The Book of Signs
The Books of the Dead Trilogy: Book One
by
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The dogs should have caught him by now.
He’d run harder and faster than he had ever had to run before, but now total fatigue had taken over from the blind panic that had started him running.
The dogs should have easily caught him by now.
His thighs ached, his calves were cramped, and his feet throbbed with every step. His breath came in shallow, ragged gasps, and his chest was squeezed so tight the breath seemed to stop in his throat. He didn’t think you could call it running anymore. Staggering in an almost straight line was more like it. …
He forced himself up and kept running; he had to … they must be close behind. …
Why hadn’t the dogs caught up with him?
He may not have known exactly who was chasing him, but he did know why they were after him. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time and had heard and seen too much. Even if that place was his own bed at the break of day and everything he’d seen and heard was through a knothole. It mattered little now, and he was paying for it dearly.
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About the Book
Sixteen-year-old Kaul, a bartender’s helper, is rudely awakened one morning by angry voices outside his sleeping room in the saloon. It is not long before he realizes he has just unwittingly overheard the details of an evil plot to kill the Queen. Kaul has seen and heard too much. Suddenly, his life is in danger.
Kaul has no choice but to escape quickly, not knowing where he is headed. Feeling the pull of the huge, unfriendly Carpan Forest, he enters a foreign world he has always feared. As unknown pursuers with large dogs and an uncanny knowledge of the forest gain with every step, Kaul attempts to shake his seekers and forge on before all is lost—including, perhaps, his own life. But then Kaul meets his appointed guide, Endira—an old woman who holds her gnarled wooden cane more like a weapon than a walking stick. With her, he begins a coming-of-age journey that leads him through a continuous battlefield of ever-increasing foes to budding love and a new beginning.
In this fast-paced epic, a boy transforms into a man and realizes an inner-strength he never knew he possessed.
About the Author
Steven Toma has been an avid reader and writer since he attended college as an economics major. He currently resides in Mississauga, Ontario, with his wife Wendy, and their two children and dogs.