So last month I got an email by author Vanessa Finaughty asking to take part "in the blog tour for my Wizard of Ends fantasy adventure e-book series." I have never done such a thing on Stars Uncounted before so I thought, why not? Tis nice to support my fellow fantasy authors and if other blogs are taking part then no reason why my mostly humble one should not join the party.
So, without further ado: Welcome to Day 4 of the Wizard of Ends virtual book tour. Today's free read is Wizard of Ends, Book 1, Chapter 3. You can read Chapter 1 here and Chapter 2 here.
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Wizard of Ends, Book 1 – Chapter 3
Lashlor awoke to terrified shouts outside the cabin. He shot up in bed and looked across the room as Queen Narraki sprang from her bed. Lashlor joined her at the window and scanned the darkening forest.
“Shouldn’t one of the guards be here?” he asked, frowning.
The queen glanced around the room as if to double-check that they were alone.
Her brow furrowed. “Yes.”
Lashlor grabbed his bow and quiver. “Stay here, My Queen, and latch the door.”
He stepped outside, closed the door and waited to hear the latch slide across.
More shouts came from the trees. Lashlor made his way towards the sound, hastening his steps when the yells became more urgent. He halted when the two Guards of Ends came into view.
Nashel and Kanar stood back to back, sweeping out their swords in an attempt to keep at bay the pack of hound monkeys that surrounded them.
Lashlor counted seven of the creatures. Hound monkeys usually travelled in packs of ten, for some odd reason. It was possible, but unlikely that three hound monkeys from the same pack had been killed so close together that replacements had not yet been found for any of them. Unlikely, for the ferocious beasts stood man height on all fours and, with the torso of a hound and the neck and head of a monkey, complete with sharp curved teeth and deadly claws, if fear alone didn’t kill you, the hound monkeys themselves most certainly would. The fact that Nashel and Kanar had lasted this long was either testament to their renowned skill, or the hound monkeys were playing with them, as they were sometimes known to do.
Lashlor loosed an arrow, striking one hound monkey in the side of the head. It fell, writhing. Its pack eyed him hatefully and two slunk away from the Guards of Ends, fixated on Lashlor.
Where were the other three pack members? Lashlor looked around nervously as he backed away from the hound monkeys, raising his bow again. He killed the closest one mid-spring, and then threw himself aside as a second launched itself at him. He dropped his bow and reached into his boot for his knife. He used it for cutting herbs, but it would do nicely as a weapon too.
“Wizard! What are you doing? Save yourself – and us!” Kanar shouted, jabbing his sword at a hound monkey that got too close.
Lashlor kicked the hound monkey in the head as it attacked again, and then screamed when it bit through his boot and shook its head viciously, tearing off the boot’s heel. He shoved it away as it took a swipe at his face, but it grabbed him in a bear hug. They grappled and he stabbed it in the side of the head five times before it stopped moving.
A glance at the Guards of Ends showed they were still surrounded by five hound monkeys. Lashlor wasn’t surprised they hadn’t killed even one – the creatures were expert hunters – then again, so were the two men.
“Behind you!” Lashlor yelled as a hound monkey, clearly deciding that play time was over, leapt at Kanar’s back.
Kanar had only half turned when the creature was upon him. He went down, sword flailing. Nashel made to help him, but two hound monkeys sprang at him and he was forced away from his comrade.
Lashlor ran to help Kanar, but stopped halfway there when the three ‘missing’ pack members emerged from the trees, eyes fixed on him.
It appeared he had no choice but to…
A sizzling sound and a white flash filled the forest. Lashlor squinted into the light – wizard fire.
A lone man stood a few paces from him, hands raised and chanting the ancient language that only certain magic users were capable of learning.
When the light dissipated moments later, not a single hound monkey remained alive.
It was all very anticlimactic, Lashlor thought.
He wiped sweaty palms on his trousers and hastened to Kanar and Nashel, both of whom glared at him.
“How did you get that pendant around your neck?” Nashel demanded.
Lashlor frowned. “What are you implying?”
“You’re no wizard,” Kanar said, sheathing his sword. “If you were, you would have killed those things the moment you saw them.”
“Like I did,” said their rescuer, coming closer. “It was easy.”
Dressed in a tight-fitting black tunic with gold trimmings, his blond hair slicked back and gold rings adorning his fingers, he looked completely out of place in the forest.
“Thank the goddess you came upon us!” Kanar shook the stranger’s hand. “I’m Kanar and this is Nashel.” He glared at Lashlor. “And this is our fake wizard ‘friend’.” He stared at the pendant Lashlor wore. “How did you get that pendant around your neck?” he asked menacingly.
“Oh, come now, does it matter?” asked the stranger. “What matters is we’re all alive, right?”
“No thanks to this fraud,” Kanar muttered, glaring at Lashlor again.
“It was my pleasure to risk my life to save yours,” Lashlor retorted, beginning to lose his patience.
“You didn’t save us. We’d all be dead now if not for the wizard!” Kanar shouted. “The real wizard. It’s illegal to wear a medallion if you aren’t a magic user. The queen will hear of this; that, I promise!”
