Spoor Snippets

This is the final snippet. GODSWAR 1 - The Mask of Ares - Chapter 21 Chapter 21. He stood over the open grave with his fists clenched, such venom boiling in his veins that there were claws starting to cut their way into his palms. Gritting teeth that had gone pointed, he took hold of his anger and forced it, immaterial step by immaterial step, back into the cage he had forged over the millennia to hold it. There were times to let it free … but not now, not here, where his transformation into something inhuman would betray far too much. The...

GODSWAR 1 - The Mask of Ares - Chapter 20 Chapter 20. "The Wanderer." Victoria's voice was level, with just a hint of the doubt she felt. At that, she couldn't deny that she felt a certain frisson of awe at the figure before her. A bit shorter than she had expected, perhaps, but in other particulars, he matched the myths well enough. And from the way the man stood, the faint traces of power she could sense, her long experience told her that he was a very formidable being, indeed. "Isn't it amazing, Auntie?" Urelle said, her gray eyes...

GODSWAR 1 - The Mask of Ares - Chapter 19 Chapter 19. Urelle looked at the wide, soft bed with its black-and-green patterned coverlet longingly, but sighed. Can't go to sleep right now. She had, with relief, let go of the enchantment on the distant Coin once Auntie had brought it up. She had been pushing herself very hard, and it had been time to release it, but – being entirely honest – she didn't think it had been too hard. The effort involved had felt … well, like a good workout with Lythos. Pushing herself, stretching her capabilities as...

This book is currently available in the Kindle Store as well as on the Eric Flint Ring Of Fire site.  Snippets will continue thru Chapter 21. GODSWAR 1 - The Mask of Ares - Chapter 18 Chapter 18. "Ingram," Victoria said, "How are certain are you that we are still on the proper course?" "About a hundred per cent," Ingram said. "Why?" Quester caught a hint of amusement from his friend. "Because I haven't noticed you stopping to take bearings much, if at all, in our travels. And there are so many ways to get lost in the Forest Sea. I've...

GODSWAR 1 - The Mask of Ares - Chapter 17 Chapter 17. "Of course I want you to succeed, my son," said his mother. "But there is only so much I can do for you without making my King and husband doubt that it is your success, and not mine, that he sees." He nodded, unwillingly, in acquiescence. Having Mother's whole-hearted support in his endeavors would make everything vastly easier, of course, but she was right; then there would be – would always be – the question as to whether any of the credit belonged to him, rather than to the Queen and...

GODSWAR 1 - The Mask of Ares - Chapter 16 Chapter 16. Chaoswar. The word echoed menacingly through Ingram's mind. On its own it was a silly word. War was usually chaos. Putting the two together was near enough a redundancy. But as every living being on Zarathan knew, had been taught, had read in books or heard in legends or seen in ancient carvings, there was nothing whatsoever silly about it. "Chaoswar" was only the translation, anyway, of a phrase in Ancient Sauran that meant something more like "the world plunged into war, that only chaos...

GODSWAR 1 - The Mask of Ares - Chapter 15 Chapter 15. She rose from below the cliff in a glow like sunbeams on water, bronze curls tumbling across her shoulders, skin of olive-touched gold, a body as strong and tall as Urelle remembered her sister Kyri's, and cradled in her arms was Ingram, staring at the newcomer with such awe and joy and love that Urelle felt something constrict in her chest. Then the girl laughed, and the sound itself was joy, a clarion cry of courage and triumph that dispelled thoughts of fear and defeat. "Never fear,...

GODSWAR 1 - The Mask of Ares - Chapter 14 Chapter 14. Victoria saw the tension in Urelle's entire body vanish abruptly – a tension that Victoria had not consciously realized she had seen until it had disappeared. Ah. Of course. "The spell has reached your limits, then?" "Auntie? How did you know?" Urelle stared at her; the other two looked back from their position a little ahead. "An educated guess from observation," she answered with a smile. "I saw you relax. You'd been under tension, then relaxed without anything visible to cause it. Only...