I’ve been told that the release of Book 4 is imminent.
I invited Sandron, brother to Duke Larrin of Sendolina, to come and have a chat. He eagerly agreed.
Image: young man with a dragonet on his shoulder sitting in a castle room . Image generated by Vivienne Sang using Bing AI Generator
Hi, Sandron. It’s good of you to agree to join me.
Sandron: Thank you for asking me.
Me: I understand you are the youngest of three. What was it like, growing up with two older brothers?
Sandron: Well, I’d have preferred being the second. Not the eldest, though.
Me: Why was that? The eldest would become the Duke of Sendolina. Wouldn’t you have liked that?
Sandron: *Shakes his head.* Nah! Not for me. Too much work. But it suits Larrin perfectly. He was much more serious than either Brand or myself.
Me: Brand is your other brother–the middle one of the three of you?
Sandron: Was. Brand is no longer with us. He was murdered by that fellow, Hammevaro, at a banquet. He’d come to Grosmer as Erian’s ambassador and poisoned the wine for the top table. That included all the dukes, Crown Prince Perdillon and his wife, Princess Helloria, King Gerim and Queen Carolla and Princess Dara. Sadly, King Gerim died, along with several dukes. Princess Helloria had just gone into labour with Prince Gerim and so she and Perdillon had left, and Prince Almoro was sulking over Randa, so remained in his room. Brand was one who succumbed, too. *Wipes his hand over his face.*
Me: Why did Hammevaro do this?
Sandron: In order to try to remove all experienced leaders to make Erian’s invasion easier. *Thumps the table.*
Me: You miss Brand.
Sandron: Yes. I miss him every day. *sighs* We had such fun, especially when Randa came to live with us. Her father sent her to share our tutor. *grins*. We called him Snagtooth. His real name was Professor Snaggletuf, as he had very uneven teeth the nickname fit.
Me: Larrin became Duke of Sendolina. What did Brand and you do?
Sandron: Brand joined the army. It suited him, and I’ve no doubt he’d have made it to the highest level. Second sons went into the army. Third sons, *pauses for a second* usually joined one of the temples and became priests. That wasn’t the life for me. I honour the gods, of course, but don’t have a preference.
Me: Why didn’t you join the army?
Sandron: No good at following orders. I’d have questioned them if I thought I had a better idea. Not a good trait in a soldier!
Me: So what did you do?
Sandron: *He broke into laughter.* I became the leader of a bandit gang. No one knew until we captured Wolf on their way back from finding Sauvern’s Sword and Randa recognised me. She then gave me the idea of becoming legit and forming a mercenary troop.
Me: You have a much bigger part to play in this current part of the story. Are you pleased about that?
Sandron: Yes… and no. It doesn’t always show me in the best light. But I was pleased to help my country.
Me: Thank you for coming to Dragons Rule OK.
Sandron: It was a pleasure. Thank you for inviting me.
I’m really looking forward to the release of this book. I enjoyed writing it immensely. It took a long time, but very shortly it’ll be released into the wild.
If you’ve not read the other books in the series, it begins with The Wolf Pack, goes on to Wolf Moon and The NeverDying Man, and now Immortal’s Death.
It all begins with a prophecy found in an ancient book.
When Kalhera descends from the mountains And orcs once more roam the land: When impossible beasts occur And the Never-Dying Man is once more at hand, Then the Sword that was lost must once more be found. Only it can destroy the threat And kill the Immortal Mortal To balance out his debt.
A newly-promoted mage, a priestess in disgrace, an outcast ranger, an aristocratic young lady. These come together along with others, to try to find Sauvern’s Sword–a mythical, magic sword lost for hundreds of years.
Their quest leads them to near death, rescue by strange creatures, a visit to foreign lands, capture and escape.
Can they succeed in finding the Sword, in order to save the land of Grosmer from peril?
You can get the books by clicking on the cover in the sidebar.
If you have anyone who likes Epic Fantasy in your family, these would make excellent Christmas presents.
The first book in the Wolves of Vimar series opens with the burial of a king and his magical sword, and the sacrifice of twelve warriors whose spirits will protect his body from harm until the eight “wolves” come. This prophecy results, many years later, in a quest, as eight characters are sent by a duke to bring back the sword.
The book is divided into thirds. Part I takes its time introducing the characters who represent a variety of races including humans, elves, dwarves, and their half-elf leader, Carthinal. The group includes the duke’s entitled daughter Randa, a married horselord couple, and a young thief with a thick accent. The backstory for most of the characters comes through multiple points of view with some omnipresent narration.
Part II of the story begins the journey. The author’s attention to world-building is evident as the “wolf pack” wends their way across the land. Part III covers the journey home. The pace is moderate throughout with tangents for fun, humor, and a bit of romance. Much of the book’s journeying reminded me of a Dungeons and Dragons quest, with a variety of creatures offering challenges along the way including Yetis, dragons, nymphs, bandits, hobgoblins, and other fantasy monsters.
The characters are distinct but for me, the book was more of a plot-driven read than an emotionally-deep character-driven one. Most of the characters don’t have significant arcs apart from Randa, the entitled duke’s daughter, and for that reason, I found her the most interesting. Though the first book in the series, it also stands alone well. Recommended to YA readers of high-fantasy quests who enjoy a leisurely pace, plot-driven stories, and encounters with otherworldly creatures and monsters.
I thought you might like to know that I’ve just signed the contract for Book 4 of The Wolves of Vimar series. It’s called Immortal’s Death. I’ll keep you informed as to the progress!
I apologise for going missing for a couple of weeks. I’ve had a few family problems, and while not entirely resolved, I’ve now got a bit of energy back.
So here is the final part of Carthinal’s Practical Test.
Carthinal has successfully negotiated the labrynth where the test takes place and faced and defeated several enemies as well as using his intelligence to solve some problems. Now he is faced with the final test.
The corridor widened and became a large circular room with four doorways leading from it. The four doors were closed, but in the centre of the room was a circular device made of metal. On the top was a second circle of metal, slightly smaller, with an arrow engraved on one side.
Carthinal looked carefully at the device and it became apparent that the piece of metal on the top rotated over the lower one. There were four lines engraved on the lower circle across the diameter and at right angles to each other. Carthinal did not touch it yet. He needed to know more before doing anything. He looked around the room, and saw that there was writing all around, just above the height of the doors.
At that moment, his rush torch went out.
He lit another and, noticing that he was getting down to the last few, he approached the wall to the left of the door through which he had entered the room and held up the torch. There was a two-line rhyme, which read,
‘The spring wind blows cross mountains wide ‘Through land of horse where barbarians ride.’
Continuing round the room, he pieced together the following,
‘From icy mountains encased in snow ‘In winter, do the cold winds blow.
‘The summer winds are soft and warm ‘They blow from desert and waving palm.
‘The autumn winds are rough and wild ‘They bring doom for man and child.
‘So turn me round and I will show ‘The proper way that you must go
‘But get it wrong and sorry be ‘For you must fight or you must flee.’
