Work on The Sword of the Dragon (book 5) In Search of Dragons is progressing fantastically, and I am confident it will be released by this Summer! In fact, I will have another book ready this year as well (but more on that later). Here is a preview for you of In Search of Dragons:
IN SEARCH OF DRAGONS (The Sword of the Dragon series book 5)
Chapter 1: The Phantom’s Guidance
A broad path cut across the face of a cliff that lay deep in the underworld, and the only light that fell upon it was that of the lava that flowed in molten streams into the abyss beside it. Three figures were making their way along the path, two of them human and one of them a monstrous monkey beast that lumbered after them. The creature turned its flat face to glance up the cliff’s face, as if searching for possible threats. Its great brown eyes were calm rather than fierce as it glanced at the duo ahead of it, a human man and a woman.
Meleese half-turned to regard the monkey beast and it grunted down at her. She smiled amusedly and continued along the path as ice formed on the ground around her. She was a ghost in comparison to the man beside her. She was a vapor, an intangible figure that neither he nor the beast could touch. Ice always gathered to her. She paused for long enough to check the sword that was belted to her side. It was a long, two-handed weapon of ancient origin. It had belonged to the cursed spirit of Brunster Thadius Oldwell before she had acquired it. Back then it had been a tool of evil, but she had turned it for good.
“You look deep in thought,” James said as he, too, paused on the trail and glanced back at her.
She looked back at him and felt warmed by his calm smile. He had become an unexpected and welcome ally in her dark underground world. He was also wearing a sword, but his was unlike hers. When it was drawn out of its sheath, it covered James in an armor of light that glowed along with the sword. When he was arrayed in the armor of light he reminded her of another warrior that she had known, but this one had been a truly magnificent warrior and a beautiful man. Beautiful to her eyes, at the least. But that had been three years ago, and she expected to never see that warrior again. Though, in her heart she held a desire to do so. After all, in their last meeting Lord Ilfedo had invited her to return with him to the Hemmed Land but she had turned his offer down. This underground world was the only world that she had ever known. In truth, she feared a journey to the surface world, where people lived in the light of the sun. Not one of her race had been known to venture to the world above, not to her knowledge. But Ilfedo had made the offer and sometimes she felt lonely when she remembered his strong face.
Meleese pulled herself back to the present. James was watching her, an expression of curiosity on his face. “What?” she asked, and she was acutely aware of the paper-thin ice that crackled around her.
But he laughed softly. “I said that you look like you’re deep in thought and I was waiting for your explanation, but apparently you were too deep in thought to hear me.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “I suppose I was,” she said. “I was thinking about your lord, Ilfedo of the Hemmed Land.” She started to walk again and he kept stride beside her.
“Ah,” James spoke softly. He did not press her on the matter. They had grown fond of each other over the years, but not as lovers. He was as a brother to her, a big and protective brother. A human was a strange companion in the underworld, but she was grateful. He had been the steady partner that she had needed. Together they had sought out some of her people and had redeemed them from their fallen states. Unfortunately none of her people had survived the process, but she comforted herself with the knowledge that they were no longer suffering. Their souls had been redeemed with James’s help.
Meleese wiped a tear from her eye. “You have lingered with me for long enough,” she whispered. “It will soon be time for you return to your own kind, will it not?”
James looked sidelong at her, then glanced at the monkey beast behind him. The creature snorted in an affectionate way and James grinned, turning his attention back to Meleese. “I cannot leave you, even if it is to find my happiness, if I know that you are alone. I could not live with myself for abandoning you to such a fate.”
“I have been alone before,” Meleese said. “For a very long time I had no one. First when I hid from my queen, and later when I wandered the underworld alone as an unseen observer of all that transpired. While it is true that I walked for a time among the people of Dresdyn, yet I did so as a shadow. They never knew me or even became aware of my existence until I revealed myself to Lord Ilfedo.”
“You told me about that,” James reminded her, “but that that does not mean that it would be right for you to return to that state of isolation. Instead you could come with me, and I would make a place for you in my home. My mother has long been dead but my father is a kindly old man. He would take well to your company, even if only to have someone else to talk to.”
She laughed, amused at the idea. “And how would the rest of your people react? To them I would be a phantom. They can see me, but they cannot touch me. I could use the power of my sword to become temporarily physical to them, and then they could touch me, but what then? You have already seen that the sword’s power has its limits. It will eventually fail me and I will be only and always a phantom again. A ghost to humanity. I will die, probably, as the last of my kind, and no one will even know to bury me.” She laughed harshly. “It would do them no good anyways. The only one who could bury me would be Lord Ilfedo, for no one else has the power. You might wish to, out of the goodness of your heart, but you have not that power.”
