Title: Warrior’s
Watchtower
Author: Aedan
Byrnes
Blurb:
“I am yours, and
you are mine...Whatever comes now, we are one.”
Her heroes are gone, taken
together in a flash by a vengeful God leaving Jondre to find her way alone. Befriended by a woman who
knows more than she’s telling, she makes a choice to try to help what’s left of her family and finds
herself at the seat of power but also the center of the expanding abyss. Her world is nothing that it
seemed.
A Eupion raid near the boundary
delivers a surprise to High House, a new tragedy to deal with and the catalyst for an even more difficult
future to come. Just when she thinks there cannot be more, she sees the most fearsome immortal she’s
ever encountered, and as match-mates are revealed, this one is hers. Nothing is simple
anymore.
There is no simple description
for Aedan Byrnes. Obsessive, dreamer, reclusive, compulsive, outdoorsman and wordsmith would be
among the list if one were started. The displaced Gael lives in the upper Midwest with family between
jaunts wherever the road goes. A frequent traveler, Aedan is as likely to be found rock climbing,
spelunking, sitting fireside dreaming or aimlessly floating away as hiding with pen and paper working on
the next tale.
A lifelong lover of words and
writing, Aedan claims a diverse reading appetite and the writing reflects the myriad influences. A self-
proclaimed ‘reader’s writer’, the emotional and sensory results of word combinations outweigh the
visceral comprehension of phrases for the stories and drives the prose. The original 'Eclectic Bard' enjoys
the special magick of storytelling, those who embrace the challenge of writing, and the dreamers who
get whisked away by the words making the journey worth taking.
Author Links:
Website: www.aedanbyrnes.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AedanByrnes
Facebook - Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/AedanByrnes
Facebook - Personal Page: https://www.facebook.com/aedan.byrnes.7
Café Press: http://www.cafepress.com/authoraedanbyrnes
Buy Links:
Amazon Ebook: http://www.amazon.com/Warriors-Watchtower-Vengelys-Book-II-
ebook/dp/B00OIGD8ZG/
●●Foreword●●
They jumped.
If I would have blinked I would have missed it. It was that
fast. For every breath of every moment of my life one or more of them were there and yet in the span of
time between breaths every one of them had disappeared.
Playing it back in my head, it was just too fast. I didn’t see
it coming until the moment it happened, and then I couldn’t believe it happened.
“What have you learned Vengelys?”
“We have learned we are at war.”
“What else have you learned? You should have known we
were at war.”
“We have learned that our adversary is wily and cunning and
we have been, but should not underappreciate his tenacity in the war he is waging.”
“Do you infer that the strength of the enemy has been
misrepresented to you Vengelys?”
“No.”
“Do you believe then that the complexities of the war we
wage are beyond our abilities?”
“No.”
Tynan reached up to tap him out and take over. Rigor
would never allow that I’m sure, but Tynan had tried anyway. I’m not the only one who noticed.
Amaranos seemed to launch at the action as Rigor refocused fully on the God.
“Do you act in union or from a divided front? Perhaps it is
not the war that was the problem with your ability to deal with the situation you
discovered.”
“We stand as one, Amaranos.”
“Do you? It would seem that your kin believes they have the
ability to stand before me with a calmer presence. Perhaps you should let them try.”
“We stand as one, and I speak for us all. My brother was
reminding me to remember my place. It is his job to protect me as it would be mine to protect any of
the others of us here before you.”
“Do you need reminding of where you stand? Is my
presence before you not reminder enough?”
“No, I do not need reminding, though I appreciate his
reminder just the same.”
I had never seen my father sit so still. His eyes were the
only things that changed. They grew larger and larger as the comments flew between Rigor and
Amaranos. My mother’s hands were red from ringing them and shaking in her lap. As I watched,
Asmodai started to twitch and shake in the line behind Rigor. Tynan and Mastema traded worried eye
glances. They were all showing the nervousness and fear I was feeling and I wasn’t standing there so I
imagine it was multiplied for them. Kyrna’s forehead wept a large shiny sweat tear. I watched it splat on
the stone floor before I looked back to Rigor again as Amaranos continued his verbal siege of my
brothers.
“Do you supposition then that the task you were charged
with was beyond you and your brother’s abilities? Is that why you flinch and fidget before
me?”
“No my liege. I believe, as we all do, that we will become
better with more training and that we completed the charge given to the best of our
abilities.”
“So you instead infer that you were sent out ill equipped for
the battle you were asked to take on. To read between the lines of your answer, you are yet unskilled
and need training to become that which Amarine believed you had already evolved to. Perhaps my
other face had seen something that I myself cannot, as I see a group of brothers with far to
go.”
