Hello all,
my first time posting anything here, so I thought that I would share a bit of my novel with you and I'd be delighted to hear your opinions. You can also find it here:
www.amazon.com/The-Harpy-Chronicles-Namari-Volume/dp/1475062990
www.createspace.com/3829254
www.smashwords.com/books/views/142279
www.kindlebooks.co.za/node/179
Here it is:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The further they rode, the narrower the path became and the more the trees crowded in about them. It was not long before they were travelling beneath a sable sky, fear prickling the back of their necks as the wind whistled by. The trees that crowded the edge of the road seemed to loom over them, their branches reaching across the path until it seemed that they rode in a dark tunnel. Kirin became aware of movement at the edges of her vision, but, when she turned to look, there was nothing there but the trees. It made her shiver to think that they were being pursued. She drew her heavy cloak tighter around her. It had grown cool beneath the leafy canopy.
Lorka rode ahead of her, Khendra and Tenuvar bringing up the rear of their party. Kirin’s arm began to ache from holding her sword and she thought more than once that she should sheath it again, but found that her fingers would not release their knuckle-white grip on the hilt. She shifted the sword once again, steeling herself with the thought that she would rather have the weapon in hand should the creatures she’d seen in her vision jump out in front of her.
Lorka abruptly lifted his hand in the signal for them to slow down. They had reached the bridge. Lorka dismounted and led his horse off to one side, the beast’s hooves making a loud clatter on the paving stones. The bridge was broad enough to allow passage for two ox-drawn carts riding abreast and Lorka motioned them across in silence.
“Quickly now, quickly,” he urged them, turning his attention to the foot of the bridge as soon as Tenuvar’s horse had trotted past.
Kirin stopped to watch what he was doing, but Khendra urged her forward.
“What is he doing?” she asked.
“Lord Lorka is setting a ward on the bridge. None may pass ‘til daybreak.”
It had seemed to Kirin that she’d somehow sensed what kind of ward he would set.
“We should be safe now.”
Kirin watched as Lorka wove an intricate pattern with his hands and an ethereal glow grew in a circular pattern directly in front of him. The magic had a bluish tinge and she realised that she could sense what he was doing. She watched the glow spread in web-like fashion across the entryway to the bridge. She was still marvelling at the flowing web of magical energy when Lorka mounted again and led the way across the bridge. He looked back at his magical handiwork and frowned.
“That should hold ‘til morning, but we are not clear yet.”
As if on cue, a shadow emerged from the trees at the far side of the bridge, its form indistinct behind the blue glow of the magical ward. No need to look closer to see that it was a large creature. It lifted its head and gave an eerie wolf-like howl. Their party needed little more urging to turn their horses in the other direction and ride on into the night. To their great surprise, an answering howl sounded on their side of the bridge. Everyone froze in their saddles and she caught Lorka’s fierce whisper.
“Ride!”
Kirin dug her heels into Twilight’s flanks, spurring her horse into a full gallop. She felt the strength of the animal beneath her, her heart beating, her muscles bunching. She would have been exhilarated had she not been so frightened. By starlight, she could just make out the landscape around her. The land was rather different on this side of the ravine. There was no forest here, only a scattering of trees and low brush. Here and there, a copse of trees obscured the land beyond, but in the faint starlight Kirin could not make out what kinds of trees they were.
She worried about becoming separated from the others as they rode deeper into the night. They were strung out in a line now. Ahead of her, she watched Lorka’s blue-black hair flying out behind him. He moved with a fluid grace that could make one believe he’d been born in the saddle. She listened to the steady hoof beats of Khendra and Tenuvar’s mounts. They were a little way behind her, but it was comforting to know that they were still there. Off in the distance, she heard the eerie howl of one of the adeva lycanthros. Behind her, she could hear the answering howls of perhaps half a dozen dark creatures. Even as she rode Twilight hard now, she began to realise that these beasts would outrun her horse easily. She got the strong sense that they were toying with their quarry, making the horses run just hard enough to tire them. It dawned on her, however reluctant she was to admit it, that a confrontation was inevitable once they had run the horses to death. She could not bear that thought.
Even as these thoughts raced through her mind, she began peering at the landscape, looking for a likely place to make a stand against the lycans. As if from out of thin air, a lycan suddenly leapt at her from out of the darkness. Twilight whinnied in terror and shied away from the beast, galloping off the path and into the low brush, carrying Kirin quickly away from the others. Kirin could do little but hang onto the reins. It was some time before she could regain control of Twilight and she couldn’t blame the horse. The lycan had come out of nowhere, charging at her head on as though it had been waiting for her. Amazingly enough, she still had her sword in hand. It had been the furthest thing from her mind when Twilight had bolted off the road, but now she clung to the hilt as though to a lifeline.
