Well it's here! The February Blog Hop! Below is a posted excerpt of a chapter in my latest fantasy novel,
Schisms. It is the first in the Red World trilogy. I have also made available a partial of the novel in various digital forms on Feedbooks. It's a partial of ten chapters so you can download those chapters and you get part of a new chapter that has not yet been posted. (
link to first ten chapters of the novel, Schisms) To the right in the side bar are all of us bloggers who are participating in the Blog Hop! Check it out and happy reading!
Excerpt of Chapter Twenty-Three:
When Rhajit walked through the gate and entered the
arena he could hear the deafening roar of the crowds baying for
blood. He was numb to their wild cries. It was as if they were merely
a haze of specters. The sudden presence of harsh sunlight nearly
blinded him but he had the axes firmly in hand, feeling their tough,
hide grips. He swung them as if they were extensions of his arms,
ignoring the jeers and whistles. He refused to look in the direction
of the king or anything else but kept his eye focused on the north
gate. He was told two lions would come out from there. He had two
axes, sharp as the best sword blades and iced with venom. His father
had taught him hunting and how to wield weapons. When he was ten he
had killed a small desert lion and his brothers helped him skin it.
He still wore the tunic, fifteen years later. If he died perhaps he
would find himself resurrected in paradise to meet Airend-Ur and he
would have questions for Him. Like why did He allow such things like
these to happen to His people? Rhajit immediately pushed these
thoughts away. There was no time to be angry with the gods now. There
were lives to save, if he could manage it, his own the least of
these. The immense statues were the second things he saw after coming
from the dimness of the prisons. The whiteness of the stone was
bright like fire. There were the three sister-wives of Hec; the
queen, Hetar. She who judged whether one was worthy to go to the
halls of fire, Helia, the second wife that healed and bounded up the
dead to go to Hec or to the Black Fires, Hari the youngest who rode,
like Hec, a golden chariot and took the souls counted worthy by her
sisters in her chariot to the halls where Hec himself stood and
judged finally for himself and allowed entry. At least that was what
those who worshiped him believed. Then there were Hec's brothers,
Heros, the forger and maker of all weapons and Hinurayu the singer of
lays and songs of glory and battle. Then there was the unnamed one of
the Black Fires. Rhajit worshiped no god and viewed it all as
useless. It enraged him that any god would demand the innocent lives
of men and women just to sit in some hall drinking and eating.
Perhaps if he died he would go there and then he would have questions
for Hec as well. He shook these thoughts away and steadied himself as
the gates at the other end began to lift. It seemed to take forever.
Rhajit's eyes began to adjust to the light and he shifted his
attention to both his sight and his sense of smell. Finally, two
lions strode out into the arena, one roaring and shaking his great
mane. Rhajit suddenly felt his bowels turn and the knots turn over in
his stomach. He had never had to face two predators before.
“If there is a god in the heavens, be with me now.
Help me save these people and myself, if you will do nothing else.” He drew a deep breath as the crowd grew quiet and he took his stance,
the axes ready, heavy in his hands. The barest stains of the venom
created odd waves of color patterns in the metal. The bolder lion
came at a gallop. His mind extinguished all conscious thought and
became a swirling red storm of instinct and emotion. He raced forward
at the lion, his left arm over his chest to protect against a lunge
attack against his throat. He did not have time for more than one or
two blows and he was thankful for the fearfully sharp iron blades. He
leaped up like the joyful rams at play he often saw in his childhood
– the young men of the Karig tribes were known for jumping many
feet high like the mountain red-horned rams. His arms flew up beside
him like wings and he landed on his feet, painfully, right behind the
beast. The lion, turned quick as lightening and reared up and pounced
upon him as he drove the axes with all his might into the beast's
underbelly. The lion roared as he dug the blades in but could not
push any further. The lion had bitten into the side of his head but
the venom worked its evil quickly. As it tried to break his neck,
sinking its teeth into his skin, its body grew rigid. Rhajit
screamed, in pain, in fear and exhilaration and rolled himself out
from under the lion's weight. It roared again but this time in pain
from the venom. It's eyes had the look of rage as it snarled at him.
He hated to kill an animal for the amusement of lazy city people and
such a majestic one at that. Somewhere, a pride of lionesses wondered
where their king was. It's roars turned into wails. He felt his own
hot blood streaming from the side of his head. The lion had ripped a
gash in his scalp. In a rage against the crowd he thought to finish
the beast quickly when in the corner of his eye he saw movement. It
was the other lion moving in for the kill. Rhajit was bleeding, his
body hurting from the mauling with the first lion and blood was in
his eyes. His soul was emboldened again and he lept on his feet. The
second lion, younger and smaller than the first came at him, fangs
bared. It leaped forward and then instead of pouncing, swiped his
chest with long claws, ripping his leather-hide armor and then
jumping to the side and circling around again. They circled each
other for what seemed like an eternity with the crowd in rapt
attention. He paid no heed to anything or anyone outside of their
deadly circle. He only heard his own heart beat in his ears and the
snarls of the lion before him. Sweat poured off him like water. The
axes handles felt damp in his hands. He felt himself tiring from the
loss of blood. He kept his eyes on the beast and said a silent prayer
to Airend-Ur. The sun was high across the sky, glittering like a
bright white gemstone. So bright, in fact, that Rhajit saw his
opportunity. The sunlight glinted off the polished metal of his axes.
He turned them over. Suddenly the lion came in for the attack but
stopped for a moment, as if to look for him, blinded by the fierce
flash of sunlight. He would have only one chance. Like an attacking
bird of prey Rhajit leaped in the air and swiped the lion's back with
a hard blow from one of his axes. It roared in pain and rage and
jumped at him but he was just out of reach. He landed on the ground
on his back and the lion pounced upon him and held his arm fast in
its teeth and would not let go. Rhajit had dropped one of the axes
and shouted in agony and exhilaration but the other ax he used to
slit a gash across the side of lion's head, opening a long cut and
drawing blood, infecting it with the serpent venom. He nearly came
close to cutting himself with it. The lion loosened its bite, ripping
out a small chunk of his arm, staggered and rolled over. Rhajit then
turned over, with great difficulty, crawled to pick up the other ax
and he buried it deep, with all his might with his uninjured arm into
the young lion's neck taking off the head in four powerful blows. His
own strength, which was great, shocked him in that moment. The crowd
screamed in elation. Then, with great difficulty, he took the head of
the other lion. He was now trembling, ripped and bleeding and
sweating profusely. It was over. He saw the king wave a white silk.
He was the victor. Garlands were landing at his feet and there was
the roar of fevered adoration from the people. But he had no love for
them or the king. He felt the feral, animal-like instinct subsiding
within, finally, and his capacity to think reappeared. And the only
thing on his mind was revenge. Now he would have the names of the
greedy cowards who caused this uproar. And he made a silent vow. If
Amat did not keep his oath he would seek him out in a dark alley
somewhere and take his head, shrink it and hang it from his belt.
His eyesight became blurred and he soon saw the world
turning dark. (
Amazon) (
B&N)
