Empires Falling, Stand Alone Short Stories

Each short story in the series so far are stand-alone stories. Yes, they do connect to other stories in the future, but they all exist separate from the whole. These stories are designed to show the reader glimpses into the world of Empires Falling. I believe that it will take a minimum of twelve stories to prepare a reader for this grand story.

    I could have put them together in a novel or stretched them into a series of short novels, but the one thing that you will learn about me as this goes on is that I do not believe in wasting pages. I feel that far too many epic fantasy novels are padded. I have read a few novels in the two hundred thousand word range and thought that a best edit of forty to sixty thousand words would have made a much better book. I think that even the holy grail of fantasy novels these days, the Game of Thrones series of books are a little thicker than they have to be. I love the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Those books were quick reads even though they were long because they maintained a tight focus of core characters. The moral of Lord of the Rings is that even the smallest person can change the world, not the smallest fifty three man football team with a few talking trees along for the ride can talk an evil wizard to death.

    Epic Fantasy can be amazing if done well, but the biggest obstacle to reaching the broadest audience possible is the text book feel of some of the better novels in the field. I hope to overcome some of this by delivering stories in the eight to fourteen thousand word range to build an audience for my larger works.
    At the moment there are four short stories in the series available for purchase online. I hope that you guys will check all of them out and recommend them to others.
If you were to ask me which story is the best written, I would say The First Port in the Storm. The cool part of this is that since they are all stand alone stories you can read one and enjoy it without reading the others.

Thank you for visiting my site. Remember the name Empires Falling and I look forward to having you guys along for the full journey.

Speaking Demon On Amazon

                Speaking Demon On Amazon

This will be a quick post to announce that my short story Whispers from a Speaking Demon is now available for sale in its complete form on Amazon for ninety nine cents.
The story is exactly forty pages and runs slightly over ten thousand words. I considered adding a prologue to the story in an effort to make it more unique, but it will only be available here to read for two weeks and I intend to pull it from wattpad as well.
    When marketing a epic fantasy series the writer almost always ave to give away a story or two to grow the fan base and I intend to do something like that in the month of October. Perhaps posting the first three short stories for a free month as we approach the release of the first novel. 
    Here is the link to Amazon.  You can also click on the picture below. 

click here.

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Empires Falling Video Intro and Chapter Seven

I would like to share two things with you concerning my epic fantasy series Empires Falling. The intro video and chapter seven of the Speaking Demon short story.

When marketing a work of fiction creating a video clip that you can share via social media is extremely important. This will be the first of many video clips that will relate to Empires Falling. I wish that writing an epic fantasy series was all about the writing, but marketing plays a huge part of it when the writer does not have a big publishing house behind him or her.

Okay here is a look at the video and please feel free to share it.

      

Now I would like to show you chapter seven of Whispers from a Speaking Demon.

Chapter Seven.

For those infested by a demon there were only three known ways to dispose of one. The person could force it out themselves. It had been know to happen. The second way was the one most often used. Fire would get rid of the demon. Burn the person infected alive and the demon would flee the body. The third way was to employ a sorcerer or sorceress to charm the demon out of the body and then once it was free of the protection of human flesh to use a vanquishing spell to destroy it.

Amelina had known all of this since the age of six and had charmed two demons during her life time. It was having your soul stripped bare to be sniffed over by a creature that was only remotely human in appearance, but so much darker inside than any human being could ever imagine. Being lusted after by her companions while she bathed nude in their presence had been a warm and pleasant experience compared to what those demons had done while she wrestled with them. She knew that these men would happily mount her if offered the opportunity, but not one of them would willingly cause her harm. The thing about being born the way they were was that each of them had been hurt by the world around them. To be born with their gifts made them outsiders the moment those gifts were discovered. Amelina had been lucky where her tribe was concerned. Her people respected those with gifts. They saw her as a gift. Something rare and powerful that was sent to help them.

Now that rare and powerful gift was for sale and that made her walk up to the second floor of the house a sad walk. On the second floor landing she was met by Fulvia, a woman who looked older than dust. 

“The last two were men.”Fulvia said.

“The last two died here.”Amelina said. She was forever finding herself being reminded that the world equated beauty with weakness. If men had died doing what she was going to attempt then she was bound to die as well.

“So they did.”Fulvia nodded. Amelina turned her eyes to an empty stool that rested by a chamber door. The massive oak door worried her as much as what was inside. If that door was sealed it could take half a day to chop through it. Two sorcerers had gone through that door and been killed on the other side. They had gone in there alone and had died alone. The thing that she needed to do had to be done by her alone, but the demon inside the man had been able to open them up. From what she understood one of the two had been left hanging from the ceiling in there by his intestines. That suggested a rare kind of power.

Alone? Amelina mused. No not alone this time. After all there were no rules on how many could be present while this was being done, only on how many could do it at once.

“Lanzo.”Amelina whispered his name and it was not until she had said it that she knew he was the one that she wanted in there with her.

“You want something?”His voice came from the stairs of which he was nearing the top of.

She waited until he was standing in her shadow before she spoke.

“I think that you should learn how to charm a demon.”That was as close to suggesting that she may need some help that she was willing to come to.

