by Martha Carr
Rhazdon raised her arm in anger at the words, ready to send a fatal blow to the queen.
“Do you know what happens when you spend that much time listening to your own bullshit?” The queen raised her hands for the last battle. “You forget a very basic rule about all of life. Oriceran or Earth. Love trumps everything.” She looked at Leira, tears on her face. “Ready?”
“Yeah, I am. Together.” It started in the back, down on the grounds behind the plateau. Every creature touched the being closest to them, sharing the energy, passing it through until it reached the queen. Hundreds of them all connected by one source.
The queen smiled at Leira, her eyes glowing brightly and she reached out and touched Leira as her entire body began to glow.
Turner Underwood stood just behind the king. “Let us all go out there with you.”
Leira faced Rhazdon, tasting blood in her mouth and raised her shaking arms, burn marks etched across them. “For Correk,” she whispered, “my family. With honor and to the end.” She gasped, startled as the energy lifted her off her feet, passing through her as it swam out toward Rhazdon, enveloping the Atlantean, suffocating the darkness, sapping her energy.
Rhazdon’s eyes widened as she slowly began to age. She looked at her hands as the skin grew looser and dark spots appeared and screamed in rage. “No! No! No!”
Leira limped slowly toward her, inching her way pulling away from the queen, even as the connection remained.
She stopped right in front of Rhazdon and looked her in the eyes as she reached up and ripped the necklace from her and held it aloft. “Mine hag.”
Rhazdon recoiled covering her face with her hands.
The few remaining dark witches and wizards abandoned their posts and fled, falling as they ran away. Rhazdon grabbed on to a wizard as he ran past her, her tentacles shriveling on her head as he helped her off the plateau. Leira let her go. I hope she lives for a hundred more lonely years.
Slowly, the magic eased and Leira dragged herself slowly to Correk’s side and fell to her knees, quickly running her hands over his body searching for a sign of life. “I don’t even know what a fucking sign of life would be in a Light Elf. Wait! There! There!”
“Out of my way kid. It’s my turn. If there’s a flicker, I’ll give the spark.” Turner Underwood placed his large hands over Correk’s chest, symbols lighting up on his skin.
Leira read them as fast as she could but some of them she had never seen before. She looked up at Turner’s face. “There’s something different about you.”
“So I’ve been told, kid.”
Correk stirred, taking in a sudden rush of breath. “Don’t move, Correk. You took more than one direct hit. A rather sturdy fellow, though.”
Leira threw herself on top of Correk, hugging him, still clutching the necklace.
“Not recommended but, okay. We’ll play it your way this time.” Turner pulled himself to his feet, leaning on his cane. “Looks like we lost some good people.”
Leira looked up, scanning the rock and saw Toni kneeling, running her hands over a body, sobbing. “Larry! Larry!”
“Too late for that one.” Turner shook his head.
The rock was littered with bodies from both sides. The magical beings from Hilldale were already collecting the dead, carrying them back toward the entrance.
“They’ll give everyone a proper burial out of sight from the humans. It’ll give everyone the chance to celebrate their lives and grieve their dead without having to lie about any of it.”
A Kilomea gently picked up Larry and cradle his lifeless body in his arms as Toni hung onto his hand and sobbed.
The Jersey Willen keened as other Willens helped carry his grandmother off Lavender Rock. “I’ve never seen a Willen fight like that for anyone but another Willen. You matter to all these people,” said the queen.
Leira looked around at the destruction started by the theft of a necklace. She held out her arm and opened her hand.
“This rightfully belongs to you and at long last I’m grateful to be able to finally give it back to you. Prince Rolim’s necklace.”
The queen smiled softly and carefully picked up the necklace slowly bringing it to her chest, feeling the energy from her son, once again. “Thank you, for everything.”
“I took on your case and said I would solve it.” Leira gave a crooked smile. “Now, it’s done.” She hobbled toward her mother and grandmother, wincing with each step, determined to look over the side, afraid of what she would see. Please be alright.
Scrambling up the side was the five-inch troll, rushing back to her side. Leira bent down, crying out in pain and scooped up the troll, putting him back on her shoulder. “Yumfuck!”
“Show me where Hagan is. Did he…”
The troll pointed at Hagan reading a Wizard his rights, his face beet red and a burn mark that parted his hair right down the middle. Alan Cohen was sitting on a rock as Gail made him a makeshift sling. He looked up and waved to Leira as the darkness finally came over her and she fell backward against the rock, hitting her head.
***
Leira sat up in her hospital bed, her leg in a cast as Hagan told the story again to anyone in the room who would listen. “Most amazing thing I ever saw!”