“It’s not illegal,” Lashlor said. “Just impossible.”
“Yet here you are, a non-magic user pretending to be a wizard. How did you get the confounded thing around your neck?” Nashel asked again, clenching his hands.
“Maybe next time I’ll just leave you ungrateful louts to die.” Lashlor retrieved his bow, turned on his heel and strode away.
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Lashlor was only halfway through the door when Queen Narraki asked, “What of the guards? Was it them screaming?”
“Yes. A pack of hound monkeys attacked them.”
The queen raised a hand to her mouth and gasped.
“Don’t worry, they’re fine.”
Her brow creased as she dropped her hand to her side. “Then why do you look so upset?”
Lashlor shrugged. “They think I’m fake.”
“Fake?”
“Yes, as in not a real wizard.”
The queen smiled thinly. “Then they’re fools. Surely they know only a wizard can wear one of those.” She pointed at his medallion.
“Yes, and they want to know how a fake can wear it.”
Her frown deepened. “Why do they think you’re fake?”
Lashlor sighed. “I didn’t use magic to defend us against the hound monkeys.”
Queen Narraki sighed and shook her head. “Why on earth not? You don’t come across as a fool, yet this is the second time in the short time I’ve known you that you’ve acted like one.”
“My Queen, the moment I saw there would be no survival otherwise, I prepared to use magic to save us, but–”
The door opened and the two Guards of Ends entered – with the other wizard.
“Then he showed up,” Lashlor finished, pointing at the stranger.
“We owe him our life, My Queen,” Nashel said.
“Then he will be richly rewarded, for, in so doing, he might have saved mine too,” Queen Narraki said. “What is your name?”
The blond wizard bowed – far lower than necessary, Lashlor noted with a scowl.
Butt creeper.
“My name is Undassan, My Queen. Pray tell, why are you here, so far from home, with only two guards?”
“That is none of your business!” Lashlor snapped.
“It is his business if the queen wishes to answer!” Kanar snapped back.
“And I wish not,” the queen said calmly. “I apologise for the secrecy, Undassan, but my presence here must remain a secret. You cannot tell anyone you saw me.”
“Of course, My Queen. Your secret is safe with me.”
A certainty swept through Lashlor that the strange wizard would be the death of someone, perhaps the queen. Not for the first time in his life, he had the intense urge to commit murder. He would be saving someone innocent, he was sure. Why had the Guards of Ends even brought that wizard to the cabin or told him about the queen?
Fools.
Undassan bade them goodbye and Lashlor watched from the window as he walked back into the forest. When he was no longer visible, Lashlor turned to the queen. “We should leave this place, find somewhere else. It is no longer safe here.”
“Don’t be silly,” the queen said. “He seems perfectly nice to me. He will tell no one I am here.”
“I hope you are right, My Queen, but I think you are not.”
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King Lanaran forced himself to remain on the throne when the guards dragged the terrified serving girl before him and shoved her to her knees. Her shackles had been fastened too tight, so her wrists and ankles were already red. The guards had been bold to shackle her that way without his orders – or to shackle her at all, since he had not ordered it. For once, Lanaran didn’t care. She had arranged for the murder of his beloved and he was unwilling to forgive that.
“What makes you think you are entitled to my family’s crown?”
Assassa tossed her head and her waist-length black hair fell partly across her face.
The disrespect angered Lanaran. “I can have you hanged – nice and quick – or I can have you flailed… nice and slow,” he said icily. “The choice is yours. But do not keep me waiting. I am not a patient man.”
Assassa sneered, “We share the same father.”
Lanaran gaped and then snorted. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
His balding chief advisor, Kealmonn, whispered in his ear.
Lanaran scowled. “So? My father couldn’t keep it in his pants. What of it? By law, a child born out of wedlock is not entitled to anything from the father.” He nodded at the guards. “Have her hanged.”
“He’ll die without me,” she said smugly.
“Wait,” Lanaran ordered the guards. He scowled at her. “Who are you talking about? And be careful about wasting my time with nonsense, or I will order you flailed before you are hanged.”
“The child I kidnapped. Only I know where he is, he has no food or water, and he cannot escape.” She grinned.
“My King,” Amkesh said, stepping forward. “Forgive my boldness.” He bowed. “But there is a woman waiting to see you when you are done here. She says her son has been kidnapped and only you can save him.”
“How does she think I can save him?” Lanaran glowered.
“She says she doesn’t know, My King; just that the kidnappers told her to come to you for help.”
“Told her?”
“In a note, My King.”
“If you do not relinquish your crown,” Assassa said, “he will die, and his mother will hate you, as will many others. You will lose your kingdom anyway. Only then you won’t have anyone to turn to, because the people will hate the man who would let an innocent child die. You have until sunup to make your choice, brother.”
Lanaran rose from his throne and held out a hand for his sword. “I would sooner kill you,” he grated as he strode towards her.
Assassa raised her shackled hands and a blinding yellow light filled the throne room.
Lanaran’s vision dimmed as he slumped.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! You can read Chapter 4 here and Chapter 5 here.
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