“I suppose that I should see how it is done.”Lanzo responded and was that a hint of sarcasm that she head in his voice? She could have invited Aldo instead, but there was the fact that she had read Lanzo’s future and it was fixed in a massive way that could not be ended here and now. If she knew that then so would the demon.

“So be it. Just keep one thing in mind. That it will constantly lie. It will mix in the truth, but most things will be lies. It knows the past and the future. It will know your fears and desires. Do not talk to it.”Amelina told him. “Lanzo?”

“I will do as I am told.”Lanzo said.

If he did then it would be the first time since she met him.


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Empires Falling, Thoughts on Epic Fantasy

 Writing an epic fantasy series is different from almost any type of story telling because the canvas you are afforded is so vast. When writing suspense or horror you operate in the fifty to one hundred thousand words realm. Romance and historical romance takes you up to the hundred and twenty thousand words area, but fantasy almost demands hundreds of thousands of words over many volumes. I suppose that this is because you are building an entire world.

  There are times I find that I have to force myself to slow down and get into how these ancient cultures functions and how they differ from the ones that they mirrors in our world.



 The more I work on Empires Falling as a whole story the more that I have to tell myself that I need to focus on the small events. By taking the time to rewrite the short stories and to add new ones to the series I am learning more about the central characters that will carry the story. While rewriting one of the early stories I have discovered that it could reach novel length if I allow it. Over the next few weeks I will offer a chapter or two of that story and ask you the reader should I do just that. 

 Right now I would like to post the next chapter from the speaking demon. Chapter six, a day before it hits Wattpad. Thank you for visiting and I look forward to reading your comments.

Whispers from A Speaking Demon

 Chapter Six.
Aldo left them and the cart out in the paved yard in front of the house. It seemed that westerners loved to leave their mark on all lands belonging to them by paving it over with their concrete roads and walks and yards, Lanzo mused as he paced the edge of it.
Off to his left was the burnt remains of a stable. At the other end of the yard beyond some fences was a newly constructed stone stable with a slanted wooden roof. There were at least a half dozen horses in there which suggested that the riders who owned them were most likely within the home.
This burnt stable had fallen recently. The stench of burnt wood and animal flesh was fresh. Lanzo stepped over what remained of the fence here and toward what amounted to a lean-to of a standing wall and what remained of the roof.
“It falls on you Lanzo, you will have to conjure your way out of there.”Amelina yelled.
Lanzo was not worried. He had seen structures like this before and unless a strong storm came by what remained standing would probably hold up for years. Besides he was listening to that small voice that sometimes told him to do something. Life had taught him that if he ignored it that voice would only grow louder and louder.
He stood near the entrance that remained and listen until everything around him became still. The wind dropped to nothing. The clouds far above stopped flowing along their appointed path. The shadows of all things around him including his own shadow went dead still and then he was looking backwards through events as they happened. It was like being on a perch high above a flowing river watching not only where it was going, but where it had been along the way.
In a blink of an eye the stable was what it had once been. Strong and solid with the sound of horses stabled inside. The man clocked in robes similar to those who worn by Aldo was leading a donkey into the stable. It had struck Lanzo funny how he had never met a practitioner of the magical arts who actually rode a powerful well groomed horse. Was it some sort of tradition to wander the earth of the backs of animal that could not outrun trouble. This donkey had died in the fire, he knew it by sight and if he had wanted to reach for it he could have seen how it died, but Lanzo could see no reason to do that. The robed man had been the one who came here before them. He had died here too and Lanzo also dismissed the idea of watching how he died. He wanted to know something else. That voice inside of his head was whispering about something that this man, this sorcerer, had been carrying. Something powerful. A powerful thing that had been hidden here before he died. Hidden and untouched by the fire.
How was that possible?
The man did something clever.
It had not been to bury it or to stash it away. It was to put it where only one of his kind could ever find it. Lanzo watched the man closely. He stood exactly where Lanzo stood now. He raised a right hand that held something shiny inside it and with his first two fingers and thumb he did a few finger passes in the air. The finger movements casting a spell and then his hand shot forward and disappeared into nothing. A moment later his hand reappeared and he quickly blew on it as if it was chilled.
Lanzo raised his hand in the same way. Made the finger gestures that he had seen and his hand disappeared into what felt like ice cold water. Something touched the palm of his hand and Lanzo made a fist around it and yanked back. His hand came back from where it had been. He had expected his hand to be dripping wet. It was dry, but ice cold. He ignored the cold and opened the hand to reveal a cylinder, the length of his thumb, made from a single piece of green crystal. It was beautiful and had a simple chain around one end of it, but the chain was not looped for wearing.
“What are you doing in there?”Amelina’s voice came from the yard.
Lanzo considered putting the crystal back where he got it, but until he found out exactly what it was he planned on keeping it close at hand. Lanzo slipped it into a pocket that was made into the left sleeve of his robes.
 “I thought that there might be something in here.”Lanzo responded as he retraced his steps out of what remained of the stable.

