Teaser Tuesday: Shattered Glass

The glass shattered first and then the roof shook resoundingly.

One would think it should be the other way around. First the roof shake and then the glass breaking. Warnings came first. One would expect the warning to come first, a herald to danger. But no; the glass shattered first and then the roof shook resoundingly.

But this wasn’t real.

He was in an aeroplane.

Snorting, he snatched the first breath of sudden awakening and stared around him. Right. The flight from London to Glasgow.

When the hostess leaned over him, he requested a double brandy. Damn, his nerves were shot. It was probably due to the coming meeting. His entire livelihood depended on a positive result.

He clutched the plastic tumbler when it was handed to him, staring into the amber depths. Dear God, let it work out all right or he would lose everything.

There were shadows in the liquid and he grimaced, thinking a fly or, worse, a cockroach had somehow got in. He snatched another sharp breath when he realised he saw an explosion inside the small vessel he held in his hands, as if a tiny plane had went up in a fireball in mid … liquid.

What was the matter with him?

FingerNale Tales

Teaser Tuesday: Minstrel

After his journey over the mountains to the east, at age ten, where he met and saw trolls, goblins, fairies and faeries - the former tiny, the latter man size - elves, dryads, gnomes, centaurs and many others, even the ever wary sidhe, he understood the warnings from his parents. He had grown in the years since Erin’s arrival, and heard the elders more readily.

He listened to the tales of war, of dying, of being pushed north and east into the inhospitable regions where it was hoped the races would succumb, flourishing instead. He heard of the raiding parties also and once saw such a party in the distance. Humans came to pillage … and murder.

He understood their swift years were their greatest disadvantage.

During their sojourn over the mountains, he was tested. At age ten all boys and girls of the long-lived races were tested to discover their inherent talent, the factor that would earn them their keep in the march of years.

Until his testing, he had not given it thought, but clearly his father had, for he brought forth the musical instruments from home.

Ever when it got dark or the days too cold for the outdoors, Kell would sit and strum something quietly in a corner, softly singing. Already he knew most of the old songs. He loved reading also, but when searching for tranquillity, he found it in music.

Minstrel of the Water Willow

Teaser Tuesday: 5 years celibate

IN THE GLOOM of a rainy day, in a city about to be abandoned, with life changing around them by the minute, Damin turned to Lyra and broke her heart.

“Alyssa is a good person, Lyra, and I did sleep with her, if that is what you want to know.”

She did not want to know. She swallowed convulsively as words of accusation clogged her throat. Of course five years had passed and she did not expect Damin to remain celibate, and yet she had hoped he would. As she had been, not that suitors knocked at her door.

The naïve country girl had just been disillusioned.

Shrugging, shoving horrible words down, she jerked around and strode along the wet streets. Damin followed, wisely saying no more.

Ilfin of Arc

Teaser Tuesday: Wolf Eyes

A break in the cloud cover allowed early dawn sun through, and it pierced in a shaft of pale light, casting Shellan’s yellow eyes with a wolfish glow. There were no wolves on Valaris, but these men knew them from elsewhere.

They gasped and stepped back. For the first time they were afraid.

The Infinity Mantle

Teaser Tuesday: Barrel in the Ocean

In view of updates coming to The Infinity Mantle in the next few days, along with a brilliant new cover, here's an excerpt:

As the Calloway hurtled downward in search of its grave, her safety line was releases when the rail splintered.

Clueless how to behave in the water, instinct took over, and she pulled at the dark water with cupped hands. As she broke surface to draw panicked breath, she was knocked under to gulp seawater.

Coming up, she instinctively paddled, and found the swell aiding her away from the sucking vortex caused by the vanishing sloop.

She panicked again, before hearing Taranis’ kind voice in her mind, telling her not to panic, to trust her life jacket. Putting fear aside, she relaxed, and floated. The ocean battered and betrayed her, but she did not go under for long. Every time the inflated jacket brought her back to air.

Noticing a rope twisting on the heaving surface, she grabbed it, and held on despite the tugging from the ocean.

It was wound around one of the water barrels that was stored aft of the ship. It had to be empty to float, and was obviously thoroughly sealed against the ocean’s advances. It waited for her and she did, for dear life, take it.

She pulled it closer and painstakingly pulled her pack up. It countered the float of her jacket, she had to get it out of the water, or balance it. After countless attempts, she managed to sling it over, and secured the ropes.

The achievement meant she and her pack were then counter-balanced, the barrel between them. An added advantage was she floated high enough to dodge mouthfuls of salty water.

Looking for the others, she saw only floating debris in a dark, vicious and watery world. She tried calling, but the thunder was too loud. She paddled, but seemed to go nowhere.

She was alone, and she was alive. It was up to her.

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