The Warlords of Antares - Snippet

Thought I'd supply a small snippet from 'The Warlords of Antares' to tantalize your reading pallet ;-)

This excerpt is from Chapter 4. Emperor Dumakas is speaking with one of his top Captains, Thelix of the House of Gornash.

Dumakas leaned back in his chair, “Tell me, Thelix of the moon Gornash, you are familiar with my grandfather’s legend?”

“Yes, my Lord. We are all aware of the Great Warlord, Gorax. He captured two Eridonians and brought them to our home world for analysis. It was the first live Eridonian capture known in the history of Antares. It is his act of capturing them, and fleeing the supernova before it destroyed them; it was this very act that rewarded him with the crown as our new Emperor of Antares. Your grandfather was responsible in achieving the development of our telepathic inhibitor.”

Dumakas smiled, “Yes, that is the legend. But there is more to the story that is only known by the House of the Emperor.”

“Curious, my Lord? Why do we not know the entire story?”

“It has been kept secret. We were told by my grandfather to never discuss this until it was time.”

“...and you’re saying it is now that time, my Lord?”

“Yes, I believe that this is what he was telling us. I will trust you with his knowledge, only because you will be crossing near Epsilon.”

“My Lord,” Thelix answered, wiping his large hands on the front of his clothes, “You can trust me.”

“Very well, Thelix. You will tell no one else.”

“No, my Lord.”

“Swear it!” Dumakas ordered, pulling a dagger from his belt.

Thelix held his hand out before his Emperor. Dumakas held his hand and drew his dagger across his open palm. Thelix grabbed the blade as the Emperor pulled the blade, forming a deep wound.

Thelix winced at the pain, and looked into Dumakas’ eyes, “I swear it, my Lord!”

Dumakas leaned down and licked the blood that pooled in his hand, slurping it into his mouth. Then he closed Thelix’s hand and returned his blade to his belt.

“It is sworn with my blood, my Lord!”

Dumakas licked the leftover blood from his lips, “You have sworn to me your blood oath. I will now reveal to you the secrets of the Gorax legend.”



The significance of this blood oath is that if the one reveals what was to be kept silent is killed by a chemical reaction in their blood.

I hope you liked the snippet...I'll find more to post, but don't want to give out too many spoilers...

April 10th is the release date and I should be wrapping up the story by the end of next week... You can check out the Amazon pre-order page here.

From the Author's Chair.
Brian K. Larson