Speaking Demon Chapter 5 with Notes

Okay, today I am back with the fifth chapter of the story being offered for free at Wattpad. I have to say that I have not been impressed by my Wattpad experience, but I plan to see this story through to the end and then publish a second story there. As for this story, Whispers from A Speaking Demon, when this is complete, I plan of publishing an extended version of story. The thing about short fiction is that most of us cut out a few hundred words or even a chapter or two to make the story flow better, but in the process we cut out a bit of character development. 
Before I get to the next chapter I would like to suggest again that you guys read at least one of the other stories in the series. The great thing about the stories is that they are so far all stand alone stories. You do not need to have read any of the others in the series to understand what is happening. Each story serves to introduce characters that will be present in the series of Empires Falling series of epic fantasy novels.  
Also if you like this story it would be great it you would share it with a friend of post this post on your facebook. 

Chapter Five.
The cart was large enough to carry their belongings, a modest amount of food for the journey and Amelina who slept wrapped in a blanket amongst the belongings. Aldo who sat as driver of the cart had insisted upon this arrangement suggesting that a pretty face could invite unnecessary trouble on the road. No one had offered any objections other than the fact that they were expected to all walk along side the cart.
Lanzo had saved enough coins to purchase a donkey, but Aldo had insisted that they walk. It would be for appearances sake he had said. The three of them in muddy boots and dirt stained robes while he would be the master of magic who had not been soiled by the road. The thought of it tempted Lanzo to summon up a wind storm to ruin his plans. The problem was that he did not have the first clue how to do it.
A full moon allowed them to travel the road for three hours after sunset. Only when it seemed that the horse pulling the wagon was getting tired did Aldo call their journey to a stop and about a hundred feet from the road, beneath a circle of low hanging trees they set up camp.
Lanzo finished stacking the sticks in the circle of stones and sat down between Aldo and Amelina.
“We are well met.”Aldo made a gesture toward the sticks and they burst into flames. “Most of you were too young to remember the year of the flaming star, but I thought that I would talk about it with you tonight. That star was like a rock thrown into a pond. Its effect will be visible for a long time to come.”
Aldo slipped a hand into his left sleeve and pulled into view a small dark orb. A smooth perfectly formed ball of volcanic glass that was dark green in color.
“Anyone know what this is?”Aldo tossed it toward Burkhard who caught it and did a clever, but risky thing with it. He spun it once in his palm and began to twirl it on the tip of his index finger.
“A whispering orb. If it had a mate, it would be glowing and worth a small fortune.”Burkhard said.
“Its mate was destroyed during the last imperial war. I was about your age back then.”Aldo said to Burkhard. “It was during the season of the flaming star.”
Amelina raised her hand for the orb and Burkhard tossed it to her.
“I was so small when the sky burned red every night, but I can remember it. I was not yet three years old, but I can close my eyes and see the night world around me bathed in that blood red glow.”Amelina whispered, holding the orb with both hands as if it was a fragile egg.
“How does that thing work?”Lanzo asked.
“Easy. If this one has a mate and you are not one of us then you hold this up to your mouth and you whisper a message into it. The mate could be half way around the world and that message will come out as a whisper. If you are one of us then you could hold it to your forehead and share images or even meet and have a conversation inside the orb.”Aldo said and in this area he was sure because he had done it himself. It was like having a lucid conversation with another person while inside a dream. The experience had been amazing. Standing with nothing beneath your feet while eternity swirled above and all around you. The only thing that kept you from tumbling off into nothing was your connection to the orb that your resting body held.
Amelina tossed the orb to Lanzo. He raised it to eye level and stared into it as if he was seeing something.
“Lanzo?”Aldo ventured.
“Just seeing if I could see what you saw.”Lanzo tossed it back to him.
Aldo caught it. Funny that it felt much warmer than it had when it had started its journey between his followers.
“Could it do anything else?”Lanzo asked.
“What do you mean? Work as a crystal ball? Show the pass or future?”
Aldo smiled and shook his head. “There are those few great orbs. They were always pink in color and I have been told that they did things like that. But also that they were almost alive. That they would only show parts of the future or past. Playing games with the user. Also that they took something from you in exchange for giving you this information. I never saw one, but I did meet a mystic who had used one in the service of the former emperor. His hair was snow white. His flesh dry as dust. He told me that he was not yet thirty-five years old at the time and he had traded most of his vitality and youth while using and being used by the thing for only two years.”
“Did you believe him?”Amelina asked.
“Yes, oh yes.”Aldo said.
“To know the future. To truly know what is going to happen would be worth the trade.”Brando said.
Amelina shook her head no.
“I see glimpses of the future. Sometimes it is just a shadow around a person and sometimes it is the future playing out all around me like a dream come to life. A future that is fixed and cannot be changed. It is not something that I would be willing to give one moment of my life for. To know what is going to happen is a horrible trap. It is why the great maker does not allow any of us to know the hour and way of our deaths.”Amelina sounded as if she was thinking aloud.
Aldo thought that her words would end the discussion, but Brando was not finished yet.
“What do you see ahead of us? What is the future for us down this road?”Brando asked.
“Death. We are going to know death before this road turns.”Amelina said flatly. “Our circle will be broken. At night on the boat I would look across the sea and hear countless voices crying out in pain and suffering. More voices than I could count in a life time to the east to the west, I hear the same sound. Not as loudly, but still there. Like leaves being rustled by a wind from the south.”
She was too young to remember the last great war, but Aldo had been a part of it and knew all too well what she was telling them. Telling the others what he had suspected for the last year or so. Another great war was coming. There were rumors from the east of small kingdoms trying to break the grip that the Khan had over them. Rumors of Lurkers to the south moving into Mycenia lands and that would most surely mean war, after all Emperor Cato only knew one response to a threat and that was to kill it. If all these embers were to catch fire then they would be a kind of war that had not been seen in many lifetimes. A war that encompassed all the lands. In such a conflict countless lives would be lost, but fortune and glory awaited those who picked the right side and survived it all.