‘It’s some sort of puzzle to locate the correct door,’ he muttered to himself.
He paused to consider the words again. He wanted to be absolutely sure he got it right as he did not want to face the consequences of a wrong choice.
‘“Turn me round.” That’s probably the device in thecentre. It must be like a combination lock. I don’t suppose there’ll be any help in listening for mechanisms working. It implies that a door will open anyway, and if it is wrong, dire consequences will result. OK. Then the other rhymes must give the directions. The second one must be the south wind as the Great Desert is in the south. The Barbarians with their horses are over the Western Mountains, so that must be the west wind. The one from the icy mountains must be the north wind, which leaves, by a process of elimination, the east wind for the final one. Ah! Got it. The clue is in the word “doom”. The Mountains of Doom are to the east.
That means it refers to the compass directions in the order: west, north, south and east. That must be the direction I turn the wheel.’
The problem now was locating north. There had been so many twists and turns that Carthinal had lost all sense of direction. ‘Bas, I could do with you now!’ he said, thinking of the ability of dwarves to locate direction underground. ‘Or I could do with a lodestone.’
He considered for a little longer, then decided that the mages would not have given an impossible task, so maybe there was a lodestone, or some other hint, hidden somewhere and he had missed it.
After searching the room carefully, nothing became apparent, so he backtracked to the corridor that he had missed. He entered it holding his light high and walking with care, on the lookout for enemies.
There did not seem to be any danger down this tunnel. Suddenly, his light glinted off something in the wall of the tunnel. It was the door to a cupboard cut out of the rock. It was the metal ring to the left side of the door that glinted. He did not know whether there were any traps on the door, so he took his dagger and, standing to the side and as far away as he could, he raised the latch. The door swung open. He waited for a few seconds until he was sure that nothing was going to go off belatedly, and then held his light so that he could see into the space.
At first, he saw nothing, but when he put his hand into the cupboard and felt around, he came across a small object. On withdrawing it, he saw that it was a small case with a glass lid, and suspended inside the case was a small piece of lodestone, one end marked with red paint.
‘Just what I was looking for!’ he remarked, feeling rather smug.
He retraced his footsteps until he came back to the large round room, and now he could establish which way north was. He put the lodestone down, and turned the upper wheel until the notch was pointing to the west. After that, he rotated it to the north, then south, then east.
There was a rumbling sound. Carthinal held his breath, and the second door to the right slowly swung open. He waited for a few seconds, but nothing came out. He put out the torch so he could use infravision better and carefully approached the tunnel.
No heat sources to be seen, so he cautiously entered. Feeling his way, Carthinal crept along a tunnel that wound backwards and forwards, sometimes seeming to go back on itself a number of times. By now he had lost all sense of time, but decided that since no one had come to collect him, he must still be within the six hours, although it felt that he had been creeping along dark tunnels for days.
He stopped for another drink and looked around. Still no heat sources. He lit another torch, noting with dismay that it was his last, and praying to Majora he was near enough to the end for it to last.
After a short while, a wall appeared in front of him. He stopped, thinking there had been no side passages for him to miss.
He noticed a cool breeze around his feet. Looking down, he saw a dark shadow towards the bottom of the wall to his left. He knelt, and sure enough, there was a low passage, only high enough to crawl along. Carthinal did not like this idea, as he felt vulnerable being unable to run, and with insufficient space to cast spells or throw his dagger.
Memories came unbidden as to how mages sometimes died in the practical test. The more he tried to push those thoughts away, the more they stalked him, like ghosts, quietly and almost imperceptibly. He broke out into a sweat, and felt himself shiver.
‘This is no good,’ he scolded. ‘If you want to pass this damned test, you’ve got to go in there! Remember you promised Mabryl to do your best to get through.’
With that, he hitched his robe out of the way so he could crawl, and put out the light, as there would be no possibility of using it safely. It would have been humiliating to set himself on fire and have to be rescued. With that thought, he entered the tunnel.
‘Thank the gods for infravision. This would be a dreadful ordeal if one couldn’t see anything.’
Occasional small heat sources could be seen, but they were just spiders and beetles.
Carthinal’s skin crawled as he thought of them getting in his clothing and onto his skin. Second only to undead, Carthinal hated spiders.
Eventually, after what seemed like hours of crawling, but was in reality only about fifteen minutes, the crawl way ended in another large room. At the exit from the crawl way, Carthinal paused and looked.
‘Oh shit!’
Ahead of him was a large shape glowing red. It turned its eight red eyes towards where Carthinal crouched by the tunnel. It was a gigantic spider.
‘Oh shit!’ he re-iterated as the creature ran towards him across the room.
He remembered the true seeing spell he had on a scroll. Reasoning the mages would not deliberately try to kill their apprentices, he quickly pulled it out and read it.
The spell took effect as the spider was about to strike.
To his relief it disappeared.
It had been an illusion after all.
Behind where the spider had crouched was a door.
Carthinal ran across to it, looking around for any more nasty surprises, and pulled the door open.
Light flooded into the cavern, blinding Carthinal for a moment, and he staggered over the threshold. Hands guided him to a chair, and voices were congratulating him for being the first one back.
Slowly it dawned on him that he was out of the tunnels, and had succeeded in completing the practical test. His sense of relief was immense, and he offered up a prayer of thanks to Majora for his success. It was several minutes before he realised what it meant. He had passed his test and was now no longer an apprentice.
‘I did it, Mabryl. You said I would, but I didn’t believe you,’ he murmured.
‘What did you say?’ A voice spoke from by his side.
‘Oh, nothing. Was I talking aloud?’ He turned to see who had spoken.
It was the mage who had overseen his test, Yssalithissandra.
‘Well done. You got back with half an hour to spare. We’re expecting some of the others any time now. How are you feeling?’
She sounded genuinely concerned, so Carthinal stood and told her he was feeling fine.
He stretched and looked towards the other doors. One of them was opening, and through it came Olipeca. She looked very tired, but not completely spent.
He guessed she had not needed to use all her spells either. Her examiner escorted her to a chair, and spoke reassuring words to her.
She seemed to realise she was out of the test tunnels and within the given time. Her face lit up with a smile. Her hair had come loose from its customary tight and severe style. It hung loose around her face, and the ecstatic smile as she realised she had made it through in time, made her look almost pretty.
One of the other doors opened and through it staggered Grimmaldo. He managed to get over the threshold but collapsed into the waiting arms of his examiner, and was all but carried to a chair. He had made it with only a few minutes to spare, but he had made it.
Carthinal looked around. There were three of them back, and there were five arch-mages.
Carthinal was going to ask where the sixth arch-mage was when another door opened and he came in carrying something. He put it down on the floor, and the others could see that it was Laurre.
He was lying very still. The mage said something to the others which the now ex-apprentices could not hear. Then he came over to where they were waiting.
‘I am very sorry to tell you that your friend, Laurre, did not make it through the labyrinth. He died in the ambush section. A great pity. We always regret the loss of a student, but the tests are essential as I am sure you appreciate.’