Her eyes swept the darkness around her, but she could see no living thing. In the distance, she heard the eerie howl of the other lycans, but it did not fuel her fear any longer. She had come to a decision. She was alone now, utterly alone in the dark with only her horse, her sword and her wits. She had only herself to rely on now. She slowed Twilight to a trot, her eyes sweeping the land around her. A little way ahead, she spotted a slight rise where nothing taller than knee height grew. She made her way towards it, her eyes scanning, always scanning. She did not see the lycan that had pursued her. She knew that it had to be out there, somewhere.
She soothed Twilight with a word, patting the animal’s neck affectionately. She led the horse up onto the rise and dismounted slowly, rigid with anticipation. She gripped the sword hilt with both hands now, holding it out in front of her, the point down. Slowly, she turned in a circle, surveying the land. Her eye caught a movement off to her left. She turned to face it. She did her best not to gape at it in fear. Even at that distance, she could see it was a large beast. It ran in the manner of a wolf, though in her vision the lycans had stood as men do. She knew that its eyesight had to be better than her own and was sure it had already spotted her. It raised its head and let out a chilling howl, which drew answering howls from the darkness. Kirin swallowed her fear, trying to steady herself.
She tried to still her mind; her instinct to run screaming burnt in every fibre of her being, but she stood firm. She probed the landscape with her senses. It seemed devoid of life, as though the creatures that normally dwelt here had fled to escape the coming of the lycans. She let her senses envelope the creature that now stalked towards her in the darkness. She started in surprise at what she found. There was a feral sense there; yes, a desire for blood and running with the wind in one’s nostrils, but it was overlaid with sharp intelligence. Not animal intelligence, but something more. She caught a shred of his thoughts before she sensed that others were joining him in his stalking. She felt certain that the lycan was male, a man, a dark elf who loathed what he became when the moon grew dark.
In the darkness, she could see their massive forms moving, stalking closer in a circle of black skin and gleaming teeth. They surrounded her and seemed to be… waiting, for something. She realised that she was holding her breath and released it. Beside her, Twilight stamped and pawed nervously at the earth, her eyes rolling until the whites showed. Kirin’s heart had long since leapt into her throat and beat there with a steady thrum. What were they waiting for? She was about to step forward, sword raised to stand against whichever beast leapt forward first, when a strange thing happened.
She felt a curious tickling at the back of her neck and suddenly a blinding blue flash of light dazzled her sight. She blinked hastily, trying to see the lycans. In their midst stood a woman. Kirin blinked again, not believing her eyes. She stood totally unafraid, her black lace gown falling gracefully about her frame, the hem trailing on the ground behind her. Her glittering eyes marked her as a dark elf, but also as something more. Her eyes were glacier blue in a pale face of unearthly beauty. Her black hair fell in lustrous waves down to her waist. She stepped forward with fluid grace and rested one pale hand on the nearest lycan’s massive shoulder. Kirin felt as if she was losing her mind. The woman patted the lycan’s shoulder affectionately, as though it was a pet.
“At last we meet, daughter of House Darshiel.”
Her voice was deep and had an oddly hoarse timber. It seemed out of place with the rest of her character. Her voice should have been high and sweet.
“How do you know me?” Kirin managed in a shaky whisper.
“I know all Alorana’s pets.” She spat the name as though it was poison.
“Who are you who can walk amongst lycans without fear?”
This question seemed to amuse the woman and her lips quirked at the corners.
“I am Olunagh.”
“Olunagh? The dark face of the moon?” Kirin gasped.
The dark elf goddess inclined her head. “As you can see, it is I.”
Kirin had heard whispered stories of the goddess Olunagh. It was a saying amongst her kind to have ‘Olunagh’s luck’, which basically boiled down to having very bad luck indeed. Olunagh was said to be the fairest goddess in the bower and indeed, from what Kirin could see, she was a breath-taking beauty. Her skin was like fine porcelain, white as the moon, and her hair shone like black silk against her creamy skin. It was said that Olunagh and Feyur had been lovers before the goddess Nimaut stole his affections. Olunagh had raged when she discovered Feyur’s indiscretion. It is said that she gave an anguished cry so loud and so long that her voice simply faded away. She had been a voiceless goddess for many centuries. In an attempt to tempt her lover Feyur’s return to her arms, she had planned a great hunt. She had challenged the goddess Nimaut to a test of skill and cunning. The hunt for the silver hart began in the Bower of the Gods shortly after Nimaut returned from her banishment to the earthly realm.
