And now, my brother
You've been laid to rest
Your sojourn is at a close
It came so fast
A blink and it's passed
And why, no one knows
Dance with the angels
Sing for our King
Enjoy your new crown
And your heavenly bling
Just tell me all about it
When I see you up there
Someday
The day my dogs I chose
I was all in a riot
An empty stomach was my diet
Our home was full of disquiet
My dogs were sweet, dare I deny it?
They are still now and quiet
Where the red fern grows.
My grief on me bestows
A sense of failed endeavor
To save my dogs, so clever
I know I’d do whatever—
Now I will see them never!
Will they lie there forever,
Where the red fern grows?
When I think of how often I said she was a nuisance, how I complained about giving her walks, how many times I wished we’d never gotten a dog, I cry. She was so good. She was so sweet and never bad. Her name was Pepper—Peppercheanie actually, but for short, we called her Pepper. She was speckled with brown on top of a white background of fur. Her whole head was plain brown, and smooth. Her ears were the softest and silkiest ears I have ever felt. And her eyes. They looked up at you in their sad way, sweet and sad and almost sorry. We loved her—I still do.
Gentlemen, we are fighting a war. A war that calls us to liberty. A war that calls us to fight against our captors. A war that calls us to regain what we have lost. Our homes; our families; our freedom. You have answered that call. We have fought battles. We have won. Now, when we have no chance of winning, we will not surrender!
They will fight brutally. They will come at us like dogs. We will look straight into their canons; we will stare up their guns; we will hear the clash of steel against steel, feel the blade at our throats—and we will fight on!
Prologue
The Globe Academy was established for the pure purpose of pushing students to the very limits of their human capabilities. If anyone had high hopes for their children, they tried their hardest to get them into the Globe.
- He sprinted through the empty hall, hugging an arm around his side as every step sent another shot of agonizing pain riding his spine.
Captain Aurelius Cassian held his breath. He prayed to Juno for a son for months after he was told of the pregnancy, and he sent incense to Jupiter for a princely fellow, Venus and Cupid for a boy of comely appearance, and Mars for a suitable warrior of Rome. He begged the gods for an heir.
Now, he waited for the result of his prayers.
When days are dead and skies are grey
When roads with dust are trodden down
When soil is hard as sunbaked clay
And once green grass is stiff and brown
When home is not but ash and dust
When children can no longer cry
When kindly friend has broken trust
And heart is now too tired to try
When mountain mist is turned to smoke
When clouds forever shade the earth
When dust that rises makes us choke
And child born is dead from birth
1: Radiance
He looked onto the girl with reverent eyes
And upon his face was slapped surprise.
Her hair bound ‘round her in rolling cadence
And harmony with her smile of radiance.
2: Laughter
He listened unto the girl with pleasure plain
As she giggled like a brook after playful rain.
None could look anywhere but at her
With the song of her soulful laughter.
3: Embrace
There at the door he stands with hope,
A lad of fourteen, tall and broad;
He knows not to what end he goes,
To take the ship that sails abroad—
That sails to places without hope.
Yet when he sees the pain that shows
On tender Mother’s brow so still,
He kisses her and softly says
“Dear Mother, I’ll come back, I will!”
Ileuad pulled her mud stained cloak tighter around herself, trying not to wake Ewen. She shuddered in the cold, and cast a glance over to the other side of the cave. There Adaon lay, never to rise again. He was shrouded in his dark cloak in the very farthest corner of the cave.