by Justin Sloan
“What?” Laird Summers asked from his left, caught totally off-guard.
Rhona and Alastar shared a look of confusion from where they stood behind him.
“I had no heir before, but now I do,” the king went on. “I have two, as a matter of fact. While we haven’t discussed it yet, one of them will take over and rule this kingdom. After all they have done for us, for our safety and glory, I trust you will join me in celebrating their ascendance.”
A stunned silence followed before the crowd ripped into applause and cheers.
The smiling king walked over to them and shrugged. “I should’ve said something earlier, I know, but that’s me—the crazy king. So?”
Alastar stepped forward, clearing his throat. “It’ll have to be Rhona.”
“What?” Rhona asked, flummoxed.
“I’ve been thinking about what’s next,” Alastar continued. “I want to hunt down those who fled to the mainland, see if there’s more to this Dark Society that needs to be stopped. Estair said she will go with me on this adventure, so it only makes sense that Rhona take the throne.”
The king’s eyes lit up at this talk and he motioned to Rose. She blushed but joined him, putting her arm through his.
“Maybe we can go with you, son,” the king said. “Rose and I on our unicorn, and perhaps we can organize a horse or two for you as well.”
Alastar was at a loss for words, but Rhona wasn’t. She cleared her throat and said, “So…what? I get stuck here ruling a kingdom while you four go off on crazy adventures? How’s that fair?”
“Sister,” Alastar turned to her, smiling. “How much adventure do you truly want, now that you have them?” He nodded to Donnon and Kia, who were smiling. Lannis was nearby with his uncle, and others they had come to know, including the paladins, stood behind them. “The paladins will be your guard, and you’ll have your family to help you.”
“If he’s your husband,” the king said, “you can have him rule with you. Or not—that will be your choice. And trust me, ruling a kingdom will provide quite a few adventures.”
She thought about it, eyes moving to the comforting gaze of Donnon, and then she nodded. “I accept.”
The king smiled broadly and removed his crown, placing it on her head. “There will be a much more formal ceremony, but if you’ll allow me?” He held out his hand, and when she took it he turned to the crowd. He raised her hand into the air and proclaimed, “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you your new ruler: Queen Rhona the First!”
More cheers erupted, followed by a confused but supportive smile from Donnon. It was more than Rhona could have ever dreamed of, and yet it all seemed so perfect.
She felt movement at her side. Donnon and Kia had joined her.
“Are you sure about this?” Donnon asked. “I mean, I support you either way, or… That is, if this means we’re still together. Are we—”
She didn’t let him finish, instead grabbing him and pulling him in for a kiss for all to see. She held hands with him and Kia.
“We’ll be the happiest family to ever rule the Lost Isles,” she said, doing her best to ignore the butterflies fluttering in her stomach.
“You bet we will,” Kia agreed. Suddenly her eyes went wide and her cheeks pale. “Holy shite, does this make me a princess?”
Rhona laughed. “It will soon enough.”
“A princess who will never leave her room if she keeps using language like that,” Donnon interjected, but he was smiling and leaned in to kiss his daughter on the top of her head. “And for the record, you’ve always been a princess. It’s just... Now you’ll be official.”
***
The coronation ceremony was held a week later. Alastar had agreed to delay their departure until it was over, but now he sat on a horse, Estair at his side on her new mare. Nearby his father and Rose bestrode their unicorn, and they all watched as the ceremony came to a close. They had staged the coronation in the same square in which the king had made his retirement announcement, and held it at first light. While on the day he handed over his kingdom the sun had been setting, now it rose to shine its light on their new queen.
Crown on her head, Rhona sat upon the throne and nodded as each paladin swore his oath and joined her personal guard.
“Are you ready for the next stage in our journey, son?” Alastar’s father asked.
“Riding off into action and adventure?” Alastar nodded, smiling to himself. “Always.”
The triumphal music began, bringing the ceremony to a close, and the four of them turned to ride east into the sunrise. A new day. A new beginning.
EPILOGUE
Andreas eyed the city he knew as home with confusion. The boat pulled into port in Holdgate, but everything was in chaos. On the one hand, they were home at last. They wanted nothing more than to drop to their knees and kiss the ground, then run to their old houses, to their loved ones, and hug them while crying tears of joy.
Judging by the emptiness of the streets—even the lack of someone to check as they docked the boat—their plans weren’t about to go so easily. Considering their brief interaction with the sorcerer on the rocks, Andreas was starting to fear the worst.
