Rhodi’s Light
The Rhodi Saga
Book One
Megan Linski
Genre: Young Adult
Fantasy/Dystopian
Publisher: Gryfyn Publishing
Date
of Publication: September 4, 2016
Word
Count: 62,850
Cover
Artist:
Clarissa Yeo
Book
Description:
Flight. Hyperspeed. Clairvoyance.
These are some of the powers gifted to the Rhodi, an ancient sect of assassins
who defend Crescentia, a dystopian world with a dying hope.
Dyliana Fairsson is one of them.
After losing her parents to a suspicious accident, she and her twin brother,
Devin, join the Rhodi to avoid starvation. Under the direction of her master,
Dylan struggles to learn the strength of her magic …as well as hide the growing
scars on her wrists.
Can Dylan become the warrior, the
hero, she’s destined to be? Or is she fated to fall from the light into the
darkness?
Chapter
One: Escaping
“Dylan! Dyliana,
wake up! Get out of bed!”
The girl sleepily
raised her head off the pillow and looked around, her sharp eyes piercing the
darkness. Her father stood beside the bed, fully dressed and standing as
straight as a board. He was pretending to be calm, yet she knew better. The
face her father wore was one that she knew all too well, the one she hated and
yet was frightened of at the same time. It was an expression of urgency, of
fear.
“It’s time. Your
mother is getting Devin up. We have to leave now.”
Dylan shook her
long hair out of her face. “But I don’t…”
“Now’s not the
time. Come.”
The small fifteen
year old pushed back the covers and jumped out of bed, her day clothes on. She
knew better than to go to sleep in pajamas anymore. What was the point? They
always seemed to flee in the night.
She was a very
pretty girl, with golden skin and particular orange eyes that glittered
fiercely even in the darkness, but you’d never know it by the sour expression
on her face. She wore baggy, tomboyish clothes and her dark black hair was
tangled. She swept it sloppily beneath a hat as she clambered drowsily to her
feet.
“That’s my girl.
Grab your bags.” Her father handed her a suitcase, a large bag of his own by
his side. Her father was muscular, rugged from years of hard work with stubble
crowding his face. His black hair was trimmed short, his golden skin beaming
and radiant. The feature his daughter could see most in the shadows were his
two green eyes, vibrant and unrelenting in hope. She didn’t understand how that
hope could still be there after they’d been uprooted so many times.
Dylan bent down
and took hold of her suitcase, wanting to dawdle but knowing that if she did they
could all be in danger. She slipped on her shoes and followed her father out
into the hallway, down the stairs and to the front door.
“Is everyone
ready, Yeshua?” a woman asked, her voice a low whisper. The full moon outside
trickled through the window and lit up her face. She was a tall woman with
long, wavy dark hair that nearly fell to her hips and orange eyes just like
Dylan’s. Her face was exotic, the look of a desert heiress. That face had thin
eyebrows that narrowed in worry.
“As ready as we
can be, Kilim. How’s Devin?” the man asked.
“Sleepy,” a voice
at Kilim’s side said. A boy Dylan’s age yawned and blinked at his sister.
Although nearly identical in features, it was obvious from the beginning that
the twins couldn’t be any different. There wasn’t a hint of a wrinkle in the
boy’s neat clothes, and his glasses were polished to perfection, though too
large for his small green eyes.
“You’ll get over
it,” Yeshua promised. “We’re leaving now.”
The family picked
up their bags and headed out of the house. As they passed through the front
door Dylan noticed a window had been broken during the night. She wanted to ask
what had happened but thought better of it.
After everything
had been loaded into the car the four of them set down the road, only taking
their bags. They left the rest of their possessions behind. The family hardly
cared. It wasn’t like they had much to call their own in the first place. The
two teenagers looked back as they abandoned their home, but the adults seemed
to sag in relief.
“Where are we
going this time?” Dylan asked with a sigh. It seemed like they were always
running...always scared.
“Out of
Marceleno,” Yeshua said. “And into a state called Areos. It’s very far away,
but it’s closer to your aunt and uncle. We’ll have to cross several borders.”
“Out of
Marceleno?” Devin repeated and Dylan’s heart sank. They moved constantly, but
never out of their own country. Marceleno was their home. How could they leave
that behind as well?
“We’ve switched
countries before,” Kilim reminded them.
“That was when we
were babies. It doesn’t count.” Dylan crossed her arms.
“Marceleno is too
close to the Far East. It’s not safe to stay here anymore,” Yeshua said.
Nowhere is safe
for us, Dylan thought dully, watching the willow trees rush by her window
unhappily. Marceleno was beautiful with its gondolas and small stone streets,
buildings that sat by long rivers crowded with artists and musicians. Areos was
probably very different.
“Does Uncle Keaton
know we’re coming?” Devin asked.
“No. It’s better
if only we know, for now.”
Dylan made an
irritated sound and shook her head. She wished that her parents would let her
know who was after them or why. Whenever she asked she was only told not to
speak of it. It hurt that her parents didn’t trust them enough to let her or
her brother know what was going on, even though it consistently interrupted
their lives. After awhile bitterness had begun to sink in. She gave up asking,
and just supposed that if whoever was after them caught them she would die or be
kidnapped without ever knowing why and that would be the end of it.
Megan Linski is the owner of Gryfyn
Publishing and has had a passion for writing ever since she completed her first
(short) novel at the age of 6. Her specializations are romance, fantasy, and
contemporary fiction for people aged 14-24. When not writing she enjoys ice
skating, horse riding, theatre, archery, fishing, and being outdoors. She is a
passionate advocate for mental health awareness and suicide prevention, and is
an active fighter against common variable immune deficiency disorder. She lives
in Michigan.
Megan Linski also writes under the
pen name of Natalie Erin for the Creatures of the Lands Series, co-authored
with Krisen Lison.
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