new friendships and loyalties are forged - The Lemorian Crest (Cobbogoth #2) by Hannah L. Clark

After being raised from infancy in Boston, Mass., Noria (a.k.a Norah Lukens) has no idea what to expect upon entering New Cobbogoth, where she never would have guessed that paths of light can make you vanish; doors can lead to realms both near and far; myths and legends are actual history; 

Description:

Release Date: July 2015

After being raised from infancy in Boston, Mass., Noria (a.k.a Norah Lukens) has no idea what to expect upon entering New Cobbogoth, where she never would have guessed that paths of light can make you vanish; doors can lead to realms both near and far; myths and legends are actual history; a mere kiss can seal two souls as one; and, of course, a stone is never “just a stone.” Her Uncle Jack’s stories never could have prepared her for the magical and dangerous place her native realm is turning out to be.

When the Gihara’s promises begin to crumble, her best friend and soul-mate Jamus (a.k.a. James Riley) is in more danger than ever. Then when his father Lylend abandons her to search for an ancient relic called The Lemorian Crest and she is taken captive by the very people she’s risked everything to save, Noria begins to lose faith in the Cobbogothian gods and the mission they sent her home to accomplish.

Only when a series of new friendships and loyalties are forged in the most peculiar of places, does Noria dare hope again. Hope for Jamus’ safety, for their future together, and for the survival of the entire Cobbogothian race.

Norah Lukens needs to uncover the truth about the fabled lost city of Cobbogoth. After her archaeologist uncle’s murder, Norah is asked to translate his old research journal for evidence and discovers that his murder was a cover-up for something far more sinister. 

When she turns to neighbor and only friend James Riley for help, she realizes that not only is their bitter-sweet past haunting her every step, but James is keeping dangerous secrets. Can Norah discover what they are before its too late to share her own.

EXCERPT

            Still unsuccessful in their pursuit to locate the Lemorian Crest, Noria and the other members of the Resistance find their next clue in an ancient Wind klan legend.

The Legend of Boki’s Bow

            Lylend nodded, holding up a rather worn sheet. “Here it is, ‘The Legend of Boki’s Bow.’” He sat back in his chair, preparing to read, but then handed the roll to me. “It’s in Ancient Cobbogothian, kyndie. This old man’s eyes are burning from a night of reading—why don’t you favor us?”

            I nodded. Taking the parchment roll, I smoothed the supple, cloth-like paper out onto the table and began to read.

The Legend of Boki’s Bow

When Phitessnie paid the blood sum, he left his six royal advisors in charge of the people. The advisors led the remaining Cobbogothians into the new realm. When they arrived, however, all they found was empty space and darkness. The new realm hadn’t been created yet. So the advisors gathered together and discussed what to do. They knew they could create a new realm, just as their ancestors had on Earth, but they were short on their elements. Earth, wind, fire, water, metal, wood, and space were what they needed to create a world in this new realm, but they had left Earth’s realm so quickly, they hadn’t absorbed enough element to bring with them.

Totherma, the Opalian Eye, and the only Space Shifter among the remaining Cobbogothians, proposed a solution to their problem. She asked the council to allow her to go out into the empty space and darkness—what she knew as dark matter—so she could create dark matter doors and paths of light through space and time, allowing her to visit other realms and gather element.

But the council opposed her proposition right away. They were worried for her safety. In the dark matter were various and vicious dark matter creatures who, if awoken, would try to attack her, and the only way to fight them off was to kill them with light. Knowing she had just as little element with her as they did, they doubted she would have enough power to create the paths of light that would protect her.

Instead of arguing, Totherma told the advisors of a special realm she hoped to find—a realm that was home to a race of creatures called elemies. These elemies could help solve their problem because they were beings made entirely of the seven elements they sought—earth, wind, fire, water, metal, wood, and space. If she could find this realm and bring the elemies back to New Cobbogoth, then the Cobbogothians could bond with the elemies. That bond would allow them unlimited access to their elements, which would give them what they needed to change this new realm of empty space and darkness into a beautiful world of light, creations, and beauty.

At last Phitessnie’s royal advisors agreed to let her go, but on one condition. She would be required to allow Boki, Phitessnie’s spark spindling adviser, to accompany her on her quest. Boki had remembered to bring his bow with him from the Olden Realm, and just enough wind to allow him to shoot spark darts. If Totherma happened to awaken any dark matter creatures during her search for the realm of the elemies, he could protect her by scaring them off with the light from his spark darts.

Glad for the company on such a dangerous journey, Totherma agreed to the council’s conditions, and she and Boki set off into the empty space and darkness.

Right away, Totherma began opening doors and making light pathways through the dark matter. After many days, she finally located the realm of the elemies. But because she’d been opening so many doors, some of the dark matter creatures had awoken. While the paths of light Totherma made through the dark matter would protect her from them, she’d used up much of her power. Sensing her weakened state, the dark matter creatures grew wild and restless.

“You can’t go back in there alone,” Boki protested, as Totherma prepared to pass into the dark matter one last time.

“But you can’t come with me,” she replied, determined to help her people. And she was right. They both knew that if Boki followed Totherma through the dark matter door toward the realm of the elemies, it would require her to use even more of her power to keep the creatures away from Boki as well. If she ran out of her element too soon, she wouldn’t be able to make it back with the seven elemies the Cobbogothians needed to create a world, and they would both die.

So the two struck a deal: Boki agreed to stay behind as long as Totherma agreed to leave the dark matter door open so he could protect her as much as possible as she traveled back and forth between New Cobbogoth and the realm of the elemies.