“Storm Caller! You, boy!” a voice shouted, and they saw a man marching over to them. “You need to be at the battle, not here!”
Andreas glanced at his friends, unsure how to play this, then made a decision.
“We got lost. Which way were we supposed to head?”
The man looked at them with a raised eyebrow, their cover clearly blown. “Listen, I don’t care who you are. I just care that you can fight and are on our side. Are both of those true?”
Andreas nodded.
“We were from around here,” Kim answered. “We were lost, and now we’re home. What’s happened?”
“Firehands, Algonians, the Barskall… It seems like the whole damn world is attacking Holdgate.” The man gave them one more appraising look and then nodded. “You want to join the fight? I’ll warn you, these firehands… As the name implies, they shoot fire from their hands. It’s not going to be a stroll in the park.”
The trio shared looks of worry, but each nodded. They were in agreement.
“We’re finally home now,” Andreas replied. “If someone is attacking our home, causing trouble, we’re going to teach them and the rest of the world never to mess with us again.”
With a nod of approval, the man smiled and pointed them on their way. “They're attacking the eastern wall. I hope you have your land legs, because it's quite the run."
The man turned on his heel and went off to finish whatever business he had been about when they arrived, and Andreas started walking to the boat.
“Just hold on,” Lars said, not moving. “Are we sure about this?”
“What’s the issue?” Andreas asked.
“The Dark Society and the goddess coming this way.” Lars ran a hand across his beard, stopping to fidget with it. “We haven’t warned anyone, or found out if this is connected.”
“Dear,” Kim interjected, “all the people we need to speak with are likely involved in this fight. Either the Dark Society hasn’t spread here, in which case we should join the fight and defend our home and then have those talks, or they have and this is them. In the latter case, we should still fight.”
Lars considered this, then nodded and started walking toward the boat.
“Just like that?” Andreas asked.
“She’s rarely wrong. This isn’t the exception.”
Andreas and Kim followed, and after collecting their weapons the three jogged through the city, off to find the eastern wall and join the battle.
“So this is it, huh?” Kim asked as they ran.
“We’re home,” Andreas replied. “Our home is under attack, and when we’ve helped save it we will continue on to help the rest of the world—if we’re able.”
“After a good night’s sleep and a tankard of ale or five,” Lars said with a boisterous laugh. “We’ve earned our rest,
let me tell you.”
“Or we’re about to,” Andreas replied. He picked up the pace, anxious to get into the thick of it and defend their home.
At last.
THE END
Author Notes - Justin Sloan
October 21, 2017
The end of another series with Michael Anderle. Wow! We started this just under eleven months ago, and now have eight books in the Reclaiming Honor series, and four books in the Hidden Magic Chronicles.
I had no idea our short conversation about possibly working together could evolve into this, but it is here before you. There are so many great books by amazing authors in the Age of Magic and the other ages within the Kurtherian Gambit Universe—you should never get bored!
And there’s no excuse, because we’ve done audiobooks as well. You should get those as soon as they’re available!
Through this journey, I’ve learned a lot about my readers. I am so happy you have stuck with me. It’s been a tough one at times, as it always is when you juggle children and a job while trying to pursue your passion. Many of you know that I was recently able to go fulltime as an author (2017), and many of you know what this means to me. If you’ve read the author notes in the first three books in this series you know how emotional I can get, and how much I love writing. For anyone who doesn’t have a clue, I would ask that you read those books and author notes (but I have to wonder why you’re reading this if you haven’t).
The summary version is, this is a dream come true. Because I’m able to write fulltime, I can actually sit down and hang out with the people in my head and join them on journeys through the Lost Isles or Old Manhattan and Toronto while still being able to drop my kids off and pick them up from school, take them on field trips, and whatever else it is I need to do. Hopefully none of this comes off as bragging, because when I look back at this it sounds like I’m describing the perfect life.
Or maybe it’s just my idea of a perfect life? In truth, I could have made more money, and maybe some people would prefer that route in their lives. I was in the Marine Corps for five years, in signals intelligence. The buddy I was in with went on to continue that route in life, and makes double what I do now (although I think he works about twice as much, too, so… Eh, it kind of equals out). He’s always traveling, not able to spend time with his kids, etc.
The point is—I love my life, and I love writing. And it’s all thanks to you readers. You who have been with me along the way and supported me.
