Standing at the second-floor window of the Fenwood hospital, Corvan watched the remnants of a prairie sunset fade behind the nearby elm trees and over the western hills. He was gd the day was finally over. The harsh sunlight gring off the stark white walls of Kate’s hospital room during the long day had been unbearable.

  Footsteps approached Kate’s door, then retreated to answer the jangle of the nursing station phone. He hoped it was a long call. The nurses wouldn’t be happy to find him back in Kate’s room yet again.

  Streetmps began flickering to life around the empty parking lot below. His parents should be returning at any time to take him home, but it didn’t feel right to leave Kate here by herself. Kate’s mother would certainly not be coming to see her. Just a week after he and Kate had disappeared, her mom had taken off with the man she had met at the roadside diner.

  Turning away from the darkening sky, Corvan moved to the clunky metal bed where Kate slept beneath a fuzzy white bnket. She looked somewhat comical with her short red hair sticking up in swatches through the bandage that had been wrapped around her head.

  He studied her for any sign of movement. He had heard the whispers of brain damage from the nurses—how Kate might never wake up again or, if she did, how she might not remember anything from before her injury. He refused to believe that could happen. They had come through so much together and he would not give up on her now.

  The steady drip of Kate’s IV had been doing its work, and her face was no longer drawn and gaunt. The cut in her cheek had been carefully stitched back together and the nurses said it was healing incredibly fast. She would likely end up with a scar simir to the one that Tyreth would have for the rest of her life down in the Cor.

  At the thought of Tyreth he went back to the window. Up here, with the vast prairie sky overhead, the daughter of the High Priest seemed like a figment of his imagination and the Cor as far away as another pnet. He gazed high above the trees to where a few stars struggled to outshine the city lights. A surge of pity for the people of Kadir tugged at his heart. It was like they had been locked away in a dark prison, paying eternally for some ancient crime.

  “The stars are beautiful.”

  Corvan whirled about and moved quickly to the bed.

  Kate smiled faintly, then winced as the stitches tightened on her cheek. “What happened to me?” She tried to sit up, but Corvan put a hand on her shoulder.

  “You need to lie still and rest. You fell and hurt your head. Don’t you remember?”

  She stared bnkly at him. “I think so. Did I get hurt bad?”

  “You’ve got a cut on your head and another one on your cheek. You’ll be okay but you need to rest for a while.”

  “I guess I shouldn’t have been climbing on the Castle Rocks in the dark,” Kate said.

  “The Castle?” Corvan asked, his heart dropping.

  “The st thing I remember was going out there and falling down but I’m not sure what I was even doing out there at night. For some reason, I had my mother’s outhouse fshlight with me.” Her eyes crinkled in a teasing smile. “Maybe I was trying to catch your imaginary lizard so Billy wouldn’t pick on you anymore.”

  Corvan nodded slowly but his mind was racing. Kate didn’t remember anything from their time underground and the doctor was very clear that he wasn’t supposed to force the memories to come back. He gave her a thin smile. “You don’t need to worry about the lizard. I won’t be talking about it anymore.”

  “That’s good,” she said. Her eyes drooped. “I’m really tired.”

  “You can go back to sleep. I’ll sit with you until my parents come to take me back home, but I’ll be back first thing tomorrow, I promise.”

  She nodded and Corvan pulled a chair in close to the side of her bed.

  Kate reached her hand out from under the covers, exposing what the doctor referred to as “the mysterious star shaped burn” in the center of the palm. No one here would every realize that the small star was from where the red seed had sent its power coursing through her body. Corvan reached out to hold her hand in his own.

  A peaceful smile settled over Kate’s face. She gave his fingers a weak squeeze as she drifted off.

  The door opened a crack, then swung wider as his mother stepped into the room. Her eyebrows rose slightly at the sight of their joined hands, then she gestured for him to follow her out.

  Easing his hand from Kate’s, he met his mom out in the hall.

  “How is Kate doing?” she asked.

  “She woke up and talked a bit.”

  “That’s wonderful. I didn’t think a bump in the head could slow our Kate down for long.” His mother frowned. “Did she ask for her mother?”

  “No. She seems a bit confused about what happened.”

  “She’s not the only one.” His mother shot him a questioning gnce as she turned down the hall. “We can leave right away. I’ve already checked you out.” She held out his fall Mackinaw jacket. “I hung the raincoat the nurses took from you on the hooks at home. This will be much warmer with this weather.”

  Corvan accepted the red and bck wool jacket. Thankfully she had not realized that what she thought was a raincoat, was actually his grandfather’s special cloak. As soon as they got home, he would grab it from the back porch and hide it away in the chest up in his room. Without the hammer, he could only hope the medallion in his pocket might open the secret compartment.

  His mother helped him to get his Mackinaw on, then pointed to his bandaged hand. “They say that was a clean break and it will heal quickly. Does it hurt?”

