by Martha Carr
“Hey, I didn’t hold a knife to your throat and tell you to steal a skull from his office and cast a dangerous spell with me to stop the Swarm. You make your own choices, Bella. Exactly like I made mine.”
“And look where they got us.”
Still, the girls had no choice but to follow the headmaster past the barn and toward the open door into the stables. They paused when he opened the doors and stepped inside, and he waved them forward without turning. “Don’t just stand there. Detention won’t suffer itself.”
Raven sighed. Great. We saved the school and we get thanked for it by having to muck out the stalls every day. And miss more classes.
Headmaster Flynn stopped in the center of the stables and finally turned to face them. “This is the consequence for not doing as you’re told. Every day at this time, both of you are expected to be right here. As for your missed classes, I have no doubt about your ability to make up the rest of your classes on your own time. Speak with your professors. Make up the lessons and assignments. But do not for one moment think that I will tolerate either of you trying to skip this. You are talented mages. It’s time to take some responsibility for that talent. Excuse me.”
The man brushed past them again, his hands clasped behind his back, and he left without another word.
“What the hell are we supposed to do here?” Bella spread her arms and turned full circle as she glanced at the stalls and the supply crates of feed against the far wall beside the tack. “He didn’t even give us a starting point.”
“Maybe that’s the point,” Raven suggested. “We’re supposed to figure it out?”
A shadow fell across the open doorway, and the girls turned as a tall, thin woman stopped in the aperture. Her gray hair was twisted into a neat bun on the top of her head, and she wore the same kind of military uniform Raven had seen on Brighton’s general. She stood with her hands clasped behind her back and raised an eyebrow at the mages in training. “Follow me, please.”
The woman turned and left like the headmaster had, and Raven wrinkled her nose. “Have you ever seen her before?”
“Nope.” Bella brushed past her to step out of the stables.
What the hell is going on?
When they joined the woman, she nodded at them and didn’t bother to smile. “My name is Alessandra Barnasis. You may call me ma’am. In light of recent events, I’ve been ordered to come all the way out here to the outskirts of Brighton for the two of you.”
The girls glanced at each other. Bella swallowed. “For punishment?”
Alessandra inclined her head. “If that’s how you want to think of it, fine.”
Leander walked calmly from around the other side of the pen and approached the woman. Raven grinned and he snorted in greeting. Alessandra jumped a little and twisted to look over her shoulder at the huge red dragon who walked up behind her. She smiled and seemed to recognize him, then turned toward the young mages and cleared her throat.
She’s not even a little worried to see him that close.
Bella leaned toward her and whispered, “Look at her shoulder.”
With a frown, she complied and froze in surprise. She’s wearing a war mage patch.
“Since you two are so insistent upon sticking your noses into what two young mages in training have no business doing, we’re setting up something different for you here at Fowler.” Alessandra eyed Leander as he moved around her toward Raven but didn’t react more than that. “And I’ll be your instructor for your new class.”
Bella folded her arms and tilted her head. “You mean detention.”
“No, Miss Chase. I mean training for you and Miss Alby both. As war mages.”
The End
Raven Alby has been sent to represent Fowler Academy and learn diplomacy, explore a new city in a distant part of the kingdom. But will the marauding raiders find them? Will Raven, mage in training, and her frenemy Bella be enough to protect their temporary home? Find out in WarMage: Uncontrolled!
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Goth Drow
Have you started the Goth Drow series from Martha and Michael? Book one is Once Upon A Midnight Drow and it’s available now through Amazon and Kindle Unlimited.
I’m not Goth to hide my Drow heritage, I’m Goth because I’m not a quitter.
My name is Cheyenne Summerlin, remember that name. Somebody should…
The world can’t know I’m a Drow halfling. Not yet. I barely have these powers under my control, but time’s up. I’m about to take magic for a test drive. Want to come along?
The black ops government group believe they can run my life... But I have plans of my own.
Watch out magical evil doers – I’m about to crash your party.
But will my training be enough?
Grab your copy today from Amazon or Kindle Unlimited.
