Thursday, September 27, 2018

Beneath the Lanterns by C. Litka

 Release date: September 12, 2018
Subgenre: Historical fantasy

About Beneath the Lanterns:

 

No good deed goes unpunished.

The historian Kel Cam enjoyed a pleasant life in Azera, the colorful capital of the Azere Empire. In the dark days, he taught classes at the University. In the bright days, he traveled the wide steppes to visit Blue Order communities, seeking clues about the mysterious, long dead civilization of the Elders in their libraries of ancient texts. However, when his best friend, Lefe Sol, the son of the ruler of Azere, discovers that his father has arranged his marriage to Ren Loh, the fourth daughter of the Empress of Jasmyne, Kel offers to stand by and help Lefe deal with his unexpected, and unwanted, bride-to-be. Kel soon finds himself caught up in the intrigues of empires which not only upset his well ordered life – they lay it to ruin.

"Beneath the Lanterns" is an old fashioned novel of adventure and travel set in an imaginary land – a land of colorful cities, sweeping steppes, and lush valleys littered with the ruins of a lost advanced civilization. It is a world of sixteen days of day light under the Yellow Lantern and sixteen days of night lit by the Blue Lantern. And across this wide and wild world under the Yellow and Blue Lanterns, Kel Cam finds that he must flee for his freedom, if not his life.

"Beneath the Lanterns" is C. Litka’s fifth novel. As with all of his novels, this new, stand alone story, features richly drawn and engaging characters, imaginative settings, humor, and lighthearted adventure.

 

Excerpt:

 

‘Lady Loh...ah, Ren,’ began Lefe Sol, gathering his courage as he turned to her riding beside him. I believe he was about to tell her that he had no intention of being her husband-to-be.
‘Yes, my dear husband-to-be?’ she said glancing towards him, her thick lens spectacles flashed reflections of the dim light of the brightening sky and Blue Lantern, her face, now lit by the pale light of the Blue Lantern showed high cheek bones, a long straight nose, and a wide mouth set in an arrogant half-smile.
‘Ren,’ he began again, and looking at her, abandoned his intention out of kindness, I suspect, and continued, ‘I… Ah… I just want to welcome you to Azere. I hope you will like it here. I know that you’re many leagues from home…  And now find yourself in a strange land… And I want to assure you that I will do everything in my power to make you welcome.’
However hopeless that prospect seemed, I thought.
‘Be still, my leaping heart,’ she replied with a cool, mocking smile. ‘But you needn’t worry about me. I’m an old trooper, long accustomed to being away from home and riding in hostile hill country. And, indeed, if you knew how much I hated life in my mother’s court, you’d know just how – delighted – I am to be here, with you, my dear.’
This reply sunk poor Lefe even deeper into confusion, and, I suspect despair.  ‘I’m sorry to hear that… About your life in court that is...’ he muttered, truthfully. All his plans for avoiding marriage to Ren Loh had been in the abstract. And though I had mentioned it, I had to wonder if he ever truly considered what refusing to marry a girl who wanted to marry him would mean to her. He – and indeed, I – had assumed that Ren Loh would be no more eager for this marriage than he. Turning down, or even running from a girl eager to be his bride may’ve never crossed his mind. So finding this… strange creature… seemingly eager to be his bride must have left him at a loss.
“Seemingly,” however, was the key word here, for I had a feeling that Ren Loh was merely taunting Lefe with her apparent eagerness to wed. It was sarcasm rather than desire that had her saying the things she was saying. Still, it was hard to read her face in the dim light, or her eyes behind her spectacles, and so nothing could be said for certain.
But my friend rallied once again. ‘That being the case, I will do everything I can to make your arrival in the Azere a new beginning for you.’
‘And us?’ she asked, with another subtle twist of the knife.
At this point I’m happy to report that Lefe found his inner iron, and he turned to her and said earnestly, ‘And us, should we find ourselves in love with each other.’
Ren Loh returned his gaze for several seconds before nodding. ‘Fair enough.’

 

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About C. Litka:

C. (Chuck) Litka has lived a long and, he can thankfully say, an uneventful life in the American middle west. He has been married for 40 years to the same girl. They have two children and two grandchildren. These days, he spends several hours each morning writing his old-fashioned science fiction novels and, occasionally, painting impressionist landscapes.

 

Website | Deviant Art


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