Chapter Five Notes, With this chapter I wanted to introduce the whispering orbs and to give you some background on them. They will play a big part in the wars to come. Also I wanted to touch a little on the last war and the part that Aldo played in it. As I wrote this story I discovered new things about these characters as a group. Where I had imagined one character would dominate this story from beginning to end that turned out not to be the case. It is funny how characters seem to have minds of their own and take you places you did not plan on going.

Speaking Demon Chapters 3 and 4, with notes

I have decided to offer notes with each chapter to make this something different from being what is offered at Wattpad. These notes will not only offer insight into Whispers From a Speaking Demon short, but also about the Empires Falling universe. I created this blog to be a part of the Empires Falling universe. To give readers information that can be found no where else. There are a lot of epic fantasy novel series out there, but I have not encounter any that will give as much character insight as I hope to do over the next year.

Growing the readership of this series is important to me. There is a ton of work involved in writing and marketing a epic fantasy novel series especially when you have multiple projects, including a film, on the table at the same time. So input from any of you guys would help me feel as if I am not telling a story to a campfire with no one else sitting there. There is this blog. There are the story stories for sale at B&N, itunes and amazon. There is the face book page that over time will offer information that will be available no where else.

Okay here is chapter three along with story notes. Enjoy and tell a friend.

Chapter Three.



The tent, made from the skins of many animals, was larger inside that on the outside due to the sunken floor that angle downward toward a roaring fire pit.
The place was tight and did not seem to have any vents in the tent to allow heat to escape, but the area was icy cold.
Aldo adjusted his hood as he approached the fire. Looking straight ahead he could see no one near the fire, but he felt the presences that was glamoured beyond the fire light.
“Aldo of the Dungezi tribe.”The voice came from the figure wrapped in furs who sat bathed in firelight against a post behind the roaring flames. Long boney fingers rose to peel back fur that hid the face of the speaker who Aldo presumed to be the broker that he came to see, Betchia. When the face was revealed Aldo understood the reason, the interior of the tent was so cold.
Where Betchia's eyes should have been was a slit that seemed to be filled with thick dark blood that would neither dry up nor flow forth. It was the eye of a low demon. For centuries sorcerers had been trading flesh for flesh with low demons. Without the ability to actual possess a human being, but able to travel back and forth between realms the low demons would trade flesh so that they could blend in with the human herd. Eyes were most valued. With human eyes they saw what they called wonders and a human who took a low demon's eye could see the past, present and future.
Had he known this meeting would take place and when, Aldo wondered.
“Yes.” Betchia said as if he heard the thought spoken.”Foolish man, you travel cloaked in power and all you seek to be is a merchant when empires are to rise and fall all around us.”
Aldo never cared for those who offered cryptic words rather than saying it clearly, but he had to ask. “Which empire? Which will fall?”
“All of them and from the ashes of the old a serpent of fire will strangle all that remains. It is already too late to do anything, but watch and wait. Aldo, why not sit here and wait.”
The offer did not in the least interest him, but he did kneel down by the fire, picked up a clay bowl and dropped two gold coins inside.
“I and mine seek to trade our skills for profit.”Aldo pushed the bowl toward Betchia. Only the slightest shift in his posture suggested that he took note of the coins in the bowl.
“So be it Aldo. Age does not equal experience. You’re young will teach the old. If you would be a merchant then look into the fire and learn of what you must do.” Betchia raised a hand to the fire and the flames licked up toward the ceiling. In the moment before the column of flame dropped Aldo saw the image of a demon grappling with a man. A man losing the battle.
“A high demon seeks to possess the body of this man. His family will pay a great price to free him. Will you risk your sorceress for something as meaningless as gold?”
“When you traded your eyes, you traded some of your common sense. Gold makes the world turn. Women, steel and gold.”
Betchia let out a laugh so hollow that it sounded as if it was coming from a corpse. “This world will turn over onto itself and burn. Gold will burn. Steel will burn and women will die. The age of magic comes like a shadow in the night. Magic will turn this world and even a merchant can perform a part.”
Aldo had heard enough of this man's rants, but he stayed long enough to receive the directions to the place that they must go.
Walking back through the village he met Burkhard who stood by a street stall looking at knifes. As he got closer Aldo could see that the knives on display were of a higher quality than one would expect in such a place. Probably the fruits of some forgotten battle field.
“The others?”Aldo asked as he stopped beside Burkhard.
“Our lady is toying with the boy in the bathhouse. She wanted a private talk with him.”Burkhard said.
“I must come up with a way of recording images for future review.”
“You have a way.”Burkhard tapped the side of his head to illustrate. “In here. You remember. The last thing I will see as I am dying will be our Amelina climbing into that group bath, she talked us into the day after she joined our team.”
“We have an opportunity to make five hundred dinars.”Aldo said.
“Whom do we have to kill or raise from the dead?”
“A high demon. We have to remove one from a wealthy man.”
Burkhard shook his head no.
“Not we. That is sorcery. Fix it with their eyes they do. Trap it and pull it out into our world. Then send it back into its own world. Brando and you are wizards. I am an alchemist. Lanzo is a bite of this and that. I suppose that we knew what Amelina was when you found her.”
“Sorcery is a risky trade. One mistake and the demon that you are charming can take you. Rip your soul from body. Manifest and kill you with its bare hands.”Burkhard said.
“We are going to do this. If you want to repeat that to Amelina do so. She will laugh and do what she must.”Aldo said.
“I know. I just wish that we have another option.”
Aldo understood the feeling, but on this road tat they would travel each one of them were going to take life and death risk. Fortune and glory did not come to those who walked a safe path.


