Today's ScienceFictionFantasySaturday snippet comes from my dystopian fantasy novel, "From the Herald's Wearied Eye," published by Reliquary Press in 2010. This selection comes right after the main character Shal has delved into her memories and remembered something she'd long ago forgotten: who exactly murdered her father.
(From the grim prison of Malay, the renegade Shal plots her revenge. Once the daughter of a proud monarch, her life has been destroyed by the craven despot Rojer Doa. But Shal answers to a greater destiny that calls her to the amarinthine door and an inevitable meeting with the Capesman, the dark figure who shadows every deed in a cold and forbidding world. A reckoning is coming and Shal will be it's master, or she will lose her soul trying.)
ENJOY, and don't forget to visit the rest of the sites participating in Science Fiction/Fantasy Saturday. Read the snippets, leave the love. :)
ENJOY, and don't forget to visit the rest of the sites participating in Science Fiction/Fantasy Saturday. Read the snippets, leave the love. :)
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The Bonecruncher inched towards her with hunger in its golden
glinting eyes, and slowly opened its mouth. Shal grinned as she stared at the
beast and turned back to Raoul, who saw her mind and knew that murder had
turned to sacrifice. He shook his head madly, begging her to stay with him, but
her face turned cold as she powerfully mouthed the word “murderer” at him, and
with a determined leap, dove headfirst down the throat of the immense worm.
Raoul screamed in horror as the beast’s jaws slammed closed.
He was filled with chaotic thoughts of puzzlement and anger at her abandonment,
but before a single thought could be resolved, a large chunk of ceiling crashed
down behind him, and when he turned, he was only inches away from the menacing
jaws of the Bonecruncher. Its eyes gleamed aurous, a characteristic of the race
he’d never noticed before, and when its jaws opened, he felt his body petrify.
It eased up on him slowly, almost tenderly, but even when he felt the teeth
close around him and found himself in surprisingly painless darkness, he couldn’t
move. As he slid down the Bonecruncher’s throat, his mind ran rampant, mad with
thoughts and theories and furious questions, but what he heard loudest was
Shal’s voice repeating her last words over and over.
“It was you, Raoul. You killed my father.”
Scary stuff...great snippet!
ReplyDeleteWow, you've got a powerful snippet there. Remembering who murdered her father, being swallowed whole my a terrifyingly huge and carnivorous worm. Definitely full of action here. Great read.
ReplyDeleteChilling!
ReplyDeleteI find myself wondering if being swallowed really leads to death. And if I don't get that stupid captcha first try (it's one of those ambiguous ones) I won't be back.
ReplyDeleteGoing down the gullet of a carnivorous worm called "Bonecruncher" and she's accusing him of murdering her father. It's not your expected reaction.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm with Sue Ann about the captcha. When you read through and comment on a dozen or more posts, they tend to get aggravating.
I removed the captcha! Never even thought about it, so thanks for letting me know! :)
ReplyDeleteThe was incredibly descriptive and dark. Wow. Great work.
ReplyDelete