‘What about Ebrassaria and Hammevaro?’ asked Grimmaldo.
As he was speaking, and the final few seconds ticked away, one of the last two doors opened and Hammevaro literally fell into the room, and was immediately violently sick on the floor.
One of the mages called for an apprentice to clear it up as he lifted Hammevaro to one of the chairs, where he immediately passed out.
‘Well, he’s just made it,’ Grimmaldo whispered, ‘but what about Ebrassaria?’
In answer to his question, one of the wizards entered the final door and a few minutes later emerged with Ebrassaria clinging onto his arm.
She looked the worst of them all, barely able to stand, and paler even than Grimmaldo looked before entering.
The arch-mage accompanying her led her to a chair and sat her down. He gave her sips of water and talked to her quietly.
She did not seem to realise what was going on or where she was at first, then suddenly it seemed to dawn on her that she was out of the labyrinth and that since she had required an escort out, she had not passed the practical.
She burst into tears.
Yssalithissandra spoke quietly to the others. ‘Of course, this means she has failed to pass this test as she did not get out of the labyrinth in time,’ she sighed. ‘A great pity as she did so well in the theory. Still, a mage needs to be a practitioner as well as a theorist. She can always retake another time.’
As the group of newly promoted mages left the room Yssalithissandra approached Carthinal.
Grimmaldo, and Hammevaro left to collapse somewhere to sleep, and Olipeca to find her master to give her the good news.
‘I have something that Mabryl was bringing for you,’ Carthinal told her. ‘An old spell book he thought would help you in your research of the lost knowledge.’
‘Really?’ replied the woman. ‘How odd I should turn out to be your examiner. Come to my rooms later and you can give it to me. We can talk about Mabryl. I knew him well when he was in the tower and would like to catch up on his life after he left here.’
‘Thank you,’ Carthinal answered, ‘I would like that.’
He realised that he was telling the truth. He was now ready to deal with Mabryl’s death and actually wanted to talk about him.
If you would like to know what happened to Carthinal after the test, the first book of The Wolves of Vimar series is available from your favourite online store as a paperback, hardback, e book or audio book. Just click on the button below, or on the cover on the sidebar.
During the writing of The Wolf Pack, I decided to eliminate a chapter where Carthinal took the practical test to end his apprenticeship and enter the world of full mages. This is part of that chapter.
I’ll post more of it eventually. Probably next week.
Please don’t judge it too harshly. It was my first ever attempt at writing a novel!
PRACTICAL
This was it.
The final and most important part of the test was to begin a little later than the others, at the fourth hour.
There were still six of them as all had learned of their success in the previous afternoon’s test, Carthinal and Ebrassaria gaining distinctions. (The elf had looked rather piqued to find that a mere half-elf seemed to be matching her efforts in the written tests.)
This time, instead of going upstairs to the room where they had done their written tests, they were escorted down many flights of stairs to a room well below ground level.
Their guide left them in a circular room devoid of furniture, but which boasted seven doors in the walls, including the one through which they had entered.
Six mages entered from the other doors and introduced themselves to the candidates. There was to be one mage to watch each candidate.
Carthinal’s examiner was an elven mage who introduced herself as Yssalithissandra. (Yssa for short she told him in a whisper, giving him a wink.) One of the examining mages gave them their instructions.
“You will each enter a different door, and have six hours to find the door to return to this room. There will be a number of problems and dangers for you to overcome. When you return, you’ll be assessed on the efficacy of your use of magic and how well you conserved your strength. We will also assess the way you solved any problems you will meet on the way.” He paused to wipe his glasses. You are allowed to take one scroll and one weapon with you, but no magical items.” He looked around the six candidates. “There is a real danger of death in the test before you. If any of you wish to pull out, now is the time.”
Carthinal looked around. No one moved, although Olipeca looked rather pale, and Grimmaldo looked decidedly green. No. No one was going to pull out.
They selected their weapon and scroll.
Carthinal chose to take his dagger, which he always had strapped to his wrist, and a True Seeing scroll, having decided it was quite possible that much of what was behind the door would be illusion. Even with that knowledge he knew that illusions could be deadly too.
They all moved forward as one.
As they reached the doors, Grimmaldo whispered, “Good Luck” to Carthinal. He did not have his usual cheery grin, and he looked decidedly nervous.
Carthinal wondered if he looked as scared and if they would all return through those doors.
The door closed and he was alone in the pitch darkness. He could see nothing at all with normal vision, so he looked around for any heat sources that may denote a living being. Towards the end of the corridor, he could see a vaguely humanoid-shaped red glow.
“Is this enemy number one? I’d better creep closer and see.”
As he came nearer, he could make out a distinctly hobgoblin smell.
“OK, I can deal with this without my spells.”
He released his dagger from the harness holding it on his forearm, and in the same movement threw it unerringly towards the creature’s throat. He was rewarded with a gurgle and saw the reddish shape slump to the floor, the redness fading as the body cooled in death. Carthinal quickly retrieved his dagger while he could still see it.
Now there was only blackness. No sign of any further enemies, but a few paces away from where the body of the hobgoblin lay, the corridor finished in a blank wall.
“What now?” he muttered aloud. “There must be a secret door somewhere. I’ve got six hours to complete this test, so there’s no rush. At least not yet.” He leaned against the wall to think, and as he moved his feet, he heard a scrunching beneath them and realised there were rushes on the ground.
“Torches! Yes!” Cardinal knelt and gathered a bunch of rushes. They were dry, so he set about making a torch. He knew if he set light to them as they were, they would burn far too quickly, so he plaited the ends where he would grip them, and left the tops free. He made a number of these rush torches, taking the time to do so, since he had no idea if he would find any more farther into the labyrinth, or so he surmised it to be.
After he had what he considered a sufficient number, he lit the first torch using the cantrip he had used to light the fires on his journey with Asphodel and Basalt.
It took a few seconds to light, and he thought it was not going to work, but there was a sudden splutter and the makeshift rush torch burst into flame.
The end of the corridor proved not to have any signs of secret doors. He searched twice to be sure, then slowly made his way back up the corridor towards the door through which he had entered. There was no sign of a door on the right hand side, nor, to his surprise, was there any sign of the door through which he had entered.
“Well that ensures we don’t go back,” he muttered as he searched the other wall of the corridor. “Ah! I knew there must be something somewhere!” He could see the very finest line in the stonework.
It was hardly visible, but his elven heritage had given him excellent vision. He wondered for a moment how non-elves would set about finding this door, but that was not his problem, so he put it aside. Mabryl had taught him to focus on the problem at hand and not worry about things he could do nothing about.
“That way lies death,” Mabryl’s voice whispered in his mind.
He also remembered similar instructions from his life in the gangs, before Mabryl had saved him.
It took only a couple of seconds for him to discover the mechanism that opened the door and then a portion of the wall swung inwards with a grinding sound.
