#Sorcery and Sword Fights in Vanquished by @Laurel_R_books #fantasy
Blurb: Three
strangers brought together by war.
The Ulanesh—vicious soldiers from the
underrealm—are invading the forest and destroying everything in their path.
Standing against the enemy, Evrenor is a captain in the Quennin army and has
been tasked by his king to find allies. He enlists the aid of the ancient sea
sorceress Valkaria, whom he wakes from a curse that has entombed her at the
bottom of a lake for a thousand years. She must regain her powers after a
millennium of disuse or else watch everyone around her die.
Evrenor finds another ally in Damir, a woodsman
whose people are so reclusive that outsiders consider them myths. The
tree-talking woodsmen can blend perfectly with the forest, and they are deadly
with their daggers. Damir is ready to take down the enemy, but he has to strike
before the vision he’s had of his own death comes to pass.
An awakened sorceress, a mysterious woodsman,
and a cunning army captain—will their combined forces be enough to vanquish the
enemy?
Available from:
Excerpt:
Evrenor kept a close
eye on Valkaria as they moved along the rough trail through the woods. Looking
at her fresh face, it was difficult to imagine that she had been born over a
thousand years ago. He wondered if she realized how much time she’d lost
trapped inside the lake. Should he tell her? Perhaps when she was a little
stronger?
Glancing behind him, he
saw that Hyvril and Antyar were looking after her now. He hadn’t even needed to
tell them to do so. They had taken it upon themselves to protect her on each
side. Such good men, he thought. He
was glad to have them on this mission. Although there hadn’t been any sightings
of the enemy for days, he couldn’t be certain when they might appear.
As Evrenor led the way
over the nearest hill, the woods widened around him, and the air wasn’t nearly
so still.
“I’m sorry we didn’t
bring more suitable clothes for you, Lady Valkaria,” he heard Hyvril say behind
him.
“It doesn’t matter,”
she replied. “I prefer dry and warm over suitable, and I’ve decided I like
these clothes.”
“We expected a man,”
Antyar added more bluntly. “The legends said nothing of the great sorcerer
being a woman.”
Evrenor glanced back to
see her reaction and caught the wry amusement that danced across her face.
“No, they wouldn’t
have, would they?” she said. “There’s no feminine form of the word sorcerer in my language, so they would
have had to go out of their way to make a point of it. Besides, I’m the only
one.”
Evrenor saw his men
exchange glances. So this, then, really was the great sorcerer? Although he
knew there couldn’t have been two bodies magically buried in the lake, he had
accepted that there might have been some sort of mix-up. Apparently the only
mistake was a lack of a gendered noun in the seaside language.
Valkaria certainly
spoke and carried herself with dignity, but how could so delicate a creature
possess the great powers of legend? The lady seemed to inspire protectiveness among
his men, not awe and reverence.
“My father, Lord
Valkinor,” she explained, “was a sorcerer of exceptional skill. They said he
could make the ocean touch the sky or build the dunes with a thought. He saved
our isle from the windstorms and the towering waves, and he was well loved by
his people. Some even worshipped him as a god.
“It was hoped that one
day he would pass his gifts to a son, who would continue his rule. But fate, it
seems, had a will of her own. She gave him nothing but daughters. My father
decided to break with the old ways, and he turned to me, the eldest of his
daughters, to salvage his legacy. He passed the art of his magic to me, saving
me from a life as a common oracle, and with it, he passed me his rule.”
“Didn’t that cause
conflict?” Hyvril asked.
When a long silence
ensued, Evrenor looked at her again. Her face was solemn, and she looked as if
she was troubled by dark memories.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Yes, it did.”
About
the Author
Laurel Richards is a fiction author with a
passion for shifters, space travelers, and other memorable characters. She has
gathered inspiration from lots of different sources throughout her life and is
here today to share her imagination through storytelling. Laurel writes
sci-fi/fantasy, paranormal, and the occasional funny mystery, all with various
degrees of romance mixed in.
Hashtags:
#fantasy #swords #sorcery #magic
Thanks, Diane!
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