Author Notes - Martha Carr
March 22, 2020
Author notes from the time of the Corona virus. From inside the bunker – also known as my dream house. Things could be worse. I’ve actually been in some kind of isolation for weeks before everyone else because I had pneumonia. Weird timing, but there’s a lot about this year that’s weird.
I’ve been trying to make sure there’s enough of things, just in case. Not get to hoarder levels and not let things run out and create an unnecessary crisis for myself, or someone else.
The easiest way to take care of things is to look to online sources. For myself, I turned to Hungry Root. It’s a healthy choice that can accommodate special needs and they have some pretty tasty things. For the good dog, Lois Lane and the sweet pittie, Leela I ordered from Chewy.com.
Fun fact, when you order from Chewy, everything comes in a much larger size. Okay, okay, I didn’t read the fine print. Frankly, I was in the middle of a hacking coughing spell and it was late at night and I was more interested in seeing when it would all come.
Five days later, two huge boxes arrived… What is this? One of the boxes I had to do that crouched over, teeter totter just to get it inside. So much for trying not to touch outside things. I had to do the full body wrap to pick it up. Fortunately, I’m freakishly strong and whipped that box inside before the dogs had a chance to make a run for it. They’re unaware of social distancing and would still like to meet everyone.
Inside was a forty-pound bag of dog food. Bigger than I’ve ever seen in the grocery stores. And the treats I ordered – enough for two weeks, just in case – were also super-sized. Is this the cosmos telling me it’s gonna be more like a month?
Things are going reasonably well here on my small frontline. The neighbors all post on our FB group when they have something they can share or when they need something. I have a few projects to play with that I can now get to and feel like I emerged with something done. And I’m reading chapters from some of my new books every day at 1 pm CST from my Facebook author page. Plus, like a lot of other people I’ve set up regular Zoom get togethers and I take long, slow walks, crossing the street when I approach someone else. It all helps and some of it is very weird.
It’s cool to see how much everyone is offering up their talents to share with others both locally and nationally. I hope that continues after we are all set loose again. And I cannot WAIT to hug so many of you this November in Vegas on Fan Day. I will be loaded down with troll paraphernalia (pins, stickers) and some Bernie stuff too. Until then, everyone please stay safe, be kind to yourself and others and reach out often. We’ll get through this one day at a time – together. Love you all. More adventures to follow.
Author Notes - Michael Anderle
March 23, 2020
THANK YOU for reading our story! We have a few of these planned, but we don’t know if we should continue
writing and publishing without your input. Options include leaving a review, reaching out on Facebook to let us know, and smoke signals.
Frankly, smoke signals might get misconstrued as low hanging clouds, so you might want to nix that idea.
Of course, if you ARE in the land of the Warmage, I imagine smoke signals would be at least a little appropriate.
Personally, I’m waiting for the awesome VR graphics that allow me to enjoy walking around a fantasy land, where we see a flight of dragons way up in the sky.
Damn, that would be so cool…
Diary week of March 22 to March 28th, 2020
I live on the Strip in Las Vegas, and it is presently one week since I got back from London and five days since most of the hotel-casinos on the Strip shut down due to the efforts to constrain Covid-19.
I live next to the Aria, beside the Cosmopolitan and across the street (and a block or two down) from the MGM Grand and New York New York casinos.
The Aria and New York New York are important because the restaurants I frequent are inside them. You know, inside where I can’t get to them for take-out anymore?
Presently, it is 1:30 in the afternoon, and traffic on Las Vegas Blvd (always a mess on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons) is not a mess.
In fact, the whole Strip is about 95% shut down. There are a few restaurants open including Giordano’s (we are helping them stay open to help pay a few workers), McDonald’s, (a hot dog place in front of Bally’s, I can’t remember the name, but I purchase a Mexican Coke every time I am over there), and also Wahlburgers, plus any CVS or Walgreens, which seem to occur every few blocks near my place.
I have a theory about why we have any traffic on the main Strip.
Theory: People from outside the Strip here in Las Vegas (think Henderson or Red Rock area) are taking a drive to see the closed Strip. The expectation of no cars traveling up and down the Strip is not a thing because of sightseers driving in to see the absence of cars, and since they are now here, there are cars.
