Once again, it's SUNDERING SUNDAY!
It’s SUNDERING SUNDAY!
That’s because THE REAVER: THE SUNDERING BOOK IV releases on Tuesday, February 4th, and as we count down to that, I’m posting an excerpt from the novel each Sunday.
The publisher has posted the first chapter. You can find that here:
https://www.wizards.com/dnd/Product.aspx?x=dnd/products/frnovel/reaver
You can also find last Sunday’s excerpt here on my blog.
Here’s the set-up for today’s excerpt. Stedd Whitehorn, the young Chosen of Lathander, has made his way to the dangerous city of Westgate. There, he seeks aid and refuge from the people who, he believes, are most likely to provide them.
And now, the excerpt itself:
Hundreds of years old—it had begun life as Morningstar Haven, a house of worship devoted to Lathander—the temple of Amaunator was a treasure trove of stained glass windows and skylights. Of late, Niseus Zoporos rarely noticed them without experiencing a pang of sadness at the memory of how brightly they once shined.
Perhaps they were the reason he heard the start of the chanting despite the thick stone walls: “Show us the boy! Show us the boy! Show us the boy!”
A small man with a balding crown and bushy gray eyebrows, Randal Sweetgrove, First Sunlord of Westgate, sat with his collection of sundials, hourglasses, calendar stones, shadow clocks, candle clocks, and dripping clepsydras arrayed behind him. He’d been smiling at Stedd, who was sitting on the other side of his desk, but he scowled at the noise from outside. “I thought I told Miri to send those people home.”
“She tried,” Niseus said from his station by the door. “Some went. Some didn’t.”
“I can talk to them,” said Stedd, meanwhile beginning the process of squirming out of an ornate chair that was rather too deep for him. “I feel better now, and the waveservants won’t be able to get me with Sir Niseus and the other guards protecting me.”
“Please, rest,” Randal said. “There’ll be time for speeches later.”
“But I told you,” said the boy as he completed the process of planting his feet on the floor, “I have to deliver Lathander’s message and keep traveling toward Sapra. So really, I shouldn’t waste time.”
“Sit back down!” the sunlord snapped. Stedd didn’t resume his seat, but he did falter in surprise. “I’m not your enemy, son,” Randal continued, “quite the contrary, and sitting here talking to you, I’ve weighed your words carefully in the hope of discovering that your notions aren’t heretical after all, just awkwardly expressed.”
Stedd shook his head. “Heretical?”
“Yes, and to my regret, after giving them a fair hearing, I can interpret them no other way. The sun god didn’t change from one incarnation to another only to revert to his previous persona a mere century later. The cycle takes millennia. It always has and always will. It can never vary because it reflects the order Amaunator embodies above all else.”
“You’re wrong,” said the boy. “Lathander came back because we need him.”
“Lad, I started my priestly training when I was as young as you are now. I’ve spent forty-five years contemplating the mysteries. Don’t you see how foolish, how insolent it is to claim you understand them better than I do?”
“I understand how it could seem that way,” Stedd replied with bitter disappointment in his voice, “and if it makes you angry, I’m sorry. But I still have to do what Lathander wants. I thought you’d help me, but if you don’t want to, I’ll go.”
“Niseus,” said the sunlord, “block the door.”
To thwart and intimidate a mere child who’d come here willingly at a temple knight’s invitation? It seemed like dishonorable behavior to say the least. But Niseus had sworn an oath of obedience, and he sidestepped to place himself in front of the exit.
“Let me out!” said Stedd.
“It will be all right,” Niseus replied. He hoped that was true.
Stedd pivoted and evidently spotted the smaller door in the back wall amid all the water clocks and such. He started to scramble around Randal’s desk.
The First Sunlord rattled off an invocation and swept his hand through the arc that symbolized the sun’s daily passage across the sky. Stedd’s muscles clenched into rigid immobility, and he pitched off balance and fell.
You can preorder THE REAVER: THE SUNDERING BOOK IV here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EGMB6BU/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d0_i2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1AEKHHJJH4JY5QDXYZ1A&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1630083502&pf_rd_i=507846
Or here:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-reaver-richard-lee-byers/1115479179?ean=9780786964581
That’s because THE REAVER: THE SUNDERING BOOK IV releases on Tuesday, February 4th, and as we count down to that, I’m posting an excerpt from the novel each Sunday.
