Hello, your friendly neighborhood Fairy God-Librarian here, and this post includes an excerpt of my first novel, a stand-alone fantasy, titled The Legion’s Warrior. I hope you enjoy!

(Hint: you can find a brief description of my book on the Books section of this website.)

Prologue

“Father? Why have you done this?”

     I stared hard at his gleeful face, not able to match his level of enthusiasm. Deep within me, a feeling of doom spiked my gut, and I almost gasped as my father, so-called Solon the Wise, smiled at my out-of-place question.

     “Done what, Leon?” he inquired. “Done only what a century of Leaders before me have not been able to accomplish?” Solon slammed his wine-soaked goblet on the wooden table beside us before continuing. “Done what must so that I can make sure that the Legion remains safe? I should be feeling shock at your insolent question, my boy, but this momentous occasion is too great to care about such trifles. Rejoice or get out. No need to waste good wine if you’re not going to drink with us.”

Acacio, Father’s second-in-command, was leaning up against the hall’s large, oaken walls, cup in hand and face ruddy after so many hours of celebration. Beside him stood the other council members and important merchants, all chatting jubilantly and clanking goblets.

     I shared none of it. The others in our Legion were overjoyed that the Kovans had finally decided to sign the final peace treaty amongst our people. The end to two once-united Legions’ century-long war. The end to constant funerals and reluctant poverty in the villages due to taxes required for weapons and supplies.

The beginning of a what was supposed to be endless peace. It was all wrong.

     “You know that Korragos is a ruthless man!” I shouted back at my father. “This is obviously a trap! He’s not going to stop until he topples our Legion and takes our land for his own. He, like the Kovan Leaders before him, want to end us and this war but not in treaties but in blood. Total annihilation of the Tesani threat. He said so himself in some of the last speeches he gave to his people and you know it, I was there! Disguised as a Kovan citizen, no less!”

“No need to repeat what the members of the hall already know, Leon!” commented Acacio. He whipped his mouth with the back of his hand, placed down his cup, and sauntered over to join us.

“However, I suggest you keep your temper to yourself,” Acacio continued in hushed tones, so that only Father and I could hear. “If you want to express your ill tidings to your father, for security’s sake, do it the confines of an empty room. Rumors are known to destroy even the mightiest of Legions.”

Acacio leaned back, his eyes peering hesitantly at the others around them, and locked his hands behind his back, his comments finished.

     “I don’t care!” I shouted. “This is ridiculous. I can’t believe that you think Korragos would sign a peace treaty with us. And after what we did to them eight months ago—”

     “Leon!” Father shouted. “Hold your tongue! I will not be spoken to like that, especially not by a thirteen-year-old boy! Understand this, son, you are not Leader of this Legion yet! It would be wise if you could learn to keep your mouth shut and your temperament calmed! Our people have had enough. It would seem that Korragos feels this way as well. It is finished.”

     I couldn’t believe how my father, a man whose greatest triumph in life had been his reputation for strategic battle tactics, could think that this feud was finally over. When he had returned from within Korragos’s castle, peace treaty still wet and recently signed by both parties, the warriors who waited outside cheered. This was something to be revered for the days to come; however, nobody in either Legion agreed with my views that there was no way a stalemate could last. The blood-feud had lasted too long and ran too deep in the history of our Legions’ origins.

     “Why don’t you go check on your sister,” Father suggested with a wave of his bejeweled hand. “Eleri should still be in there if Sage awakens. We should celebrate this as a family, but we will have to in the morning. There is still some business I must discuss with my council before I retire for the night. Acacio, see to it that the treaty is properly stored.”

     Acacio bowed before he left. I stood there for a few moments longer, watching my father depart with the other council members, before sighing and leaving to do as he had suggested. I almost ran to my sister’s nursery in frustration and slammed the door open without thinking. Eleri, my sister’s nurse, jumped and clutched her heart in fright at my sudden appearance. She shushed me and rushed to the bed where my seven-year-old sister, Sage, slept. However, the slam of the door had awakened her, and the girl fluttered her eyelids and rose from her blankets.

     “Leon?” Sage muttered.

     “Hush, sweetheart, go back to sleep,” I replied, walking over to her and placing a gentle hand upon her head. “I did not mean to disturb you.”

     “Where’s Father?” she asked, blinking up at me.

