The Minister of War cleared his throat. “There is also the matter of the naval battle that occurred southwest of Everton –”
“We will discuss it later.” The emperor got to his feet. “I understand that they have retreated for the time being. Ensure that adequate reinforcements are sent to the area, and I mean adequate reinforcements. Councillor Winters and Councillor Arthurs were both sighted there, which would explain our losses. Let them have today. We have other fleets, and the Eye is not our only treasure of divine origin. For now, I would like to inspect the complex. I want to know if we can salvage anything from this debacle. It should also give me time to think of an appropriate way to deal with Lord Timothy Walter Bolton.”
* * *
Timmy groaned and continued to brush Spot’s teeth. “What is this?” He poked at something that had been crushed between two of Spot’s teeth. “Is this part of a helmet? Oh, never mind. I don’t want to know. I just hope that you haven’t got bits of skull wedged in between your teeth too.” He scratched Spot’s chin. “Now, hold still. You’ve got something else stuck in here too.”
“Hey, idiot!” Avraniel waved at him merrily. “After you’ve brushed Spot’s teeth, do you think you could look at Chomp? I don’t think he’s ever gotten proper dental care.”
“Do I look like a dentist to you?” Timmy continued brushing Spot’s teeth. “And why did you name that thing Chomp?” ‘That thing’ was the huge three-headed dog Avraniel had brought back with her from the island.
“Isn’t it obvious? It’s because he likes to chomp things.”
“Of course.” Timmy brandished the toothbrush at Avraniel. “Well, I’ll take a look. But if he bites my arm off, we’re throwing him overboard.”
About the Author
I am a writer with an avid interest in psychology, physics, history, and economics. Writing has long been a passion of mine, and I hope to someday make a career of it. Apart from writing, I have worked in education as a lecturer in one of the aforementioned subjects.
I believe that writing is a wonderful thing and that good writing and the techniques required to develop it should be shared with as many people as possible. In that regard, I’m always open to hearing from anyone who was read my work. If you want to contact me (perhaps to praise or perhaps to put your proverbial stake and pitchfork to work), then by all means send me an email, or drop by my blog where I discuss issues related to books, writing, and my own work.
My email: [email protected]
My blog: http://lgestrella.wordpress.com
If you send an email or leave a comment, I’ll do my best to get back to you.
More From L. G. Estrella
If you’re interested in reading more of my stories, you can find them on Amazon.
There are also previews for each of my stories at my blog: lgestrella.wordpress.com
You can also read on to find out more about my stories.
The Trouble With Werewolves
The Department Series Part One
Listen up rookies, I’m going to keep this short, and I’m going to keep this simple. If you’re going to be an agent for the Australian Department of Unusual Events, then you need to know how to deal with werewolves. And werewolves, rookies, are not pleasant creatures to deal with. The average werewolf is seven feet tall and weighs roughly two hundred and fifty kilograms. The average werewolf also wants nothing more than to rip your face off and eat you for dinner.
If you want to beat a werewolf, you can’t afford to fight fair. No, you cheat – you cheat as much as you bloody can. If that means sneaking up on it and putting a silver bullet in the back of its head with a sniper rifle, then that’s what you do. But I’m not going to waste your time by telling you what you already know. I’m not going to tell you about a mission where everything went right. I’m going to tell you about a mission where things went wrong because things always go wrong and learning how to deal with that is the only way you’ll last more than a year or two in the Department.
So pay attention and take notes. It could save your life.
Beneath a Shattered Sky
The Fracture Chronicles Part One
There were idiots – and then there were the Ancients.
More than two thousand years ago, the Ancients decided that simply killing each other with all the power in one world wasn’t enough. No. They had to use the power of countless other worlds to kill each other.
Unfortunately, things didn’t quite work out the way they planned.
The barriers separating the world of Fracture from other worlds shattered, and the Ancients were overrun by endless hordes of otherworldly monsters. Civilisation collapsed, monsters ate lots of people, and pretty much everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
Oops.
Eventually, the survivors invented barriers, a powerful form of magic capable of stabilising parts of Fracture and keeping out otherworldly monsters. Score one for civilisation.
Sophie is a graduate of Relic’s Temple, a warrior trained to use innate magic to fight all manner of bloodthirsty otherworldly monsters in hand-to-hand combat. At her legendary mother’s behest, she goes on a journey to find her mother’s almost-as-legendary former student. The problem is that Matilda isn’t quite what all the legends say.
Oh, Matilda has got ass kicking down to an art form, and she’s an absolute genius at barrier magic, but she’s also an irredeemable (and highly successful) flirt who is seemingly immune to the effects of alcohol. She also likes to give people nicknames – irritatingly accurate nicknames.
