About Warlord of Ackbarr:
“You can’t just invade, they’ll have men with crossbows looking out for you. They use poisoned arrows, they can fell your outriders in seconds.”
Cassai has managed the unthinkable by killing thousands and Ackbarr can no longer ignore the tiny country defying them. Mika must make a choice who she stands with – her adopted country or the homeland who expelled her as an animal. In the meanwhile, her grip on the human world is sliding…
The Medici Chronicles follows Mika through nearly twenty years of her life as she disguises herself as a boy to survive, learns to become a Medici and struggles to find where she belongs
Excerpt:
Mika walked out of the gates, even here the countryside had changed in the last three years. The copses dotting the fields had grown, new saplings taking over adjacent fields. The settlements close to the river had expanded in places and houses had been allowed to fall down in others.
It didn’t matter, she was only here for one thing. Tucking her backpack into a bush, she looked down at Stafa and took a deep breath. The night was young, the smaller of the two moons was up and the other would be appearing shortly. Stafa shivered, a soft encouraging purr bursting from him. Relax, let it out. She stood with her shoulders dropped and allowed the cat to take over. It slid around her mind, sinking into her body. Her partial change made her look grotesque, neither cat nor human, a nightmare. It was the worst of both worlds and it was all she had left.
Once a week or so she’d come out here and let the cat out, even when she was exhausted. It was the only way to deal with it otherwise it took over while she slept and she couldn’t cope with the lack of control. Waking up to find herself in bed with Nim several years ago had been the last straw, she knew it couldn’t do any damage out here.
The cat whispered its joy of the night to her. Never mind the fact that it only had two legs instead of four and that her senses were pitiful in comparison to what they had been when she could change fully. It stretched her body and bent to bump noses with Stafa. Leave the human world to its intrigue and politics, the cat didn’t care for such things. Even the relentless mending of people would be supplanted by the monochrome and the vivid splash of heart’s blood.
Her slender shadow stretched out in front of her, the night was quiet apart from the soft rustle of leaves and the abomination she was, scanned the landscape. All senses on high alert, lifting her head to scent the breeze, she spotted something moving. Stafa saw her freeze and crept sideways, ears rotating, his single eye flicking. Mika allowed herself to sink into a sleep while the cat took over, she had no wish to see what they’d do to the rabbit. For some reason when she’d actually changed her shape, it hadn’t bothered her as much. The thought of her own body toying with a smaller creature for the sheer joy made her feel ill.
She woke much later with the cat sated on the night and her face stiff with blood. Mika pulled herself up to wash in a nearby stream. Both moons were nearly full, their reflected light bringing the countryside into a sharp black and white focus.
The cold water brought her back to reality. War, she’d not been able to get the concept out of her mind all day and she knew her distraction had been noticed. Who could she be loyal to? The country she’d been brought up in didn’t want her and yet the thought of soldiers pouring out of the mountains… Rufus was an able commander, his quicksilver mind capable of changing direction to complement the way the battle moved, she had no doubt he would get further than Keira’s father.
Ackbarr had been her home for nearly twenty years, she loved the people and walking the cobbled streets in the forbidding city and the Medici had accepted her as one of their own. The Medici – they would debate supporting the invasion shortly. She dropped her head and decided she would go with their decision.