Chapter 3 Notes: Getting to know Aldo is a very important part of these stories. The younger him plays a very important part in the novel that will be a stand alone prequel to the Empires Falling Trilogy. He served under a great Mage who helped to determine the course of the last great Mycenia war. He is a wealth of information about the season of the flaming star. That season lasted almost ten months and saw the crowning of a new emperor in the west and the ending of one in the wilderness.
This last chapter also gave you a glimpse into the dark side of the magical word this saga will occupy. Black magic and deals with dark forces are the rule and not the exception during times of war.






Chapter Four.

It was not the screaming at all hours of the day and night. It was not the ungodly smell that came from the young masters chambers. It was not even the shadows that now occupied the estate. Shadow that would hide amongst those cast by object and people and would sometimes linger long after everyone and thing had been removed or leap to terrible life when everything was still. It was the unrelenting cold. Winter was months away and the cold even in room with roaring fireplaces would be bone chilling.
Demon's breath was what the Sorcerer named Vir had called it before he went up to those chambers to meet his end. In the village that Genki came from, across the eastern sea, if this happened to any of the people there it would have ended with the person being dragged to the center of the village and burned. Fire was the only sure way to dispose of a demon. The problem in this home was that the rich thought that anything could be done if enough gold was offered.
“Your job is not to stare off into space.”The old woman who ran the kitchens said. This angry silver haired woman, Fulvia, had looked like the oldest person she had ever met eight months ago when first taking a job as a servant here and she had not changed in the least. It was as if she had reach the limit of aging and would remain this way until a strong enough wind came along and reduced her to dust. Fulvia even smelled like dust.
“This place is being killed by that thing upstairs.”Genki whispered as if afraid to be overheard.
“Thing.”The old woman was going to correct her. “The young master will be himself soon.”
The young master? Even when he was his normal self he had been a cruel and angry man who during her eight months at this estate the young master had beaten one of his servants to death and raped two of the kitchen maids. The only reason that Genki assumed that she had not gotten any attention from him was that she was an eastern and he had said on many occasions easterns were worthless yellow dogs.
“I am sorry.”Genki said.
“You will be taking him his soup tonight.”Fulvia said.
“What?”
Genki had asked three more times for the old woman to repeat herself and then protested all the way up the back stairs, but she had been left with no choice, but to go to that room. The steaming broth in the clay pot that she carried would have smelled appetizing to anyone who did not know that it was a mixture of animal blood and herbs that the creature living inside the young master could consume. There was something else that rolled back and forth in the bowl that threw it a little off balance as she walked the back stairwell. She did not want to know what that something else was.
Strolling down the corridor to the door of the young master’s room she paused long enough to offer a quick prayer to the great maker before she noticed that the guard named Teel was not seated outside the door. The stool was over turned and the key was in the door's lock.
If the guard was not here then there would be no one in the world who would be able to make her go in there by herself. The thought of it brought back the memory of how they found the Sorcery laying on the floor with blood flowing freely from where his eyes, tongue, and ears had been. After than no one was supposed to ever be in that room alone.
“Teel?”Genki whispered so softly that she could barely hear her own voice.
Silence that went on for as long as Genki could hold her breath was all the response that she got. If she ran back to the kitchen without doing as she had been told the old woman would yell at her or maybe worst tell the lord of the house that she had not feed his son when told. The lord of the house had beaten many servants or so she had been told. In the last home that she worked in Genki had been beaten into unconsciousness by the mountain of a woman who handled the servants. Beating that continued on an off until with a broken wrist dangling at her side she had ran away from that house. The old woman down stairs had given her a job here even though at the time that wrist had not been completely healed yet. Fulvia had even seemed to give her duties that had spared the wrist until she had completely healed.
Could she heal from what would happen if she entered this room by herself?
Teel has to be in there already, Genki told herself as she reached for the door handle and winced from how cold it was. So cold in fact that when she flexed her grip she expected that her hand would be stuck to it and the only way to pull it away would be to yank until her flesh peeled off, but her hand came off the handle easily.
She grasped it again and gave it a turn. If it was still locked it would not have turned so that told her that Teel had to be in there with the young master.
The smell of butchery was unmistakable, but more disturbing was the wind that drove it into her face. The small stone room was a windowless. A single oil lamp that rested on the floor near the door was the only light source
in the room and despite the wind the flame in it did not flicker at all. Nor did the puddle of red spreading across the floor toward Genki who now stood just inside the room.
Maybe ten feet from the door the thing that occupied the young master's sat naked on a bed of hay, his wrists and neck ringed and chained to the wall.
“Is it the yellow bitch,”The voice of the speaking demon seemed to come from all around her. “You may eat that. I have eaten.”
Eaten?
Eaten what?
What was that smell? Beneath the stench of human waste and unwashed flesh was that stomach turning odor of butchery and it was butchery done badly. The kind where no care was taken. The kind where the butcher opened up the pockets of the animal that would normally be discarded because of what they contained.
She looked about the room. Nothing at all, but that puddle of red.
Blood?
She looked up and found Teel.
He was handing from the ceiling by his intestines, even though there was nothing there to attach them to. His chest was ripped open and his lungs were floating in the air to the sides as if they were blood soaked wings.
“You should run yellow dog.”The speaking demon said even as the bowl fell from Genki's hands and she was tumbling back out of the chamber.
The sound of her screaming was drowned out by the booming laughter of the speaking demon.
                             ***
 

