{"id":95,"date":"2012-04-09T20:48:04","date_gmt":"2012-04-10T00:48:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/robsteinerauthor.com\/?p=95"},"modified":"2012-06-01T12:42:39","modified_gmt":"2012-06-01T16:42:39","slug":"zervakan-free-fantasy-novel-prologue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robsteinerauthor.com\/?p=95","title":{"rendered":"ZERVAKAN – Free Fantasy Novel – Prologue"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n\"\"<\/a>
Cover by TJ Lomas.<\/a>\n<\/div>\n
\nI’m posting a chapter from my latest fantasy novel for free every Monday and Friday. It’s in a “pre-published state,” meaning you might find the occasional spelling\/grammar mistake. If you do, please leave a comment below or email me at robsteiner01 [at] gmail [dot] com.<\/p>\n

If you’re uncomfortable getting something for nothing, you can hit the PayPal Donate<\/a> button in the Tip Jar section to the right. If you donate more than $3, I’ll send you a non-DRM ebook once the book is published (summer 2012). If you donate more than $20, I’ll send you a printed copy.<\/p>\n

Thanks, and I hope you enjoy it!<\/em>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Summary<\/h2>\n

Reason and science gave the Recindian Compact wondrous technology like steam engines, telegraphs, and gunpowder. The world had order. It made sense.<\/p>\n

Until one night two multi-colored bands of light appeared in the sky, spanning the horizons like rings around the planet. Soon after, unnatural storms assaulted Compact cities. Whispers spread of ghoulish creatures haunting Compact forests. And then a message from a legendary race called the Mystics \u00e2\u20ac\u201c ally with us to fight the growing evil or we all perish.<\/p>\n

Desperate, the Compact\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leaders turn to disgraced history professor Taran Abraeu. Taran once tried to save his dying daughter in a failed search for the mythic healing magic of the Mystics. His family and colleagues mocked him. Now his research may save them.<\/p>\n

When Compact leaders ask Taran to accompany a secret delegation to the Mystic homeland, Taran is swept up in an adventure that forces him to fight a horrifying enemy that only he among all his people can comprehend.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

ZERVAKAN<\/h1>\n

by Rob Steiner<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prologue<\/h2>\n

Keahra fled through the dark forest, ignoring the brambles that tugged at her cloak and flesh.\u00c2\u00a0 She did not know where she was going, nor did she care.\u00c2\u00a0 As long as it was farther and farther from the Guardian obelisk.\u00c2\u00a0 She even feared stopping to listen for her pursuers.\u00c2\u00a0 She was a prisoner to Fear, contrary to everything she had learned as a Tuathan Acolyte.\u00c2\u00a0 But her order had never prepared her for this.<\/p>\n

It took a blind fall into a small creek to stop her panicked flight.\u00c2\u00a0 The cold water shocked her mind and body into forgetting its panic, and she reasserted her control.\u00c2\u00a0 She paused and listened for the two murderers.<\/p>\n

The sounds of cracking branches and rustling leaves drifted to her in the still night.\u00c2\u00a0 They were coming.<\/p>\n

She looked around, saw a small alcove where the roots of a nearby oak tree had made a natural cave in the embankment.\u00c2\u00a0 She eased her cut and bruised body through the frigid, muddy water toward the root cave, maneuvering herself all the way into the dark shelter.\u00c2\u00a0 She calmed her breathing, and then waited in the cold, chest-deep water.<\/p>\n

Her pursuers grew closer until Keahra heard their voices and footfalls at the top of the bank.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Wait,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a man said in a deep, angry voice.\u00c2\u00a0 Keahra assumed it was the same man she had watched stab poor Jyla in the heart back at the Guardian.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Listen.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

A pause, then in a loud whisper, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hear anything.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 It was a woman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s voice, sounding as cruel as the man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s.\u00c2\u00a0 The woman had held Jyla down while the man took her life.<\/p>\n

