Michelle L. Levigne's Blog, page 40

Short story excerpt: CLASS REUNION, an Infrenx story

 

One of these days, I will write a book or two about the Academy years of Lt. M'kar, Thyal, and the other members of Infrenx, the special Talents class at the Academy on Le'anka. This short story, and several chapters in ETRUSCA'S VOW deal with those years.

This is a story set in the AFV Defender universe.

If you've read FRIENDLY FIRE, the first AFV Defender novel, then you heard about the battle that injured Thyal and sent M'kar on her quest .... and I won't say anything more if you haven't read the book yet. (Why haven't you?)

Available in ebook from Amazon and other online sites. And Ye Olde Dragon Books, of course.

Through the end of the month: excerpts from CLASS REUNION.

 

The Academy

Northern Continent of Le’anka

Headquarters of the Alliance

 M’kar stopped counting after the ninth student in the soft green robes of first-year students turned to stare at her as she walked through the central plaza of the Academy. She considered how her classmates would laugh if she remarked on how above-average the eyesight of first-year students was, compared with the students in their class. None of them had stared very long at her, when they were first gathered together in the garden of the home of their teacher, Premier Master Reydon.

In her dark silver-blue dress uniform, she should have blended in with all the other Fleet officers who were arriving at the start of the academic term, preparing to teach. Instead, she constantly drew second looks. Mouths dropped open and faces went pale when her gaze met theirs. More than she would have garnered if she walked across the plaza barefoot, with her favorite knife raised and dripping blood. From several dozen meters away, they couldn’t possibly see her facial tattoos and recognize her as Nisandrian. Could they? How, when she had such a deep tan from her last planetside mission? Did she have a sign hovering in the air above her head, flashing glowing letters, warning everyone to stay away from the barbarian? Or had someone she had clashed with during her own time here as a student decided to get revenge, and sent out her image and a warning, as soon as she landed on Le’anka and stepped onto Academy grounds?

Then again, it probably wasn’t a former classmate. More likely her father was punishing her for not coming to see him and her mother before she met with her classmates. Chieftain Ashrock of Nisandros was nearly a tourist attraction in his own right. He was probably wandering throughout the many paths of the Academy, looking for every first-year student, warning them to be on the lookout for his daughter, a Fleet officer, who was probably in a bad mood while she was separated from her ship.

Off the Bookshelf: MIND YOUR OWN MURDER, by Pattie Larsen

 

Persephone Pringle Cozy Mysteries: One

Our heroine needs some time away. As a counselor/therapist, she knows the value of a retreat to get organized and analyze, so she rents a cute little cottage in a shore community, and tries desperately to just get away from it all.

Her ex-husband won't leave her alone, her daughter won't leave her alone, and both of them think she needs a keeper. They might be right, since she stumbles into trouble with wacko neighbors on either side of the cottage, and realizes too late she's the newest point of acrimony in a community battle. Turns out the locals despise the tourists who come in and rent homes. According to the jerk who ran a stop sign and nearly hit her and then insisted it was her fault. And then the sheriff backs up the jerk. And then there's the rock through her window, telling her to go home. And then the dead body in the water, after she accused the same jerk of being the rock-thrower. And the fact that a lawn ornament in her rental cottage is the murder weapon. Which leads the jerk sheriff to accuse her of being the murderer.

It's kind of understandable why every time she makes up her mind what she's going to do to deal with the creeps and wackos, she ends up doing the opposite, despite knowing better. Especially when her FBI agent ex and their daughter keep trying to run her life from long distance. And then there's the anti-social cat that seems to love her, and the abused daughter who could be a killer. And then ...

Yeah, it's tangled and fast-moving and just when you want to take people and shake them until their eyeballs rattle, our heroine starts putting the pieces together. Whew!

Want To Hear a Story?

 

Starting in January, I'm going to launch a new venture -- a storytelling podcast.

Each week, you can listen to me reading a chapter from a work-in-progress. Then, you'll have a chance to ask questions and make suggestions and make guesses about what's going to happen next right here on this blog.

PLUS: If you join the Patreon group I'll be setting up in December, you'll have access to exclusive content, such as new bits I've thought of thanks to comments in the Patreon group and here, changes to scenes, a chance to vote on things such as the names of characters and places and even the title of the book, early access to the print and ebook and audiobook versions of the finished book, and limited edition hardback editions, with special extras such as maps, and maybe even sketches of characters, if I can find an artist to do that for me ....

Right now, I'm working on a book that has quite a few working titles. If you've read the short stories about 'Na, Ambrose, and Fang the bunny in the enchanted forest, appearing in the Ye Olde Dragon Books anthologies, When Your Beauty IS the Beast, Tales from the Tower, and Who's the Monster? then you're familiar with the world they live in, and you've heard about 'Na's parents. This first book starts the adventure of just how Ashlyn and Zared became the Beastly Beauty and the Disenchanted Prince, and how they met Fang the bunny and tamed the enchanted castle.

In fact, that's one of the first things Patrons will be able to vote on -- and you can offer suggestions about, here on the blog: the TITLE of the first book. I'm wavering back and forth between Taming the Enchanted Castle, The Beastly Beauty, or The Beastly Beauty, the Disenchanted Prince, and Fang the Bunny. Yeah, I know the last one is kind of long....