And so Totherma set off toward the elemies' realm, while Boki watched from the threshold of the dark matter door, his bow ready to strike at any sign of danger.

Soon Totherma returned with a pair of water nymphs and wood dryads. The second time, she was followed by a pair of metal trolls and earth zyrkir. On her third voyage, she sailed through the dark matter door on two wind sylphids. One more journey and she would have all the elemies necessary to create New Cobbogoth.

As Boki waited at the dark matter door for Totherma to return a final time, he grew anxious over the commotion he could see swirling in the dark matter just beyond Totherma’s path of light. The dark matter creatures were growing more ferocious by the hour, and this final trip seemed to be taking Totherma much longer than the last three.

When an entire day had passed and Totherma still hadn’t returned, Boki knew something had gone terribly wrong. He knew she needed his help! But Boki wasn’t sure what to do. He’d used so much of his wind shooting spark darts at the dark matter creatures so Totherma could return safely the first three times, he wasn’t sure he had enough element left to protect himself and Totherma if he went into the dark matter to find her this time.

As he looked at the five pairs of elemies Totherma had already brought through the dark matter door, however, an idea struck him. If Boki bonded with one of the wind sylphids, then he would have plenty of his element to go after Totherma. The only problem was that Totherma hadn’t yet told the other advisors how one bonded with an elemie.

So Boki began to experiment. He tried everything he could think of to bond with the wind sylphid. He embraced it; he shook its hand; he smiled and introduced himself. He showed the sylphid his bow and even allowed the creature to shoot a spark dart from it. However, nothing seemed to work.

Finally, Boki asked the sylphid its name.

“I have none,” it moaned.

            “You have no name?” Boki exclaimed. “What do your friends call you?”

“Nothing.”

“Your master?”

“I have none.”

            “Well, you must have a name,” Boki declared. “How shall I call you otherwise?”

And so, Boki gave the sylphid a name. “I shall call you Gustus.”

“I accept your name,” the sylphid replied.

            The next moment, a great whirlwind sent by the Gihara overtook both Boki and Gustus. The whirlwind wasn’t just any whirlwind, and Boki soon found himself and Gustus bound to one another in an unshakeable bond.

Shocked at his good fortune, and growing ever more fearful for Totherma, Boki and Gustus crossed the threshold of the dark matter door to search for her.

As they pushed their way through the darkness, careful to follow Totherma’s light path, Boki was disturbed by the sudden quiet. All of the dark matter creatures had grown still.

Pushing on through the darkness, however, Boki began to hear something in the distance. It sounded like screaming. He hurried along until the noise grew louder, and soon he realized what the sound was. Up ahead, Boki could see a great blaze of fire surrounded by a mob of the most fearsome dark matter creatures he’d ever seen. Dread overtook him as he and Gustus headed toward it.

When they reached the commotion, Boki was surprised when he discovered the source of the fire. It was coming from the gaping jaws of a pair of very fierce but very small dragons. Neither was any bigger than a kitten, yet they relentlessly spewed their fire at the mob of dark matter creatures surrounding them.

That’s when Boki realized the little dragons were guarding something.

Or someone! Just to the side of the light path, lying very still, was Totherma. She was curled up in a tight ball and appeared to be injured.

“Totherma!” Boki yelled. “Totherma, I’m here!”

The dragons were doing everything they could to keep the ravaging dark matter creatures away from her, but they were also growing weak.

Without a second thought, Boki drew his bow and began to fire spark darts at the dark matter beasts. To his great astonishment, however, Boki saw that spark darts were no longer zooming from his bow. Because of his bond with Gustus, the darts had been replaced with great, electrifying bolts of lightning!

After Boki had killed one of their own, the mob of dark matter creatures scattered. When they had all fled, Boki rushed to Totherma’s side. While Gustus assured the little dragons that he and Boki were there to help, Boki checked to see if Totherma was still breathing. To his relief, she was, but she was also unconscious. As he went to pick her up and carry her back to the new realm, something caught his eye—something cradled in Totherma’s arms. It appeared she had been protecting it with her body.

As Boki removed it from her arms, he found himself staring into the golden eyes of a great violet phoenix. Along with the fire elemies, it appeared Totherma had discovered her very own space elemie.

When Boki and Totherma finally returned to the other Cobbogothians, the remaining advisors were very pleased. Soon each member bonded with their own elemie, giving it a name of its own that the elemie in turn accepted. When Totherma had recovered from her injuries and had bonded with her phoenix, she and Boki led the others in the creating of New Cobbogoth.

            I sat the parchment back on the table and glanced around at the others. “Well, what do you think?”

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About the author:

Hannah L. Clark lives with her husband and two children in the Rocky Mountains. She has always known she would be a storyteller. In 2006 she graduated from Utah Valley University with a bachelor's degree in English and immediately began writing her first novel.

Uncovering Cobbogoth was Clark's first book in the seven book Cobbogoth series based on her mythological brain-child, The Legend of the Cobbogothians. It was released in May 2014 through Cedar Fort Publishing. Book 2 in the series, The Lemorian Crest will be released in Summer 2015.

Clark loves running, mythology, singing while playing the guitar, herbal tea, escaping into imaginary worlds, and being with her peeps. Like her heroine Norah, she also kind of believes that trees might have souls, but must clarify that she has never actually hugged a tree. The closest she has ever come to that kind of bizarre behavior was the time she hugged the pillars outside Harry Potter Land. Which, all things considered, is not bizarre at all if you take into account how exquisitely happy she was to finally be there. ;-)

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