Aldrea Alien's Blog, page 16

Rainbow Snippets: What else to do?

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.

I’m sharing snippets from In Pain and Blood for a while. The prologue is part of the new additions and stars Tracker. The rewrite is a little light on the romance side and a touch darker in other parts.

This week’s snippet follows on from last week’s where Tracker buries the fallen spellster.

He should’ve been in Toptower by now. He had passed the border city in his travels almost a month ago, had spent just as long trying to reach it, the multiple diversions along the way only pulling him further from his task.

If this diversion led him to finding the trail cold once he arrived? The mistress wouldn’t be pleased. The messages to deal with such threats were rarely to any specific hound, but to the first to scour the village reports.

It had just been him and rumours always came second to an identifiable threat. What else could he have done but answer them? Allow one spellster to steal village children and treat them as though they were her personal larder? Let another wander free whilst drawing more innocent people into her web?

Tracker will be back next week with more from In Pain and Blood. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

If you’re looking for more news of my books, be sure to “Like” my Facebook page and/or join me in my Facebook group!

Rainbow Snippets: No answers to his prayers

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.

I’m sharing snippets from In Pain and Blood for a while. The prologue is part of the new additions and stars Tracker. The rewrite is a little light on the romance side and a touch darker in other parts.

This week’s snippet follows on from last week’s where Tracker buries the fallen spellster.

With the girl buried, Tracker got to his feet. He dusted the dirt from his hands and returned to his horse. The threat he’d been sent to contain had nullified itself. There was nothing to be done here beyond giving the rest of these people a respectful burial. The King’s Hound stationed at Oldmarsh could see to that. Whisper did little else beyond sit in his cosy outpost and relay messages to elsewhere in the kingdom, having him oversee a few city guards would at least get the man off his backside.

Mounting his horse, Tracker took one last look at the site, hoping with all his heart that it somehow vanished like a winter mist and revealed the girl to be safe.

When the site refused to bend to his prayers, he turned his back on it and resumed his journey back the way he had come. It was going to take him over a week to get back on the right road, and a few more days of hard riding to return to his original task.

Tracker will be back next week with more from In Pain and Blood. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

If you’re looking for more news of my books, be sure to “Like” my Facebook page and/or join me in my Facebook group!

Rainbow Snippets: A warrior’s heart

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.

I’m sharing snippets from In Pain and Blood for a while. The prologue is part of the new additions and stars Tracker. The rewrite is a little light on the romance side and a touch darker in other parts.

This week’s snippet follows on from last week’s where Tracker divulges that this spellster was destined for the army.

With the hole completed, Tracker tossed the buckler to one side and reached for the girl. He gently lowered her in, pausing only to tuck his cloak securely around her as though she only slept. He laid the knife atop the bundle. It would do her no good now, but she deserved to enter the afterlife with something.

He scooped the dirt back into the hole, muttering a soft prayer as he worked. The temple songs of his youth often spoke of the gods looking kindly upon those who died in battle. He hoped it was true. She might not have fought off these bandits with steel and muscle, but she definitely had a warrior’s heart.

He liked to think his daughter would’ve been the same.

Tracker will be back next week with more from In Pain and Blood. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

If you’re looking for more news of my books, be sure to “Like” my Facebook page and/or join me in my Facebook group!

Rainbow Snippets: Keeping a child from the battlefront

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.

I’m sharing snippets from In Pain and Blood for a while. The prologue is part of the new additions and stars Tracker. The rewrite is a little light on the romance side and a touch darker in other parts.

This week’s snippet follows on from last week’s where Tracker opted to bury the spellster child over the standard cremation.

The tower still held her guardian. The tower’s overseers had sent him after the child, unaware that he already knew what his prey was, had met her and her guardian whilst they fled the tower. He had helped stage the girl’s death. Although, with her illusions, his part had been small.

He should’ve done more. Should’ve escorted her to the border himself.

It would’ve been risky. All it would’ve taken was for another hound to come upon them, to pull enough threads together. Tracker would’ve been routed. Branded a bad dog. Punished to the point of begging for death.

All for trying to keep a child from the battlefront.

Tracker will be back next week with more from In Pain and Blood. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

If you’re looking for more news of my books, be sure to “Like” my Facebook page and/or join me in my Facebook group!

Rainbow Snippets: Trying to do the right thing

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.

I’m sharing snippets from In Pain and Blood for a while. The prologue is part of the new additions and stars Tracker. The rewrite is a little light on the romance side and a touch darker in other parts.

This week’s snippet follows on from last week’s where Tracker found the spellster that the bandits attacked.

Wrapping her remains in his cloak, he hauled her from the wagon. It would take hours for him to bury all of these people on his own, time he couldn’t spare. He was meant to burn spellster remains to ash, but he couldn’t bring himself to do that either.

The ground was hard, baked by the summer heat. Still, he beat at the earth, chopping it up with a bandit’s sword, before his search amongst their weapons brought up a metal buckler. He used the small shield as a shovel, piling the dirt high on either side. The hole didn’t have to be big—the girl had been a typical elven child, short and slight—but he needed the hole to be deep to keep the wildlife from digging her up.

He had tried to do the right thing, even abandoning the code every King’s Hound was raised to follow. The girl had left the tower unleashed, that should’ve meant her death. But she’d been barely ten years old and following at her guardian’s heels, just as she likely had done since she could walk.

