Title Tales of Erana: Myths and Legends
Author A. L. Butcher
Genre Fantasy
Book Blurb
In a world where magic is illegal, and elves enslaved dare you hear the tales of old? Five tales of myth, magic, and monsters from the world of the Light Beyond the Storm Chronicles.
Excerpt
The Moon on the Water
© A. L. Butcher
War did not know this, and battle will be fought when it chooses. Trolls, elves and men are but its creatures. So the war continued, month after bloody month, and neither side prevailed. With battle came those things which walk alongside war – disharmony, chaos and hatred. It took much persuasion, and whispered entreaties in the passion of lovemaking to convince Acionna to fight for the Var. When gods become involved in war the odds are unfair and a price must surely be paid, but from whom is never clear.
Acionna held the wild magic, the primal Power, the very essence of sorcery and for the sake of her lover and his tribe she brought it to bear upon those they fought. From her fingers ran the torrents of the mountain, fierce and unyielding as they swept away the enemies. Sal trolls grabbed at rocks or thrust their weapons into the ground to no avail as warriors were swept over crevasses and into the hard rock walls. The ground beneath her enemies rippled and cracked, tumbling warriors and unsettling their battle beasts.
The Sal themselves fielded greater numbers; their tribe spanned many settlements and their Shaman had learned the secrets of the dark magic, traded for gold, for prisoners of war and for blood. The warriors of the tribe of Var were pushed back, and the rocks were stained red with blood as the sickness swept their ranks. Blood poured from eyes and mouths, drenching all about them. Twisting tendrils of magic grabbed at throats like unseen hands, choking away life and squeezing out hope. The dead rose on feet of bone, in the days before the trolls burned their dead and limbs hacked from torsos leapt, kicking, scratching, blinding until the trolls of Varris trembled. Their Shaman Lirana called the magic from the Relic of the Moon as her sight faded from eyes pulled from her face by the hands of the dead and her throat constricted with the dark, curse magic of her foes. The death-words of a Shaman carry much Power and the magic flowed with her blood to turn the attackers before her to stone; statues now diving forward in attack, and one with a stone arm clutched about the neck of a dying troll Shaman. With their Shaman slain the Var were demoralised, yet fought for their own survival as the Relic rolled from the hands of their queen.
Diving forward Hirik warrior Orlin Sal snatched the Relic of the Moon and raised it high; the victory chant of his tribe echoed among the towering peaks, a thunderous cacophony roaring among the paths and trails. The Relic soon reached their Shaman, who laughed and motioned her troops onwards. It was not enough to possess the Relic of the Moon, she wished to kill or enslave her enemies. More slaves bought her more magic, more wealth and more status. More blood could be traded with the fae. She had heard the words and seen the tendrils of magic from the previous owner and cried her own. Pouring forth like a torrent with the twisted darkness of the magic she held the Power turned her most of her kin and some of her foes to nought but statues. Frozen and fixed in rock and in time. Magic demands a price and on that plain of war that price was the lives and the futures of those who fought. Magic is fickle. Magic is wild and magic may be a blessing and it may be a curse.
Buy Links
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Giveaway:
I’m one of the authors participating in the Resolve to Read More Books Giveaway and you can win an e-copy of The Light Beyond the Storm Chronicles Book 1 by A. L. Butcher (Smashwords voucher).
Runs January 3 - 31 and is open internationally.
Winner will be drawn February 1, 2019.
Author Biography
British-born A. L. Butcher is an avid reader and creator of worlds, a poet, and a dreamer, a lover of science, natural history, history, and monkeys. Her prose has been described as ‘dark and gritty’ and her poetry as ‘evocative’. She writes with a sure and sometimes erotic sensibility of things that might have been, never were, but could be.
Alex is the author of the Light Beyond the Storm Chronicles and the Tales of Erana lyrical fantasy series. She also has several short stories in the fantasy, fantasy romance genres with occasional forays into gothic style horror, including the Legacy of the Mask series. With a background in politics, classical studies, ancient history and myth, her affinities bring an eclectic and unique flavour in her work, mixing reality and dream in alchemical proportions that bring her characters and worlds to life.
She also curates for a number of speculative fiction themed book bundles on BundleRabbit.
Her short novella Outside the Walls, co-written with Diana L. Wicker received a Chill with a Book Reader’s Award in 2017.
Alex is also proud to be a writer for Perseid Press where her work features in Heroika: Dragon Eaters; and Lovers in Hell – part of the acclaimed Heroes in Hell series. http://www.theperseidpress.com/
Social Media Links
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Facebook Author Page https://www.facebook.com/LightBeyondtheStorm/
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Library of Erana Blog http://bit.ly/Blog2iAWL3o
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