“Kassilla’s tits!” he swore. “If anything’s in there, it would have heard that a mile away.” Ensuring there were no rushes to set on fire on the floor of this new corridor, Carthinal stubbed his torch out. He stood in the dark, searching the corridor for signs of life.
No red glowing figures were visible, nor did he hear any sounds. Wait! Was that a shuffling? No … Yes! There was something out there. He could see no heat sources.
Then he realised with a sinking feeling. One of his biggest dreads! Undead!
Well, they knew he was here, and he must be able to see them if he were to fight them, so he re-lit his torch. Sure enough, shuffling slowly along the corridor was a zombie. Carthinal’s mind worked quickly. He needed something more than his dagger here as it was unlikely that a single throw would stop the zombie. Zombies fought with their bare hands, hitting and clawing at their victims, but could do a tremendous amount of damage, especially to an unarmoured mage. He therefore could not risk getting into close combat with it.
A spell then, that was the answer.
Trying any mind influencing spell was no use as undead were generally immune to such spells, not having a mind to affect, so it was no use trying to put it to sleep. He decided to use small bolts of energy.
He quickly took the mana into himself and wove the pattern to absorb energy from the surroundings and transfer it into darts of pure energy.
Two silvery darts shot from his fingertips to bury themselves unerringly in the zombie’s chest.
It staggered and fell to the ground, twitched a few times and then was still.
“I hope there are no more of them! I hate undead, they give me the creeps.”
Carthinal was unsure why he was talking aloud. “Maybe for reassurance. After all, I could actually die in here.”
He quickly quashed the unpleasant thought, but like everything one tries not to think about, the idea kept returning. To try to stop it, he began to talk to himself again.
“I think I’ve been in here now for about an hour and a half. Time to find the door, time to make the rush lights, and two enemies to dispatch. Still plenty of time, but then, I don’t know, do I? I’ve no idea how far I have to go, or what I must face. I’d better move on.”
The corridor curved to the left, meaning Carthinal could not see very far in front of him. It was worse than a sudden corner, as there he could have stopped and looked carefully round, so he walked slowly and quietly along, his back to the wall, and paused every few yards to listen.
His progress was snail-like, but he was as sure as he could be that he was not running into danger unprepared.
The long curving corridor eventually ended with no further traps or enemies to be overcome, and then forked into two ahead of him.
“Now which way?”
He decided to toss a coin as no other ideas came to him. Heads, left, tails right. It came down heads, so he took the lefthand branch.
There was no sign of an enemy, but he moved with care.
The first book in the Wolves of Vimar series opens with the burial of a king and his magical sword, and the sacrifice of twelve warriors whose spirits will protect his body from harm until the eight “wolves” come. This prophecy results, many years later, in a quest, as eight characters are sent by a duke to bring back the sword.
The book is divided into thirds. Part I takes its time introducing the characters who represent a variety of races including humans, elves, dwarves, and their half-elf leader, Carthinal. The group includes the duke’s entitled daughter Randa, a married horselord couple, and a young thief with a thick accent. The backstory for most of the characters comes through multiple points of view with some omnipresent narration.
Part II of the story begins the journey. The author’s attention to world-building is evident as the “wolf pack” wends their way across the land. Part III covers the journey home. The pace is moderate throughout with tangents for fun, humor, and a bit of romance. Much of the book’s journeying reminded me of a Dungeons and Dragons quest, with a variety of creatures offering challenges along the way including Yetis, dragons, bandits, hobgoblins, and other fantasy monsters.
The characters are distinct but for me, the book was more of a plot-driven read than an emotionally-deep character-driven one. Most of the characters don’t have significant arcs apart from Randa, the entitled duke’s daughter, and for that reason, I found her the most interesting. Though the first book in the series, it also stands alone well. Recommended to YA readers of high-fantasy quests who enjoy a leisurely pace, plot-driven stories, and encounters with otherworldly creatures and monsters.
Ifyou would like to read The Wolf Pack, you can get it by clicking here, or on the book cover in the sidebar.
This link will take you to a page where you can buy the book from your favourite online store.
It is available in ebook, paper back, hardback and audio.
Did you enjoy this excerpt? Please leave your comment in the comments box.
This was supposed to be scheduled for Tuesday, but WP didn’t give me the usual option, but posted it right away! I cant find a way to unpublish it, either. So this is my Tuesday’s post early!
I’ve been having fun with Microsoft’s free image creator. Diana Wallace Peach posted some she made using it on her site, Myths of the Mirror. I thought I’d try to create something of the characters from Book 1. The Wolf Pack.
Here they are:
This is the half elf mage, Carthinal. He is an apprentice at the beginning of the book, just about to take the tests that will let him enter the ranks of mages. He is someone whom the ladies all go for. He has some feelings that he is inadequate, although he becomes the leader of Wolf, the name the group give to themselves.
The elf, Aspholessaria, known as Asphodel. She is a priestess of the goddess Sylissa, whose remit is life and healing. At the beginning she is a novice. She is strong-minded and will always follow her conscience, no matter what the consequences are to herself. That is the reason for her being sent from Bluehaven to Hambara where there is a stricter leader.
The dwarf, Basalt. Met on the road to Hambara. He has a somewhat grumpy exterior, but inside he is caring. He left his homeland when he was cheated out of his part of the family mine’s inheritance by his brother and wife. An excellent metalsmith, he can also carve wood.
Fero. He is a ranger from south of the Great Desert. He was turned out of his home when he refused to follow his father in his sandal-making business. A man of the outdoors and wild places, he cannot live for long in a city. His skin I would have liked to be a little darker, but not black. A bit like someone from India, or the middle east.
Davrael is the son of the chief of the Swooping Hawks tribe. He is a Horselord, and has lived all his life on the plains beyond the Western Mountains. He and his wife, Kimi, eloped when their parents refused to allow them to marry.
This is the nearest I could get to Davrael. His facial tattoo is actually a hawk with wings over his brows, head down his nose and talons on his cheeks, giving him a rather scary appearance.
Kimi is Davrael’s wife. They were married after they eloped. She is a settler, belonging to a group of erstwhile wandering Horselords who decided they could breed better horses if they didn’t wander.
She is a rather plain girl, tiny in stature with brown hair and eyes. Davrael calls her ‘Little Mouse’. She can’t get over how she has won the love of Davrael.
Randa is the only child of Rollo, Duke of Hambara, and heir to the duchy. She considers all beneath her except others of the nobility, and especially foreigners and other races. Hence there is tension in the group, especially since she thinks she is the natural leader and not Carthinal. She is an excellent horsewoman and is the only one who can ride and control her beautiful black stallion, Storm.
She decides to follow Carthinal and his friends when they leave Hambara to search for Sauvern’s Sword, which is prophesied to be needed soon to save the country.
Thad is a very young thief, around 15 years old, from the Warren, the poor quarter in Hambara. He met Carthinal when he stole a figurine from the mage. Carthinal managed to persuade him to get it back.
Thad followed the group because he felt he was in danger in the city.