Anyway!! Stay tuned for updates, and please consider joining the Patreon group to help pay for the expenses of publishing and distributing the podcast .... which you will be able to listen to for FREE! Yeah, that last one is important ... But it will be available on most podcast platforms, such as iTunes, Spotify, etc.

Hope you're as excited about this as I am!

 

New Release: ETRUSCA'S VOW. AFV Defender Book 3

“Listen to your fellow warrior, mi’sho’ki,” Ashrock said, his voice coming from the shadows of the hallway. A moment later he came around the corner. He scowled at them, brow furrowed. “Didn’t we tell you both to find your beds? You have had a long, draining day, and the days ahead will be even more so. Go!” He made a shooing gesture down the hall.

M’kar laughed. “Tell me a bedtime story, Po’pa?”

“Ah, there, you see?” He sighed gustily and crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, still scowling, teasing, at the two children. “You win one small battle, and you think you know better.” He lunged, catching M’kar around the waist with his massive hands. She squealed as he tumbled her upside down and hung her over his shoulder. He held her ankles with one hand and swatted her bottom hard with the other. “You will obey as long as I can spank you!”

M'kar could hardly breathe for giggling. Thyal’s wide-eyed expression melted into a grin. 

“I have an idea, my fine young warriors.” Ashrock nodded as he lumbered down the hall to M’kar’s room, three doors down from Thyal’s, on the other side of the hall. “In the morning, we will have the hearth-kin ceremony. You fought together and for each other. That is something to celebrate. Even if you did not, sadly, shed any blood.”

 

New Release: ETRUSCA'S VOW. AFV Defender Book 3

 “Everything’s all changed. You can’t take the classes with your friends that you wanted to.”

“I suppose.” He shrugged, then grinned. “You’ve got nothing to be sorry about. Think about what you did today.”

She couldn’t help thinking about any of it. Especially the part when the two men calmed down once the animals left them alone, and they got angry and cursed her, and kept cursing her until Security hit them with stunner wands to shut them up. They spoke in the war tongue of Nisandros, and M’kar wished she had never teased her father to teach it to her. Those men vowed they would find her and kill her no matter what it cost them. She had embarrassed them. They were trained, dedicated killers, sent on an honor vendetta decreed by the Ancestors. Not that she cared about the Ancestors. But those men should have been able to find her and shred her before anyone realized what was happening. She was just a little girl, nine years old, and she had defeated them. Not only that, but she had made them scream like frightened little girls. She had commanded all the animals to come in her defense. They had shredded the men’s clothes and scratched and bit them and defecated all over them. That was the worst part of the embarrassment. The smell. 

“We both learned to do new things today, that we didn’t know we could do,” Thyal said. “People come from all over the Alliance to ask my father to be their teacher, and he wants to teach us. Do you know how special we are? And that’s because of you, because I wouldn’t have figured out what I could do if I didn’t have to help you.”

New Release: ETRUSCA'S VOW. AFV Defender Book 3

 Master Reydon insisted on taking M’kar as his student. He specialized in dealing with anomalous Talents. He was currently taking a period of rest while preparing to assemble his next group of students. Maenta was part of the dinner discussion, and she agreed to be in charge of M’kar’s foundational teaching before handing her over to Reydon in three luns. M’kar would be the youngest student he had ever taken, and the youngest member of the class.

Thyal had felt the energy and psionic resonance as M’kar’s Talent awoke. His instincts guided him in trying to shield her as she called all the animals for nearly a full kilometer in all directions, to defend her against the would-be murderers. He kept her shielded from possible physical damage, until Maenta felt the disturbance in the mental atmosphere and came to investigate and help. Reydon and Thean made no effort to hide their deep pride in their son. Thyal would be like his father, with an over-arching Talent that would allow him to touch on and interact with and even control other Talents, when necessary.

Because of that, Thyal would be part of this new class. M’kar thought he looked happy, but even more he looked stunned. Had she made trouble for him? Many classes he had planned for the next few years at the Academy would have to be canceled or delayed.

“I’m sorry,” she said, as they walked down the hallway to the bedroom wing of the house, after their parents sent them to bed.

The five adults were still talking in the common room behind them, their voices muffled with seriousness and the lateness of the hour. 

“For what?” Thyal frowned.

New Release: ETRUSCA'S VOW. AFV Defender Book 3

“Ah, better already? Very interesting,” Maenta said with a smile and a nod. “You can let go now. You don’t need me shielding you.”

M’kar didn’t understand.

“Master Maenta has been shielding your mind,” Thyal said. “You have a Talent and it woke up, and you weren’t able to turn it off.”

“Because you didn’t know how you turned it on,” Maenta added, nodding. “Yes, young Thyal, I understand now why your parents insisted you be given advanced classes. You will be a great asset to the Academy, when you have finished your training. As for you, little one …” She sighed. “You’re confused, aren’t you?”

“I have a Talent?” M’kar couldn’t yank her thoughts off what Thyal had said. “I’m not old enough.”

