{"id":98,"date":"2012-04-13T11:44:40","date_gmt":"2012-04-13T15:44:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/robsteinerauthor.com\/?p=98"},"modified":"2012-06-01T12:42:29","modified_gmt":"2012-06-01T16:42:29","slug":"zervakan-free-fantasy-novel-chapter-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robsteinerauthor.com\/?p=98","title":{"rendered":"ZERVAKAN – Free Fantasy Novel – Chapter 1"},"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 (click Zervakan<\/a> above for a synopsis and to start from the beginning). 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

ZERVAKAN<\/h1>\n

by Rob Steiner<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Chapter 1<\/h2>\n

Taran Abraeu knew he was dreaming, but the horror he felt was quite real.<\/p>\n

He stood in the middle of a wide stone bridge above a black, fast-moving river.\u00c2\u00a0 A gray mist covered the banks.\u00c2\u00a0 Above him, the sky swirled with every color imaginable, making him dizzy just looking at it.<\/p>\n

On the bridge in front of him were three stone boxes.\u00c2\u00a0 One black, one red, and one white.\u00c2\u00a0 Strange black engravings covered all three, words from a language Taran did not know, but was sure he once had.<\/p>\n

The lid of the black box jumped, landing slightly ajar on top of the box.\u00c2\u00a0 It jumped again, and this time it fell onto the bridge\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s red-brick road.<\/p>\n

Taran peered inside.<\/p>\n

White mists swirled in the box, and a black lightning flickered.\u00c2\u00a0 The face of a beautiful woman with red hair materialized.\u00c2\u00a0 Taran was unable to look away.\u00c2\u00a0 The corners of her mouth lifted in a smile.<\/p>\n

Jagged, yellow encrusted teeth leered at him.\u00c2\u00a0 Her eyes turned as black as a shark\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s.<\/p>\n

She lunged\u00e2\u20ac\u201d<\/p>\n

Taran awoke to the chiming of the wiretype receiver on the nightstand beside his bed.\u00c2\u00a0 The little bell rang twice, paused, rang twice again.\u00c2\u00a0 Taran took a moment to calm his shaking body from the dream, then flipped the lever next to the chime.\u00c2\u00a0 The wiretype keys in his office downstairs start tapping the message.<\/p>\n

Taran lay his head back down on his sweat-soaked pillow.\u00c2\u00a0 The street lamps outside illuminated the fine cracks in the ceiling\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plaster, and he wondered how long before the cracks leaked water.\u00c2\u00a0 And then wondered how he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d pay for the repairs with his reduced university salary and Mara\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ever increasing doctor fees.<\/p>\n

Accepting that sleep was futile, Taran rose from the bed, put on his round spectacles, and went to his office to see about the wiretype.<\/p>\n

He passed Mara\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s room, the door slightly open.\u00c2\u00a0 He peeked inside, saw that his daughter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eyes were closed and that she was sleeping in the same position in which he had placed her last night\u00e2\u20ac\u201don her back, with her head tilted slightly toward the window on the other side of the room.\u00c2\u00a0 After Mara\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s six years with the Blood, he did not know why this disturbed him every morning.\u00c2\u00a0 Adhera would tell him that it was because he still expected Mara to bound out of bed one morning like she had before she caught the Blood.\u00c2\u00a0 It would never happen again, she would say angrily.<\/p>\n

Well, Adhera was wrong about that, and it was a disagreement that had driven them to separate rooms.\u00c2\u00a0 Taran glanced at the door across from Mara\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, saw Adhera\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sleeping form in the street light seeping through her windows.<\/p>\n

Taran closed Mara\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s door and continued to his office, down the narrow stairs and past the small living room.\u00c2\u00a0 The wiretype continued to tap at the paper tape emerging from the unstained wood case.\u00c2\u00a0 He read the sender number at the beginning of the tape and frowned.\u00c2\u00a0 It was from the Office of the Dean of Continental Antiquities.\u00c2\u00a0 Taran wondered what was so important that old Arie Seazell would wiretype him at an hour when even Calaman University groundskeepers still slept.\u00c2\u00a0 The message read:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Dr. Abraeu, be at my office in one hour for a conference with officials from the Speaker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office.\u00c2\u00a0 Look to the sky if you want the reason.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Speaker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Taran wondered out loud.\u00c2\u00a0 The<\/em> Speaker?\u00c2\u00a0 What could officials from the Speaker of the Recindian Compact possibly have to say to him?<\/p>\n

Taran was an expert in a field that had long ago become the stuff of ridicule among universities across the Compact, and even most other nations on the continent.\u00c2\u00a0 His classes on the ancient Mystics were popular among students looking for a diversion from their \u00e2\u20ac\u0153real\u00e2\u20ac\u009d studies of history, science, and Pathism.\u00c2\u00a0 Taran had given up a lucrative and prestigious career in Recindian history six years ago, just after the Blood struck Mara, to pursue the Mystics.\u00c2\u00a0 Legends of their healing powers were enough to drive Taran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision, though he had always had a passing interest in their mythology all his life.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mythology\u00e2\u20ac\u009d had become his last hope to save his daughter.\u00c2\u00a0 For if he could find them, or at least find out how they had healed their sick, perhaps he could avoid the only prescription the Compact\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Pathist society had for his daughter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s condition…<\/p>\n

So why would the Speaker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office want to talk to him, a man whose Pathist orthodoxy was suspect at best, heretical at worst?<\/p>\n

And what was the last line \u00e2\u20ac\u0153look to the sky\u00e2\u20ac\u009d about?<\/p>\n

Taran walked to the window in the living room of his small townhouse.\u00c2\u00a0 As always in a city of Calaman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s size, people were up and about at all hours, walking along the sidewalks or riding in horse-drawn carriages, hooves clomping on the cobblestone street.\u00c2\u00a0 A steam trolley filled with a dozen people huffed and sputtered past his window, belching black coal smoke from the stack on its roof.\u00c2\u00a0 Its blue uniformed driver rang the bell to warn off two men in black suits and tri-corner hats standing in the trolley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s path and staring at the sky.\u00c2\u00a0 A lampman was extinguishing the gas lamps across the street with a long pole that had a small soot-caked hood at the end.\u00c2\u00a0 The lampman looked up into the sky with a nervous frown, and then hurried on to the next gas lamp.<\/p>\n

Taran looked up at the violet sky\u00e2\u20ac\u201d<\/p>\n

The wiretype fell from his hand.<\/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 (click Zervakan above for a synopsis and to start from the beginning). 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 […]<\/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-98","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\/98","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=98"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/robsteinerauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robsteinerauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robsteinerauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robsteinerauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}