This is the main cast of The Wolf Pack. I was reasonably pleased with the results, although they are all rather handsome. If I was disappointed in any, it would be Kimi as the picture is a little too pretty.
If you want to have a go, here’s a link. It’s great fun.
All Carthinal wants is admission to the ranks of the mages. Traveling from Bluehaven to Hambara, where his rite of passage is to take place, he doesn’t expect to end up on a quest to find the long-lost sword of the legendary King Sauvern. With strangers he meets on his journey, Carthinal sets out on the seemingly impossible quest. Followed by Randa, the snooty aristocratic daughter of the Duke of Hambara, and the young runaway thief Thad, Carthinal and his companions face tragedy and danger. Watched by the gods and an implacable foe, they will have to accept help from the least likely sources and face their innermost fears. As the fate of their world hangs in the balance, they realize that this is more than an adventure. This quest will change them all.
This book came from a Dungeons and Dragons scenario I wrote for my D & D club at the school where I worked. I had been buying scenarios, then I thought I could write one myself. I wrote one from which this series has emerged.
I played Dragonlance, both as a player and a DM, and when I discovered that Weiss and Hickman had turned it into a series, I thought, ‘Why not?’ Thus The Wolves of Vimar series was born.
I only intended it to be one book, but it sort of grew into what will eventually be a five-book series. I’m unsure that my players will recognise it now, although some things are the same, such as searching for Sauvern’s Sword (Book 1) and the name of the antagonist.
HERE’S A REVIEW FROM AMAZON
Discerning Reader
5.0 out of 5 stars A solidly done, and crafted fantasy novel.
“The Wolf Pack” is an original and well crafted fantasy novel. If you like novels like the “Earthsea Saga” by Ursula Le Guin or “When the Heavens Fall” by Marc Turner then I suggest that you may well enjoy “The Wolf Pack.” British style and spellings throughout. Not really a negative, just a difference to be noted.
I found the characters well developed, and complex (in a good way).
The plot is unique and unusual. It is not easy to explain, but does unfold nicely as one reads through the book. I am trying to avoid spoilers, so I do not want to give too much away.
Dialogue is well written and each character has his or her own voice
Not quite sure how it gets into the Teen and Young Adult Interactive Adventures ebooks as it’s not interactive, and was not written for the teen market! Still, top 100 is not shabby!
To purchase from the seller of your choice click on the book cover in the sidebar, or on the button below.
The book is available as:
ebook, paper back, hard back, large print, pocket book and audio book.
The ebook is free on all platforms except Amazon where it is 0.99 (pounds or dollars.)
I don’t usually interview animals, but today I’m welcoming a dog to my blog. Rather than ask him questions, I think I’ll allow him the freedom to tell you about himself in his own words.
Hi. My name’s Bramble and I’m a dog.
I’m quite a big dog. At least I’m bigger than the others I lived with. I’m what humans call black and tan.
I live in the pages of a book, or rather, a series of books, called The Wolves of Vimar, and you’ll meet me first in book 1, The Wolf Pack.
Let’s get back to me and my life.
After Borolis came and took me from my mother, I cried. I cried quite a lot. He took me to his farm where I met three other dogs, his wife and three children.
His wife, a kind woman, was called Elpin and they had three children, twin boys called Krom and Voldon, and a sweet little girl called Amerilla. I loved that little girl. She was kind to a frightened, lonely puppy.*looks sad*
I learned about the smells on the farm: which belonged to the other farm animals and which were enemies’ scents. There were wolves that tried to take the larger animals, and foxes that would try to get the hens. The big dogs chased them off. Sometimes a big bird, called an eagle, tried to pick up a lamb. Those big birds scared me when I was little. One of them could easily carry me off and eat me.
Once, Nettle, a large black dog, who led the pack, managed to catch and kill a fox. It didn’t taste good when we tried to eat it, though.
This is Nettle.
My humans smelled good. Borolis smelled of fields and hay. There was also a lingering smell of horse about him. Elpin smelled of cooking and kindness, while the twins smelled almost the same as each other. I can’t tell you why, but their scent reminded me of adventure and fun.
But Amerilla—ah, little Rilla, as they called her—she was special. She had a light scent. Candles, sugar, spices. I loved that little girl. *whine*
The other two dogs, another black, called Bracken, and a black and white one called Bandit, all obeyed Nettle. He was fierce if they didn’t give him priority, and showed his teeth.
Bracken
Bandit
I didn’t cross him either, even though I was now bigger than him. He could be scary.
One day, I went to the water trough for a drink. As I drank, Nettle approached and growled at me to let him drink first. I was thirsty and ignored him, so he attacked me.
He knocked me from the trough and stared at me. I stared back, and began to growl. He walked stiff-legged in my direction, growling in response to my growl. I could smell the aggression coming from him, and knew he meant to put me in my place, once and for all.
Once he was bigger than me, but now I’d grown. I leaped at him and bit his ear. Blood flowed as his ear tore. He tried to bite my neck, but I grabbed his jaw and held on.
I shook his head from side to side, and he began to make puppy noises. That didn’t affect me. I knew this was a fight for leadership in our little pack. He’d bullied me for long enough.
I bit harder, and tasted blood. It tasted like iron horseshoes smelled. I released my grip and tried to grab his neck, but was too slow. He managed to bite me in my shoulder as I dodged, and I felt blood trickling through my fur.
Then I leaped and got him onto the ground. I seized his neck and shook. I didn’t want to kill him. Not really, but I would have done so if necessary. He whined again. I don’t think the other dogs had ever challenged him and he didn’t like this fight that was going against him.
He rolled onto his back in surrender. I walked away, back to the trough and took a drink, watching him out of the corner of my eye.
He slunk away to wait until I’d finished before slaking his own thirst. It was then I knew I was now leader of the farm dogs.
I believe I was a good alpha male.
This was my life until I ended up with the group of people who call themselves Wolf. Wolves have very little to do with it, but this group of humans decided to call themselves Wolf for some reason.
I made a brief appearance in The Wolf Pack, but I didn’t think that was enough for a dog like me, and so I told the author, V.M.Sang, I thought I should have more to do.
She kindly added me to the second book, and I’m also in the third. I’m hoping to be in the fourth, too, although at the moment she seems to be more concerned with a stupid, irresponsible little dragonet, called Muldee. If I could catch him, I’d chew him up a bit.
I think Muldee also asked her if he could have a bigger role than the one he had in Book 1. She’s too soft with these characters, if you ask me. She also let in Grimmaldo, who’s a friend of Carthinal, and someone who didn’t even appear in Book 1! Called The Cat, of all things. That’s something I’d never want to call myself.
You can find out more about Wolf, and why they call themselves that by reading The Wolf Pack.
You can buy it from Amazon in a variety of formats, including Audio. V.M. tells me that if you click on the link below, it will take you to Amazon wherever you are. Sounds very clever to me. How does it know where you are?
Thank you, Bramble. It was good to have you here on my blog.
I would love to hear your opinions. Please leave any comments in the comments box.