Before she knows it, Sophie is part of Matilda’s crew, journeying across Fracture in semi-epic fashion while performing acts of heroism for fame, charity, glory, and the occasional big payday. When she’s not being fired out of a sky-ship to board a pirate vessel, she’s fighting hordes of otherworldly monsters with a troubled city in their sights.
But it is beneath a shattered sky that Sophie finally learns that Matilda really is every bit the legend people say she is.
The Last Huntress Series
Collection One: Parts One To Four
They meet on a lonely road lit only by moonlight and stained by the blood of werewolves.
Rose is a girl searching for the power to take back her homeland.
Scarlett is the last of her line – a huntress sworn to destroy all monsters.
Rose wants nothing more than to learn the ways of a huntress. She needs the strength to slay the monsters that destroyed her home and slaughtered her family. Only then can she leave the shadows of her past behind and help her people rebuild what they have lost. But the road she must walk is one that Scarlett knows only too well, and there is no room upon it for softness.
A huntress cannot have mercy, a huntress cannot hesitate, and a huntress cannot fail, not even if it means killing the ones they love the most.
From the frozen forests of the north, to the fetid swamps of the south, and the towering mountains of east, Scarlett will show Rose what it means to be a huntress. They will face the darkness in their pasts, the old wounds that made them who they are. They will face ancient evils that have endured for centuries, waiting for mankind to grow weak and forget. And they will even face the wrath and power of dragon fire.
Rose wants to be a huntress. Who better to learn from than the last huntress?
This collection contains:
The Last Huntress (The Last Huntress Series Part One)
The Lord of Dark Waters (The Last Huntress Series Part Two)
The Fire Upon the Mountain (The Last Huntress Series Part Three)
The Lonely Wood (The Last Huntress Series Part Four)
The Last Huntress
The Last Huntress Series Part One
Scarlett is the last of her line – a huntress sworn to kill all monsters.
Rose is a girl searching for the power to take back her homeland.
In the icy forests of the north, on the trail of the only werewolf to escape her, Scarlett will teach Rose what
it means to be a huntress. There can be no room for softness in a huntress’s heart, no room for weakness. And a huntress must be willing to kill anything – and anyone – that poses a threat to the innocent.
The Lord of Dark Waters
The Last Huntress Series Part Two
Scarlett is the last of her line – a huntress sworn to kill all monsters.
Rose is a girl searching for the power to take back her homeland.
In the frozen wastes of the north, Scarlett confronted the dark truth of her origins. Now, she journeys south with Rose, desperate to leave the horror of the north behind. But the shadows of the past are never far away, especially when they are drawn to the Swamp of Darkwater to hunt down a rogue vampire.
There, amidst the cursed, whispering waters filled with muck and memories, Scarlett and Rose will have no choice but to face an evil far greater than they expected. For the swamp is an old place, filled with old evils. It is a place where the churning waters hide the ruins of a cruel legacy centuries in the making.
The Lord of Dark Waters has awakened, and they are the only one who can stop him. If they fail then all of the south may fall, drowned beneath the dark, hungry tide of an ancient evil.
The Fire Upon the Mountain
The Last Huntress Series Part Three
Scarlett is the last of her line – a huntress sworn to kill all monsters.
Rose is a girl searching for the power to take back her homeland.
There are whispers of fire in the east, tales of titan wings and crimson scales. A dragon has come, a beast the likes of which the mountains have not seen since the days of Scarlett’s grandmother.
Drawn to the east by rumours of dragon fire, Scarlett and Rose witness the fury of the dragon firsthand. One city already lies in ashes, and another may not be far behind. They have two weeks to prepare. But how do you kill a dragon? How do you kill a living inferno? Scarlett and Rose must find a way. If they cannot, another city will fall – and they will fall with it.
The Lonely Wood
The Last Huntress Series Part Four
Scarlett is the last of her line – a huntress sworn to kill all monsters.
Rose is a girl searching for the power to take back her homeland.
Scarlett’s uncle has called for her aid. But the journey to his lands in the north forces the huntress to confront the shadows of her past. She was not always a huntress. But the naïve, little girl that her uncle helped raise – the girl he loved like a daughter – is long dead. All that remains is the huntress, a warrior born of blood and steel.
But there are far worse things than the past waiting for Scarlett and Rose in the ancient woods of the north. The elves once ruled there, unmatched in their glory and splendour. But an age ago, they fled, binding the forest with a powerful enchantment. Now, their magic is failing, and the evil they imprisoned has awakened once again – an evil that knows Scarlett’s line all too well.
The forest was there when the first huntress was born. Will it witness the fall of the last huntress, or will Scarlett and Rose find a way to conquer the darkness that awaits them?
The Gunslinger and the Necromancer
The Lizzy Stanton Series Part One
When the Church needs someone to send the denizens of Hell back to where they belong, they go looking for Lizzy Stanton.