And this is another fantasy series done! That’s exciting. Some of my readers joined me after reading the Falls of Redemption books, and have been begging me to write a fourth. I will, but I’m not sure when, and it doesn’t really need to be written. The story was complete at three (or two, in a way), but four will be a transition book, because that series will go in some crazy directions. I put out a short story that hints at where book four will go, for those of you who have read the first three and are curious.
As for the Hidden Magic Chronicles, they are complete.
What about Andreas, you ask? What happens with Alastar, Estair, the king, and Rose? And everyone else? Well, that will have to be up to your imaginations. I have told the other Age of Magic writers that they can incorporate my characters into their stories. I hope that happens, and have set it up that way.
If you want more, read their series. I’ve talked them up in my other author notes, and can’t say enough how about how awesome they are. If you enjoy my work with Michael but haven’t read the Reclaiming Honor books, please do. We have much more coming through the pipeline, including some amazing stories in space, so there’s really something for almost everyone.
Thank you again for reading these books and sharing your feedback! If you’d like to leave a review I will gladly accept, and if you want to send me a message on Facebook, feel free. I am happy to chat with readers, and am always growing as an author.
Justin
PS: One more thing… There’s now a Facebook group for fan fiction in the Kurtherian Universe, if you want to join us there. It’s really starting to get off the ground-lots of great ideas and some pretty great stories have been posted. Want to join the fun? https://www.facebook.com/groups/TKGFansWrite/
Author Notes - Michael Anderle
October 22, 2017
First, THANK YOU for not only reading this book, but also reading to the end, past Justin’s notes to read mine, as well.
The end of an arc! This is the end of the Shades of Magic series (at least for now) as Justin focuses on the Science Fiction side of his stories and personal stuff. However, this isn’t the end of his Kurtherian Gambit work.
Right now, Justin has twelve collaboration books with me, another with myself and Craig Martelle and just a ton of his own books and other collaborations.
I’m going to go back in time (it seems like forever, but is actually less than a year ago) and speak to my first book(s) author notes with Justin.
Justice Is Calling.
Here is a synopsis of what I said in that first book:
“About two to three months ago, Justin approached me on FB in chat and asked if I would be up to a collaboration?
Well, I’d been considering doing some collaborations because there is SO MUCH in the series and the timeline, the world, the characters that I can’t possibly get to in time that I had already been considering asking a handful to do jump on with me.
I’ve known Justin for a handful of months, now. He came into the 20BooksTo50k group, and I’d been a guest on his podcast with Kevin Tumlinson a couple of months back.
So, the relationship was there, the trust was there, and I had an itch I wanted to scratch.
That itch? Hacking success for both of us.
Marketing is hard. Marketing for Indie Writers is DAMNED hard. Justin already has out many books, in many genres (arguably why he is having a more difficult time, but that is probably a ‘too inside baseball’ discussion for these notes.) Needless to say, would all of these hacking success ideas I’m wondering about work? Would helping him, promoting him based on what I had learned working with Paul C. Middleton improve his sales and move him beyond due to learning anything from working with me?
I wanted to find out.”
Here we are, about ten and a half months after we released that first book, Justice Is Calling and the next twelve and what I know is this:
1) He is writing full time from the income of his books (personal books and collaborations.)
2) He has put out at least 21 books (collaborations and his own), been in at least three anthologies I can see and goodness knows what else. During most of these ten and a half months, he was working full time with a company, as well.
3) Here are his author stats:
Amazon Author Rank
#11 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction
#15 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction
#20 in Books > Teens
#23 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy
#37 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy
4) Only 13 of those 21 total books published in the last ten and a half months above are TKG books. He has a very successful series Shadow Worlds going on right now that is STILL top #1,000 by himself.
Now, to answer that hacking question above.
Our collaboration Kurtherian Gambit Books have sold over 32,000 copies in eBook and over been credited with over 18.5 million pages read in Kindle Unlimited.
So, if the objective statement of success is based on sales, then yes – we have absolutely hacked success for the both of us.
So, THANK YOU Justin Sloan, for reaching out to ask me if I would want to collaborate with you. It’s been an honor, and a wonderful hacking experiment that has worked out pretty damned well for the both of us!
We look forward to share with you readers the new collaboration with Justin and PT Hylton, Valerie’s Elites, coming soon…ish.
Ad Aeternitatem,
Mich
ael Anderle
Justin Sloan Social
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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)
Never Submit (15) - Never Surrender (16) - Forever Defend (17)
Might Makes Right (18) - Ahead Full (19) - Capture Death (20)
Life Goes On (21)
The Second Dark Ages
The Dark Messiah (01)
