Lioness of Kell
Release Date: January 30th 2015
Red Rune Books
Summary from Goodreads:
Secure in his position as the mighty Prince-warlock’s son, eighteen-year-old Basil is content with his solitary life of study and magic. He has a comfortable set of rooms in his father’s tower, he has his books and scrolls, and he is perfectly happy. Until the Warlockry Council summons him, and their demands sets his whole, safe existence tottering. Scared and unsure, he decides to run, and takes the first ship out of town. On board he meets Yarwan, the handsome midshipman, who awakens feelings he never knew existed.
Maud of the M'Brannoe, at nineteen already a mighty Kell warrioress, is about to graduate as a Lioness, a special duty officer answering to her Queen and no one else. The Prince-warlock asks her to fetch a certain boy from a pirate town, who could be double for his son. On their way back, someone sabotages their airship and the two find themselves marooned in an ill-reputed forest. Together, the young lioness and Jurgis the lookalike run for the coast and a ship home, while finding solace in each other’s arms.
Then the four young people meet, and Basil learns of a spell that might help him. Only the spell’s creator, the infamous Black Warlock, disappeared nearly a century ago. When the four young people decide to go looking for him, they start on a path leading to an old war and unsolved mysteries that will change the world. Or kill them.
A spirited fantasy story of high adventure, sparkling humor and romantic love in an alternate earth setting of tropical islands, pirates, steamships and wyrms, where both magic and early modern technology flourish.
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Now Maud heard the sounds of
fighting coming from the building. She drew her sword and ran inside, straight
into a pitched battle. Soldiers in foreign uniforms were fighting the
leopardesses twelve to four and though the girls were hefty enough, they were
trained to shoot from a distance, and close combat found them at a
disadvantage.
Maud’s full-throated battle
cry rallied them. They answered with a high, growling leopard’s yell and
renewed energy.
A plumed enemy officer
shouted a command and half of the soldiers turned to face the newcomers. The
lioness gave a barking laugh and sprang at him. Her sword, twice as long as
his, crashed through his defense and the man stumbled. A second blow forced him
to his knees and desperately he tried to block a third.
‘For the Kell,’ Maud cried,
while her next swipe broke both the man’s blade and his skull.
Panting, she turned to
another soldier. Three quick punches with her left fist turned his face into a
bloody mess, and a vicious kick in the groin sent him reeling back to lose his
life in a leopardess’ arms. His sword skittered over the marble floor and from
the corner of her eye Maud saw Wargall dive for it. His face changed as he
gripped the hilt and smiling ecstatically, he rammed the sword under the
breastplate of the nearest of two soldiers fighting another leopardess.
The flat of a blade hit
Maud’s shoulder, and she cursed with the pain. For a moment, the throne room
went red before her eyes and she forgot all but those pesky little beings. Kill! her mind yelled, and blood covered
the floor of the throne room as she brained the attacker with her sword pommel.
Instinctively, she dodged a short burst of blackness Basil threw at a soldier.
The enemy warrior withered where he stood, sinking down in a smoking heap. Then
Wargall spurted past her, waving his sword, his face contorted. ‘M’Arrangh!’ he
screamed. ‘M’Arrangh for the Kell!’ He struck at a soldier and the man cried
out, clutching his shoulder. Quickly, Maud finished the man off and Wargall
ran, looking for another.
‘More coming through!’
Jurgis shouted, pointing at the portal.
A large shape shimmered and
consolidated in the space under the floor. No soldier, this, but a giant Kell,
dressed in an embroidered robe, his cruel face covered in garish markings.
Instead of fighting, he lifted his arms and turned on the portal itself. Under
his incantations, the wooden frame smoked and blackened.
‘He’s destroying the
portal,’ Jurgis yelled from across the room. With an explosion of light, the
frame burst into splinters. Then the Kell ran up the ladder and turned his
attention to the fighting. He was big, easily as tall as Maud, but possessed by
an aggression the lioness lacked.
‘For the M’Arrangh!’ Wargall
shouted, as he ran toward the big man.
The Kell turned, and lifted
his hands at the boy. ‘You’re no M’Arrangh, stunted worm!’ Death formed between
his fingers, a poisonous snake with many heads, writhing and hissing in anger.
Wargall froze, sword half lifted, as he stared at the mass of snakes. Then, a
shiver ran through him and he sprang, ramming the sword into the man’s abdomen
and up towards the heart. The giant arched backward, his hands slackened, and
the snakes disappeared. With his mouth open in a stilled scream, the big Kell
crashed down at the foot of Kelwarg’s bed.
The boy pulled his sword
from the body and turned to the others, his eyes unseeing. ‘Is he... Did I...?’
‘As dead as yesterday’s
dinner,’ Jurgis said, hurrying across. He gripped Wargall’s shoulders and shook
him. ‘Well done, man!’
About the Author
Paul E. Horsman (1952) is a
Dutch and International Fantasy Author. Born in the sleepy garden village of
Bussum, The Netherlands, he now lives in Roosendaal, a town on the Dutch border
with Belgium.
He has been a soldier, salesman, scoutmaster and
from 1995 teacher of Dutch as a Second Language to refugees from all over the
globe.
Since 2012, he is a full-time writer of epic light fantasy adventures for Y.A. and older. His works have been both trade published in The Netherlands, and self-published internationally.
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