     “Father has already gone to bed. He said he will see you in the morning. Now, let Eleri put you back to bed, okay? Good-night, Sage.”

     I kissed the top of her head and waited until Eleri’s soft singing voice had calmed Sage back into slumber before gesturing for the woman to follow me into the hallway.

     “Is it true, my lord?” Eleri inquired. “Has Master Solon finally won a peace for us?”

     “Yes,” I replied. “The treaty was signed by Korragos just a few hours ago. We will inform Sage about it in the morning.”
“Oh, I am so happy!” she whispered. “I have longed for this day my whole life.”

     “Yes, I know you’re thrilled, but Eleri, I need you to do something for me. Make sure that you take extra precaution. Watch over Sage like a hawk. Don’t ever go out alone without a warrior present. Just don’t become complacent.”

     “Why, my lord? Shouldn’t the weight of this feud finally be resolved from your shoulders?”

     “Just do it, Eleri. Remain constantly vigilant. And don’t tell my father that I said this.”

     “Yes, my lord. Of course.”

     I turned and left her where she stood and headed for my chambers. The need to train harder, strike faster was itching in my blood. Tomorrow, I will request that the warriors’ exercises increase ten-fold, I thought to myself. Despite this treaty, I knew that war was still eminent.

  “Do you hear that, my lord?”

      I was standing with one of the captains from my regiment. We were discussing the strange markings that a scout had discovered just a few hours ago in our Eastern border. The scout thought it looked like a Cleaver footprint, but his quick sketch of it was too unfamiliar. Almost like a dog’s, but larger, or so a warrior shouted, at great panic to the others. Just in case, my regiment and I were currently checking border protections in the area.

      “Hear what?” I muttered, back to examining the scout’s sketch again.

      “I’m not sure, but it almost sounded like a growl.”

      I looked up at that. A growl. My mind instantly flew back to thoughts of Cleavers. I had never seen them before, but had heard stories of their putrid flesh, aversion to sunlight, and guttural screams right before their rotten and clawed limbs pierced a body through with razor-sharp axes.

      “It’s daylight, Captain. Cleavers haunt caves during this time.”
“I’m not suggesting that I hear one of those monsters, I just thought…never mind, sir, sorry to mention it.”

      “Speak, man! No need to hold a tongue with me. I’m not my father!”

      The captain hesitated for a second, eyes moving to watch my father who stood just a few paces away talking to the scout. “I could just be hearing things,” he finally replied. “It has been so long since we’ve had to fear an attack from man or creature. I’m still jumpy sometimes.”

      “Still, after eight years!” I snorted.

      “Still,” the Captain replied. “The war was terrible, my lord. I saw horrific things. You’re only one-and-twenty, you wouldn’t remember that Cleavers have attacked our ranks before. However, I fear the blood-lust that war caused in the warriors more.”

      “Steel your courage, man. Always be on your guard, no matter what. By the way, I need you to inform Acacio that—” I responded but stopped when something in the distance caught my eye. A glint of red, a pair of two small red dots…

      What the…

      “To arms!” came a shout from a warrior in the distance.

      The captain and I spun and instantly grabbed for our swords. The shouting man was standing with a group who had just passed by the edge of the pine forest. The man raised his hands to his mouth to shout again but right then, a massive jaw swept from the tree line and snapped upon his shoulder. I could hear his screams as he was dragged back into the trees and the others as they ran for cover.

      “First Regiment!” I shouted. “Form positions immediately!”

      The warriors moved as one at my request. We formed phalanx positions, the outer rim holding shields up as a barrier, and waited restlessly. Then, out from the darkness of the forest a line of massive, skeletal dogs the size of carriages stepped. Blood and drool seeped from their muzzles as each of the creatures opened their jaws to let out a ferocious growl. Their skin was plastered to their sunken, black bodies, allowing the bones to protrude out like a carcass. Fear overtook, and I almost shook as one took a step and then another, the others following behind it.

      “Sordai Hounds!” someone shouted.

      Sordai Hounds. They didn’t exist. They couldn’t exist. But then, they were running towards us at lightning speed…

      The first wave of monstrous Hounds slammed into our center phalanx with an ear-splitting crash. I couldn’t stand around and watch this slaughtering for long, however, for another wave of monsters slammed into the shields protecting the group in which I stood, sword posed, courage waning.