Eireka smiled and brushed the hair off Leira’s forehead. “Correk will be back soon enough. It was the right thing to do, sending him home to Oriceran. He needed help that doctors here can’t give him. Magical help. He came close to not making it.”
“It’s already been a week. I miss the sound of him eating Cheetos.”
Eireka smiled and kissed the top of her daughter’s head. “Focus on getting better. You all have a lot of adventures left. The general has already checked on you a few times. I think he’s trying to be polite but is itching to send you somewhere. He wouldn’t tell me.”
“Who are those flowers from?”
Eireka pulled out the card. “Alan Cohen and the team. Hmmmm.”
“Still not a good time, Mom.” Leira threw a plastic spoon in Hagan’s direction to get his attention. “Aren’t you supposed to be at an anniversary dinner with Rose?”
“Yeah, sure, I gotta go. Why do you think I’m in this monkey suit? I have the best bride ever. She insisted I come see you first and she’s meeting me at the restaurant. Love that woman. How she puts up with all of me, I don’t know. Alright, I’m outta here. I’ll stop by tomorrow. Maybe this time I’ll bring you doughnuts. Tell you the rest of what you missed. The memorial they had at the Jackalope for Larry was very moving. They said they’d do it again when you’re up to it so you can say your goodbyes too. Oh, and I can tell you about Lois. Geez, that lady! There were some good skirmishes down below. Wands slicing through the air!” Hagan was still talking as he wandered out of the room.
Leira smiled a crooked smile as she watched him go. I think I can. She shut her eyes and rested her head back against the pillow, taking a deep breath, centering herself as the magic crept inside of her, flowing out as she set an intention.
Hagan was surprised when every light he got to was green and a parking space opened up just in front of the restaurant. A man with a pushcart rolled past Hagan on his way inside with the last few roses for sale.
Rose was already waiting at the table, smiling at Hagan as he came in holding the roses.
“Wow, the best table. Must have taken one look at my beautiful bride and put you right here, front and center. Good thing I wasn’t here yet!”
Rose laughed and took the flowers. “They gave us champagne! Can you believe it?”
“Your favorite, too. How did we ever get so lucky?”
“Must be magic,” said Rose. “Happy twenty-five years of playing with you. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Author Notes - Martha Carr
Written September 26, 2017
Here we are at the fourth book, the fifth title (remember that Book Zero…) and life is already changing for me. That lifelong dream keeps unfolding and I get to inter
act with fans on a daily basis. We share stories about children and grandchildren with each other, triumphs over adversity, dreams we’re still working on – and a lot of selfies with troll mugs.
I keep finding myself thinking about 2009 when the Great Recession was in full swing and being a newspaper journalist was going the way of the dinosaur. (And that was my backup profession). I was on an assignment ghost writing a memoir for a man who had been in South Africa’s version of the Navy Seals and at one time, owned diamond mines in Africa.
I was staying in a local Hampton Inn in upstate New York, spending my days following him around, asking copious questions, learning his speech pattern and weaving together his story. At one point, I found myself sky diving with him, and then there was the moment I was waving at James Gandolfini. It was a very high end neighborhood.
But in that same point in time I had reduced what I owned down to almost nothing in order to start over. The recession had taken its toll by then and I was making ends meet one day at a time.
There was this moment after a long day of work and I was in the elevator in the motel that I looked down at the room key and rental car key and realized these were the only keys I had in the world. At that particular moment, for the first time in my life, I had no fixed address. There was even a weird moment when my iPhone stopped working and the thought occurred to me that without it no one could find me.
Strangely, I was okay and even felt a little liberated from taking care of things for a little while. The offspring was grown and in another state, fortunately doing fine and I didn’t have a dog. There was no one to answer to and nothing to go check on. It was as if the world slowed down just a little and the choices were all wide open.
Fast-forward eight years and here I am in my own home filled with furniture again and the good dog, Lois writing books about magic in Austin, Texas and a swearing troll. That same feeling keeps coming back to me lately. A kind of freedom and a world full of options.
The last time was from stripping away everything and getting down to the essentials that could fit in a suitcase, living in the present moment. This time, it’s from watching my dreams take off and seeing it’s not a fluke, not temporary. This is here to stay. Kind of like having a handful of keys and I’m just finding out what they’re going to unlock. Big THANK YOU to everyone who’s on this ride with me – that’s all of you fans! Just like Leira is learning – I’ve come to see over the past eight years the sweetest part of this whole ride are the people who are on it with me and you guys are really showing up.
By the way – Magic Mike reminded me to say – there was a two-star review from someone perturbed about the ‘f-bombs’ in the series who said they were returning the book in protest… That has inspired me to double-down on them in this one in their honor.
Aloha everyone!
