Sword of the Gods: Prince of Tyre (Sword of the Gods Saga)
Page 99
I remembered all the times Father had scowled across the galactic chess board, plotting how to be rid of the silver-eyed man and his expanding string of rebellious silver planets. What was it Father had said? He didn't just send an assassin because there had been a complication. My Mama?
Had he decided it was worth the risk to keep -me- than to keep my Mama?
"Asherah, please!" Father held the vial over Mama's lips. "Drink! You don't have to leave!"
“Get away from me!!!” Mama hissed at Father. “Get out of my sight.”
Father stepped back, his shoulders slumped. He backed up to the wall and stared at my Mama, sobbing.
"Father?" I asked. I was so confused. Had Father just killed my biological father, knowing it might also kill my Mama?
“Lucifer,” Mama whispered. She reached out to take my hand.
Trembling I took that pale limb, already cold as she willed the life to leave her body.
“Mama,” I cried. “I don’t understand. You’re not wounded. What is wrong with you?”
“Your father has just been killed,” Mama gave me a weak smile. “I can be with him now. Don’t be sad. It’s what I’ve always wanted. I only stayed in this realm long enough to give you a chance to grow up.”
As she spoke, her eyes looked right past me. Underneath her words my gift enabled me to see what –she- saw. She could see the same room –I- had seen the day I’d been shot, only instead of empty as it had been for her, it was brightly lit and full of people. With his arms open, one hand extended as he waited for her, stood the silver-eyed man.
No! She was choosing -him- over me?
“But there’s nothing -wrong- with you!”
“I’m so proud of you,” Mama whispered. “All the hope of our people rests with you. You must shine a beacon of light so they don’t get lost in the dark. You must make sure we don’t die out before we become complete.”
“Mama?” I realized Mama -wanted- to leave me. “Don’t go! Please don’t go. I need you…”
“Lucifer, my love,” Mama eyes grew vacant as she whispered, “I will wait for you just but on the other side.”
As she whispered her last words, I followed her spirit as it went into the dreamtime. My gift enabled me to feel her stretch into that other room and embrace the people who waited there for her there until the last hiss of breath left her lungs. And then I lost her. The connection was broken. She was no longer here to follow anymore. She was gone!
“MAMA!!!” I screamed like a wounded animal. “Please don’t leave me!”
I glanced up at Father, desperate to have him -do something.- He was a GOD! Why couldn't he do anything? I realized the moment my eyes met his that -he- was leaving, too. His body shimmered and turned to stardust as he chased my Mama into the dreamtime.
“Father!!!”
I rushed to grasp his hand, but it passed right through his, no longer corporeal.
“Don’t leave me!”
I grabbed at the stardust, trying to stop him, but soon there was nothing, not even that hum of power that usually preceded him into the room. Father had just abandoned me, too?
“Mama?"
"Father?"
"This is all your fault!" Dephar snarled at me. With an indignant huff, he stormed out of the antechamber, leaving me alone with my Mama's lifeless body still lying on the settee where she had just died.
"Mama?"
"Father?"
I stared up at the smiling visage of She-who-is painted on the wall, the same visage splattered all over the palace.
"Anybody?"
Nobody came. I sat there a long time, my wings drooping so low they dragged upon the ground. Nobody came in to check on me. Not even Master Yoritomo. I sobbed as I realized everyone who I'd ever -thought- had cared about me had just abandoned me for somebody else. I cried until I was numb and could not cry any more, holding Mama's lifeless hand. It felt as though my chest had been cracked open and my life energy poured out of an invisible wound in my heart, calling out to whatever sharks wished to feed upon the psychic blood hemorrhaged out into the universe.
It grew dark outside. Because nobody had bothered to turn on the lights in this room, it grew dark in here as well. I did not move to flip the switch. I just sat vigil at Mama's body, waiting for Father to come back and tell me everything would be alright.
Many hours passed.
At last, the door opened and someone came in. The man flipped on the light switch so I could see him. He was an average-looking Angelic, neither handsome nor ugly, with off-white wings that looked like somebody had taken a paintbrush and splattered dirty water all over his feathers. He had the same blue eyes all Angelics had except for -me-, but his look was pleased, as though he had been sent here on a mission and I was what he had expected.
“Come, young prince,” the man placed his hand upon my left shoulder the exact same way Father did whenever he was pleased and gave me a reassuring squeeze. “I don’t expect the Emperor will be coming back anytime soon. -Somebody- has to run his empire in his absence.”
