The Spellbound revamp is done, and from that has emerged the “Legend of Kawilara, Part 1: Fire.” It is available on Smashwords right now for 50 per cent off as part of the Smashwords Summer Winter Sale. Using the code SSW50 you can get the book at half price. It will be available on Amazon Kindle probably tomorrow, and will soon be available in paperback once I am through with formatting and re-uploading.
I am excited to see what the title change does for marketing this series. The Smashwords Summer Winter sale is only for the month of July, so get your copy here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/110429
And here is an excerpt from what I added to the book:
“We’re headed to a spot very close to the remnants of that old prison Queen Rhiannon destroyed,” Jill told her after they had gotten out of the portal. Janey nodded, finding it odd that there wasn’t any urgency, fear or paranoia.
“What does everyone mean she destroyed a prison?” Janey finally asked the question she had been pondering since she had first heard about the notorious pirate queen.
Jill grinned. “Queen Rhiannon comes from a long history of hardships, that’s really all I can say. She lived on the street for a long time after she left the royal life when she was 17 or 18, craving adventure and excitement outside the palace. She ended up in that prison and then escaped, having used her magick powers to kill the Black Guards who were torturing her. She disguised herself as a man and escaped. Now, that was highly dangerous as she could have been busted anytime and killed on the spot, as the Black Guards did to witches they found trying to escape. It’s why witches don’t use magick to escape- because of the immense chance she will be captured and killed, it really isn’t worth it. There was a better chance she would be rescued or find a chance to escape when they were taking her to her exection site. Rhiannon is the only one to have successfully escaped a witches’ prison. She stowed away on a pirates’ ship and as they sailed away, she summoned a treacherous storm that tore apart the prison. Some people say some prisoners managed to escape, but it is much more likely that everyone in there died. It was a sudden collapse of the building and a fast job of it.”
Janey was taken aback. She knew in the first few moments of meeting her that Queen Rhiannon was fierce, but she had no idea Queen Jaffee’s sister had such a history. “That’s quite something.”
“It is. Queen Rhiannon has been invaluable in fighting the Black Guards. She’s brutal. When she found any witch hunters in her country, they were immediately put to death. She didn’t tolerate them at all and rightfully so,” Jill said.
They were approaching the ocean; Janey could smell the salt water on the air. It was soothing and it never mattered where she found the ocean. Standing before it was always her favourite place. Then it was before her, the great wide waters that stretched into nothing, one long, expansive, blue-green body that became one with the sky, wherever they met up in the distant eternity. Queen Rhiannon stood there waiting for them, a long navy blue dress hugging her small body tightly and her black hair falling in ominous locks down her curved back. Her hands were covered with black lace gloves as her dress sleeves only reached her elbows and a scarf of the same fabric was around her neck, falling in long thin drapes down her chest to her waist and disappeared into the blue skirt of her dress. Her eyes stared intensely out to the ocean, glancing occasionally to the giant stone remnants that still lay in piles not too far down the shore line. Janey could almost see the memories in the eyes of the fearsome queen. The memories would always remain there for everyone.
But they were there for a different reason. Queen Rhiannon smiled when she saw Jill and Janey. “Hello ladies. Wonderful to see you again.”
“Likewise, Your Majesty,” Jill said cheerfully. Janey gave her a smile, still unsure of what to say to the pirate queen.
“Today is the day we summon the Fire Sword and reunite the four swords, then?” Rhiannon asked in satisfaction.
“It sure is,” Jill replied. “You are the only one who can summon the Sea Monster. That is why I have asked you to be here today.”
“I will gladly do so, Jill,” Rhiannon said proudly, her green eyes glimmering at the thought.
“Is this the spot?” Jill questioned curiously, glancing over the rocky edges of the cliffs. Janey followed, looking down into ocean waters that boiled and bubbled, just as the journal entry described. Rhiannon grinned. Janey had a feeling the queen was going to enjoy this.
