Blurb:
Join Commander Loriaska as he travels the length and breadth of the Empire searching for a way to hold the crumbling Empire together. Journey deep beneath the earth, over the vast desert wasteland, through the thick elven forests, and back to the city at the heart of the Empire, Centralis, as Loriaska seeks answers where none may exist and finds contentment he had never dreamed possible here and now in the Twilight of Lanar'ya.
Http://www.roosterandpigpublishing.com/new-releases
Excerpt:
The Emperor smiled and waved them
closer. He had known them all for many years. The elf had been the first to
join his crusade. The dwarf had taken longer to come around. And the young
human who mixed metal and magic…
“I have a request for you,” the Emperor
said, his voice so strong and deep it seemed to belie his weakened body. “None
of you will like it.”
“We will do whatever you ask of us, old
friend,” the elf replied, his blue eyes filling with tears at the sight of his
friend’s age-ravaged body. “Forgive me,” he added quickly, bowing low, “we will
do as you ask, my lord.”
“Enough of that,” the Emperor growled
softly, waving away the obeisance. “I’ve enough ceremony foisted on me in a day
to last a sensible man a lifetime. And yet, I have insisted on it,” he sighed.
“I had no choice…”
“What is it you want of us, Lan?” the
dwarf asked calmly. He was less impressed with the Emperor. He recalled all too
well how his old friend could barely heft a hammer or handle a dwarven duel
when they’d first met. In time, Lan had become a master at the warhammer and
had even kept pace with the dwarf for a few hours of a duel. “We’ll do it.
We’ll piss and moan like women, but we’ll do it.”
“Jevak, old friend,” the Emperor
chuckled. “Thank you. Gerald, come forth and let me look upon your face,” he
motioned for the human to step into the light. “These old eyes don’t see as
well as they once did.”
The young man moved into the light
streaming from the window. The Emperor gazed at his face, careless of the tears
trickling from his rheumy grey eyes. “You are your father come back to us,
Gerald. You are his very likeness. Did Jorash ever tell you how he came to join
me?”
“Many times, Uncle Lan,” the youth
replied calmly. “He said you were the greatest thing to come out of Tevrata.
You were the one who convinced the three human kingdoms to ally with the elven
nation. You even brought the dwarves into the pact. It was you who had the
wisdom and the fire to stop those foul blood-mages.”
“I did not do it alone,” the Emperor
sighed. “The elves had seen the danger before I was even a twinkle in my
father’s eye. They tried to warn us but we would not listen…”
“To our sorrow,” Gerald agreed. “But the
Night-Souled are contained now. We’ve managed to hold them in the northeast.
The dwarves keep a solid watch on them. A shame we couldn’t push them into the
desert but… Why wouldn’t you let us push them to the sands, Uncle? I’ve never
understood that. Had we forced them to retreat northwest twenty years ago…”
“We would have lost everything if we
allowed them the desert that divides,” the Emperor grimaced. “I saw that. We
must hold them here. We must not allow our mistakes to multiply into the
northern lands. Regardless of what comes, we must never allow them to move
northward. That is the task I set for you, Gerald.”
“To keep an eye on the Night-Souled?”
the young man asked, confused. Doing such a thing was the duty of every man in
the Empire. “Uncle, I will of course…”
“No,” the Emperor said, shaking his
head. “You must go to the desert. Gather up the men from your coterie and take
them to the desert. There you will live and die. Raise up your children to
maintain the watch. Ensure that no Night-Souled crosses the desert to the
northlands. Even if you must fight the Empire itself to see it so, do this
thing for me.”
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