Sub-genre: Epic Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery
Release date: 31st October 2019
About The Arkhel Conundrum:
“But what happened to Gavril and Kiukiu after Children of the Serpent Gate? When is the sequel coming out?”
Readers have been asking me this question ever since Book 3 of The Tears of Artamon was published – and
at last I’ve had the chance to provide an answer in Book 4: The Arkhel Conundrum.
Excerpt:
The
last blood-red streaks were fading from the darkening sky when a biting wind
began to blow off the mountains. Suddenly Gavril found himself half-blinded by
a blizzard, scarcely able to make out the form of Askold ahead of him as they
rode in single file.
“Your orders, my lord?” Askold
turned around in the saddle.
Gavril reined his roan mare Krasa to
a halt. “Abandon the search.” He had to shout to make himself heard above the
howling of the wind.
Why didn’t we turn back sooner? We saw the snow clouds
massing over the Kharzhgylls.
“There’s shelter up ahead!” Askold called.
“Follow me.”
Gavril turned Krasa’s head to go after Askold and Gorian. And then
as the blizzard’s first fury began to abate, he realized that they were riding
between the thick trunks of tall pines and firs. The branches acted as a
filter, although as they swayed in the violent gusts, they occasionally
deposited clumps of wet snow onto the bent heads of the horsemen.
Kerjhenezh Forest.
“Not much further now,” came back Askold’s voice faintly.
Gavril could hardly see in front of him for the swirling of the
wind-driven snow. His feet and hands were frozen, in spite of the warmth of the
thick, fur-lined coat he was wearing (one of his father’s) and his sturdy
leather boots. He had lost all sense of direction. I must get Askold to teach me how to find my way in a blizzard.
The bitter chill was growing stronger, seeping through every pore of
his body. He felt as if his blood was freezing in his veins, turning his body
to ice.
He blinked away the snowflakes
encrusting his lashes as Krasa slowed to a stop and swiveled around in the
saddle to look for the other druzhina who had been riding behind him.
There was no one there.
How could we have become
separated so easily?
“Askold!” Gavril shouted but the
thickly falling snow soaked up the sound of his voice. “Gorian!” His throat
burned with the cold as he drew in another breath to shout again.
Krasa suddenly gave a shudder and
whinnied, baring her teeth.
“What’s the matter, girl?” Gavril
whispered in her ear. “Easy, now.” The mare began to jitter about nervously and
he hoped that she hadn’t scented wolves. This
is one time when I need the blood-bond between me and my druzhina. Yet since Khezef had left him, he had
not once been able to reawaken the link the Drakhaoul had forged between the
Drakhaon and his bodyguard.
“Why are you trespassing in my
domain, Drakhaon?” The voice throbbed through him, piercing as the whine of the
wintry blast around the peaks of the Kharzhgylls.
“Your
domain?” Gavril peered through the blizzard A cloaked woman was standing
before him, staring challengingly at him from silvery eyes as cold as shards of
translucent ice. Eyes like the Magus’s .
. . or the Drakhaoul Za’afiel, the Spinner of Winds.
About Sarah Ash:
Sarah Ash trained as a
musician. However, writing fiction has allowed her to explore her fascination
with the way mythology and history overlap and interact. She returned to
fantasy series The Tears of Artamon
in The Arkhel Conundrum (2019) the fourth in the trilogy (!) after readers
kept asking her what happened to Gavril and Kiukiu after Children of the Serpent Gate.
Her other novels include Tide
Dragons which draws on the ancient Japanese legend of the Tide Jewels and
the lifestyle of the Heian imperial court. Sarah is Reviews Editor for Anime UK
News and writes regularly about her love of anime and manga. She also runs
‘Nobody Knew She Was There’ a Guest Blog featuring other genre authors at www.sarah-ash.com
@sarah_ash7
No comments:
Post a Comment