Would you like an exclusive short story? Of course you would! Who’d not want a free story? To get your copy, click the box below. This story will not be published anywhere else, so this is the only way of getting it.
From today, The Wolf Pack, Book 1 of The Wolves of Vimar Series, is only 0.99 (£ or $).
This offer is for a limited time only, so be sure to pop over to Amazon and get your copy before it’s too late. The offer ends on Friday, 2nd July.
Here is the blurb
To end his apprenticeship and be admitted to the ranks of the mages is all that Carthinal wants and so he is excited to travel from Bluehaven to Hambara, where the tests will take place. He did not expect to end up travelling far beyond Hambara on a quest to find the long lost sword of the legendary King Sauvern.
Along with three strangers that he met on his journey, the beautiful but headstrong elven cleric, Asphodel, Fero, a dark foreigner from lands far to the south, known as the Black Ranger and a fearless dwarf, Basalt, Carthinal reluctantly sets out on this seemingly impossible quest.
Followed by Randa, the snooty aristocratic daughter of the Duke of Hambara and a very young runaway thief, known as Thad, Carthinal has to decide whether to send them back or allow them to continue on this dangerous quest. There will certainly be fireworks as Randa will try to take over the leadership of the group.
Faced with floods, wolf attacks and near death in the mountains, Carthinal and his friends will have to accept help from the least likely sources and face their innermost fears.
But this is more than a simple adventure. The fate of a nation hangs in the balance.
And a short extract.
Carthinal, a half-elf mage, and Basalt, a dwarf, have been trying to find out where the lost Sword of the legendary king, Sauvern, might lie. They are searching in the library of the Duke of Hambara, helped by his rather snooty daughter, Randa.
The next day, Carthinal and Basalt returned to the Palace to try to find anything about the whereabouts of the tomb. Lady Randa arrived again, saying that she had risen early in order to exercise her stallion, Storm, and she did not have any weapons practice that day. She should have gone to practice her music, but her music master had reported that he felt ill and so they had all day. Her expression said that she was glad of this excuse to get away from her music, even if it meant spending the day with “riffraff”. Truth to tell, she found the work interesting. She had never taken much interest in history before and it surprised her how fascinating she found it.
Carthinal and Bas exchanged a glance at this dire prospect, but both wisely refrained from making comment.
Lady Randa did not make it any easier, however. She did most of the time remember to call them by their names, but made it abundantly clear that she considered herself above them in all ways and that only her father’s request made her come to work with them.
Shortly after lunch, just after Lady Randa had returned from lunching with her father as usual and as Carthinal searched for a specific scroll, he noticed an unusual crack around a particular bookshelf. He called Lady Randa over and asked her if she knew of any secret passages in the house.
‘There are tales and rumours of course,’ she replied, ‘as there always are in old houses and this house is very old. It has been rebuilt, modernised and extended many times over the years. Why do you ask?’
‘Because,’ responded Carthinal, ‘unless I am very much mistaken, there is a hidden door here which may lead to a secret room.’
‘This is part of the old house,’ Lady Randa told him, ‘but I hardly think that a secret passage would have gone unnoticed by my father, or myself—or my grandfather come to think of it. Why would a half-elf find something in a few minutes that the family hasn’t found in generations?’
‘Elvenkind have very good eyes, and we are good at spotting such things,’ retorted Carthinal, keeping his temper with difficulty.
Basalt spotted the warning tone in Carthinal’s voice and glared at him. It would not do for him to lose his temper and anger the daughter of the second most powerful man in all of Grosmer. However, Carthinal managed to hold onto his temper and suggested that he try to open the disputed door.
‘If it will satisfy you,’ replied Lady Randa imperiously, and turned away. A few moments later, a grinding and rumbling came from behind. She turned and her eyes popped. Where there had been a bookcase hole had appeared with steps leading downwards.
The three stood looking at each other in amazement. Carthinal had been sure that the bookcase concealed a hidden door, but not that it would open so easily, nor that it would reveal a secret passage. He had thought at the most that it would reveal a hidden room.
The stairs looked dark and cobwebby. Carthinal shuddered to think of the spiders running around. They had had generations to breed down there. However, he would not reveal his feelings of revulsion to Lady Randa.
Instead, he said, ‘Lady Randa, do you think it pertinent to explore this passage at this point. We are not sure that it will aid us in our quest.’ He secretly hoped not to have to go down the stairs with their cobwebs and spiders, and that she would say that others could explore. However, Lady Randa decided that since they had found the passage, they should be the ones to explore it.
‘Why give the pleasure of discovering something new to people who did not find the passage?’ she said.
Carthinal had to admire her guts. She reached for a torch on one of the walls and lit it, then made her way to the entrance.
‘My Lady,’ murmured Bas, ‘we don’t know what’s down there. Maybe we shouldn’t go down without some weapons.’
‘Are you afraid, Dwarf?’ retorted her ladyship. ‘If you are, then stay here. I’m going down.’ She started to move towards the open door.
‘Basalt is right, Your Ladyship,’ Carthinal backed up his friend. ‘At least get a sword or a dagger.’
‘Hmm… I suppose that makes some sense,’ Lady Randa eventually agreed. ‘You two stay there and I’ll get some weapons. What’s your preferred weapon, Dwa…er… Basalt?’
‘A battle axe, if you have one, your ladyship,’ replied the dwarf.
‘Typical. A rather messy weapon, but I understand the dwarves prefer it to a sword. A sword takes so much more skill to use.’
With that she disappeared through one of the library doors to go in search of weapons. It was just as well that she did, for she would have had Basalt taken to the nearest prison and the key thrown away if she could have heard him cursing at her condescension.
‘A battle-axe takes as much bloody skill in wielding as a bleeding sword,’ he spluttered. ‘Dwarves begin to learn at a very young age to become proficient. To become a master of the weapon takes years. That little minx knows nothing. How old is she? Seventeen? Eighteen?’
Fortunately, Carthinal had managed to calm him down by the time Lady Randa re-appeared with the weapons. She had a rather fine long sword, which she claimed as her own, and a rather less than fine battle axe, which she gave to Basalt, for once having the grace to apologise for it.
‘It’s the only one I could find,’ she explained. ‘My father captured it in some war or other, I believe. We don’t have anyone here that uses a battle-axe now. Carthinal, just in case, I’ve brought a dagger. I understand that mages often use one, as they do not have the time to learn more subtle weapons.’
This she handed to the mage, hilt first as was polite. It appeared she did know some of the niceties of life.
‘Diplomacy is not her second name, is it?’ hissed Basalt to Carthinal.
The mage grinned at his friend in reply.
After they were armed, and Bas had hefted his battle axe a few times and proclaimed it ‘Not too bad, considering’, they made their way to the hidden entrance to the staircase. Basalt insisted on going first, much to Lady Randa’s annoyance. She told him that she had trained in weapons with her father’s master at arms and could use the sword, and since it her father owned house, and she outranked the others in the group, she should lead the way.