Chapter 4 Notes: Demons of all kinds will have information about the past and the future because when they are not inside and controlling a body they have seen this world from the outside. They know in which direction that the river of fate is flowing. They will talk about the future and past from time to time, but they are no to be trusted. Demons are evil and part of being evil is lying. This demon like the ones yet to come are more powerful than those who practice sorcery would expect. The walls between worlds are growing thin and a time of darkness is coming to all of the Empires.

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Empires Falling, New Land Of The Khan Cover

Empires Falling, New Land Of The Khan Cover


I did not like the first cover for the Land Of the Khan short story, I did it myself and it shows. This time I have had a professional do it and it has made a world of difference. Of all the early Empires Falling short stories this one is my favorite and the  best. No one has taken the chance to read this story because of the lousy cover and that left me with two choices. Either I give it away or I change the look. I changed the look and this is your first chance to see it before the cover goes live.


I think that a year from now I will be getting more feedback than  I can deal with, but for now the feedback is slow in coming. Writing an epic fantasy series is a lonely business. Just myself and the characters and there are entire weeks that go by when they say nothing at all.

The next post will feature chapters three and four of the Speaking Demon short. Thank you for visiting my blog and please take a moment to visit the facebook page. When the first book comes out there will be rewards for the facebook followers.

Thank you visiting my site and feel free to pin the new story cover.

Empires Falling, Speaking Demon Chapter 2.

Empires Falling, Speaking Demon Chapter 2.


The second chapter has been free at Wattpad for a week and I think that I will give each chapter a week before releasing it here. This seems fair to me.  Empires Falling, the first novel is in the rewrite process and I am still hoping for a holiday release this year, although some have suggested that I release the twelve short stories as a collection first. It would be a seventy plus thousand word collection and without the shorts it will take a while to figure out how all the characters relate to each other. I love epic fantasy, but had no idea how hard it is to pull this off. I suppose the thing that keeps me going is two or three characters that have to tell their story no matter what. Also I want to know how it will all turn out. Sounds strange, but I really do not know how it will all end. I know the story of one character from almost beginning to end, but the rest of it surprises me almost everyday. 

Here is the second chapter of the story. I can offer only this as a preview of things to come. The characters of Lanzo and Amelina are the ones who have surprised me the most. As I edit this short story there is a part of me that wants to cry out and warn them of all the trials to come. Of all the characters in the Empires Falling universe I have to say that these two will have to (Quoting Bram Stoker) go through bitter waters to reach the sweet.