      Another roar erupted from the tree line. This time, a round of two hundred or so black-clad warriors ran forth from the forest behind the Hounds. Before long, every Tesani warrior was fighting either a Sordai Hound or a Kovan warrior bent on ending his or her life. I sliced at the man that ran screaming for me and stepped out of the way as another came at me from the side. I slammed by sword into his chest too and almost yelled when the shadow of something massive appeared over my shoulder. I spun to see one of the biggest creatures I had ever seen stand on its hind legs and roar as its mighty paw came crashing down upon me. I slipped to the side at the last moment but jumped quickly back to my feet. The Hound turned and took another swipe at me; I threw my shield into the blow and swung with my sword but missed. Behind me, I heard a familiar voice yell, “NO, LEON, RUN!”

      I spun unconsciously at the sound of my father’s voice. That was a mistake. The Hound chose that moment to go for another attack, and I doubled over when its claws slashed into my back. I could feel the blood gushing from the wound, and my face instantly paled. I turned back and raised my sword just in time to parry the next round of its claws. Its massive muzzle snapped; I took a step backwards and tripped right before it could clamp down upon my head. As I lied on the ground, sword raised above me, I could hear my father running towards us.

      “Leon, get up! Run, now!” he shouted.

      All around us, the sounds of screams, growls, and battle rang throughout the field. Blood was leaving trails across the grass like tiny red rivers. The green uniforms of our warriors no longer matched the color of the field. I watched in horror, over the shoulder of my father sparring with the Hound, as a Kovan warrior, thought to be on the side of the Hounds, was ripped away from his opponent by the jaws of a Hound and snapped in two. His entrails and blood sprayed the Tesani warrior he was fighting, who quickly fell victim to the Hound as well when fear prevented him from raising his sword in time.

      I jerked back to my father when his screams exploded in front of me. The Sordai Hound had managed to jerk forward faster than my father and snapped its teeth around his waist. I blanched at the sight. No!

      I forced myself to my feet as my father fell to the ground. Despite the pain, I brought up the sword and started running towards the Hound. It began to run at me too. We met in a flurry of metal on teeth. My sword plunged into its shoulder but its teeth clinched around my chest. I could feel its fang piercing near my heart. More pain shattered across my entire body as it dug its teeth further in. Finally, I released the hold of the sword as it flung my body in the air. I landed and what little breath and strength I had failed me.

      I couldn’t move. Every inch was screaming in agony. I reached up to the wound in my chest and my hand came away with blood. I’m dying, I thought. Dying…

      A small, white object flew through the air and landed straight in the eye of the Sordai Hound standing above my father’s twitching body. The Hound roared louder than I had ever heard it as it reared itself onto its hind legs again. It slammed back onto its paws inches away from my father, who was trying with all of his might to push himself back into a leaning position. I strained to see who had shot the arrow, but my vision was quickly becoming too blurry.

      “Sage?” I could faintly hear my father call. “What are you doing!”

      Another arrow shot forward and sliced through the Sordai’s shoulder, in the exact spot I had cut moments before. It screamed and fell to its knees.

      “Sage?” I tried to say but blood had started filling my mouth, and I couldn’t prevent the chocking that followed.

      I spat it out, hoping for one last glimpse of my father and sister before I died. I moved my head, blinking ferociously to clear the dizziness, and saw Sage pound arrow after arrow into the Hound’s head and chest. The creature howled and crashed to the ground, finally defeated. I saw the red blood coating my sister’s white skirt as she dropped the quiver to the ground and rushed to my father’s side.

      “Leon…” I heard him mutter. “He’s there. We have to get to him. Hurry…”

      “Come, Father, get up. We’ll get him, come on.”

      “No, leave me, get to Leon, we have to—SAGE, MOVE!”

      A Kovan came running at my sister and father as she bent to try to lift him to his feet. My sister was forced to drop him when she heard him scream and instantly turned to confront the attacker. She quickly drew the last arrow from the quiver and thrust it in the bow that had rested by her feet. With one tug, the arrow found its home in the heart of the enemy warrior. He fell to the ground. Sage spun back and gasped when she saw me a few feet away.

      “You have to get out…” my father muttered.

      “Leon!” I heard her scream but after that moment, everything became dark.

Thanks for reading!

Love,

Lacie 🙂