  Corvan shook his head as he turned back to Kate’s door. It didn’t feel right to leave her behind now that she was conscious. “Will you bring me back first thing tomorrow morning?” He looked to his mother as they approached the steps to the first floor. “I don’t want her to be alone with her mom gone and all.”

  His mother nodded and a faint smile touched her face.

  “Where’s Dad?” he asked.

  The smile vanished. “He had to go back to the Red Creek mine. Tomorrow they are sealing off that lower chamber. He’s the only one who knows where to pce all the charges to make sure the water drains away and does not rise up into the mine. He’ll be gone most of the night.” Corvan could see the worry in her eyes. “You are sure lucky he found you two. Nobody at the mine office can figure out how you and Kate got past the locked gates and down to the very bottom level.”

  It was more of a question than a statement, but Corvan didn’t respond. His father had asked him not to say anything to his mother until they could talk in private when they got home.

  Emerging out the front doors of the hospital, Corvan abruptly stopped. In Kate’s hospital room the open sky had continually drawn him to the window but now, outside, the stars were trying to pull him right out of his tennis shoes.

  He breathed in the scents of early autumn, the drying leaves, the dust of the wheat harvest, and the crisp air. “I’m so gd to be back,” he murmured.

  “The way you’re behaving,” his mother said, “you’d think you’ve been underground in that mine for a year.”

  Ignoring the subtle inquiry, Corvan trotted down the stairs and headed for the truck.

  As they drove out of the city, the artificial glow from the streetmps faded, and the prairie sky brightened into a star-encrusted canopy. It seemed the stars had multiplied since he left for the Cor. Resting his forehead against the cool gss, he stared up in wonder. Under their light, he felt both small and infinitely important at the same time.

  Crossing the tracks and driving into town, he watched the empty schoolyard slide past his window and was surprised to find himself free of any fear of going back. It wasn’t just that he was ready to grow up and move on, he had already walked through that door and came out the other side.

  The gravel crunched as they turned down their driveway and rolled to a stop beside their home.

  Stepping from the truck he turned for the side of the house. “I’m going out to the rock for a few minutes.”

  “Don’t be too long,” his mother said as she shut her door. “The doctor said you also need to get lots of rest.” She came around the front of the truck and as Corvan passed by, she reached out and pulled him close. “I’m gd to have you home again.”

  He hugged her back with his good arm. “Me too. I never want to leave here again.”

  His mother only nodded, gave him a halfhearted smile, then went in the front door.

  Walking toward Castle Rock and past the outhouse woodpile brought a fresh pang of loneliness. He really missed Tsarek. His friend should be here to help make sense of all that had happened and to figure out what to do about Kate not remembering any of it.

  The crescent moon came into view over the horizon as he climbed the western trail of the rock. Entering the confines of the stone circle, its soft light fell at his feet, etching the faint outline of the stone doors leading down to the Cor. He approached, crouched, and tentatively touched the edge. Nothing moved except for a spider crawling out next to keyhole.

  Digging into his pocket he pulled out Kate’s medallion and tried again but there was no change. As expected, without the hammer he would not be able to open the doors.

  Getting to his feet, he put the medallion away and looked out over the fields to the edge of the river valley. In very real sense he was gd he no longer had the hammer and could not return to the Cor. Tyreth could use it to lead Kadir and it would also help her to know when Jorad was telling her the truth.

  Truth. His parents had drummed the need for honesty into him since he was small and now, he understood just how important it was. Everyone suffered when lies and deceit were wielded as a weapon by those in power.

  Leaving the castle rocks behind he went onto the western slope. The waning moon cast a web of thin shadows through the stubble of their field. Somewhere in the distance a coyote chorus celebrated its light and it seemed to be smiling back at them.

  Corvan y back on the rock and breathed in the subtle scents of the prairie evening. A falling star raced across the sky and Corvan smiled. For the past few years, everyone at school was talking about the dawn of space travel. Many of the other kids had great pns of one day becoming an astronaut, wearing a spacesuit, and traveling to the moon. Space was the new frontier, the pce where fantastic adventures would happen—new worlds explored, and strange creatures discovered.

  Pcing his good hand ft against the cool rock beneath him, he spoke to the night air, “If only you knew what’s going on right below your feet.”

  The words had no sooner left his lips when a faint tremor shivered through the tips of his fingers, as if a great stone door had opened far below.

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you for reading the first book of the Cor Series. I am currently posting the chapters of Book II, The Medallion on Royal Road. When it’s ready I will move it here but if you wish to read it now just click the link below. Its free and you don’t even need a membership to read anonymously.

  Please note that the second book delves much deeper into the characters and has a more sinister tone. If that doesn’t appeal to you, The Hammer certainly can stand alone.

  Thanks again for your time.

  Vance

  https:///fiction/90135/cor-series-all-chapters