“Wh-wh-who are y-y-y-y-you?” I choked out between hiccoughs, wiping my face upon my sleeve.
“I’m Zepar, your new Chief of Staff,” the dirty-winged Angelic gave me another fatherly squeeze. “Your adoption became final the moment both of your parents died. Until the Emperor returns, -you- are responsible for safeguarding the Alliance. It's my job to help you run it until your master is ready to resume his rightful place."
"Sh-sh-shemijaza?" I sniffled.
"Of course not, you dear sweet boy," Zepar's eyes glowed malevolently cold. "Your -real- father is a god."
End Book 2 - Prince of Tyre
Begin Book 3 - Agents of Ki
Preview
Book 3 of the Sword of the Gods Saga
Agents of Ki
November – 3,390 BC
Earth: Mesopotamian Plain
Pareesa
Pareesa's heart pumped as she ran at a speed she would never have thought possible. A conversation they'd had once during sparring replayed in her mind:
“If you get distracted like that during battle, it could turn out very badly for you,” she had said after landing a successful blow.
“If I didn't trust you,” he had disarmed her and then handed back her weapon, “you would never get close enough to me in the first place to see me get distracted.”
The arrow was strung before she even broke over the rise. She knew... She knew their plan. She shot as soon as she saw the glimmer of metal in the light of the campfire, but she was too late. The woman she knew was not his wife plunged the blade into Mikhail’s heart. The first arrow cut down the imposter, dead even though she still stood, quickly followed by a second.
Grabbing two arrows at once, Pareesa drew the bow again and cut down two hideous lizard-like creatures who rushed at Mikhail with firesticks.
"No!" Pareesa gave an anguished cry.
Mikhail's wings drooped towards the ground.
The red-caped imposter slid out of Mikhail's arms. Dead.
Mikhail staggered. Even from here she could see his look of disbelief as he tried to protect the woman who was not his wife. Around him, the lizard demons lunged at him, eager to finish him off.
"No!" Pareesa screamed. Stringing her bow again, she took aim and shot down a third lizard demon.
Mikhail's wings trembled like a dying bird, proud appendages brought low by this act of betrayal. She watched in horror as he wordlessly slid to the ground, a knife sticking out of his chest.
Oh gods! Oh gods! The other warriors were a good ten minutes behind her. She had to keep the enemy off of him until the others could get here! But how? She was outnumbered seventy to one!
“Bishamon’ten,” Pareesa prayed to the Cherubim god. “Watashi wa shi no gakki o hozon suru tame ni tsuyo-sa o ataeru [please give me the strength to save your instrument of death].”
She threw herself through the Halifians as though they didn’t exist, shooting arrow after arrow un
til her quiver was empty. She was so close it didn't occur to them to shoot back. They had not been taught use empty hands and feet as weapons as she had; the last thing they expected was a woman-child to hurl herself to her fallen comrade's side through an entire platoon of armed men with single-minded fury.
Diving and rolling in a defensive maneuver Mikha'il had taught her to escape spear-thrusts, she rolled towards his body and rose. Somehow his sword had found its way into her hands, the sword he’d refused to teach her to use out of fear it would be used against her. It was heavy. She didn't even know how to wield it.
“Bishamon'ten!” Pareesa cried out to the Cherubim god. “Help me! Please! Use my body and do whatever you must to save him!”
Something tickled the crown of her head. She gasped as a sensation akin to standing in the middle of a thunderstorm slipped gently into her body, not painful as she'd thought possession must feel, but a pleasant sense of tingling as the Cherubim god took control. That part of her which was still human watched from the left of her brain as her body worked of its own volition to defend him without conscious thought.
She felt like … power. Was this what it was like for Mikhail when he entered into the killing dance?
She planted her feet on either side of his body and crouched, ready to smite any who came at him. The lizards hissed at her, terrible creatures with sharp fangs and yellow eyes, but the Cherubim god took out the larger threat. Behind them, throngs of Halifians surged, laughing at her audacity to defend her hero single-handedly.
The last lizard-soldier took aim at her with his firestick. Pareesa did not have wings, but she was far faster than the lizard thought she would be. He underestimated her ability to leap into the air. His shot narrowly missed as she cut downward with the sword. With detached curiosity she noted the reflexive extra slice her hand made, automatically running the lizard through the heart to ensure he would not get back up.