Author Notes - Michael Anderle
September 26, 2017
First, let me say ‘THANK YOU’ so much for not only reading the story, but reading these author notes in the back as well!
Martha called me the other night when she was “words complete” for this book. For us, words complete is when your story is done, and you just have editing passes to do.
She told me how writing this book had been more difficult due to both wrapping up the threads to complete this part of Leira’s arc, and lay the groundwork for our next four books.
Next four books.
As many of you know, I come from a whale reading background. That term – whale reader – is something I coined a couple of years ago when I focused on other readers like myself. Readers who read at least fifty books a year.
You know, at least one book a week, and you get two weeks off? Occasionally, I would go through four or five books from Friday night to Sunday night… Or Monday morning, early.
Here at LMBPN Publishing, we focus on one major 12 book arc. We break these twelve books down into three arcs of four books each.
If we fail to hit the mark with a series, we know we can wrap it up in four books. If one of our collaborators has something else they need to do, then they (and we) need to be able to conclude the series.
Now, having spoken about the twelve book arcs as my preference, it can be a negative to do longer series from a financial standpoint.
Many readers will try a new book 01, but the longer the series, the more hesitance new readers have to start with the series.
Books, 01,02 or 03 come out? No problem. Book 09, 12 or 15 comes out? That’s a problem. Readers are already feeling fatigue to complete a series before they even get started.
Plus, it’s a lot easier to plan out a trilogy and write it (without screwing up) than pretty much anything past somewhere between five and eight books. I have received a LOT of comments about how surprised readers have been that The Kurtherian Gambit, for example, is still awesome and they are just on book nine of the series.
Here, Martha has been working to complete the first arc of the Leira Chronicles. We designed three major arcs, each of four books, to set the Oriceran Universe and create the machinations of the political and business spheres within the universe for our collaborators to understand what is going on, and how they can play inside it.
Going back to Martha’s call to me, she was discussing wanting to lay out the core ideas of this quadrilogy (4 books, right?) and how the larger world was reacting to what Leira happens to be in the center of at the moment.
So, I suppose what I’m trying to express as we go from book 04 to book 05 is that we have come to the end of our first arc for Leira, Hagan, Yumfuck, Corrik and the rest of our characters. We have a minimum of eight more books planned out.
If you keep doing what you have been doing (loving the books, sharing with your friends, and buying Yumfuck mugs and basically telling others to stuff it, he’s a Troll what are you expecting him to say then we will continue writing these stories about a family.
It might not be the kind of family that we recognize with a mom, dad, two point three kids and a dog.
But, this family has a troll.
I think that about trumps everything else we can say, right?
Because, in the end, they care about each other and will die for each other… You keep loving, we will keep writing.
The crazy shit that we have been able to do is because of YOU.
And yes, I’m happy the lady returned our book for the language. I’m also happy she lives in a country that allows my favorite troll to work his damned hardest to open the fridge, and finally…finally get it open to suffer having a big-ass boot close it and then looks up at the elf who towers over him and yells…
“MOTHERFUCKER!”
Ad Aeternitatem,
Michael Anderle
Creating crazy-ass characters since 2015
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The email list will be a way to share upcoming news and let you know about giveaways and other fun stuff. The Facebook group is a way for us to connect faster – in other words, a chat, plus a way to share new spy tools, ways to keep your information safe, and other cool information and stories. Plus, from time to time I’ll share other great indie authors’ upcoming worlds of magic and adventure. Signing up for the email list is an easy way to ensure you receive all of the big news and make sure you don’t miss any major releases or updates.
Enjoy the new adventure!
Martha Carr and Michael Anderle 2017
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Website: http://oriceran.com/
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Books by Martha Carr
The Revelations of Oriceran
The Leira Chronicles
* with Michael Anderle *
Quest for Magic (0)
Waking Magic (1)
Release of Magic (2)
Protection of Magic (3)
Rule of Magic (4)
The Kacy Chronicles
* with A.L. Knorr *
Descendant (1)
Ascendant (2)
The Soul Stone Mage Series
* with Sarah Noffke *
House of Enchanted (1)
The Dark Forest (2)
Mountain of Truth (3)
The Midwest Magic Chronicles
* with Flint Maxwell *
The Midwest Witch (1)
Michael Anderle
Kurtherian Gambit Series Titles Include:
First Arc
Death Becomes Her (01) - Queen Bitch (02) - Love Lost (03) - Bite This (04)
Never Forsaken (05) - Under My Heel (06) - Kneel Or Die (07)
Second Arc
We Will Build (08) - It’s Hell To Choose (09) - Release The Dogs of War (10)
Sued For Peace (11) - We Have Contact (12) - My Ride is a Bitch (13)
Don’t Cross This Line (14)
Third Arc (2017)
