Chapter Fourteen
~ ~ ~
A third unpublished chapter
from Reverend Edward Lillibridge’s
original handwritten manuscript
~ ~ ~
Nikolaus, a messenger at a future event—and one of Maleika’s distant descendants—was reciting advice the Oracle had once given.
‘And now Those few
Will choose Anew
To delve the caves
Of darkness through
A gilded vortex
Fringed with blood
Those linked in memory
Maimed by mud
The shadowed prowl
To herewith prey
On star-spun souls
Their heart-warmed fey
‘Well I never!’ Maleika, watching from the Dream Sphere, had recognised the words.
‘This,’ Nikolaus told his audience, ‘is what the Oracle advised the elf-woman named Maleika, as stated in Lillibridge’s book.’
‘Alcor! Is it true the young man is speaking of me?’
‘It is true, Maleika.’
‘Nikola
