by Joanne Pence
And he must start with his father.
Two weeks later, high in the mountains of central Idaho, in a barren, roadless area far from any civilization, a thin, gray, wraith-like hand jutted upward from deep under the ground. The hand broke through the dank soil and reached for the sunlight, then spread its fingers wide, slightly rotating back and forth, and enjoying the feel, once again, of warmth.
—We must find a way.
—We always do.
—And the world will be ours.
—Again.
Note from the Author
For those who would like to read more about Marco Polo’s journey to Asia, Marco Polo, From Venice to Xanadu by Laurence Bergreen is a very readable history. Also, two books by John Man, Xanadu, Marco Polo and Europe’s discovery of the East, and Marco Polo, the Journey that Changed the World are a mixture of travel writing and history, giving a rich personal account of the author following Polo’s footsteps across Asia.
A 16th century Chinese novel called, Fengshen Yanyi, (usually translated as Investiture of the Gods) recounts of the last days of the Shang dynasty and the war that resulted in the overthrow of King Zhou Xin. The novel is quite lengthy, about a hundred chapters, and a great deal of it involves the battles that led to the establishment of the Chou dynasty, and the brave men and women who died in the battles. Few translations have been published. Perhaps the most readable and accessible, Tales of the Teahouse Retold: Investiture of the Gods by Katherine Liang Chew, covers the first part of the Chinese tale.
Almost unknown in the West, the story recently has been captured in two Chinese television series, and forms the basis for at least two Japanese video games, a Japanese manga (graphic novel) and anime (film).
There is no “red pearl” in the original story.
Plus …
Don’t miss hearing about the next archeologist Michael Rempart adventure and all of Joanne’s new books by signing up for her mailing list at www.joannepence.com.
For your enjoyment, here’s chapter one of Ancient Illusions, the next book in the “Ancient Secrets” series:
CHAPTER ONE
Nightmare, the most awful form of dream … You feel afraid without knowing why. Then you have the impression that something is acting upon you … you wish to escape, to get away from the influence that is making you afraid. Then you find it not easy to escape…
—Lafcadio Hearn
* * *
Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Michael Rempart parked his rental car along the road on the ocean side of Cape Cod. The sky over the Atlantic was dark with clouds as a storm rolled in.
From this location he could see Wintersgate on a bleak rise near the water’s edge. A few stands of firs stood nearby, their limbs bent and stretching away from the ocean. The massive house was gray and forbidding with a high stone turret on one corner, as if the long-ago builder couldn’t decide between a grand manor or a castle, and ended up with a structure that was neither. Instead, it was monstrous and unsettling.
Sixteen years had passed since Michael last walked its floors of his family home. Sixteen years, during which he gained renown as an archaeologist, and traveled over much of the world, but had never ventured back to Cape Cod. “You aren’t welcome here,” were his father’s last words to him. There was nothing welcoming here; the place itself was threatening.
Now, he stood with shoulders hunched against the biting wind. Forty-two years old, he was tall, with a rangy build and a tan from time spent working remote dig sites. Solitary, with few friends, his coworkers felt he actively discouraged camaraderie. Even on digs where people often grew close, they stayed away as if an unseen barrier lay between them.
He had been that way most of his life, and he attributed it to his upbringing behind the morose walls of Wintersgate. That was why this sudden compulsion to return there made no sense to him. He had no idea why he would want to face the father he had spent his earliest years fearing, and his later years loathing. But he did. He struggled to ignore the feeling. And then his nightmares began.
In every one, he was back at Wintersgate facing his father, his all too present personal demons, and trying to find answers to the questions that had haunted him throughout his life.
In the end, he gave in. And now he was here.
The wind grew fierce as he got into the rental. He ran his hands through wavy, jet-black hair. No sense putting off the inevitable, he told himself. Still, as he started the car for the drive to Wintersgate, he felt a tightness in his chest and a quickening of his pulse over what he was about to face.
William Claude Rempart was at work, as usual, in his laboratory on the second floor of Wintersgate. Shelves with flasks and bottles of minerals, chemicals, reference books, and botched experiments, each carefully labeled, covered the room.
He moved slowly. His hands quivered with age as he gathered the chemicals he needed and placed them on one side of the lab table. Last of all, he picked up a philosopher’s stone, the prime agent of alchemy, and rubbed the stone with his thumb, feeling its warmth, its power. Those ignorant fools who knew nothing about alchemy would think he was caressing a chunk of reddish pink rock. Poor sots, he thought. In his hand, he held the key to life.
William Claude was an alchemist, a position past ages called a sorcerer or a wizard. He knew to be an alchemist meant doing more than mixing chemicals together. Any idiot could do that. It required the ability to imbue one’s creation with a life-force, an ability few people possessed. He believed it was a powerful family trait transmitted from one generation to the next.