Gesturing an invitation for them to expend their lives at the end of her sword, Pareesa mercilessly cut down the hordes of Halifians who had the audacity to take on the Cherubim God of War …
Agents of Ki
Coming Soon
Available June 2013
Angel of Death: A Love Story
(Children of the Fallen)
Azrael Thanatos wants nothing more than to follow in the footsteps of his scientist mother. Sent to study humans on a wager between the Eternal Emperor and Shay'tan, he has no idea Earth is gateway to a fiery prison. Far from home, he is befriended by Elissar, a precocious child with silver eyes. When Moloch instigates the invasion of Carthage to escape, Azrael sacrifices his life to snatch his friend from the Devourer of Children's maw.
Saved by a mysterious goddess, Azrael is given a new mission. Watchman. Roaming the Earth without shape or form, he searches for those who would help Moloch escape and drags them to a prison where only Lucifer holds the key. It's a hellish immortality, for who wants to serve alongside the Fallen or exist when no living creature can survive your touch? Haunted by Elissar's death, he despairs of never finding love or friendship again as time grinds civilizations into dust. For who would love Death?
Then one day a child takes his hand and lives…
Life for Elisabeth is not easy. The Angel of Death took her entire family the night a drunk driver plowed through a stop sign and left her in a wheel chair. Azrael is forbidden to interfere as she bounces through foster homes, hardship, and grueling rehabilitation. Then one day he is forced to reveal he is not a figment of her imagination. Oh, how she hates this angel who has taken everyone she ever loved! She will beat him if she has to squeeze the life force from her own body! The invasion of Iraq inspires her to join the Army as a trauma nurse, unaware that Death has fallen in love with the woman who can defeat him.
Will she take his hand a second time?
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Angel-of-Death/321528064563315
A Moment of your Time, Please…
Did you enjoy reading this book? If so, I would be most grateful if you would do me the honor of revisiting whatever distribution platform you purchased it from and leaving a written review. This book took more than a year of my life to write working diligently for 5-6 hours each day. Unfortunately, without the multi-billion dollar advertising budget of a big commercial publishing house, most independently published and small-press books do not make back the cost to produce them (much less eat while writing them) … unless … readers such as yourself pass along word to others that you enjoyed it. In this day of online shopping, websites rank which books you see and readers decide what books to buy based on reviews left by other readers. I would be oh-so-grateful if you would do me the honor of leaving a written review.
If this book came your way via a gift or a loan from a friend, you can still share the love by leaving a review on one of the reader-centric review websites:
www.Goodreads.com
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Feel feel to contact me or leave feedback at my Facebook page. I love hearing from you and I do write back!
Be epic!
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Other Books by Anna Erishkigal
Sword of the Gods Saga:
The Chosen One
Prince of Tyre
Agents of Ki (coming soon)
The Dark Lord's Vessel (coming soon)
The Fairy General (coming soon)
Knife of the Gods:
The Cherubim Queen (coming soon)
Mercenary of the Empire (coming soon)
Queen-Regent of Chaos (coming soon)
Children of the Fallen:
Angel of Death: A Love Story (available June 2013)
www.seraphim-press.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anna Erishkigal is an attorney who writes fantasy fiction as a pleasurable alternative to coming home from court and cross-examining her children. She writes under a pen-name so her colleagues do not question whether her legal pleadings are fantasy fiction as well. Much of law, it turns out, -is- fantasy fiction. Lawyers just prefer to call it 'zealously representing your client.'
Seeing the dark underbelly of life makes for some interesting fictional characters, the kind you either want to incarcerate, or run home and write about. In fiction, you can fudge facts without worrying too much about the truth. In legal pleadings, if your client lies to you, you look stupid in front of the judge.
At least in fiction, if a character becomes troublesome, you can always kill them off…
Her general-purpose facebook page is at:
https://www.facebook.com/anna.erishkigal
Or view book extras, including maps of the real-life village of Assur, fantasy casting calls, artwork of the different species, inspirations, bits and pieces of research, and exerpts from upcoming books at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sword-of-the-Gods/266590273421583
-or-
http://pinterest.com/annaerishkigal/i-need-a-hero/
-or-
https://plus.google.com/stream/circles/p56cc32ea8f259af9
ABOUT THE COVER ARTIST:
Rochelle Green is a freelance artist out of Palmerston, New Zealand. She has a law degree from Victoria University and a black-belt in Bujinkan ninjutsu. You can see more of her breathtaking artwork at:
http://caelicorn.cgsociety.org/gallery/
Or like her on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Caelicorn/261144120697421
Table of Contents
DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Cast of Characters
List of Species
The Chess Game Thus Far…
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60