The woman said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We have to find her.\u00c2\u00a0 They can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know, not yet.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all right,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the man said.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll find her once Angra comes.\u00c2\u00a0 We need to get back to the obelisk.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s almost time.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Angra?\u00c2\u00a0 Keahra had heard stories about harrowers infiltrating the Beldamark ever since she was a child, but she always thought they were tales to keep Tuathan children in line.\u00c2\u00a0 Be good, or the harrowers will come for you,<\/em> her father would say.\u00c2\u00a0 They can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have children like normal people, so they take bad children to raise as their own.<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0 Even as a child, Keahra knew the tales were nothing but tales.<\/p>\n

But now…<\/p>\n

Only minutes ago, Keahra had walked to the Guardian outside the town of Grayven to relieve Jyla\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s vigil.\u00c2\u00a0 When she rounded a corner along the two-wheel track through the woods, she saw a large red-haired woman holding a crying Jyla\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arms behind her back.\u00c2\u00a0 Keahra arrived just in time to see the man plunge a dagger into Jyla\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chest.\u00c2\u00a0 Jyla’s eyes grew wide for a moment, then settled into an unseeing stare.\u00c2\u00a0 The red-haired woman let Jyla fall to the ground.\u00c2\u00a0 That was when she looked up and saw Keahra.\u00c2\u00a0 Without thinking, Keahra fled through the woods.<\/p>\n

So if these vile people were harrowers, what were they doing at the Guardian?\u00c2\u00a0 The obelisk Guardians were among the last places left in the Beldamark that held the magical Aspects of Ahura.\u00c2\u00a0 Whatever they wanted to do, it was not for Ahura\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s glory.<\/p>\n

With the heavy weight of priestly responsibility, Keahra knew she had to go back and see what the harrowers were doing at the obelisk.\u00c2\u00a0 If she could return to Fedalan and report to the Master Circle everything she saw, they would have more information with which to formulate a plan of action.\u00c2\u00a0 Whether or not these people were harrowers, they were murderers, and Keahra would not let them get away with the murder of a fellow priest and friend.<\/p>\n

Keahra waited until she no longer heard the murderers before she crawled out of the muddy pool beneath the tree roots.\u00c2\u00a0 Wet, cold, and dirty, she made her way quietly through the thick, brambly woods to the Guardian, pausing now and then to listen for movement.\u00c2\u00a0 She took a roundabout way back, not wanting to risk returning along the same path she had used to flee.\u00c2\u00a0 Animals scurried away from her in the dark, each one causing her heart to skip a beat and forcing her to stop and listen for the sounds of pursuit.<\/p>\n

As she neared the Guardian, she took even more care not to make a sound.\u00c2\u00a0 Every crushed pine cone or rustle of her cloak made her wince.\u00c2\u00a0 When she reached the clearing of manicured grass encircling the obelisk, she looked on in shock at the Guardian\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s golden tip.\u00c2\u00a0 A gray light waxed and waned from the tip…something only legends said it was capable of doing.\u00c2\u00a0 Not since the Barrier had gone up had the obelisk been activated like that.\u00c2\u00a0 Not for a thousand years.<\/p>\n

Keahra sensed the forest around her hush, as if every animal and tree had stopped to see what came next.\u00c2\u00a0 Keahra had the same feeling of expectation, that any moment would bring\u00e2\u20ac\u201d<\/p>\n

The gray light pulses quickened, speeding up to the point where it seemed to solidify.\u00c2\u00a0 It made no sound, nor did the forest.<\/p>\n

A blast of energy exploded from the Guardian, sending a wave of cold air at Keahra that made her stagger backward.\u00c2\u00a0 A gray beam of light shot into the night sky toward the stars.\u00c2\u00a0 The beam arced slightly to the northeast, its head growing fainter, but still remaining bright.\u00c2\u00a0 Keahra was astounded to see other beams arcing into the sky from what she assumed to be distant Guardians from around the Beldamark.\u00c2\u00a0 Keahra counted twenty-five beams, from all twenty-five Guardians.\u00c2\u00a0 The beams sped toward each other, heading toward a single point in the dark heavens.<\/p>\n

After several seconds, the beams from all the Guardians met.\u00c2\u00a0 A flash of light brighter than the midday sun exploded soundlessly, and Keahra had to turn her eyes lest she be blinded.\u00c2\u00a0 She spent several seconds blinking away the starbursts filling her sight before she looked at the sky again.<\/p>\n

