—THE KING NORTH—
OF THE SKY
CHAPTER ONE (v1.01)
The Incan Sphere
and the Black Glass Bishop
Ridley Woodward had hidden five weapons around the cabin. Astrid was looking right at one of them.
“I think I love you,” Astrid said, turning on her heel to face him. Her back was to the mantle now. The elephant gun was snuggled down into its rest above the fireplace. Hardly hidden at all. Nevertheless, as determined to follow in her father’s footsteps as Astrid was—the old man had cursed the Kaiser with his dying breath—Ridley had never seen the woman take the gun down from above the fireplace. It had begun gathering cobwebs. Hadn’t it? Ridley had taken caution to place each thread precisely where the spiders had after silently loading the gun the night before.
Caught off guard by Astrid’s words though, he could not find himself. There was a tickle in his throat and lump in his chest. He perspired under the afternoon sun. It rolled in the window in a fiery hymn.
