Adonias Low

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Adonias Low - book excerpt

It was still full dark out when Adonias stepped out to the yard early the next morning and made his way over to the stable to wake and ready Angus for their journey to the Hilltop.

After feeding and saddling the surly beast, who seemed to resent being woken at such an ungodly hour, Adonias took hold of Angus's reins and led the old mule out to the yard. In the east, the dark of night was just showing the slightest tinge of wan yellow behind the wall of jagged mountaintops. The burgeoning dawn's warmth hadn't reached them yet though, and Adonias shivered in the cold wind, fastening the buttons on his worn, fleece-lined coat and pulling his hat down a little firmer. He paused a moment, silently mouthing a short prayer of protection as he looked back at the house where his children slept. Then he mounted up, put the ranch to his back, rode out of the yard and away.

The Hilltop was a hard three hours ride down the western road, and it was a trail not to be trifled with. Adonias had made the journey countless times, but kept his eyes and ears open all the way, and as he went, passed more than one rickety wooden cross planted in the dirt by the trailside, marking the passage of some unfortunate traveller.