Today’s tour host is Nicholas C. Rossis, who will be sharing a guest post from me with five tips for new writers. I hope the tips help some fellow authors.
Don’t forget that, for a limited time only, you can get 13 fantasy and science fiction books for only 99c! Head over to iBooks and take a look at Doorway to Destiny.
Wizard of Ends, Book 1
Extract
Time seemed to slow and the scene grew hazy. Lashlor blinked. He sensed it. Without doubt. Assassa and Thorona were afraid of him. They must perceive the magic flowing through his veins, but a sorceress as powerful as Assassa had no reason to fear a lesser wizard like him, who’d had almost no practice at magic in recent years. Thorona’s magic was weak, so she would give him no trouble, but Assassa…
Lashlor took a sharp breath of fright as Thorona flicked an energy bolt at him. Chilling war cries filled the air as Lashlor flung up his hands in reflex. An arm’s length from his face, the bolt vanished with a pop. Something yelped and a woman shrieked. Lashlor turned to the sounds. Captain Amkesh had wounded a beyeni and the king struggled on the ground, trying to hold back the beyeni straddling him. The wounded beyeni’s eyes filled with hate and it leapt at the captain, who also fell. Both the queen’s guards were down, one already dead. She cast panicked glances between the king and beyeni as she backed into a wall.
It was now or never.
Lashlor took a steeling breath.
Ignoring the survival instinct that urged him to flee, he focussed on the thunderclouds Assassa had conjured. A teal mist dropped down like a curtain, falling between Queen Narraki and the three beyeni that advanced on her. The first creature reached it and sniffed, drawing back with a yelp as its nose came into contact with the magical mist.
That should keep those beyeni busy for a while.
Lashlor clenched his hand and made a vicious twisting motion, and the beyeni that ripped chunks out of the unconscious – or dead – king slackened and fell on top of its bloody victim. A similar motion saved Captain Amkesh from certain death just as a beyeni sank its teeth into his neck.
Something tickled Lashlor’s arm and he turned his head to look. Thorona stared at him, disbelief warping her aura. A beyeni limped away, towards its mistress, its tail between its legs. A glance around showed no other magic users. Who, then, had cast the spell to protect him from the beyeni’s attack? Clearly, someone so powerful that even a beyeni was afraid to anger whoever it was – and he hadn’t thought it possible for a conjured creature to disobey a command or feel fear.
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For tomorrow only, you can get Wizard of Ends, Book 2: Dark Creature for only 99c at Smashwords! Watch this blog for the publication announcement tomorrow, or pre-order it now.
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