The silver hart was a magical and elusive creature and it had led them a merry chase across the lands of the gods. The details of the hunt are largely unknown, but what is certain is that Olunagh lost. The two women had drawn their bows simultaneously, but a nightingale had burst from the bushes and startled Olunagh, whose arrow had left the bow a moment after Nimaut’s. Her arrow struck the hart first, though it was Olunagh’s shot that had dealt the killing blow. The gods deemed Nimaut the winner of the contest and she left with Feyur in tow, but Olunagh never quite accepted the decision. She resented the loss, blaming the nightingale, which was, incidentally, Nimaut’s chosen creature. Legend tells that on discovering that Nimaut had borne Feyur a child, Olunagh caused it to storm for a hundred years in the Bower of the Gods, a place that knew only sunshine and blue skies. Olunagh allowed her bitterness to twist her reason and set out to undo the goddess Alorana, for no other reason than being the daughter of Feyur and Nimaut.
Olunagh stopped her casual stroking of the lycan nearest her and stepped forward, her eyes glittering dangerously. “You were never meant to be born of the parents that are yours, young Kirin. If Hasfal had not failed me, I would not have to deal with you now.”
Kirin’s mind raced. Hasfal was the name of the slave trader who had taken Li’tani when she was just a girl. What could he have to do with the goddess Olunagh? Kirin felt a tingling at the back of her neck and realised that Olunagh was weaving something with her magic.
“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice as bold as she could make it.
Olunagh smiled; she really was very beautiful. “Your mother was never supposed to bear a child with Tenuvar. I laid plans against that happening, but I underestimated Li’tani of House Darshiel.” She spat the name out as though it tasted foul.
“Her time in the pleasure houses was meant to instil distaste for pleasures of the flesh in her, but instead it turned out to be a proving ground. It tempered her like a blade in the forge and you were conceived nonetheless. It matters little now. I had a different plan in mind for you, young Kirin.”
As she spoke, her fingers worked deftly, creating a magic that Kirin could not fathom.
“You were meant to be the daughter of Li’tani of House Darshiel and a certain dark elf loyal to me. You would have been raised to serve me and not Alorana.”
The name slid off her tongue like something putrid. “For your loyalty and service, I would gift you with great riches and a handsome husband who serves me with equal fervour. Mandalar was meant to retrieve you and bring you to me, but he failed in his task. Still, there is yet time for you to change your allegiance before the coming battle. I would show you what could be yours, indeed, what should be yours. Look!”
Between her hands, the goddess had spun a web of magic, which she cast from her like a net. It blanketed the two women and settled in a dome of bluish light around them. Kirin was aware of a subtle shift and suddenly she was no longer out in the wilds of the Black Lands. She stood in a marble palace surrounded by servants and guards. She was someone of great power. She was not sure how she knew this; it was simply there, something that she had known all along. She approached an ornately carved balcony and glanced out. She was in an enormous citadel, surrounded by a sprawling city that gleamed in the sunlight. A throng of people crowded the streets below and a mighty shout went up as she appeared.
She found herself waving fondly at the gathered crowds. A little girl ran up to join her on the balcony, her mass of jet-black curls framing a pale face that was a mirror image of Kirin’s own. Her daughter, Kirin realised. She felt a strange sensation in the pit of her stomach. Who was the father of this child? The scene shifted again and she was riding through the streets of a golden city, a vast procession behind her. The crowds were cheering her along. They called her ‘Empress of the Light’ and wherever she looked there was joy and laughter. A young man rode just to her left on a magnificent cream stallion and his hair was a mass of jet-black waves like her daughter’s. She knew his name. It was Narricien – suddenly the scene wavered and was gone.
She found herself standing with Olunagh in the night. The goddess crooked a smile at her.
“If you had been trained by me, this is what your future would have been. Sadly, you have missed many wonderful opportunities, but there is still so much more that we could do together. You need only ask for my assistance and I would give it gladly.”
“Why do you do this?”
“Do what, my dear?
“Why do you frighten me like this? You chase me down with your pack of lycans, scare me half to death with them and then offer me, I am not even sure what.”
“Kirin, you have the gift of Namari; you can trace the threads, see through any creature’s eyes, see any and everything your heart desires. The gift is extremely rare; none of the gods in the bower possess it aside from Namarra herself. You could use your gift to cut a thread if you so choose, or you can mend the threads, bestow life itself where it has been taken. What wonders you can achieve with such a gift, properly trained, of course. I can give you that training, Kirin; I can help you understand what it is that you can do with the gift of Namari.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm quite nervous to share this with the world, but its been a long time coming. Hope you enjoyed it.
Fondest regards,
Aneza Lee
I can't wait to read the book 