Not that William Claude cared one whit about family. He cared about himself, and the aging happening to him. He looked at the sunken flesh of his hands, the sagging skin and brown age marks. His face’s wrinkled skin felt soft and thin, while his shoulders had become stooped. Each day he found it increasingly difficult to stand as straight and tall as he once had. He was eighty-eight years old, which made it imperative he learn to perfect the alchemy he had worked on all his life.
Most people thought the goal of alchemy was to create gold. They were wrong.
Alchemists not only wanted to create gold, the perfect metal that would not rot, but to develop the perfect man, one that would not age. In other words, one who would be immortal.
His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of rain hitting the windows as a streak of lightning flashed across the sky. Thunder soon followed.
He placed the philosopher’s stone on a solid gold plate on the worktable. He had already prepared beakers of chemicals, and they were in varying stages of development. He picked up the latest vial he had been working on when a stabbing headache struck. He gripped the edge of the table with one hand, his eyes squeezed shut until the pain began to recede. But then another bolt hit like a knife slashing into his temple, and he fell to his knees.
He dropped the vial and a pool of blue liquid puddled before him. In it, he saw his son, Michael. His only living child. He gasped for breath against the pain.
“Michael,” he whispered, touching the liquid with his fingertips. He pulled himself to his feet and tried to reach Michael’s thoughts with his mind. As always, he failed. But strangely, although he couldn’t penetrate Michael’s mind, William Claude knew his son was near.
“Finally, it must be working.” He was so pleased he almost smiled.
William Claude’s mind raced as he unlocked the cabinet door and removed a gold-filled elixir. He poured out a tablespoon of potion and drank it. Then he sat as it slowly warmed, enriched, and rejuvenated him. He had waited sixteen years for Michael to come home.
Now, he could put his plan in place.
Continue with Ancient Illusions wherever fine e-books and print books are sold.
About the Author
Joanne Pence was born and raised in northern California. She has been an award-winning, USA Today best-selling author of mysteries for many years, but she has also written historical fiction, contemporary romance, romantic suspense, a
fantasy, and supernatural suspense. All of her books are now available as ebooks and in print, and many are also offered in special large print editions. Joanne hopes you’ll enjoy her books, which present a variety of times, places, and reading experiences, from mysterious to thrilling, emotional to lightly humorous, as well as powerful tales of times long past.
Visit her at www.joannepence.com and be sure to sign up for Joanne’s mailing list to hear about new books.
* * *
The Rebecca Mayfield Mysteries
* * *
Rebecca is a by-the-book detective, who walks the straight and narrow in her work, and in her life. Richie, on the other hand, is not at all by-the-book. But opposites can and do attract, and there are few mystery two-somes quite as opposite as Rebecca and Richie.
ONE O’CLOCK HUSTLE – North American Book Award winner in Mystery
TWO O’CLOCK HEIST
THREE O’CLOCK SÉANCE
FOUR O’CLOCK SIZZLE
FIVE O’CLOCK TWIST
SIX O’CLOCK SILENCE
Plus a Christmas Novella: The Thirteenth Santa
* * *
The Angie & Friends Food & Spirits Mysteries
* * *
Angie Amalfi and Homicide Inspector Paavo Smith are soon to be married in this latest mystery series. Crime and calories plus a new “twist” in Angie’s life in the form of a ghostly family inhabiting the house she and Paavo buy, create a mystery series with a “spirited” sense of fun and adventure.
COOKING SPIRITS
ADD A PINCH OF MURDER
COOK’S BIG DAY
MURDER BY DEVIL’S FOOD
Plus a Christmas mystery-fantasy: COOK’S CURIOUS CHRISTMAS
And a cookbook: COOK’S DESSERT COOKBOOK
* * *
The early “Angie Amalfi mystery series” began when Angie first met San Francisco Homicide Inspector Paavo Smith. Here are those mysteries in the order written:
SOMETHING’S COOKING
TOO MANY COOKS
COOKING UP TROUBLE
COOKING MOST DEADLY
COOK’S NIGHT OUT
COOKS OVERBOARD
A COOK IN TIME
TO CATCH A COOK
BELL, COOK, AND CANDLE
IF COOKS COULD KILL
TWO COOKS A-KILLING
COURTING DISASTER
RED HOT MURDER
THE DA VINCI COOK
* * *
Supernatural Suspense
* * *
Ancient Echoes
Top Idaho Fiction Book Award Winner
Over two hundred years ago, a covert expedition shadowing Lewis and Clark disappeared in the wilderness of Central Idaho. Now, seven anthropology students and their professor vanish in the same area. The key to finding them lies in an ancient secret, one that men throughout history have sought to unveil.
Michael Rempart is a brilliant archeologist with a colorful and controversial career, but he is plagued by a sense of the supernatural and a spiritual intuitiveness. Joining Michael are a CIA consultant on paranormal phenomena, a washed-up local sheriff, and a former scholar of Egyptology. All must overcome their personal demons as they attempt to save the students and learn the expedition’s terrible secret....
* * *
Ancient Shadows
One by one, a horror film director, a judge, and a newspaper publisher meet brutal deaths. A link exists between them, and the deaths have only begun ....