Basalt pointed out be that as it may, but her father would have their heads if anything happened to her, and he was not going to allow her to go first.
Carthinal held his breath, waiting for the explosion from Lady Randa. She did not disappoint him.
She rounded on Bas like a whirlwind. ‘You…you…Dwarf!’ She said the word as though it were the worst insult in the world, (which to her it may have been.) ‘You DARE to speak to me like that! Me! The Honourable Lady Randa! I am my father’s only heir and will inherit this Dukedom. Yet you tell me you will not allow me! How dare you?’
However, she had not met with the stubbornness of the mountain dwarves. Carthinal thought they would remain there for the rest of their lives with the two arguing, and finally with Basalt standing, arms folded in front of the doorway so that no one could pass. Lady Randa tried to push him out of the way at first, but Bas stood his ground. A dwarf standing his ground is very hard to move, even for a grown man, and Lady Randa was no grown man.
Eventually her curiosity over the passageway overcame her anger and she said, rather reluctantly, ‘Go in front if you wish then—and hope that whatever’s down there kills you before I do.’
So the three crept stealthily down the stairs, Basalt in the lead, Lady Randa next, and Carthinal in the rear. Carthinal was grateful for that as most of the cobwebs had been swept away by the others, but he still had to steel himself not to cry out as a stray one swept his face. It would not do for them to think him such a coward as to be afraid of spiders, even if it were the truth. He kept a look out both to the side and behind, trusting to Bas to watch for anything in front, but they had an uneventful descent of the stairs, although the stairs were old. No one had passed that way in many, many years and their feet sent up clouds of dust, which made them sneeze. The stairs were not worn away either, in spite of their age. Another indication that they had not been much used.
To his consternation, Carthinal saw many small glowing creatures with his infra-vision. Spiders he assumed, that had lived and bred there for aeons. He shuddered, then suddenly, after what seemed like a very long descent, they found themselves in a passage leading straight ahead. He called to Basalt and the dwarf looked round. ‘We seem to have come down a long way. You dwarves are used to being underground. How far down do you think we’ve come?’
Basalt frowned, did some calculations in his head and replied, ‘We’re very deep, Carthinal. Well below the foundations of the present Palace. If you ask me, we are at least two hundred feet down. This looks like old stone. About a thousand years, maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less.’
The three looked around in awe. The dry air in the room had preserved the stonework well. The fact that no more cobwebs hung from this ceiling pleased Carthinal too. The walls were well built, and strong. They walked slowly and quietly down the corridor. They passed doors on either side, but none of them could manage to open them, no matter how hard they tried. They walked until they came to the end of the corridor, where another door stood in the end wall.
‘Should I try?’ whispered Basalt. (It did not seem right to speak normally in this ancient place.)
‘Go on then.’ said Lady Randa and Carthinal together, and Carthinal added, ‘Although why this one should be any different Majora alone knows.’
He had hardly got the words out of his mouth when he saw that the door swinging open with a loud creak. Bas had hardly had to try. It had not been either locked or stuck. As they entered the chamber in front of them, each drew a breath of amazement.
Fabulous carvings decorated the room. Unicorns and satyrs played in woods where dryads peeped shyly from behind their trees. A Centaur appeared to be discussing something with a nymph, half in and half out of her pool. Dragons basked in the sunlight and elves and humans were gathering flowers and making garlands to adorn each other. Here a group of dwarves, hard at work, dug minerals from their mines, there some merfolk sat on rocks in a cove while the waves broke around them. The surf looked so realistic that they almost thought they could actually hear its booming as the waves crashed to the shore.
The room was circular in shape and in the centre stood a large round table. On the table lay a number of books, a quill pen in its stand, rather tattered after all the years that had passed, a knife for sharpening the quill and an ink well, which had dried up.
The books were stacked neatly, all except for one, which lay in front of a chair drawn up to the table as though the room’s occupant had been working there and just slipped out for a moment. A piece of paper in the book seemed to mark a place.
The three walked slowly around the room, gazing at the superb workmanship of the carvings. Basalt declared that it must have been dwarves who carved the stone, and no one, not even Lady Randa, disputed this statement.
Eventually, Carthinal left Lady Randa and Basalt admiring the room, as he felt drawn to the books. He picked up one at random. It was a spell book. He carefully opened it, and it crackled with age. It seemed to be the spell book of a powerful mage.
There were many very complex spells in it, which Carthinal could not begin to comprehend. He put it down in its place, and picked up another. This one he recognised. These were the simpler spells that he himself had in his own spell book, but it had been written in an archaic style and he had some difficulty recognising some of the words. Then he noticed that Bas had gone to the desk, and had picked up the book with the “bookmark” in it.
Basalt thought he would look at the book although he could not read. Maybe he would be able to recognise the word shape that Carthinal had taught him stood for ‘Sauvern’. To his surprise, part way through the text, he thought he recognised the word. He was not certain. These letters were formed in a slightly different way from the way Carthinal had taught him, but it was enough for him to call Carthinal over.
Carthinal looked over Bas’s shoulder, and Lady Randa came to see what Bas had found.
‘It certainly seems to say “Sauvern”,’ Carthinal confirmed.
‘But the rest?’ queried Lady Randa. ‘What about the rest? It looks like no language I’ve ever seen.’
‘No. You won’t have, and probably won’t again,’ Carthinal told her. ‘If I am not much mistaken, this is an archaic form of Elvish.’
‘Can you read it?’ asked Randa.
‘Unfortunately, no,’ Carthinal replied, ‘but I know someone in the Mage Tower who may, or at least, she may know someone who can translate it for us.’
‘There’s some writing on the paper that kept the place too,’ observed Bas. ‘It looks different.’
True enough, the writing was in Grosmerian. Again, it was an old form of Grosmerian, but Lady Randa had learned something of this during her extensive education as the heir to a Dukedom.
‘It’s a poem,’ she said. ‘Should I read it?’
‘We’d better not ignore anything. Especially in view of the fact that the book seems to mention Sauvern,’ Carthinal said. ‘Go ahead.’
‘It’s called “The Wolf Pack.”’, she went on.
“The wolves will fight ’gainst every foe The balance to maintain. Though far and wide the pack must go All borders they disdain.
“The pack contains the strangest group One whose pride comes with her, And one who slips through every loop, The wilful one, the tracker.
“The leader with his anger held, The ones who hunt the horse. The rock that’s strong completes the meld And makes the pack a force.
“The wolf pack’s members are filled with zest And all do have their place. They hunt their foes with ruthlessness Then vanish without trace.
“In times of danger, all must know The wolf pack will be there. They work as one; they keep their vow. For each other they will care.”
‘Doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense. I think it’s just something the writer of this book used as a book mark.’
‘I think you’re right there, Your Ladyship.’ Basalt always seemed to make his use of the honorific sound like an insult, and Lady Randa bristled. ‘No reference to Sauvern or his Sword.’
Carthinal replaced the “bookmark” in the place in the book where it came from, remarking that they may as well use it for the job the original writer did.
