A Dragon Problem-Preview
Today marks a fun day that authors never tire of: release day!
The project that I'm humbled to be a part of is an anthology called Freshly Brewed Fiction, and it's a group of stories penned for the purpose of supporting a local library. Better yet, we'll celebrate the release of this book at our local independent book store, The Towne Book Center in Collegeville. It's good to know the piece I've written will be helping the honorable institution of the local public library as well as our indie bookstore, which does a great job with author events.
In case you're interested to see what I've contributed to this book, I'm offering the first segment of the story for you here. "A Dragon Problem" introduces a new character to my story world, an ebony hatchling dragon named Silya, and it reunites readers with the tempestuous Raen, dragons warder, as well as the unquenchably direct Vinyanel Ecleriast. Mix in an undead necromancer, and you've got a caper it takes both dragons and elves to conquer.
I hope you enjoy this little excerpt. As soon as I know if this book will be available to non-local folks, I will update you. If you're within schlepping distance of Collegeville, PA, I'd love to see you at the Towne Book Center between 7-9 pm on April 30th, 2017.
A Dragon Problem
by Rebecca P. Minor
as it appears in Freshly Brewed Fiction
The next avalanche inside
the cavern brought down a storm
of rocks just outside Silya’s
hiding place. She quailed against
the rear of the cleft.
When she opened her eyes once again,
faceted quartz debris
blocked her view. Her escape!
She thrust, egg tooth
first, into the gap she had made, and managed
to wriggle through.
Where she expected to find cavern,
she now beheld
jagged walls of heaped stone.
Only a narrow gap led left to the water, and with how the cave still rumbled, how long
might it last?
Half scuttling, half
airborne, Silya wriggled
through the defile toward the pool.
A few lashes of Silya’s
tail guided her from the worst of the water’s churning, and finally, she found which way was up. She spread her wings, relaxed her body, and let the water buoy her to the surface.
Neither crushed nor
drowned. Things could
be worse. Sunlight dazzled her eyes when she lifted her head from the water. To her left, a roaring water- fall kicked spray into the air, and a slice of rainbow angled
across it. Behind
the falls, rugged
peaks rose. She strained her ears after sounds other than churning water,
but to no avail.
Whatever you hear, whatever
fears you have of
what’s happening, you
must not come
out of
this
crevice, do you
understand me?” Silya’s
mother set her deep into a stony niche, at the rear of their family’s
cavern home.
A voice from beyond the mouth of the
cavern echoed faintly against the crystalline walls. The speech had
a rhythmic lilt
to it, rising
and falling like waves against a jetty.
Silya struggled to sort sounds and syllables from the reverberations, but could not make out enough to understand. Her
draconic gift to translate any language she encountered faltered in the muddled echoes.
“But
what do they want?” Silya
shrank back, wrap- ping her tail around her crouching body.
“Who
can say, with
man and his
fears?” Mother said. “But
promise me. Remember you are but a hatchling,
and not yet
a match for
many men.”
Silya nodded.
Mother swung her head toward the
grotto pool nearby and dipped
her snout into the rippling
water. She drew a long draught.
Her dark scales
shimmered in the faint daylight that filtered there from the cave
mouth, rays that were almost spent by distance.
“Just in
case,” Mother said.
Silya marveled. Her own
body lacked the
maturity to call forth the caustic deluge she had seen her mother use
only once since her hatching. Mother and Father alike assured her the day would
come when she, too, would possess
this otherworldly gift- ing, but the Maker deemed no dragon
should wield such power before also possessing the wisdom to withhold its use.
Words rose in volume and intensity,
now ring- ing out with percussive insistence from beyond
the cavern. A man outside spoke the ancient tongue. His proclamation told of cracking, of breaking. A tremor
vibrated beneath Silya’s
feet. She stared
at her mother with widened eyes.
“What is
this language?” she asked.
Mother’s jaw tightened. She folded
her ebony wings close to her sides. “The ancient tongue, reserved for magic.
I do not know this
incantation. But it seems—”
A sharp, sizzling crack sounded overhead, followed by a shower of dust
and gravel that chattered from Mother’s back and long, sinuous
neck. She blinked debris from her silver eyes.
Profound sadness dark- ened their spark.