The Queen of Weril Island stood at the edge of the cliff before she began whatever she had to do to retrieve the sword. “Dear Olivia knew exactly what she was doing. Bless her soul that she might be watching us today as we reunite the four elements in a glorious restoration of a nation robbed of its glory.”
Rhiannon closed her emerald eyes, holding her hands straight out before her and above the ocean waters crashing violently against the rocks in majestic might. She chanted meditatively:
“O Sea dragon, I summon thee to search the ocean deep,
“for what we’ve gathered here to seek is quite beyond our reach,
“the Fire Sword, with hilt of gold is what we wish to reap
“beneath the bubbling waves it lies, your help I do beseech…
“alhâwilazhêkatle êhokï kadalkangkï
“alhêtle lapluflavïg tsa shê kapludatigï”
Rhiannon repeated the chant a few times, and with each repetition her voice grew louder, more commanding and assured. Across the waters, Janey saw waves forming, the ocean breaking as a giant creature of some sort swam beneath. Janey had never seen such a creature before in her whole life.
Breathtaken, she watched as a giant seahorse-like creature emerged from the waters. A sea dragon it was, with its yellow-orange scales glinting brightly in the sunlight, and fins that looked like giant blue seaweed dangled from its curved, soaked body. It clung to the edge of the cliff with sharp claws on its front two feet, leaving its hind legs treading the waters. The sea dragon had a long, thin snout protruding from its face, gazing gently at Rhiannon as she reached out a hand to softly touch the creature. It closed its big blue eyes in appreciation of the human touch.
Quietly, she spoke to the sea dragon in Kawilaran, as if to a child. “sef ivoghï êhokï ulhêtle lapluflavïg? baliharthïg ulakawijetle?”
It seemed to understand her every word, for it dove back into the waters with a flick of its giant leafy tail.
“He will return shortly,” Rhiannon stated confidently, staring down into the waves where the dragon had vanished as quickly as it had arrived. Janey was speechless.
“What was that?” she asked in fascination.
Rhiannon grinned. “That, my child, was my familiar, the sea dragon, Baliarth – in Kawilaran, his kind is called ‘kadalkang.’ I have summoned him to find the Fire Sword, as it is far too underwater for any human to find. One would drown trying to find it. Baliarth lives in these waters though. He knows where it is.”
A familiar? Janey was astounded as she remembered Jill telling her that the pirate queen was one of the high-level witches. It only made sense for high-level witches to have such powerful familiars, though she herself was quite fond of Kitna.
Rhiannon took another glance over the cliff’s edge. Beneath the jagged rocks and occasional wildflowers growing in random colourful bunches on the side of the cliffs, the ocean waters had stopped bubbling and boiling. Silently, the women awaited the dragon’s return.
With a huge splash that drenched all three of them, Baliarth emerged from the ocean, dripping wet and breathing heavily as if he had rushed to the ocean’s bottom to retrieve what his witch seeked. From his mouth he dropped a golden sword with rubies glimmering in the sunlight crested on the handle. It had to be a magickal sword of some sort; anything otherwise might not have survived being under salt water for so many years. The Fire Sword had been in the ocean for about as long as Janey had been alive.
“Baliarth, you are truly heroic,” Rhiannon remarked, stroking the sea dragon’s long snout. Baliarth happily closed his big eyes and savoured her touch.
Smiling, Jill leaned down and picked up the Fire Sword in her hands, running a long finger upon the rubies. Rhiannon glanced back at her and Janey as Baliarth turned back to the ocean and dove back into its darkened blue depths, his leafy fins creating funny shadows beneath the waves. He would look like nothing more than sea weed beneath the water to the visible eye. Only Rhiannon’s small silhouette could be seen standing before the blinding sun.
“We will get this back to Adara and alert Jaffee immediately,” Jill announced. “Then we will restore the Kawilaran temple.”
A smile came across the pirate queen’s face, her green eyes glimmering. “Finally.”
