First chapter of Destruction of Chaos--book 3in the Books of the Cuari trilogy

 We're getting closer! The beast book, aka The Destruction of Chaos is in final edits! Finally!

See the pretty cover? Just a girl and her kraken out for a stroll!

Thank you all so much for your patience with this one--I really hope you love this final adventure! (For now, but the trilogy is done).

In honor of it getting closer to release, I'm doing two things--

1) Book one-- Essence of Chaos-- will be free in ebook format  Feb 20-22! Sooooo, if you haven't started reading the trilogy-- you can dive in! (Or give as a gift to someone who you think will like it ;)).

2) I'm posting the first chapter here! There are spoilers so, if you haven't read the first two....look away!

Sadly, Amazon has dropped me from doing preorders for a year--sooooooooo follow me here, FB, my newsletter, or on Amazon or Book Bub to be told when it goes live!

As always all of my ebooks are in Kindle Unlimited, and THANK YOU so much for joining me on these adventures!




Space before chapter one

More space

Still moooooorrrreeee space--spacing is funky in the sample



Avoid spoilers-- look away NOW!

Chapter One

 

 

Jenna swore as the carriage they’d bought—the third one since they left Strann—shuddered as its left front wheel wobbled dramatically.

Their prior carriage lost its right wheel after a few days. This one only lasted a day.

“And again, why is it that we need a carriage instead of riding our horses? They were fine for the way in.” Jenna would be the first to admit the carriage was less jarring than hours and days of being in the saddle, but this way was slower. Even without constantly stopping for repairs or replacements.

She knew that Storm, Keanin, and Edgar would probably make it to Irundail before them, regardless. Unless there was more fighting in the north than they’d heard or problems at sea. But she still wanted to rejoin them as soon as possible.

Lithunane had fallen.

That news was unbelievable and terrifying at the same time.

Someone murdered Prince Resstlin before he was crowned as king. More of the royal family weren’t killed in the attack because they weren’t present when Lithunane fell. Most remained in Irundail in the north.

 Last week, she’d been happy for stopping Ravenhearst and slowing down Qhazborh’s followers, but that joy was short-lived as they received news of Lithunane’s fall.

Information on the fall had been sporadic since then. Even with taran wands, few details were known. It could take weeks for those fleeing Lithunane to get to the safety of Irundail to the far north of the country. As far as they knew, Rachael and Tor Ranshal were traveling with Armsmaster Garlan and as many of the guards as they could gather.

Most of the guards and citizens were slaughtered before they knew the capital was under attack.

Garlan and Rachael each had a taran wand, but there was some magical interference limiting their usage. A few days ago, Rachael said she thought it was getting better the further they got from the remains of Lithunane, but they hadn’t been able to reach her or Garlan since then.

Storm, Keanin, Edgar, and their new traveling companions were at sea—something that interfered with the taran wands as well. The last update they received was that all of them were alive and on their way to Irundail but no one had heard from them in a few days.

Jenna was contemplating freeing her horse from the ones following the carriage and racing directly for Irundail alone.

“Because there could be people looking for us.” Ghortin had a hood pulled low over his head as he drove and stayed hunched over like an old man. At over three thousand years old, he was old—but it wasn’t noticeable normally. This was his attempt at a disguise.

Carabella snorted from her seat in the back. “We could outrun them. You and Jenna can still use magic. Crell is extremely talented at firing arrows from horseback. This thing is slowing us.” She flexed her long, delicate fingers toward her son, Ghortin.

Carabella was a full cuari, one of a mystical band of one hundred immortals charged with protecting the other races.

At the moment, she was the only one of the hundred still on this plane. The enemy had captured the other ninety-nine to hinder the defenses of this world. They’d been imprisoned while using magic, and so Carabella, one of the most magically powerful beings in the world—couldn’t cast even the simplest of spells without the risk that she would be taken as well.

Jenna didn’t blame her for being annoyed. Not only was Jenna also concerned about saving this new home world of hers, but she’d been told that failing to save this world would doom others. Including good old Earth and her former home of Los Angeles. Jenna was offered a chance to go back to L.A. but too much of her heart was here now. For good or ill, this was now her home. But she didn’t want Earth to be destroyed either.

The carriage continued to wobble and then stopped and tilted to the side. The wheel was broken.

“This isn’t working,” Crell said. She was riding as guard alongside the carriage, but stopped and glared at the broken wheel. Crell was a derawri. Like most of her people, she was less than four feet high but fierce. She had long red hair and a sweet face. Unless she was facing you with a weapon—then sweet was probably the last word anyone would use. She’d been a family protector for the kelar royal family of Traanafaeren for years as the children grew up. She had also most likely trained many of the guards who were killed in Lithunane.

Jenna was surprised Crell hadn’t raced off to Irundail already.

“I think you’re outvoted. Let’s abandon this thing and continue on horseback. We can keep the extra horse to carry our packs.” Carabella was already getting out of the carriage when the first arrow struck the side of it.

“Stand down, Strann scum! You’ll die here or go back to where you came from.”

Crell spun and fired an arrow back. “We’re not from Strann and watch who you insult.”

Jenna hadn’t heard a scream at Crell’s arrow. Most likely it, like the one that hit the carriage, was a warning shot.

“Crell?” A dark-clad kelar stepped out of the trees. His clothing was the mottled combination of greens and browns that Crell’s rangers wore to stay hidden in the woods.

“Filian! Damn man, you are a sight for sore eyes.” Crell swung off her horse and clasped the man’s arm. “How’d you get up here so fast? Who’s with you?”

