ISBN: 9780994398949 (ebook)

      Series: O'Hagan, Jeanette. Under the mountain; Story 1.

      Subjects: Fantasy fiction.

      Orphans—Fiction.

      Shapeshifting—Fiction.

      Dewey Number: A823.4

      ISBN-13: 978-0-9943989-4-9

      Published through By the Light Books

      By the Light Books

      PO Box 2520, Brookside, Qld 4053

      Email: Bythelightbooks@gmail.com

      Note: This ebook follows Australian style conventions for spelling, punctuation and grammar.

      Subscribe to Jeanette O'Hagan's Newsletter for the latest on new releases, giveaways and other news– http://eepurl.com/bbLJKT

      Dedication

      This story is in memory of my brother Chris—much loved, missed and never forgotten.

      Heart of the Mountain

      An updraught caught Zadeki and flung him about like a spinning leaf. Clouds of snow blasted into his face, ruffling his feathers and blinding him. Another gust hit him side on, pushing him off balance. It had been a foolish decision to fly over the mountains. The clear blue sky of the early afternoon was a fading memory as he was caught up in a world of swirling snow and ice. If only he could find shelter, but even with his eagle-sharp eyes, he could see no more than a white fuzzy blur in every direction. Gathering his trembling muscles and spreading out his flight feathers, he fought against the might of the wind.

      As the whiteout lessened for a few moments, a sharp angular peak loomed in front of him. His heart racing, he tilted his wings in a desperate attempt to turn. His flight pinions clipped a ledge. He lurched. His right side slammed into the icy rock, sending him spiralling down, ricocheting off the sheer cliff face. Pain screamed through him as fragile wing bones snapped. All control of his descent vanished. So much for showing the Kinleader he was old enough to be a pathfinder. His thoughts frayed and darkness took him.

      #

      Delvina clutched her brother’s thick felt jerkin. The air was strange in these outer tunnels, laden with the smell of strange resin and a bitter icy bite she was not used to. A gust ruffled her bangs, sending a shiver through her.

      ‘Are you sure we should do this, Retza? The outside is dangerous.’

      ‘Shush. It will be more dangerous if we’re caught.’

      She lowered her voice. ‘Who would hear us? No one’s stupid enough to come out this far.’

      As Retza rounded a corner, he pulled to such a sudden stop that she bumped into him.

      ‘What is it?’ she hissed.

      A pale yellow glow came from the end of the tunnel—different from the dancing smoky red of flame or the focused cool blue of the glimmer lights. It illuminated Retza’s snub nose and glistened in his wide eyes, his pupils contracting to slits against the sudden glare.

      ‘Sunlight?’ Her voice caught in her throat.

      Retza grunted. ‘Maybe. Come on, we can’t give up now.’

      They shuffled along the tunnel as the circle of light ahead of them brightened.  Delvina shaded her eyes, her mouth dry. Why had they thought this was a good idea?

      #

      A freezing wind blasted Retza’s face as he poked it out of the entrance. He gripped the tunnel walls and squinted at the white blur outside. Delvina pressed up behind him, her grasp on his jerkin almost choking him, her breath warm on his ear. He took a deep breath. He was glad his twin sister was with him though he wasn’t going to admit it to her.

      A flurry of white flakes swirled in front of his nose. Putting out a hand he caught one. It melted away to a tiny tear drop in his calloused palm. As his eyes adjusted, he could make out mounds of the soft white substance smothering the world outside. The open space of the Cauldron went up, and up, higher than even the Grand Cavern. Above the sharp rim, grey streamers raced against a black sky studded with pinpricks of light like ribbons of glow worms on a cave roof. A shudder ran through him. The outside was even stranger than he had

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