|
Honor and the Purple
Category:
Fantasy
Publisher: authorhouse
Type: Fiction
Pages: 227
Copyright: December 2005
ISBN-13: 9781420871692
It shouldn't have happened...
There had been peace among the ordered dragons for millenia, ever since the humans were driven from the freedom-loving creatures' home. There was no reason to suspect an attack from the shaded dragons of the north, whom they'd had no interaction with in so long. And it certainly shouldn't have started with a vision laid upon the wings of the next heir-daughter of Rose-Purple.
But to a race that has long since lost their fire, and any claim on ancient magick, this forewarning may be the only chance they have to survive an enemy that still possesses both. Though she expects no one to believe the dreaming, she finds that both she, and the prophecy, have secretly been awaited by some..
To find their fire…
On the brink of war, the ordered dragons face an enemy with magics long forgotten to their casts, and denied by their priests. Their only hopes lay in five dragons from five different casts… For deliverance… Or damnation…
Ahana- Born of the highest Purple Order, and set to receive the crown of her people, this princess desires nothing more than to disavow the very blood that has set her in such a position. But when the powers of a Gres awaken within her, she may find the title stripped from her against her will… Just when she could have saved them all…
Rasine- A green without a past, crippled, and denied a direct role in the war to come, this Gres nonetheless may yet play a pivotal hand in the future of their world… But in doing so, may reveal the truth of an origin that could cost her everything…
Krath- Evriliss of Iron-Red, and quite possibly the greatest warrior alive, he’s already begun to break the rules set so long ago by Holy-White, by bringing a known Gres under his wings… But to give his people a fighting chance, that has to be just the beginning…
Rehalk- Born to the mightiest order of gold, fleeing for the chance of a life she would never have under her father’s wing, she may be able to see what is coming even better than the very seers that orchestrate the turning of her world… Except the role she herself is to play…
Alustyn- One of the mighty Wild-Black, banished from polite society centuries before, he holds the key to the greatest mystery of their time, and could play the deciding role in the war… But to do so, he must sacrifice his honor, and defy the gods themselves…
Excerpt
The moon Enryth hung in the sky like some overripe fruit, one that had taken far too much time in its falling. Ahana gazed at its reflection in the pool, as bright and close as if she could simply scoop it up into her claws, and take a nice round bite of its firm yellow flesh. Enryth knew that it was time to move on, and its light beckoned Ahana into the heavens, into leaving her lifetime home behind for an uncertain future…
And she still didn’t know into whose territory she would be flying, she knew the partitions of each, but neither the names, genders, or ages of those who dwelt within. The black casts truly were a mystery, and wholly a law unto themselves, as her mother had stated. She did not believe she would find her mate within the first cavern she looked, but was still certain that she would find him, if she had to search a dozen years.
She could mostly fly safely, being of the purple, but that only promised safety from the black dragons themselves, it said nothing of the monsters that shared their territories. It was a dangerous quest, that was certain... And one she would not trade for any prize in the kingdom.
She lifted her wings and closed her eyes, feeling the cool caress of the evening breeze, up the thick membrane that stretched wing tip to wing tip. She breathed in deeply of the scent of the garden, a scent that had filled her nights for the better part of a lifetime, and then opened her eyes again, and looked upon Enryth gazing down at her. She felt as if the great moon had somehow given her his blessing in the task ahead... Now if only he would tell her which path to take. She was headed to the most dangerous part of the kingdom, for now she’d narrowed it down to roughly fifty territories, but had no idea where to go from there.
‘Well, one way’s as good as the next.’ She thought with a content smile, beating her wings once, twice, then calling on their full power to lift her beautifully into the air. She moved over the thermals by the mountainside, letting them carry her higher and higher, higher than she’d ever dared to go. She tipped a wing at the sentries, who nodded grimly in reply, then released her hold on gravity, and let herself be rushed up far past the top of the mountain, just below the very clouds themselves.
She took control of her own wings at this point, and beat them rhythmically and hard, until they carried her above the sparse cloud-cover itself. She wanted to laugh and sing with joy at the touch of the clouds against her skin, a luxury she’d been denied all her life, as ‘too-young.’ Now though, she was ‘old-enough,’ and no one, even her mother, could contend this. She turned in a lazy swoop around the mountain, looking down at it from the heights. Even from this high, it was nothing less than enormous. But she could travel even higher...
The words became a claxon in her head as her wings pumped powerfully. Higher, higher... She continued to circle the mountain, using every updraft to her advantage, until the air grew thin and cold. Now she did laugh, looking down at her mighty home, no more than an anthill from these heights. Now she was ready to leave.
She set a course to the southeast, and leveled out, seeing no reason for any greater altitudes than she’d gained here this night. She made careful certain not to look behind her as she flew, she wanted no sorrow of leaving her home behind to taint this wonderful moment.
Out before her stretched the landscape for maybe three hundred miles in every direction, like the maps she’d used to study in her father’s library, waiting for this night with baited breath, and hopeful dreams.
She knew suddenly which way she would travel by as she looked out over the kingdom at sleep, she would go by the way of the Red Order that lay in this direction, and see if her friend had made it there. It was the one she’d spoken of with the most longing... Wouldn’t it be wonderful if both their dreams got to come true? She fixed her eyes on the horizon, at the distant point where she might be able to meet with her long-distanced friend again.
The Iron-Red Order...
|
