First I would like to show you guys a first look at our Logo for the series. In weeks to come I will show the cover for the first of the books.
Next I have been asked for an excerpt from one of the stories and since this is going to be the next to be published, two weeks from today on iTunes and Kindle I will give you guys a first chance to meet the most important character in the Eastern Empire. Her name is Kiylah Khan.
EXCERPT FROM THE SHORT, LAND OF THE KHAN;
Land Of The Khan
(An Empires Falling Story)
By.
Rodney Cannon
Chapter One.
It was called in the old tongue the Walk of fire, a seemingly endless corridor that circled and circled beneath the palace city of the Khan. The keepers of this place called it what it would have been called in most places, the hall of records.
The man who had been in charge of this place for the better part of thirty years had spent the first sixteen years of the job occupied by the daily routine and dealing with those who came and went from service down here amongst the corridors and the lanterns. Then came the season of the red star. A blood red star gleaming in the night sky for two months while all awaited two of the emperor’s wives to give birth. One wife, Kushi, gave birth to twin boys. Twins were very rare and both of them being boys was even more so. The fact that Kushi had died while giving birth was consider even more of a omen of good fortune for the two boys. They had enter the world by taking a life.
The other birth had been to the emperor’s first wife, Bayarmaa, a woman past the age of thirty having a child was as impressive as the fact that a man who had twenty two wives at the time still laid with the first one. The child was a girl and the night that she came into the world a day after the boys were born the star turned white and became a part of the night skies. Three months later one of the boys died just before his naming day. In other lands children were named at birth, but here it was tradition to do so on the first day of the forth month. The boy that lived was named Bataar which meant in the old tongue land slayer. The girl was given the name Kiylah, which meant fire serpent.
Chuluun, the keeper, knew all of this because it had been his job to file this information in the stroll library and to have it painted on the stone walk that covered the center of the path that himself along with his workers were forbidden to walk upon unless repairs need to be made to the walk or images added. No one in living memory had walked the painted images expect the visitor who appeared for the first time nine years ago.
The sound of scampering feet had proceeded the arrival of the beautiful child who had almost run into him at midnight those many years ago. The child had been born five years before and when he saw the gold bands in the shape of thorns that held her long oil dark hair in place he knew who she was. The exception to the rules down here was that any member of the Khan’s family could walk the path. After all they were the path.
Kiylah had been followed close behind by a tall dark skinned boy who wore the pale blue uniform of a Kulahan, a horse soldier. He would soon learn that the young man was named Zed son of Zed the Wind axe. The boy, exactly ten years older than the young princess was her hand chosen protector and only friend. She had wanted to know the stories of her blood and Zed had taken her to the place where she could learn them all. That begun a four year run of visits from the girl and her protector. Arriving always long after all of the other workers had gone home one the first day of each week the three of them would walk the path and Chuluun would tell the stories of each emperor’s rule and the times that he or rarely she lived through. Zed would sometimes ask question concerning battles and how they were won and lost. The princess was interested in the political aspects. Concerning herself most with the two times during the last two hundred years that the city fell into enemy hands. How the people were treated. Well he had to tell the truth even to a seven year old at the time. He told her that both times they were brutalized. Many were killed enslaved and of course the women were raped. The palace was sacked and the hall that she visited only survived because the place had a natural defense. If it was threatened then it could be flooded with sand, in sections or completely. The last time it happened it took almost a year for a small army of slaves to carry off all the sand.
Their time together as a trio ended shortly after Kiylah reached the age of nine. One of Kiylah’s fifteen older brothers got in an argument with her. He decided that the best way to win that argument was to choke her to death. Being twice her age and twice her size he would have been successful in not for Zed, who if the reports of the slaves who were close by could be believed, had ripped the brother’s right hand off and used it to choke him to death with it.
The rest of it only three living people could tell of. The princess Kiylah and Zed had fled to these halls. Once there Kiylah had asked, not order, but asked Chuluun to help Zed to escape the palace city.
An order would have protected him better if someone discovered any of what would happen, but he was pleased that her highness respected him enough to ask. Rules who asked rather than ordered were destined for long rules.
Chuluun stood in the shadows while the young people said good byes that did not give him the sense that it would truly be their last words to each other.