He went on to remark that the books were all very old, and moving them may damage them, so, with the Lady’s permission, he would bring his friend to the Palace so she could translate it in situ as it were. Randa agreed, and with that, they left the hidden room, almost having to drag Bas out from his examination of the carvings.
When they came up the stairs to the library they found that darkness had fallen. The candles had been lit in the chandeliers and the light bounced around the room, split into colours by the glass, and making rainbows everywhere. The slight draughts moving around the room caused the candles to flicker and the light looked like thousands of fireflies dancing around.
‘This never fails to impress me,’ said Lady Randa, momentarily forgetting to be the Duke’s Daughter. ‘My grandfather had it done. Look at the way the windows reflect the light back into the room. Isn’t it beautiful?’
The others agreed, and reluctantly tore themselves away from the beautiful library to make their way back to the inn and dinner.
To get your copy, click on the book cover in the sidebar, or here to go to Amazon where you are.
Please leave a comment in the comments box. I love hearing your thoughts.
Would you like to find out more about me and my books? Then sign up for my quarterly newsletter. I will tell you what I’ve been up to, and how my writing is going. You will get early cover reveals and the occasional story. To sign up, click on the button below.
The door opened and Mabryl entered shaking his cloak out as he did so. ‘It’s cold out there and it’s turning to snow if I’m not much mistaken. Unusual this far south.’
He hung his cloak on a stand by the door before turning to his three apprentices. ‘Have you finished the tasks I set you?’
Carthinal walked to the fire and added a fresh log to the flames. ‘Come and get warm, and, no I’ve not finished. I can’t settle down to anything until I hear about whether I can take the tests soon. Emmienne has finished though. I can’t say about Tomac.’
‘Nearly,’ Tomac jumped from his chair and carried his workbook to his master. ‘I was a little stuck on the moon phases though. It’s complicated trying to work out both moons at the same time.’
‘Stick to it, youngster,’ Emmienne said from the window seat. She smiled at the younger boy, the smile lighting up her otherwise plain face. ‘I had problems too, but it comes eventually.’
Tomac groaned and went back to his seat.
Mabryl strode to the fire and held his hands out to the blaze. ‘I’ve made what I think might be a big discovery. Perhaps the most important one for many years. Look.’ He strode over to his cloak and pulled something from a pocket.
It was a book. He carefully paced it on the table.. ‘It could be a spell book from before the Forbidding.’
Emmienne gasped. ‘That is old, and if it is, we’ll be able to find lost spells. You’ll be famous, Sir.’
‘Calm down, Emm. It might not be the spell-book of a magister, or even an arch-mage.’ Carthinal smiled at her. ‘It might have the spells we already know and not any of the lost ones.’
Carthinal picked up the book Mabryl had bought and began to leaf through it. He could not understand what was written there. It was in an archaic script and language and he was, as yet, only an apprentice. He had not the knowledge to understand more than a limited number of spells.
Frowning, he tried to read the words on the page. He lifted the book from the table to take it nearer to the light when a loose page fell to the floor. He stooped to pick it up and realised he could read it, and it was not a page fallen out, but a note that had been inserted. He took it to the window seat and sat down next to Emmienne.
‘What’s that?’ She strained to read it upside down.
‘I’m not sure.’ Carthinal wrinkled his brow. ‘It fell out of the book Mabryl bought but it’s not the same writing, nor is it in the same archaic script. It’s a note of some kind.’ He paused to read it.
Mabryl noticed the paper Carthinal held. ‘What have you got there?’
‘It fell out of the book you bought. It doesn’t seem to be by the author of the book. It’s in a more modern script that I can read. It doesn’t make much sense though.’ He handed it to his Master, who read it, then read it again, this time out loud.
‘“When Kalhera descends from the mountains, and orcs once more roam the land, When impossible beasts occur and the Never-Dying man is once more at hand, Then the Sword that was lost must once more be found; only it can destroy the threat And kill the immortal mortal to balance out his debt.”
Mabryl frowned. ‘How can Kalhera descend from the mountains? She’s a god and the gods don’t come to Vimar.’
He turned the page in his hand and saw some more writing on the back. ‘This says it’s a quotation from something the writer heard. The author says he visited the Oracle on Holy Island and was told that the Oracle had said this earlier, but to no one in particular. Only the attendants were present.’ He replaced the paper in the book on the table.
Emmienne picked the paper up and examined it. ‘Not only the stuff about Kalhera, but none of it makes sense, Sir. Orcs haven’t been seen in Grosmer for hundreds of years. And what are impossible beasts?’’
‘What is the Sword that was lost, and how can a man never die?’ Tomac took the paper from Emmienne.
Mabryl answered his question. ‘I can tell you about the Sword. I think that refers to Sauvern’s Sword. King Sauvern lived centuries ago and united the six warring kingdoms of Grosmer. He was supposed to have a magical sword, but the whereabouts of both sword and Sauvern’s tomb have been lost to history.’
‘I must take the book to a colleague of mine in the Mage Tower. She’s working on finding the old spells and this might be of use to her. The loose note might be a prophecy if it came from the Oracle, but who knows when it was made? It could be it was centuries ago—or yesterday. And it could refer to a time well in the future or even in the past. We should ignore it for now. Lillora says our lunch is ready, so I suggest we go to the table before she gets mad.’
Tomac muttered to Carthinal. ‘It still doesn’t make sense. Immortal mortal? That’s a contradiction. And if he’s immortal, how can he be killed?’
Need something to read over the Easter holidays? You can find out more about the Sword and where it is by reading The Wolf Pack, which is FREE for today and tomorrow. (ebook version only) Get your copy before it’s too late. Just click on the title or the cover in the side bar.
Feel free to reblog this post. Please acknowledge my site when you do.
Please leave any comments in the comments box. I would love to hear from you.
I am currently writing a short story that I intend to share exclusively with my email list. If you’ve not yet signed up, you can do so here.
I’m giving away the ebook version of The Wolf Pack, Book 1 of The Wolves of Vimar series, between today, December 22nd and Boxing Day, December 26th.
This is a fantasy adventure. A group of unlikely people are given the task of finding a long-lost artifact that a prophecy has said will be required to save their land from an as yet unspecified evil.
They meet with danger and near-death in their quest, and receive help from the most unlikely sources. Surprises await them, as well as facing their innermost fears. None of them will return unchanged.
Occasionally I step out of my comfort zone & read a book that takes my into unknown literary territory. This was one of those times. Within a couple of chapters I was drawn into a world of mages, elves & mystical creatures & thoroughly enjoyed the ease with which the author breathed life into her characters. The scene is set perfectly as a quest unfolds, allowing the reader to become absorbed in a fantasy world that holds many surprises. I’ll definitely be looking out for book two in the series.
Feel free to reblog this if you wish. I would greatly appreciate it.
To sign up to my quarterly newsletter, click HERE and become the first to know about new releases as well as news about me and what I’m up to apart from writing.
Dragons Rule OK. V.M.Sang (author) 