Shards of Venus
Page 26
“The tomes for the Yranum, or no deal.”
The queen sneered. “I will not—”
“Boys, stop the crate,” demanded Matthias.
He forced himself to maintain eye contact with the queen, but in his periphery, he could see his men block the path of the Veniri with the crate. Despite the Diamantium weapons trained on them, the Veniri showed no sign of giving it up.
Matthias gave the queen a smug grin. “There are plenty of other buyers who would be willing to pay a substantial amount for this small Yranum family.”
A tinkering laugh escaped her. “I’m curious to know which one of your buyers will pay you what you want most.”
“And what about you?” Matthias retorted. “Which of your sliths will be able to acquire more Yranum for you? You said yourself that none are capable.”
Triumph bubbled in Matthias’s chest as the queen’s expression turned stony. He had her. There was no way she was going to leave without the Yranum in her possession.
At last, she waved a casual hand. “Fine, I will allow the payment to change. But only for one tome.” The queen closed the gap between them until her face was a few inches from his. “This is the last time the deal changes. And from now on, I expect you to address me as Your Highness.”
As the queen waited for his answer, she scrutinized him with a slow blink. He couldn’t read her expression. If he was honest with himself, there were elements about her that intrigued him.
“Done,” said Matthias, then after a few moments, he added, “ . . . Your Highness.” He didn’t bother hiding his derision.
An unmistakable edge of darkness pervaded her broad smile.
Ignoring the glares of protest from his men, Matthias gestured for them to move away from the crate. “It’s fortunate you came to your senses,” he said.
Steel glinted in her eyes, but she didn’t drop her triumphant demeanor as the crate disappeared into the night. Once it was out of sight, she flicked her hand, and a slith with the tome appeared at her side.
Profound excitement shuddered through Matthias, from the center of his chest to the tips of his fingers. With some effort, he schooled his features into nonchalance. This was the closest he had ever come to one of these artifacts. Hell, he was probably the first Erathi to lay eyes on one in a millennium. His eyes danced over the inscriptions and colored inlays on the tome’s golden cover. He hated the idea of the other tome remaining with the sliths, but it was only a matter of time before it, too, would be in his possession.
The slith started to pass the tome to Axel.
“No!” exclaimed Matthias. He darted forward and shoved Axel out of the way. When he latched on to the tome, the weight of it made his knees buckle. He adjusted his grip and managed to struggle upright, but not before the wraith arched an eyebrow and curled her mouth into a smirk. Even the slith who had held the tome looked at Matthias with condescending amusement.
Heat rushed up his face and neck, but with his tome in hand, he didn’t care.
“As for the rest of our transaction,” rang the queen’s chiming voice, “don’t take too long, my sweet. I, too, have others who are interested in what I have.”
Her teeth glinted with her final smile, and the wispy blue image dispersed into nothing.
Matthias clenched his jaw, but the flare of rage was short lived. He had the book. That was all that mattered,
Without delay, the sliths all melted back into the shadows; the last of them carried away the chest of Diamantium.
And once again, the hunters were alone in the clearing.
“Axel, take off your jacket,” said Matthias.
“What? Why?”
“Just do it,” he ordered, carrying his treasure to the back of one of the pickup trucks. He gestured for one of the hunters to drop the tailgate and told Axel to lay his jacket on it.
As gently as he could, he placed the tome on top of Axel’s jacket. The spotlights from the truck cast every glorious detail of the ancient artifact into sharp relief.
“That’s it?” Axel grumbled, coming up beside him. “After all that, this is all we get? Gold?”
“This isn’t just gold, Axel,” said Matthias. He ran his fingers over the ridges and grooves of the embossed cover. The design was more glorious than he’d ever imagined. Inlaid gems and precious stones adorned ancient Egyptian figures, hieroglyphs, and symbols.
“Okay, so we got some gold and some pretty rocks,” Axel scoffed. “Diamantium is worth a hundred times more than any of that.”
A few of the other hunters chimed in their agreement.
“It’s not the gold that’s of value,” said Matthias. “It’s what’s inside.” He opened the tome to its first page, revealing another magnificent image of Egyptian figures in their iconic profile design. His greedy eyes scanned the hieroglyphic text, and his heart thumped faster as he recognized some of the phrases. He turned to the next page, then the next. Each gem-studded image was more detailed than the last.
He stopped at the final two pages—a double-spread depicting a woman with outstretched arms. She wore a stunning crown and beautiful multicolored gown. From her shoulders fanned glorious wings of malachite and lapis lazuli, each feather tipped with gold.
“This is it, boys,” said Matthias. He glided his fingers over the rippled surface of the blue, green, and gold feathers. “We’re going to get our wings back.”
Acknowledgments
Wow! Where to start?
Writing this book has been a really fun and exciting but also a stressful, intimidating and epic journey. And of course, there are a number of people who without them, there would be no such thing as “Shards of Venus”.
First off, I owe a phenomenal thank you to my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Without His amazing sacrifice, I would have ended it all long ago. I give all credit to You, my Father in Heaven and the Holy Spirit for my life and all that is good in it. Thank You!
To my wonderful husband, your support and encouragement has been stellar! A huge thanks for your feedback and involvement in this journey so far. Words cannot express how grateful I am, nor how much I love you.
Annabelle, you are such a delight and you bring me so much joy. You are so creative and imaginative, I’m always eager to see what you create next. I love you so much!
A big thank you to Mum for raising me, for being there whenever I need, for feeding my Enid Blyton addiction and for introducing me to authors such as Frank E. Peretti, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien. I think I can safely blame you for sparking my wild imagination, haha!
A big thank you to the rest of my family! I’m so blessed to be a part of such a wonderful clan. It means a lot to have your love and support in all the good times and even the bad.
The Writer’s Unite Group; Carleton Chinner, Julie Dickson, Tim Edwards, Suzie Eisfelder, Tarryn Mallick, and Katarina Smythe. You guys are AWESOME! I’m so glad I found you guys and eventually plucked up the courage to share my budding little story. Thanks for all the feedback, the support, the great laughs and the motivation to keep writing.
Adele Richie, Treece and Dan Stubbs, Lisa Meehan, thanks so much for being available to hear all my crazy ideas and helping me to brainstorm and fix several of my plot holes. You guys rock!
A big shout out to all my beta readers, Beryl Peachey, Beth Joyce, Donna Thornton, Gail Donges, Kylee Beauclerc, Karen Drescher, Kat Eveans, Kerrianne Draper, Kristy Phebey, Monica Murray, Rebecca Hampson, Rosie Barlow, Aunty Sandra Coleman and Tessa Wakefield who volunteered their precious time to read through my manuscript and to provide me with honest feedback. Taking on a beta reader role is an epic job and I’m truly grateful.
Kirstin Andrews, thank you so much for all the work you put into editing my story. It’s been such an honour to have you as my editor. Words cannot describe how grateful I am. Thank you!
For the amazing cover, thanks so much to the amazing team at Deranged Doctor Design for your fantastic work in bringing my world visually to life. Wow! I can’t stop looki
ng at it.
I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone. If I have, I’m so sorry! xoxo
About the Author
I've recently embarked on the exciting journey of becoming an author. My debut novel “Shards of Venus” is the first story I decided to start with. I've always had a somewhat unhealthy fascination with all things fairies, dragons, aliens— basically anything fantasy and sci-fi. I have several more story ideas that range from the epic fantasy genre to steampunk.
I live in a beach town community in Australia with my husband, daughter, a german shepherd and two chickens.
Thank you for taking the time to get to know me a little and to read my book, or if you haven't already, I really hope you enjoy it.
Happy Reading!
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