Two parallel bands of light stretched across the sky from the northern horizon to the southern horizon.\u00c2\u00a0 One filled with swirling colors, like a rainbow reflecting off a shimmering pond; the other blacker than any darkness Keahra had ever seen, making the night sky behind it bright as the moon in comparison.\u00c2\u00a0 The rainbow-like band gave Keahra feelings of warmth, joy, and peace when she stared into its swirling colors.\u00c2\u00a0 The black band, however, seemed to claw at Keahra\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s soul.<\/p>\n

She wanted to turn away from the black band, but her eye caught two black tendrils snaking down from the band, like trails of ink dropped in a glass of water.\u00c2\u00a0 Her heart leaped into her throat for a moment, for the tendrils seemed to speed straight for her like two bolts of dark lightning.\u00c2\u00a0 But at the last moment, they veered toward the Guardian, piercing the now unlit golden tip as if it were no more solid than a wall of mist.\u00c2\u00a0 Keahra stared at the black tendrils as they undulated about the tip of the obelisk like angry snakes.<\/p>\n

The wood door at the base of the obelisk shattered.\u00c2\u00a0 Keahra turned away just as her back was pelted with the door\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s needle-like splinters.\u00c2\u00a0 She dove to the ground, ignoring the wood shards in her shoulders and back, and then peered through the undergrowth at the entrance.<\/p>\n

One of the murderers, the woman, flew out the door and landed hard on the grassy clearing, tumbling over and over before stopping.\u00c2\u00a0 She leaped to her feet, one of the black tendrils touching her left hand raised above her head.\u00c2\u00a0 The man ran out the door, paused for a moment, his crazed eyes finding the woman, a snarl twisting his bearded face.\u00c2\u00a0 His left hand was also raised above his head, and a black tendril touched it.\u00c2\u00a0 He screamed in a language that was alien yet familiar to Keahra, then charged toward the woman.<\/p>\n

The woman stood her ground, waited for the man to come within ten paces before pointing her right hand at the man.\u00c2\u00a0 A wave of black energy shot forth and enveloped the man.\u00c2\u00a0 Terrible nausea seized Kearha, but her discomfort was nothing compared to what enveloped the man.\u00c2\u00a0 He screamed a terrible, animal-like howl when the black energy hit him.\u00c2\u00a0 She saw the man as if through heat waves shimmering off beach sand during high summer.\u00c2\u00a0 The man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s features melted, merged, then folded in on themselves.\u00c2\u00a0 His screams changed, grew deeper and then shrill, impossible from a human throat.<\/p>\n

The woman kept the black energy flowing over the man as he fell to his knees\u00e2\u20ac\u201dor what became his knees in his new tortured form.\u00c2\u00a0 He no longer made any sound, but the woman laughed maniacally, shouting in the same strange language the man had used.\u00c2\u00a0 She did not stop until the man dissolved into the ground, leaving a blackened, wet patch of earth where his body had been.<\/p>\n

Keahra wanted to vomit.\u00c2\u00a0 She held back the urge, but in doing so, she involuntarily grunted.<\/p>\n

The woman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s head whipped around, and she stared straight at Keahra with glistening, obsidian eyes.<\/p>\n

Keahra\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s body froze beneath that unnatural gaze.\u00c2\u00a0 As the black energy engulfed her, she retained enough of her wits to realize she would be Ahura\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first martyr in over a thousand years.<\/p>\n

© 2012 Rob Steiner<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cover by TJ Lomas. I’m posting a chapter from my latest fantasy novel for free every Monday and Friday. It’s in a “pre-published state,” meaning you might find the occasional spelling\/grammar mistake. If you do, please leave a comment below or email me at robsteiner01 [at] gmail [dot] com. If you’re uncomfortable getting something for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,28,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-free-stuff","category-novels","category-zervakan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robsteinerauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robsteinerauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robsteinerauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robsteinerauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robsteinerauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/robsteinerauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robsteinerauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robsteinerauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robsteinerauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}