Rigor shook. He looked like he was going to explode apart
he was shaking so hard.
“Stand. Down. Vengelys. I will not say it
again.”
Rigor stood, but barely. My father grabbed the arms of
the chair, but his whitened knuckles betrayed the energy he was fighting to stay put. My mother
dropped her head to look down and I could hear her muttering something to herself. All I caught of it
was ‘Please...’ I could only look on in disbelief.
These were my brothers. These were the heroes of my
waking and dreaming times. The sight of them fidgeting and failing in front of the God and the people
was breaking my heart. Rigor turned to the line behind him and turned back on a rough growl at Dom
who had lifted a foot toward him. What that was about I had no idea, but Rigor was having none of it.
When he turned back to face us, he was different. His face was a mask of rage and his eyes had a fire in
them I had never seen before. I loved every one of my brothers, but the idea of facing any of them as
Rigor appeared right then had me torn between tears and screams.
“No Amaranos I would not stand down, and I am evolved.
We took on a charge from Amarine and completed it. We have brought forward four Eupion, three
males and a female found on this side of the portals and demonstrated by the items they had with them
that they were here establishing an operation on our lands. We did this because we believed Amarine
wished us to do so. It was not simple. It was not without confusion, and it was not without knowledge
that we could have been better prepared, but in an effort to honor the charge, we did as we were told.
Could we have done better? Perhaps. Could other warriors of longer tenure done better? Perhaps. Will
we know one way or another for certain? No, because we did as we were tasked without stopping to
question if we should or should not. We sealed into purpose for the throne and the throne bid us
proceed.”
The collective gasp was so loud it hurt my ears, or maybe
that was just me. Amaranos was visibly angry…red. faced. angry. The air in the room changed and any in
the gallery who had been whispering, went silent.
“What did you say to me?”
“With respect, I said...”
With a gesture of his hand Amaranos silenced Rigor, freezing
him in place.
“No Vengelys, as you have not respected, you will not
proceed. Let all who are herein know that this impudence and blatant disrespect is not tolerated in the
high house of Amaranth.”
A flash of light sparked between Rigor and my brothers in
line behind him. As we watched it grew fatter and deeper between them. Rigor had no idea. I wanted to
shout, knowing that would lump me in with them, but I could not find my voice. The six of them in line
behind Rigor looked at each other, but that was the only movement before I watched them slide
together. As the gaping hole got closer to Rigor, though he couldn’t see it, he must have known. His
frozen form did not change, but his eyes grew larger and the fire in them blazed. He seemed to get
bigger before my eyes too, but I think it was me feeling smaller and smaller as I knew I couldn’t help
him.
It was all over but the jump and I nearly missed that. As
Rigor began to tip over backwards, the rest of them grabbed on and they were gone. Replaying it in my
mind changes nothing. I still cannot believe it.
I cannot breathe. I cannot cry. I cannot fathom the
implications of this. I want to rub my eyes and see them there, that their disappearance through the
now perfect floor was just an illusion. It isn’t.
I’ve never seen my father weep until this moment. My
mother is caught in a vortex of rage, grief and denial that mimics the emotions I cannot summon to the
surface.
They’re gone.
Before I know or notice, everyone else is gone too. The
gallery, full to bursting earlier, is now empty. The court high seat, where Amaranos waved them off to
no one knows where, is also void. All that remain are my parents and I; all numb, all shocked, all stilled
in our disbelief.
Amaranos had raged all through the high light rise to
peak and pitch before my brother’s arrival. For the neutral between the faces of the God, he was
ruthless in his rule of the people. News of raids, open portals, and reports of missing emgur, durab and
mataur from near the boundary had soured the day before the seven men I loved best after my father
had walked in to stand at court center.
I imagine they were blind-sided. Given the notoriety they
had gained in the war, I think everyone in the room was. I had expected their strides against the Eupion
advancements to have been met with praise, not disdain. How wrong we had all been.
“They’re gone.”
Saying it out loud, even as a whisper does nothing to
make the obvious more real. The echo of those two little words around the now empty court chamber
only serves to lance the wound in my chest to a deeper cavern of empty. It can’t be, but I know it
is.
They’re gone.
~Jondre
Thank you so much for participating in the Warrior's Watchtower Book Blitz, Ashley!
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you for hosting, Lady Amber.
Aedan, is unavailable today but hopes to catch up later this week. btw, I'm one of his street teamers helping out today. Thanks again!
Love this series! !!! Thanks for sharing Aedan Byrnes Vengelys book II
ReplyDelete