As gunslingers go, Lizzy’s right up there with the best of them. No matter what kind of evil she’s up against, she knows exactly how to handle things – put a holy bullet right between the eyes. But when she takes a job to go after a necromancer over in Pine Creek, she might just have bitten off more than she can chew.
With zombies, demons, and one tricky necromancer to worry about, Lizzy’s going to have to be real quick on the trigger. In the gunfight between good and evil, she’s the gunslinger who always delivers.
The Gunslinger and the Train to Hell
The Lizzy Stanton Series Part Two
Lizzy is a bounty hunter, and hunting down demons for the Church is something she knows like the back of her hand. So when her brother, Matt, asks her to come with him on a hunt, she’s more than ready for some trouble. Matt is one of the best, and anything bad enough to need the two of them is going to mean one heck of a fight.
They’re tracking a train that’s been going round. People get on, but they don’t get off. Nobody knows where it goes. Lizzy and Matt reckon there’s a demon behind it all, and they’re right. Before they know it, they’re stuck on a train with dozens of passengers that’s going straight to Hell.
Getting out of this in one piece isn’t going to be easy. There are imps, Hell Hounds, and things too terrible to have names. And, of course, there’s the demon behind it all too, a demon that’s gotten hold of a train, a demon who can turn every piece of metal, every scrap of wood, every shard of glass into a weapon.
Lizzy and Matt have a fight on their hands. But if there’s one thing they know how to handle, it’s a fight. That demon better watch out.
The Burning Mountains
The Burning Mountains have belonged to dragons since the Old Days when gods still walked the earth. They are a place of fire and ruin where no man dares walk and no elf dares linger long. Only the strong can survive there and only the ruthless can prosper.
Amidst the smoke, the ash, and the flame, an exiled elven princess will meet an outcast dragon. Alone, they have little hope of survival. But together, they might do more than survive – they might conquer. For the dragon has a realm to claim and the princess has a kingdom to take back.
There are some lessons that only fire can teach and some wisdom that only a dragon can impart.
The Wood of Endless Night
Far to the west, beyond the Burning Mountains where only dragons live, there is a place where the sun is always warm and the winds are always kind. It is called the Pleasant Wood, and it was there that Tareon, a blacksmith’s son, and Valeia, a nobleman’s daughter, met for the first time.
Despite their differences, they become friends and eventually fall in love. But the days of peace in the west are ending. War has come, and the carnage and ruin of the battlefield have summoned a winged titan from the south. Black Death is a dragon unlike any the west has seen. His scales are adamant, his wings blot out the sun, and his cold fire burns as black as the dead of night.
Nothing mortal can kill such a dragon. Instead, the people of the west must turn to a place beyond even the Pleasant Wood, a place whose name echoes darkly in the hearts of all who look upon it: the Wood of Endless Night. It is a place of evil and despair that was created countless years ago when the gods slew one of their own that had turned traitor and cast his broken body from the heavens.
And it is said that the weapon the gods used still remains there, lost in the Endless Night.
The king of the west has offered honours and riches beyond counting to anyone who can bring back the weapon and slay Black Death. It is Tareon’s only chance to prove himself worthy of Valeia’s hand in marriage. Yet no one has ever returned from the Wood of Endless Night, and if something should befall him, Valeia will surely go after him.
The Wood of Endless Night and the shadow of a traitorous god await them both.
Durendal
Twelve-year-old Billy Winchester’s got a feeling that the war made Duren a monster, but maybe he and his sister can make him a man again.
Billy’s always dreamed of leaving Sahara VII, a backwater mining planet, for some adventure. But with the galaxy still reeling from decades of war, and an older sister desperate to hang onto the only family she’s got left, he’s not having much luck.
Then he meets Duren, and suddenly adventure’s right on his doorstep.
The rugged stranger from another planet is everything Billy wishes he could be. When his sister hires Duren to help at their diner, Billy does his best to make him a part of their family. Trouble is, Duren’s got a past, and it’s the worst sort of bloody. To Billy though, he’s just a man, and a good one at that.
Bu
t danger’s never far on a planet like Sahara VII.
A cruel mining magnate, Stratton sets his eyes on Billy’s sister, and he won’t take no for an answer. When Stratton kidnaps her, Billy’s going to need the man Duren used to be, the man he hoped Billy would never have to see.
But Stratton isn’t stupid, and he isn’t alone. He knows Duren is coming for him, and there are people who’ve been waiting a long time for Duren to show himself. Duren won’t have to beat just Stratton and his men – he’ll have to stand toe-to-toe with the vengeful ghosts of his past while keeping Billy clear of the crossfire. Billy’s finally got his adventure, but it might cost him the only family he’s ever known.
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Two Necromancers, a Dragon, and a Vampire (The Unconventional Heroes Series Book 3) Page 50
