Release date: April 15, 2018
Subgenre: YA Fantasy
About Blood Lore:
You are always welcome to come home… aren’t you?
“The saw rasped against bone and Mika clenched her jaw as her own teeth remembered the red stained ivory sliding beneath them. A crack of powerful muscles and the marrow laid bare. Ears back, eyes hooded - watching. She knows the man will die on the table.”
After five years of hard study, Mika has achieved the rank of Journeyman Medici. Few know that she is a girl pretending to be a boy in the male dominated world of Ackbarr. Far fewer know of the animal concealed beneath her skin.
Searching for any knowledge of her kind, she is determined to travel back to Cassai. The forests of her childhood are seductive, calling to the memories buried deep within but she discovers that her world has moved on without her. Or maybe it never was as she remembers.
The events in this book take place about five years after those in “The Lion of Ackbarr.”
Book One of The Medici Chronicles.
“The saw rasped against bone and Mika clenched her jaw as her own teeth remembered the red stained ivory sliding beneath them. A crack of powerful muscles and the marrow laid bare. Ears back, eyes hooded - watching. She knows the man will die on the table.”
After five years of hard study, Mika has achieved the rank of Journeyman Medici. Few know that she is a girl pretending to be a boy in the male dominated world of Ackbarr. Far fewer know of the animal concealed beneath her skin.
Searching for any knowledge of her kind, she is determined to travel back to Cassai. The forests of her childhood are seductive, calling to the memories buried deep within but she discovers that her world has moved on without her. Or maybe it never was as she remembers.
The events in this book take place about five years after those in “The Lion of Ackbarr.”
Book One of The Medici Chronicles.
Excerpt:
Sweat dampened her hair and she flicked it out of her eyes with a swing. Droplets sparkled in the light as they fell. He was going to die. Another glance at Belindros told her that he knew it too. Face set, he worked on regardless. Sellon was panicking. He had to be asked to pass the instruments, scrabbled for the unexpected.
The atmosphere chilled. Jamari checked the man’s pulse and shook his head. The man’s whimpers were becoming less, his eyes closing. She knew that look. The look she’d seen so many times on prey as her jaws had closed on them. He was giving up, too much pain, not enough blood left inside. A final sigh, the shiver running over his skin. She stood up, letting go.
Jamari checked his pulse, pulled back a half closed eyelid to check then looked over to Belindros. Wordless he stepped back, shoulders slumped. Sellon looked bewildered at the change of pace, not realising what the others knew already.
Belindros’ voice was quiet as he said, “Clear up and throw a bucket of water over Damaris so he can help. Then you can have the rest of the afternoon off.”
***
The attendants dealt with the dead body much to Mika’s relief. She couldn't have coped with the cooling lump of flesh and the smells that said that it was already decaying. Damaris woke spluttering and groggily helped wipe the table down as they collected the instruments to be scrubbed.
The daylight when she went outside was too bright. She stood, staring at the wall in front of her. The other two had muttered something about going to the tavern, she’d left them without a word. A man had died in front of her and she had the rest of the day off. Time to think about the shivers that ran down his skin, the whimpers and sigh as he gave up. She didn’t want to think. Tears gathered and she brushed them away with a shaking hand. She rushed blindly down to the bottom gates, through the markets with people going about their daily business.
The guards at the gate waved and shouted greetings at her that she couldn’t answer. Past the docks where the man had worked, the silhouettes of the warehouses sharp against the sun. Shouts from the workers assaulted her ears, the smells of human habitation too strong for her sensitive nose.
She ran into the farmland surrounding the city and at the first decent cover she could find she stripped and crouched naked, panting her distress. Tears forced themselves from between her eyelids. She didn’t want to think. A moan escaped her and she allowed her other side to escape. She stretched, yawned and became something other than Mikon the journeyman.
The atmosphere chilled. Jamari checked the man’s pulse and shook his head. The man’s whimpers were becoming less, his eyes closing. She knew that look. The look she’d seen so many times on prey as her jaws had closed on them. He was giving up, too much pain, not enough blood left inside. A final sigh, the shiver running over his skin. She stood up, letting go.
Jamari checked his pulse, pulled back a half closed eyelid to check then looked over to Belindros. Wordless he stepped back, shoulders slumped. Sellon looked bewildered at the change of pace, not realising what the others knew already.
Belindros’ voice was quiet as he said, “Clear up and throw a bucket of water over Damaris so he can help. Then you can have the rest of the afternoon off.”
***
The attendants dealt with the dead body much to Mika’s relief. She couldn't have coped with the cooling lump of flesh and the smells that said that it was already decaying. Damaris woke spluttering and groggily helped wipe the table down as they collected the instruments to be scrubbed.
The daylight when she went outside was too bright. She stood, staring at the wall in front of her. The other two had muttered something about going to the tavern, she’d left them without a word. A man had died in front of her and she had the rest of the day off. Time to think about the shivers that ran down his skin, the whimpers and sigh as he gave up. She didn’t want to think. Tears gathered and she brushed them away with a shaking hand. She rushed blindly down to the bottom gates, through the markets with people going about their daily business.
The guards at the gate waved and shouted greetings at her that she couldn’t answer. Past the docks where the man had worked, the silhouettes of the warehouses sharp against the sun. Shouts from the workers assaulted her ears, the smells of human habitation too strong for her sensitive nose.
She ran into the farmland surrounding the city and at the first decent cover she could find she stripped and crouched naked, panting her distress. Tears forced themselves from between her eyelids. She didn’t want to think. A moan escaped her and she allowed her other side to escape. She stretched, yawned and became something other than Mikon the journeyman.
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About Erme Lander:
More frog than princess, Erme Lander lives in Gloucestershire,
England.
My hobbies when not reading books are dancing, motorcycling,
playing my accordion and karate, although not all at the same time.
And daydreaming. I’ll daydream in the bath, on the sofa, in bed at
that time in the night when all decent folk are snoring and allow
the images to pass over my brain. But I’ve never actually written
them down, until last year when a certain vampire wouldn’t leave me
in peace. I’m still dealing with the fallout...
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