Like many full-blooded kelar, he was tall, slender, and had sharply pointed ears, and wide-set tilted eyes. But that height difference didn’t interfere with Crell at all.

Two groups of fighters answered to Crell—her rangers were people she selected from all three races. They traveled Traanafaeren protecting people in a less formal way than the soldiers and guards. The second group was from her family ties in the kingdom of Derawri. She held the status of Ki’, a powerful commander. She could control a group of deathsworn; hardened derawri warriors who would fight until death.

She preferred her rangers. When she’d left Lithunane a few weeks ago to travel with Jenna, Ghortin, and Carabella, she’d sent her deathsworn back to Derawri. The rangers she’d asked to stay and protect Lithunane.

Ten more brown and green-clad people—three kelar, five humans, and two derawri came out of the trees. All looked to be in rough shape but were able to walk.

“We were spelled here. Well, not here exactly, but a few days’ run south of here.” Filian shook his head but noticeably didn’t put away his bow. “The palace mages were trying to get as many people out of Lithunane as possible when the attack came—whether or not we wanted it.” His scowl indicated they hadn’t chosen to be magicked anywhere. “Somehow we got caught up in a spell and ended up here.”

Crell sighed. “I note there aren’t any of our mages with you. Good intentions by those magic users or not, it would have been better had you been able to escort some of the refugees.” She nodded to the rest of the rangers. “But it is good to see you. Why were you heading toward Strann?”

“That was my idea, sorry, Crell.” A derawri woman stepped forward. Her dark hair was cut short, and she had a long scar on the side of her face. Her smile discounted her words. “I knew where you were heading and thought you might need help. Since we were stuck up here, anyway.”

“You’re a troublemaker, Sorcha.” Crell clasped the woman’s arm fondly. “Might have been a good idea, but we’re on our way to Irundail. After we dump this carriage.” She shot a glare toward Ghortin.

Jenna glared also. Ghortin might have been considering abandoning his carriage and his disguise that went with it before this, but anything new could change that.

But he held up his hands in surrender. “We’ll dump it.” He nodded to the rangers. “We might need some help to get it off the road. Make it look like an accident, too.”

“Don’t embellish. You always make lies too detailed.” Carabella climbed out of the carriage and nodded to the rangers. “Nice of you to come to help us out. No horses?”

Sorcha shrugged. “We weren’t given the option to get them. But have no fear, we can keep up. And it’s not as if we don’t know where you’re going.”

The brawniest of the rangers moved the offending carriage into the woods, ignoring Ghortin as he made it look like an accident.

Jenna adjusted her pack on her horse as Ghortin continued fussing. “I seriously doubt anyone is going to even see it, let alone figure out it was us, after two other carriage changes.”

“A job worth doing is worth doing right.” Ghortin dusted himself off, gathered his things, and mounted his horse.

“It wasn’t worth doing.” Carabella had Ghortin disguise her ears and eyes to look more human and less cuari when they’d approached the human kingdom of Strann. She tugged the fabric that covered the tips of her ears. “Do I look correct? Are your spells still holding?”

Normal cuari pupils were slitted, like a cat’s. Carabella’s dark green eyes currently looked extremely human.

“You look perfectly human,” Jenna responded when Ghortin didn’t.

Ghortin shrugged.

“Thank you, my dear.” Carabella gave a haughty sniff and continued down the trail.

Crell quickly got on her horse to follow, with Jenna not far behind. They gave the carriage horse to a ranger who’d twisted his ankle when they’d been magically flung to the north.

He’d fought against riding until Crell gave him a narrow-eyed glare.

Ghortin motioned for the injured ranger and his horse to go before him. The rest of the rangers jogged along the trail.

“Now, isn’t this much better?” Carabella held up her hands to point out how lovely things were. And that no horse would dare to need guidance from her.

Crell spoke in low tones to Filian and Sorcha, frowning at the things they told her. These were the first eyewitness accounts of what had happened in Lithunane. Taran wand communication had become so sporadic that details were impossible to get.

The rest of the rangers jogged along the edges of the road, sending off single runners from time to time to scout.

Jenna opened her mouth to tell them that no one had approached them, or even been seen on this road, for the entire week. Then shook her head and shut her mouth. Crell wouldn’t have accepted that, and neither would her people. They needed the searches for peace of mind if nothing else.

“Excuse me for being so bold, but you’re Prince Corin’s fiancée, yes?” The older derawri woman running nearest to her asked politely. In some strange way, she reminded Jenna of Rachael. If Rachael hadn’t been a kelar.

“Not really. Let me guess, you saw the farewell outside the palace?” She smiled in case any of her lingering annoyance at the stunt Storm pulled hung to her words.

When Storm, Keanin, and Edgar left Lithunane over a month ago, he’d implied that they were engaged. He didn’t want her out on the road in such troubling times and rightly guessed that his brother Resstlin wouldn’t let a royal fiancée go anywhere.

“I did, actually we all did. They stationed our group right outside the palace. How do you ‘not really’ become engaged?”

Jenna briefly filled her in on the important parts. No reason for the entire story.

“That sounds like him. Crell used to tell us stories of the wild prince when he was growing up.”

“Crell had her rangers that long?”

“I was one of her deathsworn. The first ranger, so to speak. My name is Calle, by the way.”

Jenna nodded. “I’m Jenna, which I’m sure you already know.” She laughed. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you as well.”

“Attack!” The rangers who’d been scouting in the forest raced back as arrows flew around them.