Chapter Two.
Twenty minutes later Brando and Burkhard got out of their tubs and gathered their things, before they exited Burkhard stopped at the door turned and asked. “You two want us to guard the door so that you will not be disturbed?”
Amelina surprised them with her answer. “Ten minutes. We will need ten minutes.”
The two men nodded to each other and walked out.
“Get out of there and come over here.”Amelina said. “I would like you to help me get dressed. You can serve me like a lady in waiting.”
“Really.”Lanzo sounded angry. “I suppose the other ladies in waiting will be shocked by the fact that I have a few things that they do not have.”Lanzo stood up in his tub and folded his arms proudly.
“A small shock.”Amelina said and offered a complex hand gesture toward the tub that he stood in. The water in it began to heat up and bubble almost immediately.
Lanzo tumbled over the side and crawled away from the now boiling water.
She watched for the better part of a minute while Lanzo mumbled to himself as he got his pants out of his bundle and slipped them on. Then he got to his feet and began to dance and hop as he got his boots on.
“I was serious. I want you to help me to get dressed.”Amelina said.
“Really?”
“Yes Lanzo.”
Men were easy to lead around especially when you were near then and naked she thought as Lanzo, still bare chested, crossed the room toward her.
She had not planned on playing with him, but the way that he looked at her intrigued her. It was not with lust in his eyes as the others did, it was something closer to amazement. She doubted that she was the first naked woman that he had seen so that meant that it was something else and she did not like to be in the dark where anyone near her was concerned.
Stopping beside the tub, he stared down into it with a grin on his face.
“See something you like?”Amelina asked.
“Well I am breathing.”Lanzo smiled and before she could reach Lanzo dipped a finger into her tub for just and instance and jumped backwards.
The water reacted in an instance. Instead of thin layers of warm mist rising from the water it turned to thicker layers of frosted mist and ice crystals began to form around the edges of the tub.
The feeling of cold rose from the bottom upwards and suppressing a scream Amelina bolted to her feet as what felt like ice began to form around her toes. She threw an arm around Lanzo's neck and jumped into his waiting arms.
“What, what, what was that.”Amelina's teeth chattered as she clung to him to warm up.
“Uhhhh...”Lanzo seemed to hum as he stared down at her bare breast that had reacted to the cold by stiffening.
Angrily Amelina shoved out of his grasped. Landing on her feet she quickly yanked her skirt from the bundle on the floor and held it up to cover herself. This was not turning out at all how she had planned it.
“How did you do that to my water?”Amelina asked. She had watched him do it. Just a finger in her water and then the rapid freeze had started. She looked back to the tub and saw that it was now a solid block of ice. He had not spoken a spell or engaged in hand gesture magic as she had done to him.
“I was mad. I thought it and just did it.”Lanzo said as if that explained it all. “Can't you do the same?”
Instead of telling the truth, which was she could not imagine how to do it, she dropped the skirt from her breast and began to wrap it around her waist. The effect was as good as magic. Lanzo forgot his question and gazed at her happily.
It was clearly time to take control of this situation again. There was more to Lanzo than met the naked or the far seeing eye. A rival hid things from you while a friend shared everything. Amelina finished tying the skirt and turned her back to him.
“There is a scarf in the sack, take it out please.”Amelina said and turned her back to him. She heard him dig around for a moment in the sack and then the
red scarf was resting on her shoulder. “No. Help me to tie it.”Amelina took the scarf, pulled it tight to cover her breast firmly and waited until he took the hint by taking hold of the ends she held out and pulling them around to her back where he crisscrossed them before handing the ends back to her. She crossed the scarf once more over her breast and returning the ends back to Lanzo, and he tied a simple knot.
“What do you think?”Amelina turned to face him.
“Pushes them up, although they really don't need any help in that area. This could catch on. Maybe in leather with a hook or metal clasp.”Lanzo said. “You could call them something like milk bag holders.”
“Milk bags?”She smiled. “How old are you Lanzo?”
“Eighteen.”
“My age. Seems like I am years older.”
“Maybe on the inside. People who do not laugh age inside faster than those of us who do.”Lanzo said.
“I laugh Lanzo. I just have to be careful who I laugh around. A woman like me? Well men can confuse almost everything I do with flirting.”She motioned for the next thing in the sack and Lanzo pulled her vest out of it. It was made of finely woven chain mail. The mail was silver instead of steel. It was made not for protection, but because she had found that silver enhanced her powers. It was not a wand, but it did help. Lanzo helped to fasten the vest without offering a word. She had expected him to be nervous and talk to much as nervous men usually did, but Lanzo was waiting for her to talk.
“I think that I should share a secret with you Lanzo. If you can keep it then perhaps we will be friends.”She turned to face him.
“The voice that you hear?”Lanzo said and Amelina stepped back as if she had been slapped.
“What?”
“On the boat trip. At night. Sometimes you would stand by the railing and whisper. Then the voice would whisper back through you. I think that they call it channeling?”Lanzo said.
“You could have said something about that.”
“I just did.”
“You know what I mean Lanzo.”Amelina said. This was not going the way that she pictured it. He was not as off balance or as uncomfortable around her as she hoped.
“Amelina I think we should talk.”Lanzo said.
“We are talking.”Amelina said and the response he gave was the last thing that she expected to hear.
“Not me and you. Me and the one you talk to.”


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The 4th Empires Falling short at Wattpad.

I have just published the first chapter of the next story in the series at the free site Wattpad. I plan on publishing one chapter a week over the next eight weeks until the story is published in total. I like three of these characters a great deal and the Empires Falling tale could not be told without the courage and abilities of at least one of these characters. 


Here is a picture of the cover for the story. I imagine that it looks similar to the lead female character in the story. I would change it a bit if I could, but no cover is ever perfect.

Below is the first chapter of the story I will publish it here as I do there. Plus notes about the characters from time to time.


