Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Volant Fiction Snippet

From the introduction to Volant - Kingdoms of Air and Stone:

Dalgar sighed. “No, little one, you cannot be a wizard. There are no wizards any more.”

Harein pulled her braids and looked cross. “It’s not fair! Why aren’t there any wizards any more, Papa? What happened?”


He sipped his beer and looked out the window at the massive cliff where Jaimar butted up against Loriman. Stout cables and great chains laced the cliff side, pulling the two lands together. “It happened long ago, Hari. Long before I was born, or even Gemma. They used up all their magic, and there was none left over.”


Harein thought about this, pink tongue sticking out and brow furrowed in concentration. Then she frowned. “They should have left some for us. That was mean!”


“It saved us, Hari. You see, in the long ago, there were two kinds of wizards, and they warred on each other. There were the Wizards of living things, and the Wizards of stone, and their war was long and bitter.” Dalgar rubbed his beard. “When the Wizards of living things made their last stroke, it got out of control. Horrid monsters stormed over the earth, and men... and little girls... were their meat.”


The girl shivered. “Good thing we were above them, huh, Papa?”


“We weren’t, baby. All the people were down on the earth back then.” Dalgar shook his head. “There was no where to go.”


Harain’s eyes opened wide. “What happened, Papa? How did we get away?”


“The Wizards of stone cast the mightiest spell ever made. It was so powerful they pulled all the magic from every person on the earth, and put it into the roots of all the mountains, and the mountains tore away from the earth and flew up into the air, and the people were saved.” Here he looked into her wide eyes. “But all the wizards, every one of them - even the baby Wizards, honey - every one was burned to a crisp and died. Since then all the magic of the world is locked in the stone and in the plants and animals, and not a bit is in any human.” Dalgar waited a moment as his daughter wiped her eyes for the burned babies. “Why did you want to be a wizard anyway, baby girl?”


Her fierce glare returned. “That creepy Joslo Horm is being a pest, and I wanted to turn him into a toad!”


“Oh!” said Dalgar. “Why didn’t you say that in the first place! You need a potion...”

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