The path abruptly rose before them. Here a series of enormous steps had been cut into the cliff’s face. No doubt they were the remnant of some lost civilization, a race of beings both crafty and strong. Meleese had shown James some of these paths before and he had marveled at the strength of their construction. Whomever had built these paths had tamed the underworld, and these steps were just one piece of that legacy. Meleese let the waves of heat that emanated from the lava falls blow her on her way as she glided up a hundred steps with ease.
Then she waited atop the steps, looking down as James swung onto the monkey beast’s shoulders. The beast looked like a giant ape with great curved horns on the sides of its head, like those of a mountain ram. James had described a ram to her once and she had encouraged him to draw one for her. He had put on his most serious expression and bowed, treating her as a queen, then he had knelt to draw on a stone. He had sketched a reasonable resemblance of the creature—the ram—and he had done so with a sharp stone scratching upon a darker stone.
While she waited for the monkey beast to lumber up the steps, Meleese mulled over what James had said. Return with him to the Hemmed Land? For what? Her sword had been a tool to bridge her from the non-corporeal state that she was used to into the physical, but the sword’s power was faltering now. It had been lessened with each time she had used it. Without it, she would be imprisoned in her phantom state, unable to touch another person.
She glanced to her side. She had belted the green sword there with burlon reeds. Burlon was a rare plant, for it existed simultaneously in both non-corporeal and physical states. She reached for the sword and pulled it from the burlon scabbard. The weapon glowed with harsh green light as she held it in front of her face. Her connection to its power sent a thrill through every cell of her body, an exhilaration that lifted her spirits.
The monkey beast growled softly as it neared the top of the stairs, but James regarded her with mere silence. He let the beast complete its ascent before he slid back to the ground. He stood several paces off, arms crossed over his chest. He knew what she was doing, and she thought that he alone understood the fear that she was struggling with.
Meleese willed the sword to transform her essence, then she bent to the ground to pick up a fist-size stone. Her eyes never left it as she lifted it. Momentarily she felt that thrill of connecting to the physical world, of changing her body into that of an ordinary human. How she loved this feeling. It was unparalleled by any other experience in her long life. If she could, she would keep this state forever. Even if that meant reducing her lifespan to that of an ordinary human woman. She would give up her phantom body in an instant for a chance to be among people. To be seen always and to be touched at her pleasure.
But the green sword’s power wavered and in a flash of faltering light it released her. The stone fell through her hand and struck the stone stair, echoing hollowly into the underworld. Her shoulders slumped and she held back tears.
James bit his lower lip as he watched her. He waited a long while, and even the monkey beast seemed content to stand silently by. “When I return to the surface world,” James said at last, “you must come with me. Here you will only suffer in greater despair as the sword’s power fails you utterly. At least in the Hemmed Land there is hope, even if that hope is only that the great Ilfedo will have the power to bury your body when the time comes. And perhaps there is a solution that we have not considered yet.”
Meleese shook her head and sheathed the green blade. “A solution? Now that, my dear warrior of light, is truly a vain hope. Only the Creator could transform me into that which I am not, and perhaps it is His will that I be forever taunted by that which humans take for granted. No. I am forever a ghost.”
“The people of my land will be making a great journey to seek out a new kingdom,” James whispered. “Lord Ilfedo goes in search of a prophecy’s fulfillment, one in which he joins our people with a dragon’s friendship. If the prophecy is true, then you may want to explore what possibilities lie for you beneath the sun.”
He stepped close to her and kissed her ghostly forehead, though she could feel nothing of his lips on her skin. It was as if he existed on a different plane of existence. One that could not reach her.
“Is it better to die in the dark, or in the light and in the company of good people?” James asked.Meleese looked up into his noble face and smiled. Somehow he had gotten through to her wounded heart, and she decided then to accompany him. At the very least, maybe Ilfedo would grace her with his presence again. She would like that, even if he did so only to humor her. She had thought in their brief encounters that Ilfedo had looked at her in a manner dissimilar to how he looked at other women. He had liked what he had seen and she had felt cherished beneath his gaze. Yes, she would venture out of this world. Maybe the sunlight would burn her away with great pain, but then again maybe it wouldn’t. Meleese had hope.
