Book Excerpt: The House of Prophecy by Glen Dahlgren
Child of Chaos, but born to man, Hear, your fate is waiting. Gods watch but cannot stop the plan, Not without them breaking. In a vault naught but gods can breach, There, the Gift you cherish. Once in the sky, but now in reach, Make the choice then perish.
“WHY’D YOU MAKE it rhyme like that?” asked young Sturmin, squirming on a chair carved into the rough stone wall of the damp, caustic-smelling chamber. “Making a prophecy rhyme doesn’t make it true.”
Glancing up from the parchment, the black-robed priest of Evil frowned and loomed over the freckled boy.
“It is true. We all agree. This is the prophecy.”
“Except for the last part, maybe.”
Sturmin tried to rise, but the priest pushed him down.
“Please, can’t you let me back upstairs? I don’t want to be here anymore.”
“I don’t think so. You take to the process too well. The fact that we’re having this conversation tells me that you belong here.”
He motioned to a stocky, shirtless man whose throat was ringed with a metal collar.
“Belong here?” Sturmin’s face tightened in terror. “No, please. I’ll agree with whatever you want. Just don’t—” The slave picked up the boy, walked him to a tall, circular, iron cage, shoved him in, and slammed its gate shut.
Almost at the same time, another slave along the wall pulled a lever, unspooling the chain and sending the cage plummeting into the pit beneath. The cage fell until a circular metal plate slammed in place and sealed the opening. Sturmin’s screams abruptly stopped.
While removing the hook and chain from a ring in the plate, the priest shook his head.
“Maybe we should leave him down there for a while. We don’t need one unruly prophet rocking the boat. This is a delicate time. We barely got everyone to agree to this version.” Another robed figure nodded and, together, they walked away over five identical round metal plates placed at the center and cardinal points of two huge, intersecting, double-headed arrows, graven into the floor. The symbol for Chaos.
The House of Prophecy is available for preorder now at: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09ZX26N18