The publisher has posted the first chapter. You can find that here:
https://www.wizards.com/dnd/Product.aspx?x=dnd/products/frnovel/reaver
You can also find last Sunday’s excerpt here on my blog.
Here’s the set-up for today’s excerpt. Stedd Whitehorn, the young Chosen of Lathander, has made his way to the dangerous city of Westgate. There, he seeks aid and refuge from the people who, he believes, are most likely to provide them.
And now, the excerpt itself:
Hundreds of years old—it had begun life as Morningstar Haven, a house of worship devoted to Lathander—the temple of Amaunator was a treasure trove of stained glass windows and skylights. Of late, Niseus Zoporos rarely noticed them without experiencing a pang of sadness at the memory of how brightly they once shined.
Perhaps they were the reason he heard the start of the chanting despite the thick stone walls: “Show us the boy! Show us the boy! Show us the boy!”
A small man with a balding crown and bushy gray eyebrows, Randal Sweetgrove, First Sunlord of Westgate, sat with his collection of sundials, hourglasses, calendar stones, shadow clocks, candle clocks, and dripping clepsydras arrayed behind him. He’d been smiling at Stedd, who was sitting on the other side of his desk, but he scowled at the noise from outside. “I thought I told Miri to send those people home.”
“She tried,” Niseus said from his station by the door. “Some went. Some didn’t.”
“I can talk to them,” said Stedd, meanwhile beginning the process of squirming out of an ornate chair that was rather too deep for him. “I feel better now, and the waveservants won’t be able to get me with Sir Niseus and the other guards protecting me.”
“Please, rest,” Randal said. “There’ll be time for speeches later.”
“But I told you,” said the boy as he completed the process of planting his feet on the floor, “I have to deliver Lathander’s message and keep traveling toward Sapra. So really, I shouldn’t waste time.”
“Sit back down!” the sunlord snapped. Stedd didn’t resume his seat, but he did falter in surprise. “I’m not your enemy, son,” Randal continued, “quite the contrary, and sitting here talking to you, I’ve weighed your words carefully in the hope of discovering that your notions aren’t heretical after all, just awkwardly expressed.”
Stedd shook his head. “Heretical?”
“Yes, and to my regret, after giving them a fair hearing, I can interpret them no other way. The sun god didn’t change from one incarnation to another only to revert to his previous persona a mere century later. The cycle takes millennia. It always has and always will. It can never vary because it reflects the order Amaunator embodies above all else.”
“You’re wrong,” said the boy. “Lathander came back because we need him.”
“Lad, I started my priestly training when I was as young as you are now. I’ve spent forty-five years contemplating the mysteries. Don’t you see how foolish, how insolent it is to claim you understand them better than I do?”
“I understand how it could seem that way,” Stedd replied with bitter disappointment in his voice, “and if it makes you angry, I’m sorry. But I still have to do what Lathander wants. I thought you’d help me, but if you don’t want to, I’ll go.”
“Niseus,” said the sunlord, “block the door.”
To thwart and intimidate a mere child who’d come here willingly at a temple knight’s invitation? It seemed like dishonorable behavior to say the least. But Niseus had sworn an oath of obedience, and he sidestepped to place himself in front of the exit.
“Let me out!” said Stedd.
“It will be all right,” Niseus replied. He hoped that was true.
Stedd pivoted and evidently spotted the smaller door in the back wall amid all the water clocks and such. He started to scramble around Randal’s desk.
The First Sunlord rattled off an invocation and swept his hand through the arc that symbolized the sun’s daily passage across the sky. Stedd’s muscles clenched into rigid immobility, and he pitched off balance and fell.
You can preorder THE REAVER: THE SUNDERING BOOK IV here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EGMB6BU/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d0_i2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1AEKHHJJH4JY5QDXYZ1A&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1630083502&pf_rd_i=507846
Or here:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-reaver-richard-lee-byers/1115479179?ean=9780786964581
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