Enchanted Realms Tales of Fantasy in Light and Shadow a collaboration of 13 award-winning authors ➱ Book Pre Order Tour with Rafflecopter
For the first time, these 13 award-winning authors collaborate
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Enchanted Realms
Tales of Fantasy in Light and Shadow
with stories by
For
the first time, these award-winning authors collaborate on fantastic
novellas of adventure, magic, dragons, quests, fae, and war!
Find
your next favorite fantasy world among these enchanted tales--from
dragons to fairies to creatures you’d never dream of. Fantasy has
been re-imagined for your reading pleasure in this boxed set of
original novellas. Let them carry you to lands you won’t want to
leave with fully fleshed—and sometimes scaled—characters you
can’t help but cheer for--on adventures you may not survive…
If
you like reading J.R.R. Tolkien, Terry Goodkind, and Ursula K. Le
Guin, you will love Enchanted
Realms. No
matter your typical fantasy flavor, Enchanted
Realms offers
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Della and the Dragon's Sword
by Sandy Lender
The clever Della Smithieson returns to a dragon’s lair not knowing if the beast will help her—or roast her for her audacity. She’s on a quest to retrieve a cursed sword for a wizard, unaware of the trap the ancient dragon set for her two winters ago, unaware of the covetous evil lurking in the fetid fields around her old home. This psychological horror story of dragon manipulation and #GirlPower is set in Sandy Lender’s fantasy world of Onweald and appears for the first time in Enchanted Realms: Tales of Fantasy in Light and Shadow, from Jumpmaster Press.
Excerpt
from Della and the Dragon’s Sword, by Sandy Lender
The
Demon Fight Scene, from chapter 1
A
beast clicked its claws along the Anthelk Mountain pass in pursuit of her—the
dragging hit of thick nails against stone gaining ground behind her with each
step she took. It was time to make her stand against the threat, before she
found herself fighting a demon that could see more clearly in the dark than
she.
Grasping
the hilt of a too-short dagger at her belt, Della struggled to soften her
breath. Tried to listen over her blood sloshing in her brain to hear from where
the creature approached. She glanced up.
Blast.
The
chasm where she sought shelter gave way to a ledge where any number of monsters
could stand. Then drop onto her. She mouthed a prayer to the gods, hoping at
least one in Mahriket was paying attention.
Good
luck, girl, she
told herself.
She
pulled the knife clear of its leather sheath and put its tip to the wall near
the deflated satchel resting against her hip. With a calculated arc, she
swirled her wrist, so the forged iron dragged in a metallic scrape for the
space of a breath.
The
creature grunted nearby.
In
fact, the vile thing had crept close enough that she heard the bones in its
neck snap toward her position. It gurgled deeply, lowly—a growl of
anticipation. Its rotting-flesh stink wafted in her direction, along with the
whine of tiny, winged insects seeking flesh to aggravate.
She
fought her gag reflex, holding her open hand to her stomach.
Instead
of giving in to sickness, she tightened her grip on the weapon—holding it
pointed backward as Trume had taught her at the conclave.
I
need a longer blade.
She
glanced furtively around her feet for a rock, a stone, any jagged shard from
the path that she could grab to bludgeon the creature’s mouth if it should rush
her. She had to keep its teeth and claws at bay. If this was an edras—which is
what it smelled like—she had to keep its venom off her skin.
I
should’ve demanded a sword before I left.
She
bent her knees, lowering her torso vertically down the rock face—momentarily
catching the satchel strap on some blasted outcropping that probably bruised
her flesh—to reach for a fist-sized rock about a hand’s width from her boot.
Curling her long geasa’n fingers around it, she shifted it in her grip, so the
smoothest surface positioned in her palm and the most jagged edge jutted out
from between her thumb and splayed digits.
It’s
my own fault. I should’ve picked up a sword on the way here. I had a full turn
of the moons to change this insipid plan.
That’s
when time slipped away for Della. Crouched close to the ground, basic weapons
in each hand, she cringed at the putrid heap of flesh-covered bone landing not
six feet from her. An edras demon hit the stone-and-earth path on all fours,
powdering dust clouds around its feet and claws. Its alopecic head brought its
snake-slit eyes level with hers. Slime-lined vocal cords vibrated a slippery, alto
growl. “I know who you are, Della Sssmithiessson.”
Her
whole body shuddered. No one in the world of Onweald wanted an edras singling
him out; it meant someone in a position of power had called on this
foul-smelling beast, summoning it from the dark spirit realm to find her
specifically.
“Fight
for your life,” it commanded lowly. “One who will not be named wantsss your
valuable carcassss.”
The
urge to run sent the geasa coursing through her. Blood thundered violently to
her brain like the Wepanchiele River in flood. If I stand, I expose too much
of myself. She could lunge to the left from her crouched position, could
dive and dart away from this menace.
Except
now the familiar hit-click of thick nails sounded from the left.
By
the gods, there are two of them.
Sandy Lender is a construction magazine editor by day and author of #GirlPower fantasy novels by night, living in Florida to help with sea turtle conservation and parrot rescue. You can follow her author page on Amazon, check her website at SandyLenderInk.com, or subscribe to her newsletter at https://bit.ly/SSReNews.
With a four-year degree in English and thirty-year career in publishing, Sandy’s successes include traditionally and self-published novels, hundreds of magazine articles, multiple short stories in competitive anthologies, a handful of technical writing awards, and a handful of creative writing awards and nominations. Sandy’s been writing stories since she was knee-high to a grasshopper when her great-grandmother shared her odd little tales of squeaky ghost-spiders around an apartment complex in Southern Illinois. The stories have developed to include strong young ladies working with dragons to save worlds from terrible fates, but those pesky spiders still show up from time to time.
There’s always something brewing at Sandy Lender Ink headquarters where some days, you just want the dragon to win.
TY for sharing the news! The day is almost "done" where I am so I'm checkin in to see if any visitors had questions about stuff. Annnnnd I'm jonesin' for the release of the whole ebook of awesome tomorrow!
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