Archeologist Michael Rempart finds himself pitted against ancient demons and modern conspirators when a dying priest gives him a powerful artifact—a pearl said to have granted Genghis Khan the power, eight centuries ago, to lead his Mongol warriors across the steppes to the gates of Vienna.
The artifact has set off centuries of war and destruction as it conjures demons to play upon men's strongest ambitions and cruelest desires. Michael realizes the so-called pearl is a philosopher's stone, the prime agent of alchemy. As much as he would like to ignore the artifact, when he sees horrific deaths and experiences, first-hand, diabolical possession and affliction, he has no choice but to act, to follow a path along the Old Silk Road to a land that time forgot, and to somehow find a place that may no longer exist in the world as he knows it.
* * *
Ancient Illusions
A long-lost diary, a rare book of ghost stories, and unrelenting nightmares combine to send archeologist Michael Rempart on a forbidden journey into the occult and his own past.
When Michael returns to his family home after more than a decade-long absence, he is rocked by the emotion and intensity of the memories it awakens. His father is reclusive, secretive, and obsessed with alchemy and its secrets—secrets that Michael possesses. He believes the way to end this sudden onslaught of nightmares is to confront his disturbing past.
But he soon learns he isn’t the only one under attack. Others in his life are also being tormented by demonic nightmares that turn into a deadly reality. Forces from this world and other realms promise madness and death unless they obtain the powerful, ancient secrets in Michael’s possession. Their violence creates an urgency Michael cannot ignore. The key to defeating them seems to lie in a land of dreams inhabited by ghosts … and demons.
From the windswept shores of Cape Cod to a mystical land where samurai and daimyo once walked, Michael must find a way to stop not only the demons, but his own father. Yet, doing so, he fears may unleash an ancient evil upon the world that he will be powerless to contain.
* * *
Historical, Contemporary & Fantasy Romance
* * *
Dance with a Gunfighter
Gabriella Devere wants vengeance. She grows up quickly when she witnesses the murder of her family by a gang of outlaws, and vows to make them pay for their crime. When the law won’t help her, she takes matters into her own hands.
Jess McLowry left his war-torn Southern home to head West, where he hired out his gun. When he learns what happened to Gabriella’s family, and what she plans, he knows a young woman like her will have no chance against the outlaws, and vows to save her the way he couldn’t save his own family.
But the price of vengeance is high and Gabriella’s willingness to sacrifice everything ultimately leads to the book’s deadly and startling conclusion.
Willa Cather Literary Award finalist for Best Historical Novel.
* * *
The Dragon’s Lady
Turn-of-the-century San Francisco comes to life in this romance of star-crossed lovers whose love is forbidden by both society and the laws of the time.
Ruth Greer, wealthy daughter of a shipping magnate, finds a young boy who has run away from his home in Chinatown—an area of gambling parlors, opium dens, and sing-song girls, as well as families trying to eke out a living. It is also home to the infamous and deadly “hatchet men” of Chinese lore.
There, Ruth meets Li Han-lin, a handsome, enigmatic leader of one such tong, and discovers he is neither as frightening cruel, or wanton as reputation would have her believe. As Ruth’s fascination with the lawless area grows, she finds herself pulled deeper into its intrigue and dangers, particularly those surrounding Han-lin. But the two are from completely different worlds, and when both worlds are shattered by the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906 that destroyed most of San Francisco, they face their ultimate test.
* * *
Seems Like Old Times
When Lee Reynolds, nationally known television news anchor, returns to the small town where she was born to sell her now-vacant childhood home, little does she expect to find that her first love has moved back to town. Nor does she expect that her feelings for him are still so strong.
Tony Santos had been a major league baseball player, but now finds his days of glory gone. He’s gone back home to raise his young son as a single dad.
Both Tony and Lee have changed a lot. Yet, being with him, she finds that in her heart, it seems like old times...
* * *
The Ghost of Squire House<
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For decades, the home built by reclusive artist, Paul Squire, has stood empty on a windswept cliff overlooking the ocean. Those who attempted to live in the home soon fled in terror. Jennifer Barrett knows nothing of the history of the house she inherited. All she knows is she’s glad for the chance to make a new life for herself.
It’s Paul Squire’s duty to rid his home of intruders, but something about this latest newcomer’s vulnerable status ... and resemblance of someone from his past ... dulls his resolve. Jennifer would like to find a real flesh-and-blood man to liven her days and nights—someone to share her life with—but living in the artist’s house, studying his paintings, she is surprised at how close she feels to him.
A compelling, prickly ghost with a tortured, guilt-ridden past, and a lonely heroine determined to start fresh, find themselves in a battle of wills and emotion in this ghostly fantasy of love, time, and chance.
* * *
Dangerous Journey
C.J. Perkins is trying to find her brother who went missing while on a Peace Corps assignment in Asia. All she knows is that the disappearance has something to do with a “White Dragon.” Darius Kane, adventurer and bounty hunter, seems to be her only hope, and she practically shanghais him into helping her.