Whispers From A Speaking Demon
By.
Rodney Cannon

Chapter One.
The lands west of the wilderness were not the most lucrative place for a those who practiced the magical arts. The east was steeped in its ancient traditions like the Wilderness and magic of all types were practiced as a way of everyday life while the Great Western empire had built its power upon the force of steel only now they were learning that steel alone could not protect what it had won in battle. They need people like Aldo and his followers.
Amelina, Brando, Burkhard and Lanzo stood at the railing of the boat that they had purchased passage on. The cargo of donkeys and saber foxes could be smelled, even on the open sea, for miles in every direction. A five-day passage with these stinking animals had not got to waste. There were a great many minor acts of magic that required saber fox dung and blood from any low animal. Brando and Burkhard knew most of it without being taught, while the much younger Lanzo had to be taught the spells and mixes of potions again and again.
Amelina knew the magic well enough, but did not apply herself. She was young and pretty and gifted with second sight so Aldo did not press her. The war hungry men that they would be dealing with would probably be more interested in her breast than her considerable gifts. Aldo knew how gifted she was and still it took even him a few weeks to overlook the temptations of young and firm flesh.
“A storm will be waiting for us when we arrive.”Amelina said with her back to him.
Aldo stepped forward and joined them at the forward railing.
He looked off to the distant sky and tried to see beyond it. Rain and icy hail and something man made beyond that. A storm of arrows?
“Our safety?”Aldo asked Amelina.
“We will be fine.”She smiled, then turned her eyes on the other three.
“One of them will fall and one will leave our company for a time. I cannot
see which one.”
“What?”Brando asked.
“One of us is going to trip over something and fall?”Lanzo asked.
“If it is anything, but that you could have said something before we boarded.”
“You cannot run away from your fate Lanzo.”Burkhard said.
“I disagree. Destiny is written in stone only for the world changers, for the common folk like me destiny does not care if I die while eating a bowl of soup or at the hands of a blood thirsty army or between the legs of a beautiful woman.”Lanzo said. “Hell an average woman, depending upon how much wine is involved.”
Amelina stared at Lanzo for an uncomfortable moment then frowned. “Your path seems fixed. It was not fix yesterday or last week, but now it is. Now and forward.”She said.
“How is that possible?”Aldo heard himself asking. He did not want to let them know that there was something that he did not understand so he quickly added. “Please tell them.”
“There are moments when our paths narrow to one. Imagine that all paths that he has walked has lead him to a river. To go forward he must take the river and once he does then the river is in charge.”Alemina told them.
“Does this path lead to you and me together?”Lanzo smiled.
“I cannot see my own future. That said, I can promise you that it does not. Except I can see you carrying my bag in about ten minutes.”She smiled back.
It turned out that both Lanzo and Brando carried their own bundles and those belonging to Alemina and their master. This allowed both Aldo and Alemina to stroll along the dock ahead of them fully cloaked. Aldo walked with his hands tucked inside his sleeves while Alemina allowed her long lovely hands to swing at her sides.
There were few perfect pleasures in life and Aldo wished that he could have accompanied his followers to the local bath house, but he needed to find a broker of their talents that he had been told about. He glanced back only once to Amelina and wished that he could send someone else to take care of this business.
***
Lanzo had never been a fan of public bathing or scented water. The room filled with steaming tubs were not public, but since he would be sharing it with Brando and Burkhard it felt public. If only he could find out where Amelina was taking her bath and share a tub with her then his life would be complete.
“Those easterns made me scrub down with soap before I came in here.”Lanzo said as he peeled off his towel and quickly climbed into the steaming hot tub. The thoughts of being naked in front of others was washed away by what felt like boiling hot water. “Awwhhh . . . ”Lanzo cried out as he danced around in the tub before sinking into it with the laughter of his two comrades echoing off the walls.
Lanzo was waving away the scented steam that was stinging his nostrils and eyes when someone walked into the room. He was at eye level to the most magnificent ass that he had even seen before he realized that it had been Amelina who had entered the room.
She dropped to one knee to place a small sack down beside a tub that would be lucky enough to envelope her amazing body. Then she was up and turning sideways to get into the tub and to give Lanzo a frontal view. The reaction that he had was not burning lust as he would have expected. There were moments that made a man feel inadequate and this was one of them. Lanzo felt as if no one, least of all he should have been allow to gaze on something some amazingly beautiful. Her curves and proportions along with that beautiful face was something that should have only been able to exist in dreams.
Amelina caught his eyes, saw something other than what she had expected and quickly, almost shyly retreated into the steaming water.
“You are lucky that Aldo is elsewhere. Not a pretty sight brother.”Burkhard said.
“How about the last sight.”Brando grinned.
“Magical.”Lanzo said.


     That is the first chapter of this fantasy short story. I hope that those of you that have read the stories in the Empires Falling series have enjoyed them. I look forward to getting feedback from you guys about the short story series. 

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Last note, my offer of a free text copy of any of the first three short stories for those of you who like the facebook page is still in effect. So please take a moment to visit the facebook page. The link is on the side of this page.

Empires Falling, The Release of The First Port in the Storm

The third short story that will introduce more characters from my epic fantasy novel series Empires Falling has been released and show become available at Amazon and iTunes as early as tomorrow.  Below you will see the cover for the 8,000 word short story. The sale price will be .99 cents. I think I will have to revisit the lead characters in at least one more short story before they become central to the first novel. 

My first love was scifi and fantasy fiction so writing it has been a thrill for me. I know that I have promised a free short story in the series and that will be the next to be released. It is really a matter of me transcribing what I have hand written to word perfect and when doing this the story always changes and I end up discovering new things about certain characters.

Okay enough about my writing process. Below is the Blurb (back cover description) of the story published today. I cannot tell you how it all turns out, but I can say that of all the characters that I have written about Miri has surprised me most with her strength and courage.

The First Port in The Storm is the third in a series of epic fantasy short stories that introduce the characters that will populate the Empires Falling novels. In this story Miri of the Ansha is the rarest kind of practitioner of the magical arts. She is a Mystic who has had her most precious magical gift stolen with the removal out of her eyes. Her eyes were given in payment to the witch who found a way to capture her. Now blind and on a river journey to an unknown place she is at the mercy of a sadistic captain who beats, rapes and brutalizes her as often as he can. Nearing the first port since this journey began Miri must risk all in a last chance at freedom through escape or death.


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You can purchase the story at B&N by clicking here.