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Brendan Carroll's Blog
Category:
Fantasy
Publisher: Brendan Carroll
ISBN-10: 1466330074
Type: Fiction
Pages: 308
Copyright: Sep 24, 2011
ISBN-13: 9781466330078
Price: $3.99 (eBook)
The Chevalier du Morte must continue his ruse in order to accomplish his triple mission in the Abyss, the Underworld and the Overworld. The Ancient Evil, thwarted in his attempt to use the very power of God, turns his attention to the fair lands and people of the faery realms.
Sir Ramsay, still under Semiramis' curse struggles to maintain control of the Order of the Red Cross of Gold from afar as woodland elves, Tuathans and men join forces to fight against the Ancient Evil and try to subdue the enraged Annoni at the same time. The Knight of Death's troubles increase when the Knight of the Golden Eagle murders one of his Brothers and becomes a fugitive.
There is no place to run and no place to hide when the former Grand Master takes control of the remaining Templars and flees to the Underworld. And if they do not have enough trouble, the second scourge is called up from beyond the Abyss to wage war against them. Even the dead are recruited to the cause.
Excerpt
Adalune Kadif sat on the edge of Merry’s bed, feeding her tidbits of bread and cheese, regaling her with his tales of times long past. She was feeling much better now and was immensely glad to see the friendly face of Mark Andrew’s unlikely son, the Mighty Djinni. She laughed at his description of the aquarium in Galveston, Texas, again. This thing seemed to be wearing on his mind. He longed to set the sea creatures free there and she knew that, if the world lasted long enough, one day the attendants at the Moody Gardens glass pyramid park would find their great tanks devoid of the wonderful array of sea creatures and fish and penguins. Lemarik would find some way to extract them without harming them, and… poof! They would be free. He made her this solemn promise and he also promised her that someday, he would take her on a grand tour of the sea and all its marvelous wonders… in person. He would transform her into a mermaid and he would go as a great dolphin. It sounded wonderful and she could only hope that it would truly come to pass when happier days returned to them. At the thought of this unlikely possibility, her face clouded over and she began to cry.
“Ohhh. Nooo!” Lemarik climbed onto the bed and wrapped his arms around her, cradling her head against his shoulder. “Why are you crying, my precious aunt?”
“I’m so afraid,” she told him, sniffing loudly. “I saw what almost happened last night. They were ready to burn Luke Matthew at the stake. They accused him of all sorts of terrible things.”
“Please do not cry. Tell me about this.” He was truly upset now. He propped her against the pillows on the bed and then transformed the simple wool blankets of the elves into soft, colorful covers with tassels and fringes. He made a purple canopy over the bed with flowering fields painted on the underside. “Look, now. Is this not better?” He held up one hand. Delicate lilac draperies hung from the bedposts and fluttered gently in the breeze from the open window.
“Uh, huh,” she nodded. “But they said that Luke brought us here on purpose and that he is in league with Mark Andrew and that Mark Andrew is the devil and…” she broke into new sobs.
“Mark Andrew is not the devil, my child,” Lemarik’s voice changed slightly. “He is a great and wonderful power in the Universe. A Son of Light, though he thinks otherwise. That is what endears him to others… his humility. He has forgotten himself.”
“Mark Andrew? Humble?” She frowned up at him. Humble was not a word she would have used to describe her brother-in-law.
“Of course. He blames himself for all the troubles that befall mankind. He is always trying to right the wrongs. It is not his fault that it is beyond his ability to correct the evil done by others,” Lemarik told her. “Even now, he is in the Abyss trying to correct what my granddaughter did in her ignorance.”
“Anna?” Merry’s face fell again. “Where is Anna? What has happened to her? She is so much like you. A wonderful woman. So full of life and innocence, yet so very scary.”
“She is well,” he told her shortly. “I have recovered her. But she is away on other business. Her heart is very heavy at the loss of her husband, Jozsef. I, too, am saddened by his loss.”
Merry sighed. Jozsef had seemed like such a nice person. Not like Mark Andrew, not like Luke Andrew, but warm and full of information about strange things, more like Luke Matthew. She remembered hearing him talk endlessly to Galen and Michael about rocks and caves and the stars and the planets. The boys had loved him almost as much as they had loved Luke Andrew. At the thought of Galen, her tears were renewed.
“Now what is troubling you?” The Djinni was beside himself. He could not imagine that Merry’s eyes could hold so much water.
“I’m pregnant,” she told him, blurting out the fact, in spite of her resolve not to mention her condition to anyone. “I’m old and pregnant. I’m afraid that I will not live through this. I’m afraid that I will die before I see Galen again. Luke will never get old and I will get old and he won’t love me anymore.”
“Nonsense.” Lemarik stroked her hair. “You have not become old yet and you will not become old now.”
“What do you mean?” She drew back and looked at him in frustration. He didn’t understand. “I’m almost as old as Luke right now. In fact, I might be older than him. He was gone five years. And when he came back, he looked exactly the same as when he left, but look at me. I’m almost thirty-eight!”
“You are only a babe. Thirty-eight years is nothing. You should look forward to a long, long life ahead of you. You may have hundreds of children.”
Merry sniffed and laughed at the innocent ignorance of his statement.
“I am already too old to have a child, Lemarik,” she told him. “The doctor’s say that it is not healthy for women to become pregnant over the age of thirty-five without special care. Especially, if a long time has passed since the last pregnancy. Galen is almost twelve years old. And I had some problems carrying him near the end of the pregnancy.”
“But that is no problem now,” he told her and smiled knowingly before winking. “Do not worry, Meredith Nichole, your secret is safe with me!”
“What secret? Oh, you mean the pregnancy?” She smiled ruefully. “It will only be matter of time and everyone will know. Oriel already suspects something. She asked me about my illness only two days ago. If she learns that I was throwing up this morning, it will be very obvious what is wrong with me.”
“No. No. No. No. No.” Lemarik shook his head.
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