Our friends were making their way through the Forest Sea... -----     Chapter 18. "Ingram," Victoria said, "How are certain are you that we are still on the proper course?" "About a hundred per cent," Ingram said. "Why?" Quester caught a hint of amusement from his friend. "Because I haven't noticed you stopping to take bearings much, if at all, in our travels. And there are so many ways to get lost in the Forest Sea. I've been through this general area before, and to make sure we were on the straight course meant one [ Continue reading... ]

It's time to look in on our adversary and see him having a family moment... -----     Chapter 17. "Of course I want you to succeed, my son," said his mother. "But there is only so much I can do for you without making my King and husband doubt that it is your success, and not mine, that he sees." He nodded, unwillingly, in acquiescence. Having Mother's whole-hearted support in his endeavors would make everything vastly easier, of course, but she was right; then there would be – would always be – the question as to whether [ Continue reading... ]

Urelle and the others had come to a dark realization... -----   Chapter 16. Chaoswar. The word echoed menacingly through Ingram's mind. On its own it was a silly word. War was usually chaos. Putting the two together was near enough a redundancy. But as every living being on Zarathan knew, had been taught, had read in books or heard in legends or seen in ancient carvings, there was nothing whatsoever silly about it. "Chaoswar" was only the translation, anyway, of a phrase in Ancient Sauran that meant something more like "the [ Continue reading... ]

Urelle had pulled off a trick to distract their pursuers. (note: in the prior posted chapter it mistakenly said that she had sent them WEST and in fact it was EAST. I am hoping this can be corrected by publication time). ------   Chapter 14. Victoria saw the tension in Urelle's entire body vanish abruptly – a tension that Victoria had not consciously realized she had seen until it had disappeared. Ah. Of course. "The spell has reached your limits, then?" "Auntie? How did you know?" Urelle stared at her; the other two looked back [ Continue reading... ]

Urelle had an idea for dealing with their pursuers... -----   Chapter 12. "This looks like a good spot to camp," Ingram said, studying the small, perfectly circular clearing. "Then Urelle can show us what she's come up with." "Wait a moment, young man," Victoria said, keeping him from entering. Her sharp blue eyes darted about the grassy, flower-strewn meadow with a flat rock outcropping near the center. Ingram could see tension in her pose, her hand held so that she could summon that immense battleaxe in a moment. She muttered [ Continue reading... ]

Well, our group's all together and it's time we learned something about what's actually going on here! -----   Chapter 11. Urelle studied Ingram out of the corner of her eye as they walked. He was silent when not talking, and his feet would glide over the forest floor, hardly displacing a single leaf, lifting up and over or around even the smallest branches without, as far as she could tell, even looking at them. Even walking next to him she had to strain to hear the faintest whisper of sound from his passage; she sounded like a [ Continue reading... ]

Well, they'd been rescued unexpectedly.... -----     Chapter 10. Quester's perceptions were, he knew, faster than any ordinary human's. Even so, he had not truly been able to follow Lady Vantage's lethal sprint across the clearing; it had been but a confusion of swings and impacts and spraying blood, with the woman herself following a deadly geometry that took her past each of the eight assailants in the time it took to draw a breath. Their rescuer straightened after a moment, lifted her axe, and approached. "Hold still, [ Continue reading... ]

Ingram and his friends were in real trouble... ----- Chapter 9. Ingram blinked his way slowly back to consciousness into a blurred world filled with a vaguely underwater green. The dim green light, he finally realized, was from sunlight filtering through the innumerable leaves of the Forest Sea. Having made that determination, and finding his mind starting to gain some coherence, he blinked again and forced himself to focus. He was sitting up, bound to and against something. From the feel – without raising his head – it felt like [ Continue reading... ]