When at last she had rounded a slight bend, Heather stopped in her tracks. There before her, draped in a veil of shadow, solemn in their stolid commanding presence, stood the doors.

Sinking, revolving freely in the deepness, her clothes waterlogged and weighing her down, Heather wriggled out of her raincoat and was able to shed her jacket. Swept along in the onrushing current, she stroked and kicked for the surface, and moments later, with a harsh gasp, broke the plane of water. Yet, almost instantly, she found herself again tugged under, and, determined, fought the unruly depths. Desperately in need of air, her lungs aching, Heather struggled until she finally reemerged with a splash. Face upturned, head barely out of the water, her ravenous lungs feasted on the oxygen until, for yet another time, she was hauled below.

Rising, she made her way across the timbers to the rectangular hole in the floor. At first sitting, feet dangling, she dropped herself through, reaching for the closest rung. From there, she began her descent, feeling in the dark one to the next, knowing the slabs of wood that she and Molly had carefully affixed to the tree just this summer were dangerously slick.

It was then that it happened, so swiftly and unexpectedly: with a crack, the rung below busted loose and her feet slipped free. And with a gasp, Heather slammed into the trunk, one hand sliding off the end of the rung above, the other gripping with just fingertips. The earth far below, she momentarily hung by an arm.

Her lips arose at the corners, her words flirtatious, off topic. “You’re so flawlessly beautiful, bound up in your Darkness. Have I said?”

“Many times,” Raethurr swallowed, “my Comeliness.” He felt the Mark of the Ravaged Heavens upon his bony temple begin to glow, releasing its toxic, pleasured pain.

The woman’s smile grew playful. “Yes, you’re right. I have, haven’t I?” She started his way and halted, lingering on a pretense. “But we’re all flawlessly beautiful, are we not?” Then she added, “Of course, need I mention that some of us are more beautifully flawed than others?” After a brief glance at herself, satisfied, S’ilKuSheere took to pacing once more, almost prancing. She walked along the flatter expanse of stone, on stage before her gathered flock. “So, to the point: Am I to report these lasting memorials of Light to ShakkGôn Sul?”

When there was no reply, again she smiled alluringly and walked sinuously over to Raethurr, the flatter stone beneath her rising up to meet him, her pliant fingertips now running along his hollowed jaw. “Well, am I, treasure?” Her face moved closer, a slow, sensual advance, and, full lips parting, she leaned in as if to deliver a kiss to the ghastly, shrunken skull. She stopped just short, however, whispering with seductive heat, “I think not.” Their faces hung in air, magnets attracted to the nearness between them. “And do you know why?” she continued in a hushed tone. “Because you will, lover, telling the Great One exactly why these monuments remain.”

 

Excerpt – Maiden of a Darkness Shining

Part Two – Of Souls Gone Lost

The Dark Sorceress Rendskorra of SpringShoot Green was flying her two-headed TrakkoonBeast toward the Main TransPort Gates linking her kingdom with that of SummersBreath Still. How she hated these last minute rearrangements of her schedule, but with her notorious RedSuits positioned at the ready for ambush in the TiaraReign CityHeights, she felt she could make time for her sisters—especially if the one requesting her presence was none other than S’ilKuSheere, herself. And with Mistraya in attendance, it should prove to be an entertaining free-for-all at Brutessa’s castle.

The Ruins of Evermore

Maiden of a Darkness Shining

Part One – Inroads to a Shadowed World

 

The Ruins of Evermore

Maiden of a Darkness Shining

Part Two – Of Souls Gone Lost

 

The Ruins of Evermore

Maiden of a Darkness Shining

Part Three – A Nearling Arises

 

Excerpt

Maiden of a Darkness Shining

Part Two – Of Souls Gone Lost

Heather grew serious, thoughtful. “Hey, Starbrill, what exactly is the KA, anyway?”

Molly had been poised to ask that very question.

“The letters K and A stand for the Kratkurian Alliance. After the Bloodlet Overthrow when the Maidens were thrown from power—although ‘guidance’ would be the more appropriate word, here—nevertheless, when Maiden Rule had ended, and with Emperor Kratkuffe under the Influence, he formed our new government, the Kratkurian Alliance. The KA propped up the collapsing financial infrastructure of Evermore, taking over banks and businesses, while installing a system of henchmen, sleepers, and drainers indebted to the Crown.”