Thanks to the psionic heritage of Dr. Jeyn’s family, and the genetic manipulation that had been done to the ruling families of Nisandros centuries ago, there was no way to be sure if the emergence of M’kar’s psionic Talent was too soon or right on time. Everyone agreed, as they talked over dinner and into the evening, that the combination of so many drastic changes in her life and environment, combined with the trauma of the attack, had awakened her animal-focused Talent rapidly and with some violence. Her course of studies would now have to include mental and physical disciplines to help her harness this newly awakened ability and avoid the physical shock and draining she had endured today.

New Release: ETRUSCA'S VOW. AFV Defender Book 3

 

M'kar tumbled out of the cart and landed in the lavender and rose-streaked moss lining the side of the pathway, retching. Thyal shouted something and suddenly he was there, kneeling over her, holding her as she shuddered and fought to breathe. He was still holding her when Security found them and used stunner wands to drive away the swarms of birds and small ground-dwelling creatures that covered the shivering, weeping, ragged, bleeding, smothered men. He didn’t let go of her until a small, pink-faced woman with a crown of white braids wrapped around her head knelt and put her arms around M’kar and patted her back.

M'kar didn’t know how she knew it, but the little woman made the angry, confused cries of all the creatures go away. Shuddering with relief at the quiet inside her head, she burst into tears. 

By the time Security found her parents, and Thyal’s parents, and dealt with the two failed murderers, M’kar and Thyal had been taken to the closest healer station. The little woman introduced herself as Master Maenta. M’kar had calmed down enough to notice how everyone hurried to do obey her, and they didn’t ask questions. Maenta held M’kar’s hand the whole time, and that was even more comforting than Thyal holding her hand. She asked for a room where the three of them could be alone, and quiet, and asked for a drink that was all creamy pink and lavender and mint green swirls. M’kar didn’t think she could swallow anything, but she tried. All the shivering and throbbing and brief sharp stabs in her head quieted, and she felt the humming in Maenta’s hand holding hers.

Off the Bookshelf: DOROTHY AND JACK: The Transforming Friendship of Dorothy L. Sayers and C.S. Lewis, by Gina Dalfonzo

 

Yet another book that proves I have a bad habit of buying far too many books in a year than I can read. And some, regrettably, sit and wait for nearly two years before I take one off the to-be-read stack and actually start reading.

And when I do ... I don't want to put that book down.

Delightful, enlightening, educational experience. I bought this book because I'm a C.S. Lewis fan, a free Narnian, and trying to live up to his challenge about using the fantastical for Kingdom purposes. More opportunities to get to know him, his life, his thinking -- yeah, go for it.

Now ... I think I've discovered a new author to become passionate about. The thing is, I've encountered Sayers multiple times in the past. Most recently, her novel Gaudy Night was part of an Aurora Teagarden mystery episode. I really have to free up some space on my to-be-read mountain for some of her books. Starting with Lord Peter Wimsey's adventures. I know I read a collection of short stories about him years ago ... where did I file it?

This book is a must-read for any fan of either or both authors, with snatches of their correspondence over the years, interactions with mutual friends, growth and changes in their lives and careers, their writing successes, and joys and sorrows. Bravo to the author. Her passion for both subjects comes through, and her honesty in dealing with their foibles and fears and questionable choices is admirable and refreshing. 

I think I might even be brave enough to try to read Sayers' translation of Dante. 

New Release: ETRUSCA'S VOW. AFV Defender Book 3

 The cart stopped, startling a yelp out of her. She opened her eyes, expecting to see the door of the cart shelter at Thyal’s house. Instead, the cart had stopped a dozen meters from the path to the house. She looked at Thyal, then turned to look where he looked, with a frown darkening his sharp-boned, tanned face.

Two men stood on the pathway to the front steps and main door of the house. One faced the cart. The other turned around from the door and looked at the children in the cart.

“Go, go, go,” Thyal snarled, and slapped the controls for the cart. “Security. The intruders are at our house!”

The men yelled and raced after them. The cart seemed to crawl as it moved forward. M’kar wanted to jump out of the cart and run, but she knew it went faster than she could run. The smart move was to save her energy. She turned to look as the men ran and shouted, cursing Thyal and the cart and her.

M’kar understood those words. The language. They were speaking Nisandrian. She hadn’t heard Nisandrian since leaving Nisandros. She wanted to laugh at how strange the words sounded, but she couldn’t breathe. Everything felt wrong. She should be able to fight and defend herself, but her head pounded and her limbs had frozen. What was wrong with her? Had they already shot her with a tranquilizer, and she didn’t feel the dart?

Go away. Go away! Leave me alone! I’m not going back.

The bird cries and squeaks and pips and creaks of all the creatures filling her head to the point of bursting exploded into fury. 

A dark cloud swirled down out of the sky and enclosed the two men. They screamed and cursed and waved their arms and spun around, trying to break through the cloud. It grew thicker. A matching cloud of darkness snaked across the ground. The animal sounds erupted out of M’kar’s head and into her ears. The darkness reared up like a wave and engulfed the men. They went down, lumpy shapes that writhed and screamed.