The lioness Maud is at eighteen already a black powerhouse of brawn. When she is ordered to fetch a young thief from a pirate town, she thinks it an easy task. Until she and Jurgis the thief find themselves running for their lives.
Published: January 30th, 2015
The lioness Maud is at eighteen already a black powerhouse of brawn. When she is ordered to fetch a young thief from a pirate town, she thinks it an easy task. Until she and Jurgis the thief find themselves running for their lives.
The lioness Maud is at eighteen already a black powerhouse of brawn. When she is ordered to fetch a young thief from a pirate town, she thinks it an easy task. Until she and Jurgis the thief find themselves running for their lives.
Young warlock Basil sees his life threatened by a summons from the Warlockry Council, to prove his beauty. He knows his lame foot will betray him and escapes on the first ship out of town. On board he meets Yarwan, a handsome midshipman, who awakens feelings he never knew existed.
When the four young people meet, Basil learns of a spell that could repair his foot. Only the spell’s creator, the infamous Black Warlock, disappeared nearly a century ago. As the four decide to go looking for him, they start on a path leading to an old war and unsolved mysteries that will change their world. Or kill them.
EXCERPT
‘Give up!’
Maud roared, climbing halfway up the quarterdeck ladder. She saw the enemy captain
beside the wheel, a tall man in a gleaming breastplate and a plumed helmet. He
brandished his sword and shouted endless commands into the melee. Maud fixed him
with her eye and bellowed, ‘Give up, you can’t win!’
‘We’ll see about that!’ an unnaturally
hollow voice answered, and a hooded figure walked to stand beside the captain.
‘Behold my power!’
He waved his hands and a
greenish mist wafted over Maud, chilling her to the bone, and making her gag
with its stink of death and spilled blood. It formed a sluggish fluid on the main
deck, spreading into all corners of the ship, and every fallen combatant of
either side touched by it rose and attacked the Jentakans.
Maud’s forces screamed in
horror and turned to flee.
‘Hold!’ Maud cried in her
loudest voice. ‘By Kallianura I command you, stay and fight!’
Her warriors obeyed, but their
courage was gone and they reacted like automatons.
The hooded figure lifted his
arms. ‘Despair! You will all join the dead! I’ll ...’
‘Forbidden!’
The one word cut through
the bedlam, silencing all.
The hooded figure
stiffened. ‘Who dares ...?’
A blinding flash turned all
eyes to the redheaded boy with the dragon staff, standing at the foot of the smoke
stack amidships. ‘I dare you, child!’
‘Basil!’ Jurgis cried.
‘Watch out!’
The Spellwarden raised his
arms over the green and his voice was deep, laden with authority. ‘By the power
of the Council, your magic is forbidden! Begone, foul spirits!’
A frightful black light sprang
from his staff, spread out and like two spills of wine on a tabletop, it met
the enemy’s green. There it stopped.
The hooded figure near the
wheel laughed derisively. ‘You want to oppose my might, foolish boy?’
To and fro the green and
the black rolled, but neither won a foot’s length. Then Basil lifted his left
hand, waving a heavy silver branch as long as his arm, and cried something terrible
that defied Maud’s hearing. The black light shooting from his staff turned to
purple and so did the substance covering half of the deck. A heady smell of
lilies wafted over the ship, a drowsy aroma that filled Maud with lethargy. The
sweet purple spread, drinking up the green and returning blessed death to every
fallen fighter. Finally, it reached the foot of the quarterdeck ladder and
started upward.
With a yell of rage, the
hooded figure clapped his hands. ‘This isn’t over!’ He jumped high up in the
air, and something caught him. It
carried him away from the ship, seaward into the blue sky. His last shout of
rage and frustration rent the air. ‘I’ll be baaack!’
*****
On his way
forward, Jurgis stopped, his need to piss forgotten as a young girl came up the
gangway. She was a Kell, nearly as black as Maud, but with her hair made up as
a bird’s nest, and dressed in a flowing robe of gauze as thin as cobweb that
betrayed every inch of the strong body underneath.
‘You, male!’ she said in a
tone that roused hot rage in Jurgis’ breast. ‘I am seeking the Lioness Maud of
the M’Brannoe. Tell her I come for her.’
Jurgis closed his mouth
with an audible snap. He’d met plenty rough girls in Brisa. Harbor whores,
tavern wenches, pickpockets; all coarse and often foul-mouthed women, but none
had ever displayed the soul-wrenching arrogance of this barely dressed chit.
The girl frowned at his
silence. ‘Are you dumb, male? Go quickly, and warn the lioness I am here. Jump
to it.’
‘Well, it’s that you ask it
so kindly,’ Jurgis said. ‘And who might you be?’
‘Don’t be impertinent!’ The
girl’s eyes flashed. ‘My name is not your concern. Go and fetch the lioness.’
Without another word,
Jurgis strode back to their cabin. He slammed the door shut behind him and Maud
turned around, her sheathed sword in her hand. ‘Something wrong?’
Jurgis cursed. ‘There’s a
girl come on board. A terribly arrogant, snotty girl in the most nekkid robe I ever
saw. She wants to see you.’
‘A naked robe?’ Maud
frowned. ‘Then she’s a wisewoman. The young ones like to go about in
transparent drapes.’ She prodded Jurgis’ breastbone with a finger. ‘Don’t you
believe for a moment her dress has anything to do with her being hot and
cuddlesome. A wisewoman isn’t a warrioress. We’re generally easygoing; they are
the opposite, and this girl’s nakedness is a deadly trap. She’d remove the
manhood of any offender even quicker than I would.’
Jurgis growled. ‘That
ill-mannered child cuddlesome? I’d rather mount one of those pewbara cats.’
‘Much safer. Was she
alone?’
Jurgis thought back and
shook his head. ‘No. She had an attendant. A boy. He wasn’t much bigger than I
and looked scared as hell.’
Maud sighed. ‘They sent us
a difficult one.’
‘Not all your wisewomen are
wise?’
‘Forget it. They’re no
better than warlocks.’
About the author:
Paul E. Horsman (1952) is a Dutch and International Fantasy Author. Born in the sleepy garden village of Bussum, The Netherlands, he now lives in Roosendaal, a town on the Dutch/Belgian border.
He has been a soldier, salesman, scoutmaster and from 1995 a teacher of Dutch As A Second Language to refugees from all over the globe.
Since 2012, he is a full-time writer of epic light fantasy adventures for both Y.A. and over. His works have been both trade published in The Netherlands, and self-published internationally.
His available titles are:
* The Shadow of the Revenaunt (Rhidauna, Zihaen, Ordelanden) trilogy
* The Shardheld Saga (Shardfall, Runemaster, Shardheld) series
* Lioness of Kell (standalone)
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