***
Next I have been asked for an excerpt from one of the stories and since this is going to be the next to be published, two weeks from today on iTunes and Kindle I will give you guys a first chance to meet the most important character in the Eastern Empire. Her name is Kiylah Khan.
EXCERPT FROM THE SHORT, LAND OF THE KHAN;
Land Of The Khan
(An Empires Falling Story)
By.
Rodney Cannon
Chapter One.
It was called in the old tongue the Walk of fire, a seemingly endless corridor that circled and circled beneath the palace city of the Khan. The keepers of this place called it what it would have been called in most places, the hall of records.
The man who had been in charge of this place for the better part of thirty years had spent the first sixteen years of the job occupied by the daily routine and dealing with those who came and went from service down here amongst the corridors and the lanterns. Then came the season of the red star. A blood red star gleaming in the night sky for two months while all awaited two of the emperor’s wives to give birth. One wife, Kushi, gave birth to twin boys. Twins were very rare and both of them being boys was even more so. The fact that Kushi had died while giving birth was consider even more of a omen of good fortune for the two boys. They had enter the world by taking a life.
The other birth had been to the emperor’s first wife, Bayarmaa, a woman past the age of thirty having a child was as impressive as the fact that a man who had twenty two wives at the time still laid with the first one. The child was a girl and the night that she came into the world a day after the boys were born the star turned white and became a part of the night skies. Three months later one of the boys died just before his naming day. In other lands children were named at birth, but here it was tradition to do so on the first day of the forth month. The boy that lived was named Bataar which meant in the old tongue land slayer. The girl was given the name Kiylah, which meant fire serpent.
Chuluun, the keeper, knew all of this because it had been his job to file this information in the stroll library and to have it painted on the stone walk that covered the center of the path that himself along with his workers were forbidden to walk upon unless repairs need to be made to the walk or images added. No one in living memory had walked the painted images expect the visitor who appeared for the first time nine years ago.
The sound of scampering feet had proceeded the arrival of the beautiful child who had almost run into him at midnight those many years ago. The child had been born five years before and when he saw the gold bands in the shape of thorns that held her long oil dark hair in place he knew who she was. The exception to the rules down here was that any member of the Khan’s family could walk the path. After all they were the path.
Kiylah had been followed close behind by a tall dark skinned boy who wore the pale blue uniform of a Kulahan, a horse soldier. He would soon learn that the young man was named Zed son of Zed the Wind axe. The boy, exactly ten years older than the young princess was her hand chosen protector and only friend. She had wanted to know the stories of her blood and Zed had taken her to the place where she could learn them all. That begun a four year run of visits from the girl and her protector. Arriving always long after all of the other workers had gone home one the first day of each week the three of them would walk the path and Chuluun would tell the stories of each emperor’s rule and the times that he or rarely she lived through. Zed would sometimes ask question concerning battles and how they were won and lost. The princess was interested in the political aspects. Concerning herself most with the two times during the last two hundred years that the city fell into enemy hands. How the people were treated. Well he had to tell the truth even to a seven year old at the time. He told her that both times they were brutalized. Many were killed enslaved and of course the women were raped. The palace was sacked and the hall that she visited only survived because the place had a natural defense. If it was threatened then it could be flooded with sand, in sections or completely. The last time it happened it took almost a year for a small army of slaves to carry off all the sand.
Their time together as a trio ended shortly after Kiylah reached the age of nine. One of Kiylah’s fifteen older brothers got in an argument with her. He decided that the best way to win that argument was to choke her to death. Being twice her age and twice her size he would have been successful in not for Zed, who if the reports of the slaves who were close by could be believed, had ripped the brother’s right hand off and used it to choke him to death with it.
The rest of it only three living people could tell of. The princess Kiylah and Zed had fled to these halls. Once there Kiylah had asked, not order, but asked Chuluun to help Zed to escape the palace city.
An order would have protected him better if someone discovered any of what would happen, but he was pleased that her highness respected him enough to ask. Rules who asked rather than ordered were destined for long rules.
Chuluun stood in the shadows while the young people said good byes that did not give him the sense that it would truly be their last words to each other.
***
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