THE SECOND CRADLE - BOOK TWO OF THE IRON CRADLE SAGA Chapter 16: CHAPTER  SIXTEEN - An Unexpected Arrival

Read chapter 16 of THE SECOND CRADLE - BOOK TWO OF THE IRON CRADLE SAGA by JE PAYNE on NovelPedia.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN An Unexpected Arrival. Maddie poured on the speed. The forest blurred around her in shades of deep green and shadow, the massive bamboo-like stalks of the ancient trees towering overhead in columned rows. She moved with an urgency that left no room for anything else, her entire focus narrowed to the path ahead. Her feet hammered against the uneven ground, finding purchase on terrain that demanded absolute precision. A thick branch appeared in her path, and she vaulted it without breaking stride, her body rotating cleanly over the obstacle. Another came at her from the side, lower and closer, and she didn't slow. Instead, she phased through it, feeling the strange sensation of her body passing through solid matter as the wood passed through her like she was nothing at all. Her armor caught the dappled light filtering through the canopy and threw it back in bronze glints as she pushed harder, faster, every movement economical and purposeful. The river emerged from the trees like a divide in the world itself, a torrent of dark water that sprawled across the landscape with force and volume. The boulders were large here, worn smooth by centuries of current, and she used them as stepping stones, her feet barely touching each surface before she was already moving to the next. The water sprayed around her as she pushed through the shallows, her feet splashing hard against the rocks as she drove toward the far bank. Then she was climbing, scrambling up the slick earth of the raised bank, pulling herself free of the current's reach. Her breath came hard and fast now, her lungs burning with exertion. She could taste the metallic tang of it, the sharp edge of adrenaline that came with moving at full sprint through difficult terrain. The forest on this side of the river was different, younger, more aggressive in its growth. Vines and thick undergrowth made the passage treacherous, but she wove through it all. The creek appeared before her, and she could hear it before she saw it—a low, rushing sound that had grown deeper and more insistent than it had been three hundred years ago. She followed its path, tracking the waterway as it twisted toward the keep. The creek grew wider as she ran alongside it, the water becoming more forceful, the sound of it building with each stride she took. The wall appeared through the trees like a sudden shift in the world itself. One moment there was nothing but young growth and tangle, and the next the forest simply stopped. Massive stone masonry bricks rose up before her, smooth and fitted so tightly that you could barely see the seams between them. The bronze cladding that covered the outer face caught the afternoon light in fragments of gold and amber, a polished mirror-shine that stood in stark contrast to the weathered green and shadow of the forest around it. Above the wall, the pyramid of the keep rose into the sky, its top cut flat and broad, crowned with battlements. Maddie couldn't help but marvel at how quickly ARi had restored it. The structure stood as a reminder of what she was truly capable of. She didn't bother with the gate. Maddie built speed for the final approach and launched herself at the wall, her body phasing through the stone and bronze without slowing. The sensation lasted only a moment, and then she was through, bursting into the courtyard on a dead run, her feet hammering against the ancient cobblestones in a rhythm that echoed off the walls. The courtyard was broader than she remembered, the training ground beyond it well maintained and clear. The cobblestones lay smooth and even, the walls surrounding the open space in good repair. She ran toward the main keep, toward the hearth and the voices she could hear drifting out from the open doors. Her lungs burned, her muscles screamed, but none of that mattered. What mattered was the message, and the excitement that came with it. She burst through the doorway into the warmth of the keep, and every eye turned toward