Tracker will be back next week with more from In Pain and Blood. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

If you’re looking for more news of my books, be sure to “Like” my Facebook page and/or join me in my Facebook group!

Rainbow Snippets: Preparing to die

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.

I’m sharing snippets from In Pain and Blood for a while. The prologue is part of the new additions and stars Tracker. The rewrite is a little light on the romance side and a touch darker in other parts.

This week’s snippet follows on from last week’s where Tracker revealed he knew exactly how people would interpret the scene.

Closer to the wagon, the bodies became less identifiable. He could speculate that the ones bearing swords were once guards, but the driver or the other passengers could’ve easily taken up arms against an attack. The only figure he could be certain of was the small frame of charred bones sitting in what remained of the wagon.

Her hand still clung to the throwing knife he had gifted her, the same one she had plucked from the air during his pursuit. In the scant few days they had travelled together, she begged him to teach her with him remaining unrelenting until the last.

Had she been preparing herself to fight? To die?

Tracker will be back next week with more from In Pain and Blood. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

If you’re looking for more news of my books, be sure to “Like” my Facebook page and/or join me in my Facebook group!

Rainbow Snippets: Another precautionary tale

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.

I’m sharing snippets from In Pain and Blood for a while. The prologue is part of the new additions and stars Tracker. The rewrite is a little light on the romance side and a touch darker in other parts.

This week’s snippet follows on from last week’s where Tracker determined the attack was instigated by bandits.

As one of the King’s Hounds, charged with hunting spellsters, he was meant to encourage the rumours of their dangers amongst the populace. It left people wary of harbouring those with even a suspicion of magic.

And this?

It hadn’t been her fault, but that wouldn’t matter. Who would care to hear the truth? Not his mistress, nor the kingdom.

Rumours of this attack would spread, the blame placed on her shoulders. Just another dangerous spellster. Another precautionary tale added to the pile, painting this little girl as a monster, even though she hadn’t been looking to destroy lives.

Tracker will be back next week with more from In Pain and Blood. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

If you’re looking for more news of my books, be sure to “Like” my Facebook page and/or join me in my Facebook group!

Rainbow Snippets: Definitely bandits

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.

I’m sharing snippets from In Pain and Blood for a while. The prologue is part of the new additions and stars Tracker. The rewrite is a little light on the romance side and a touch darker in other parts.

This week’s snippet follows on from last week’s where Tracker approached the destroyed cart.

The bodies on the outer circle bore mismatched armour and weapons that, even negating the fresh layer of soot coating them, had seen better days. He nudged one with his boot. The leather padding their shoulder gave with a dry crackle. Definitely bandits. At least they couldn’t hurt anyone further.

Tracker ground his teeth. His fingers flexed, balling and opening. He irrationally wished for one of the bastards to still be alive, if only to become an outlet to enact the rage bubbling inside him.

He didn’t come across these sorts of scenes very often, few were brave or foolish enough to take on a spellster, but when he did, the irrationality of it all had him wanting to add to the violence. To beat sense into those who had instigated this outcome, who had driven a quiet spellster, a child, to the point where this happened.

Tracker will be back next week with more from In Pain and Blood. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

If you’re looking for more news of my books, be sure to “Like” my Facebook page and/or join me in my Facebook group!

Rainbow Snippets: A child’s fear response

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.

I’m sharing snippets from In Pain and Blood for a while. The prologue is part of the new additions and stars Tracker. The rewrite is a little light on the romance side and a touch darker in other parts.

This week’s snippet follows on from last week’s where Tracker was on a hopeful search for the spellster girl.

The scorching on the ground suggested the source had burnt hot and fast, snuffing itself just as quickly as it had begun, taking allies alongside enemies. There was a definite ring shape to the blast, radiating from within the wagon. A child’s fear response. Or perhaps an act done in anger to the violence they witnessed to kind people.

It would’ve been quick. The wagon’s interior would’ve succumbed in a blink. The cattle seared in a single breath. People thrown off their feet by the blast and cooked where they lay.

It should never have gotten that far.

Dismounting, Tracker crept closer. He didn’t expect anything to erupt from the site’s charred bones, but approaching in any other manner felt wrong.

Tracker will be back next week with more from In Pain and Blood. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

If you’re looking for more news of my books, be sure to “Like” my Facebook page and/or join me in my Facebook group!

Rainbow Snippets: It was all the same

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.

I’m sharing snippets from In Pain and Blood for a while. The prologue is part of the new additions and stars Tracker. The rewrite is a little light on the romance side and a touch darker in other parts.

This week’s snippet follows on from last week’s where Tracker draws closer to the smell of burnt wood.

He hung his head. I am sorry. He should’ve tried harder, thought of a better way to get her beyond Demarn’s borders to lands where her magic, her ability to craft illusions, wouldn’t see her thrown into a war as the overseers in the spellster tower had planned.

The breeze continued to shiver through the trees. It kicked up ash and dust, sending the gritty powder every which way. Along with the stench of charred flesh. Be it cattle or humanoid, it all smelt the same.

His horse snorted. The animal’s senses were stronger and the foulness in the air choked Tracker’s throat.

They circled the wagon until the wind was at their backs. It didn’t matter what angle he took in the disaster, the level of destruction was all the same. The lingering taste of magic permeated the stench. He scanned the site, looking for any sign that the spellster responsible somehow still lived.

Tracker will be back next week with more from In Pain and Blood. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

If you’re looking for more news of my books, be sure to “Like” my Facebook page and/or join me in my Facebook group!