Wayfarer's Dream
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About this ebook
Christanya and Mercy have fled the temple of On, where Christanya served as a priestess and Mercy as her servant, and followed the way of the Wayfarer in search of truth and true life. Accompanied by a nobleman named Valiant and three small boys, they find themselves driven by need for food and shelter to enter a town where Christanya reveals herself as a priestess in order to gain favour.
It is the greatest mistake of her life.
Overnight, Christanya and Mercy find themselves trapped in a nightmare as the servants of an older and more bloodthirsty god choose Mercy as a sacrifice. Christanya will do anything to atone for her mistake and rescue her friend—even if it means dying in her place.
As ancient evil rears its head, faith and love must struggle to overcome it. For in the midst of greatest darkness, the Wayfarer's Dream may come true...
"Wayfarer's Dream" is a Wayfarer's Road short story.
Rachel Starr Thomson
Rachel Starr Thomson is in love with Jesus and convinced the gospel will change the world. Rachel is a woman of many talents and even more interests: she’s a writer, editor, indie publisher, singer, speaker, Bible study teacher, and world traveler. The author of the Seventh World Trilogy, The Oneness Cycle, and many other books, she also tours North America and other parts of the world as a speaker and spoken-word artist with 1:11 Ministries. Adventures in the Kingdom launched in 2015 as a way to bring together Rachel’s explorations, in fiction and nonfiction, of what it means to live all of life in the kingdom of God. Rachel lives in the beautiful Niagara Region of southern Ontario, just down the river from the Falls. She drinks far too much coffee and tea, daydreams of visiting Florida all winter, and hikes the Bruce Trail when she gets a few minutes. A homeschool graduate from a highly creative and entrepreneurial family, she believes we’d all be much better off if we pitched our television sets out the nearest window. LIFE AND WORK (BRIEFLY) Rachel began writing on scrap paper sometime around grade 1. Her stories revolved around jungle animals and sometimes pirates (they were actual rats . . . she doesn’t remember if the pun was intended). Back then she also illustrated her own work, a habit she left behind with the scrap paper. Rachel’s first novel, a humorous romp called Theodore Pharris Saves the Universe, was written when she was 13, followed within a year by the more serious adventure story Reap the Whirlwind. Around that time, she had a life-changing encounter with God. The next several years were spent getting to know God, developing a new love for the Scriptures, and discovering a passion for ministry through working with a local ministry with international reach, Sommer Haven Ranch International. Although Rachel was raised in a strong Christian home, where discipleship was as much a part of homeschooling as academics, these years were pivotal in making her faith her own. At age 17, Rachel started writing again, this time penning the essays that became Letters to a Samuel Generation and Heart to Heart: Meeting With God in the Lord’s Prayer. In 2001, Rachel returned to fiction, writing what would become her bestselling novel and then a bestselling series–Worlds Unseen, book 1 of The Seventh World Trilogy. A classic fantasy adventure marked by Rachel’s lyrical style, Worlds Unseen encapsulates much of what makes Rachel’s writing unique: fantasy settings with one foot in the real world; adventure stories that explore depths of spiritual truth; and a knack for opening readers’ eyes anew to the beauty of their own world–and of themselves. In 2003, Rachel began freelance editing, a side job that soon blossomed into a full-time career. Four years later, in 2007, she co-founded Soli Deo Gloria Ballet with Carolyn Currey, an arts ministry that in 2015 would be renamed as 1:11 Ministries. To a team of dancers and singers, Rachel brought the power of words, writing and delivering original narrations, spoken-word poetry, and songs for over a dozen productions. The team has ministered coast-to-coast in Canada as well as in the United States and internationally. Rachel began publishing her own work under the auspices of Little Dozen Press in 2007, but it was in 2011, with the e-book revolution in full swing, that writing became a true priority again. Since that time Rachel has published many of her older never-published titles and written two new fiction series, The Oneness Cycle and The Prophet Trilogy. Over 30 of Rachel’s novels, short stories, and nonfiction works are now available in digital editions. Many are available in paperback as well, with more released regularly. The God she fell in love with as a teenager has remained the focus of Rachel’s life, work, and speaking.
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Wayfarer's Dream - Rachel Starr Thomson
The small boy stared, fascinated, at the dark opening at the base of the rock. It seemed that he could see something inside it... a faint light... for a long moment he forgot to breathe. The hunger in his lungs grew till he couldn’t ignore it anymore, and he pulled air into them, hardly noticing the tightness across his chest as he moved closer, stumbling slightly.
A hand on his shoulder startled him. He whirled around, dirty fists clenched, and his face was nearly swathed in a young woman’s skirt. He looked up at her. She was frowning.
Come away,
she said. Her eyes weren’t on him. They were on the hole.
I want to see,
the boy protested, wrenching himself loose. He lunged at the hole, aware that she wouldn’t give up so easily. He was right. In an instant she’d grabbed his ankles, and hauled him back.
Stay away from it!
she said, her voice uncommonly sharp.
MERCY!
THE YELL ECHOED down the road. Leave me alone!
Christanya lifted her head and waited until the sound of feet had nearly reached her. She took an unhurried bite of apple, then stood, reached over the low stone wall, and hauled Jonadab out of the long grass.
What have you done to Mercy?
she demanded.
What have I done?
the boy returned. "What has she done? Christya, let me go!"
She did as he asked, and the strength of the small boy’s struggles sent him sprawling in the dust of the road. He picked himself up and rubbed his elbow—poking as it was through a hole in his shirt sleeve.
A face appeared over the stone wall—a pretty face, younger than Christanya by two or three years. You caught him, did you?
Yes, Mercy, and you’ve some explaining to do.
Mercy wiped her hands on her skirt and tossed her long, red-gold hair behind her shoulders. He tore his shirt all by his lonesome.
I don’t doubt it,
Christanya said with a smile. Ten-year-old boys rarely need help with that sort of thing.
Mercy climbed over the wall, her skirts falling down around slender legs and bare feet. Her brilliant green eyes sparkled as she settled into the grass beneath the oak tree where Christanya had chosen to rest.
What did you do to him?
Christanya asked. A smile played on her face as she watched Jonadab straggle off to join the other boys. She looked back at Mercy. The young woman was looking up into the branches of the tree.
He found a dragon’s hole,
Mercy said, and I pulled him out of it.
Not a real dragon’s hole,
Christanya said.
Mercy looked at her. Her face was solemn. I don’t like this place.
Christanya smiled. Her eyes brushed the pastoral landscape: walled fields full of wheat and wildflowers, with an old tree here and there testifying to wilder days. Seems the wrong sort of landscape for dragon holes.
Pretty places hold some of the nastiest secrets,
Mercy said. Temples, for example...
Christanya ignored the comment. I suppose it wasn’t always like this,
she said. This might have been a great forest when a dragon burrowed into it.
Mercy reached into the food sack and pulled out an apple. She leaned against the tree trunk and sighed. I’m glad we weren’t here then,
she said. She smiled. Poor dragon. Valiant would have killed it.
Christanya snorted. Valiant couldn’t kill a dragon.
He thinks he could,
Mercy said.
"Valiant thinks he can do all sorts of things."
Lead this pilgrimage, for example.
Mercy,
Christanya said, looking her friend in the eye, don’t meddle.
A distant rumble of thunder met their ears. Mercy’s eyes sparkled. I told you it would rain.
There’s not a cloud in the sky!
Christanya protested. She stood and wandered clear of the tree. There... coming from the direction they were headed. Rainclouds moving in.
Christanya!