Blood of the King - Khirro's Journey Book 1 Page 0,150
something but couldn’t discern where it came from or what it was. Khirro crossed the dry grass and knelt on the straw beside the boy.
“Who are you?” he said, a breath of wind against the boys cheek that only made him cringe the way the wind shaking the tent did. “What are you doing in my dream?”
Abruptly, inexplicably, the boy’s shivering ceased. He sat up and looked directly into Khirro’s eyes, stared right through them. Seconds passed. Khirro didn’t breathe. The boy hugged the toy dragon tight, then held it out before him, offering it. Khirro took it. He knew he held the toy but couldn’t see his hand. He was invisible to himself, so he must be to the boy, too. A smile tugged at the lad’s lips, but it quickly faltered.
“Please help me,” the boy said, his voice a whimper, and Khirro knew that was what he had to do. He stared into the boy’s sad eyes, wishing there was something he could do for him now, in the dream, but knowing it was only that.
The temperature in the tent dropped suddenly. The boy grabbed the wooden dragon from Khirro’s invisible grasp, fell back onto the straw mattress and curled into the fetal position, eyes clamped shut. Khirro straightened, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end. He stood and turned to face the tent flap and whoever or whatever had come through.
The first thing that struck him was the woman’s beauty. Her golden hair cascaded over her black cloak almost to her waist, a startling contrast to her dark brown eyes. But there was something un-beautiful about her eyes: a hardness, a cruelty. They were the eyes of someone who’d watch death without flinching, and they bore into Khirro, searching him.
“You do not belong here.”
He stared at her, chills crawling up his spine. It seemed as though her words weren’t meant for him but for that which dwelled within him. He didn’t move as she approached, couldn’t.
“Your time has passed. Do not interfere.”
The flesh on Khirro’s arm tingled as he felt the flame begin. The tent brightened as the sensation grew. The boy moaned on the bed behind him and the woman’s lips became a taut red line across her stern face, stealing her beauty. Darkness collected behind her and the green wall of the tent disappeared.
As Khirro’s incandescence grew, so too did the woman’s blackness until the two pressed against each other like beasts locked in a mortal struggle. Khirro spread his legs, pushing against the pressure compressing his chest and threatening to force him back. His glow grew to a blaze as the darkness emanating from her expanded until there was nothing in the dream but him and her, light and dark.
“Leave this place,” she said, her voice more a growl than the words of a woman. “Leave this place and do not come back.”
Sweat streamed down Khirro’s face, ran down his neck and under his shirt. His jaw muscles knotted, his lips pulled back from his teeth with the effort, but the darkness pushed forward, expelling his fire before it. The woman stepped forward until they were inches apart and spread her arms. Night flowed from her cloak, encircling Khirro, sucking the fire from his soul and the energy from his limbs. His knees gave out and the darkness took him.
Stars twinkled down from the sky as Khirro awoke, a knot clogging his throat. He clenched his fists, his fingers dug into the loamy earth upon which he lay.
Who was she?
He glanced at the trees pressing in around him. Athryn should be somewhere close, but he didn’t know where. They’d chosen not to light a fire, and now Khirro regretted the decision. Having the flames to show him that light always conquered night would have been reassuring. He sat up and breathed out a slow sigh through tight lips.
“Graymon,” he said, not sure where the name came from but knowing it was the boy in the dream. Thankfulness and fear mixed in his mind as he realized the dream had shown him what he needed to do next, where he needed to go.
“Graymon.”
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Now Available: Spirit of the King (Khirro's Journey Book 2)
Heart of the King (Khirro's Journey Book 3)
Urban Fantasy Also Available from Bruce Blake:
On Unfaithful Wings (Icarus Fell #1)
"The next book in this series cannot come out soon enough for this reader. Not just my favorite Kindle book of the year, but one of my favorite books ever."
"I loved this book."
"Bruce Blake's On Unfaithful Wings is a great urban fantasy novel. I love good character development in a story's protagonist and Blake nails it with Icarus Fell. I found myself rooting for him from the get go and laughing out loud at some of his observations."
"On Unfaithful Wings was an impressive first novel. All of the characters were interesting and engaging, but in particular the main character and his struggle to reconcile with his new identity/job. This is one of those stories that stays with me long after I read it and I'll be on the lookout for more from this author."
To some, death is the end; to others, a beginning. To Icarus Fell, it should have been a relief from a life gone seriously awry. But death had other plans.
Icarus doesn't believe that the man awaiting him when he wakes up in a cheap motel room is really the archangel Michael, or that God's right hand wants him to help souls on their way to Heaven. Icarus doesn't believe there's a Heaven, so why should they want his help?
But the man claiming to be the archangel tempts him with an offer he can't ignore—harvest enough souls and get back the life he wished he'd had. It seems Icarus has nothing to lose, until he botches a harvest and the soul that went to Hell instead of Heaven comes back to make him pay by threatening to take away the life he hoped to win back.
To save the wife and son he already lost once, Icarus will have to become the man he never was. Somehow, he will have to learn to believe.
"This is just, simply, amazing. Icarus is one of the best characters I've ever "met", chock full of virtues and faults and doubts and worries and a simple HUMANNESS that comes through so clearly, I almost expect to run into him around the next corner."
"Icarus Fell is a flawed man but a wonderful character. From the moment I started reading On Unfaithful Wings I was pulled along by this interesting character and wanting to know what would happen next."
Icarus Fell Book 2 also available: All Who Wander Are Lost
About the Author
Bruce Blake lives on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. When pressing issues like shovelling snow and building igloos don't take up his spare time, Bruce can be found taking the dog sled to the nearest coffee shop to work on his short stories and novels.
Actually, Victoria, B.C. is only a couple hours north of Seattle, Wash., where more rain is seen than snow. Since snow isn't really a pressing issue, Bruce spends more time trying to remember to leave the "u" out of words like "colour" and "neighbour" then he does shovelling. The father of two, Bruce is also the trophy husband of burlesque diva Miss Rosie Bitts.
Bruce has been writing since grade school but it wasn't until five years ago he set his sights on becoming a full-time writer. Since then, his first short story, "Another Man's Shoes" was published in the Winter 2008 edition of Cemetery Moon , another short, "Yardwork",was made into a podcast in Oct., 2011 by Pseudopod. His first Icarus Fell novel, "On Unfaithful Wings", published to Kindle in Dec., 2011, was selected as a semi-finalist in the Kindle Book Review Best Indie Books of 2012. The second Icarus Fell novel, “All Who Wander Are Lost”, was released in July, 2012, and “Blood of the King”, the first book in the three-part “Khirro's Journey” epic fantasy, followed in September. He has plans for at least three more Icarus novels, several stand alones, and a possible YA fantasy co-written with his eleven-year-old daughter.
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