More words, another crackle, another
shower of stone.
“Mother!” Silya cried. Her stomach
churned and her limbs trembled.
“If you must leave, follow the water channel.” Mother wheeled
around as larger
chunks of stone rained down. “Stay hidden,
no matter what!”
She bounded toward the cave mouth just before a mammoth quartz boulder broke
free of the cavern
ceiling.
The
boulder’s impact bounced
Silya off her
feet. She
struggled back upright,
barely able to glimpse her mother dodging
the glittering rain of crystals that clattered down. What if the stone
kept falling? What if it blocked her path to the pool and its outlet? Mother’s roar filled the air with intensity
that throbbed in Silya’s ears.
The warning cry. With any luck, the sorcerer outside
would lose his nerve with- out begging
any further confrontation. Of all times
for Father to be away at council.
Rock
pounding rock, splashing into the grotto, intensified. The earth
beneath Silya’s feet shuddered,
as though gripped in the
fear that threatened to overtake her. Between the crackling hiss of rent stone, the man’s voice shrilled on. His mad pitch
sent a shiver through Silya’s
flesh.
Mother
roared once more.
Panic lodged in her throat. The rumbling beneath her feet droned on, no telling
when the next crash might come. Wait for mother or run for the water channel.
Did the channel even exist any longer in this
deluge of stone?
Pebbles pinged off her head.
Waiting for mother felt suddenly more like sitting quietly for death. Silya
flung herself at the top
of the stones now filling
her exit. They bit into her shoul- der, and she swallowed an involuntary cry.
Ebony dragons are
strong. She repeated her
father’s words in her mind.
Flapping her wings,
scrabbling with her hind
feet, and shoving
with foretalons and neck, she willed the blockage to yield. Bit by bit, she ate away at the pile. Another
roar rang out— not her mother’s, but that of mineral, undisturbed for thousands of years, now
wrenched from the cavern ceiling.
Silya shrieked. The quake threw her
to her side. She slid down the mound of rock to the floor. I don’t want to be crushed. I don’t want
to be crushed! She regained her feet and clawed at the rock
fall, even when her talons smeared the pile red. Finally, a small breach to
open air.
Water ran over stone like rapids
where the lake once stood. A breach in the cavern
wall gushed water over a choked channel. But the far
end of the pool looked much the
same as it had before
today’s chaos. Silya could
not be certain—but she might
have heard Mother’s hisses
and men’s shouts mingled. But no doubt, the mountain above her creaked.
Down, into the shock of cold, dark
water, Silya plunged.
The
deeper Silya dove into the pool, the swifter
the dark undercurrent became, until it sucked her
into a tunnel where the
water propelled her
onward. The swirling, boiling
current tumbled her
nose over tail. She
flailed against the
buffeting, but only
suc- ceeded in bashing
her limbs and wings against
stone walls. Her heart
thudded in her
ears.
I’m going to drown! How
long is this
chute? Silya
strug- gled to align her body with the motion of the water,
to find the surface and a sorely-needed breath of air. Her chest burned. Amidst
her underwater rolls, Silya’s glance caught flashes of light. From where?
How far? A shrill pitch rose in her ears.
In
a terrible lurch,
Silya fell. Light
hit her in a full blaze now, and the
gurgle of water
released her. She plummeted in a pelting torrent, but
at last thrust her head into open air and caught a quick breath. Splash.
Underwater. Spinning again.
Stay hidden.
Surely the mountain would offer her
plenty of nooks and shadows to seek Mother without being spied herself. That
is, if Mother had been able to spare the foolish man who had been chanting out-
side their lair. Silya paddled to the shore. Her raw foretalons shot
pain through her
legs as she
climbed onto the wind-chilled stones at the
river’s edge. She squinted toward the mountain.
A flutter arose in Silya’s
belly. How long had she and Mother been parted? Surely this had been the
longest they had yet been out of one another’s sight. Silya struck out for a
stealthy route, but also mouthed a silent prayer for a quick one.
Great post about "A Dragon Problem-Preview"
ReplyDeletethanks,
Mcx Tips in Gold Silver | Best Jackpot Tips
Really your blog is very interesting…. it contains great and unique information. It’s an amazing list of blogs.
ReplyDeletebpo call center