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Imago Fantasy Realm
Imago Fantasy Realm
Category:
Young Adult/Teen
Publisher: L.T. Suzuki
Pages: 290
Copyright: Sept. 2012
ISBN-13: 9780986724084
What would you be willing to sacrifice to unlock your single, greatest dream?
In this sequel to The Silver Sword, Princess Rose, Tag and Cankles have endured a terrifying trek through the dragon lands in the perilous Fire Rim Mountains. Having run the gauntlet to survive a series of deadly obstacles only to become trapped in the Sorcerer's lair, the trio is faced with their most trying quest to date.
The unlikely friends are separated when Cankles is taken prisoner, spirited away by dark magic. His only salvation, if he can endure his captivity, is to remember his past; long-forgotten memories that hold the key to his very survival and the lives of his friends. But nothing is as it seems...
Battling against time and a manipulative shape-shifting Sprite that wants Cankles to remember his past for his own personal gains, it is the final push to reclaim the dreamstone before their nemesis, the malevolent Sorcerer, discovers the secret to unleashing its powers.
Excerpt
CHAPTER 1:
A Dead End
I AM SO DEAD…
These four small words loomed large in Rose’s mind. They squeezed her heart with fear as the floor and walls of this great chamber rattled beneath her feet. Dropping to her knees, she shrieked in fright. It felt like the earth was preparing to swallow her up whole. And then just as quickly, the tremors stopped.
By the loud rumble and cloud of dust spewing from the mouth of the tunnel leading from the dragon’s keep into the Sorcerer’s lair, she knew this was no ordinary earthquake. The passage Tag and the three Elves in his company had worked so hard to clear to access the chamber had collapsed.
“No! Oh, no!” cried Rose, as she scrambled onto her feet.
Terrifying thoughts darted in and out of her mind, but the one that gnawed at her conscience the most was the fear of dying alone in this God-forsaken hole in the ground.
She was beginning to think it would have been better had she helped Tag and the Elves in removing the debris, than to stand idly by while they toiled to clear the way. Had she been with them in the lair, it would have been far better to die quickly, and in the company of friends trying to rescue a friend than to die alone, wasting away from thirst and hunger, while going stark, raving mad trapped inside this cave.
Fanning away the swirling dust, by the glow of the molten lava, all she could see were more fallen rocks and debris clogging half the tunnel. There was no getting in or out.
“Tag! Where are you?” Rose called in desperation.
She prayed the entire chamber had not collapsed on him, that he was merely trapped with the Elves on the other side. With hands cupped to her ears, she waited, listening anxiously for a familiar voice to answer back.
Instead, her words were met by a numbing silence. Panic gripped her heart as her terrified mind absorbed this profound hush. Gradually, the ambient sounds of the churning lava and the pounding of her heart sounded in her ears.
Rose balled her hands into trembling fists, fighting to remain calm as she struggled to hold back the flood of tears waiting to gush forth.
“Tagius Oliver Yairet! Where are you?” She called out once more, her voice reduced to a pathetic whimper. “Answer me…”
Again, there was no reply, only deathly silence.
Rose drew a deep breath; staring at the mountain of rubble before her that destroyed the small opening Tag and the Elves had worked so hard to clear.
“Why did you have to do this?” Rose moaned aloud, as she despaired over Tag’s demise. “I should have stopped you. I should have just ordered you and the others to stop this rescue.”
She waited, hoping for Tag to agree with her.
This was the one time she wished the young knight-in-training was here to tell her off. In all her life, she never felt this alone… and this lonely.
Her eyes travelled from this sloping pile of rocks, across the chamber to the narrow passage that brought them here.
She was at a dead end, but the daunting task of attempting to retrace her steps on her own to escape this place held about as much promise. Even if she were able to remain on course, even with all the traps and obstacles that had been rendered harmless on their passing, how was she to accomplish this now? She had no torch; no way to light the pitch black tunnels to return to the mouth of the cave hidden by the curtain of water falling at the Devil’s Tears.
Even if she made it, she had no way to escape from behind this waterfall, no way to climb back onto the cliff.
“Either way, I’ll go absolutely crazy!”
“Am I going insane?”
“I am going insane… The first sign is to speak to one’s self.”
Scrutinizing her subterranean prison, she muttered beneath her breath, “And the second sign of madness is to answer back.”
Her teary eyes opened wide in surprise as an idea formed in her wobbly mind.
“That’s it! If I go insane, it won’t matter what happens or how I meet my end! I’ll be too loopy to care.”
With the kind of gay abandon only possible for one on the brink of madness, Rose proceeded to run in circles; whooping, hollering and spouting a litany of swear words appropriate for this dismal occasion.
When she depleted the supply from her personal and limited lexicon of profanities, she proceeded to invent all new swear words, babbling gibberish as she galloped about like a deranged pony trapped in an underground corral.
Her energy dissipated as quickly as her list of newly invented curse words. Reduced to a plodding stagger like she was now a lame, crazed pony, the tears of dread and frustration began to well as her lower lip quivered in a sad pout of defeat.
As the sting of salty tears rolled down her burning cheeks, an overwhelming sense of helplessness squeezed her heart. In a gasping sob, she struggled against a tidal wave of emotions waiting to swallow her up. In a senseless display of despair and disappointment, Rose hurled a rock at the pile of rubble sealing the tunnel to the Sorcerer’s lair.
It landed with a loud clatter. As though to mock her, it tumbled down in a mini avalanche. Rolling to the cave floor, this fist-sized stone came to rest at her feet.
In exhaustion and utter defeat, the Princess plopped down where she stood, staring dismally at the rock she had thrown.
Just as she was about to break down in tears, reduced to what Cankles liked to refer to as the ‘ugly cry’, she heard it.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
This faint sound echoed from somewhere in this mountain of debris choking the tunnel.
She gasped in disbelief as she listened.
Again, there it was, a faint, but rhythmic: Tap! Tap! Tap!
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