Well, it’s a theory.
This morning, I went up and down the Strip, buying a little from each of the stores, trying to give everyone a bit of business. Cleaning hands wherever I went as I walked through the stores looking for TP or anything we might be able to use that didn’t require refrigeration until I got sold on buying frozen dinners.
So, how did that happen? I’m glad you asked.
I purchased this food from a Walgreens across the street because the manager personally showed me the Walgreens app and the items in the freezer on sale. I tried to show her what I was already carrying, which was a few bags. I explained I was walking back and couldn’t carry very much more.
She told me to take the little shopping cart on wheels and just return it.
I stared at her, she stared back at me. That was the final straw. She broke me. I had to buy from her at that point. Who else gets to take the carts out of the store and bring them back?
I bought more than I technically needed at that store, and I WILL be going back. Not just to return the cart (it’s so damned cute!), but also to support them and their efforts to stay open when the Strip is closed for business.
I wish I had a larger freezer to help them out.
However, I hit two CVS stores and two Walgreens, plus a Target, and I scored one roll of tissue paper among all five of them. That’s not a package containing 4, 12, 16, or 24 rolls. No, it was a single roll from all five stores.
They had about thirty single rolls on the shelf, so I took my one and felt like I had just been hunting and downed a 14-point buck at 200 yards through trees so thick it looked like a fence.
(Is fourteen points a good-sized deer rack? I really don’t know as I don’t hunt. If you were nodding your head with my story and thinking, that’s a hell of a deer! remember, I am paid to lie for a living. It’s a good life.)
If you live here in Las Vegas, remember that the little (expensive) stores on the Strip have way fewer shoppers. One of our people inside LMBPN mentioned that no one remembers that truck stops often have toilet paper. I tried that.
They didn’t have any.
(Editor’s Note: We did too, same results)
I suppose it is possible there is a different side of the store than the one I went into to find the elusive TP. Where I looked, it was a seriously small shelf space that was empty. Hmmm.
I should have called Stephen Russell (Author S.R. Russell), who was a truck driver for a few decades to ask him before I left there empty-handed the other day. Well, not empty-handed. They had buy 1 get 1 free on M&M’s.
I figured, why the hell not? We might need protein (peanuts), emotional healing (chocolate), and calories (sugar) in order to survive the next few weeks.
There, if you needed an excuse to buy Peanut M&Ms, you’re welcome. If you don’t, I applaud your lack of concern when purchasing junk food. I had to give myself a reason to load up on them.
I’ve used that damned ‘sugar is calories’ excuse a LOT in the last seven days.
Take, for example, the following ‘food’ I purchased using the “sugar is calories” excuse.
It has Mike in the name. How can I not support THAT???
For now, we here in the Cave in the Sky™ are doing fine.
Neither the wife or I have tried to suffocate each other yet, nor have we tried to toss each other out of the windows. Fortunately, I purchased a mattress topper a month ago to put on my couch in the office for naps. If I need to, I can hang out here if the wife starts to moan…
BRAIINNNZZZZ.
All joking aside, this is a new time in our world. The challenges we have encountered will be overcome, and the new society that comes out the other side will be interesting. It’s time for those who can to help those who need it.
For those who need help, raise a hand when your neighbors ask.
I am grateful to you, our readers, who consume our books.
Ad Aeternitatem,
Michael Anderle
Books By Martha Carr
Series in the Oriceran Universe:
SCHOOL OF NECESSARY MAGIC
SCHOOL OF NECESSARY MAGIC: RAINE CAMPBELL
ALISON BROWNSTONE
THE DANIEL CODEX SERIES
THE LEIRA CHRONICLES
I FEAR NO EVIL
FEDERAL AGENTS OF MAGIC
SCIONS OF MAGIC
THE UNBELIEVABLE MR. BROWNSTONE
REWRITING JUSTICE
THE KACY CHRONICLES
MIDWEST MAGIC CHRONICLES
SOUL STONE MAGE
THE FAIRHAVEN CHRONICLES
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The Adventures of Finnegan Dragonbender
The Witches of Pressler Street
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