The Forgotten Wole

THE FORGOTTEN WOLE THE GOLDEN FOOL BOOK 2 JASPER ALDEN D.K. HOLMBERG Copyright © 2023 by ASH Publishing Cover art by Damonza.com All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. CONTENTS Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Author’s Note Series by Jasper Alden Similar Series by D.K. Holmberg CHAPTER ONE “We know you’re here!” murmured a voice, soft and slow like mist creeping through the empty streets. “Come out, and we promise to kill you quick!” The words faded over the town of Timid Bluff on the very border of The Forgotten Wole, between the great city of Grum and the wild beyond. Timid Bluff overlooked a chasm, the homes and buildings stacked on wooden platforms crisscrossing the gaping maw of the abyss. Slate and wood and the occasional brick structure crowded the edge of the cliff, the slanted walls and thatched roofs peering precipitously into the chasm’s dark belly. The streets of Timid Bluff currently played host to two figures. One of them was tall, with shoulder-length curling golden hair. He had a young face, despite his height. He wore a strange band on his wrist which seemed to shift from glass to stone every time his body moved. After a moment, however, he stopped moving, standing still as frost next to his companion. This second figure loomed shorter than the first, but the form he cut doubly intimidated. His were the words still resonating through the streets. “I mean it!” he continued, raising his voice. “Show yourself—now.” He seemed a shadow within a shadow. A handsome face with a pronounced jawline and blue eyes conceded to a bronze mask covering half his countenance. He also wore a bracelet, glimpsed just beneath his wrist—a stone bangle with green etching. He seemed little older than the first. Talen and Davin Aurem faced down the windswept main street of Timid Bluff. “Think it’s here?” Talen whispered, glancing surreptitiously out the corner of his eye at Davin. Talen fidgeted nervously, rubbing his hands together and licking the corners of his lips. “Maybe it went away. Maybe it went back into the chasm.” Davin didn’t shift at all. His hand rested on the basket hilt of the saber at his side. He was a man who’d spent the last six months as a vigilante, hunting and dispatching the more wretched sorts in the big city of Grum. “Your girlfriend seemed confident enough,” he said. His tone inflected nothing, but his blue eye, free of the mask, twinkled. “She’s not my girlfriend,” snapped Talen. “Keep your voice down,” Davin said in a would-be innocent tone. “We don’t want to alert it to anything.” Talen rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to reach out and slap his brother. It was true they had spent more than six months separated, but growing up, they had been the best of friends. Thankfully, it had been nearly impossible for over six months of pain to completely rip away all the roots established over a lifetime of brotherhood. If anything, at least on his end, Talen valued Davin more than ever. They were the sole living members of their immediate family. Both of them were two of the richest men in all of Newarden, but Talen would have happily eaten every copper if it meant he could have his parents back, and he would pay double to make sure he never lost Davin again. He found himself choking up a little, and this time he refused to glance at his brother. But Davin, always the one to read the room, snickered and said, “My baby brother has a girlfriend.” This time, Talen did reach out and slap his brother. A mild scuffle ensued, which ended, as it often did, with Talen’s head jammed beneath his brother’s armpit. He was starting to regret this plan. Smelling the odor of an older brother’s armpit had a way of making a soul question one’s life choices. But Gwin had been adamant. In order to locate a specific magician, they needed the blood of a certain type of creature. It just so happened there had been rumors of some such creature in one of the towns bordering the Forgotten Wole. Of course, Talen hadn’t realized what would go into hunting one of these things down. The town of Timid Bluff had been more than happy to allow these self-proclaimed monster hunters access to the village. The townspeople were all hiding, following instructions from earlier that day to stay out of sight with the doors locked and windows shuttered in order to deter the creature from hunting its next meal. Davin finally let Talen go and again cried out, “Show yourself!” Again, there was no answer. A stiff, chill wind swept through the streets, raising goose bumps on the back of Talen’s arms. Dark clouds filled the sky and threatened to rain. The chasm, only a stone’s throw away, opened like a gaping wound in the land, spilling with black blood. Talen shivered as he glanced at the abyss, wondering how far he would fall before hitting the bottom. He reached out with his mind, checking the various futures, up to a minute ahead. Even in the ones where he flung himself from the cliff, he never struck the bottom before he reached the end of the vision. He shuddered. Falling more than a minute? The abyss went deep indeed. In the previous morning’s daylight, he hadn’t managed to spot the