A classic High Fantasy for those who love deep sorcery, adept sword fighting and a gutsy heroine versus darkest evil!
The Talisman Box is my first novel, or at least the first novel that I finished... It is the story of young Shian, a poor girl from the lowest part of Grachloc, a fishing town on the northern border of the SapphireDeep. But though she seemed to be no more than another lost waif from Docks, fate played heavily on the young girl and her future would be far greater than anyone could imagine.Set in the world of Cathias, this High Fantasy is rich in magic and history, a world that Shian will be discovering, whether she wants to or not!
As I wrote the Talisman Box, I illustrated several scenes from the book, more for my own sake than thinking it would ever go into the book itself. As it turned out, the pictures turned out rather well and I was able to include them and several maps of my world, a world that I have been creating for almost fifteen years now. I was not sure if I should include them or not because I have a firm belief that the reader should put faces and images to a story on their own. There was also the fact that I drew many of these pictures over a long period of time and the styles of art changed as much as the characters did in my mind. So as you read through and run across each image, erase whatever you want and put in the face or dress or building that YOU see. I could have the whole thing wrong! (grin)
I've included some excerpts and the various blurbs below the gallery. Please feel free to read them and then go buy the book! I promise you that this is only the beginning...)
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A poor young girl escaping an abusive father finds herself thrust into a quest to stop two warring countries from destroying each other. In the midst of a twisted plot mined with lies and deceit, even those who Shian loves must betray her. Before Shian can be free of a destiny that she never wanted, the daughter of Rahadel must face the threat of an evil more powerful than the great High Lords of mighty Citadel… herself. Created to infuse itself into her very soul and corrupt to the core of darkness itself, Shian must decide if she will accept or deny the gift and the curse of the Talisman Box!
Shian shivered in the attic, curled like a wounded animal against the wall. She read her diary, one arm pressed closely to her body. Shian knew that the arm was broken but there was nothing she could do about it. So she read from her diary, waiting for her father to pass out downstairs.
Beatings were common in Rahadel’s little wharf home. The bloody diary she read told the story of abuse, not so much in the words but in the occasional drips of blood on a sheet of paper, punctuation that sealed pages shut. This winter night had been different though; this night had been bad.
She should not have forgotten to help him, not when it involved her father’s boat. All he had wanted Shian to do was help with the winch. It was a simple enough task but something that Rahadel could not do alone. Shian did not show up at the pier as he had asked and the result was devastating. Alone, Rahadel had worked feverishly but it was not enough. In an instant the Fairy and Elemental induced frost had solidified the bay, trapping the rudder of his fishing boat in a lock of unbreakable ice. Once it was caught, her father had the option of letting his boat dangle in the frozen rigging that was meant to extract it from the water during this enchanted season or he could chop off the captured rudder and save his ship.
While the mating Water Dryads and Ice Elementals responsible for the freeze danced beneath the thickly frozen sheathe, Rahadel took an axe to his ship, his life’s blood, and began to hack away the rudder. With every stroke, he promised through bitter oaths to make Shian pay.
Reading the last few pages of her diary, she saw the mocking note to herself, a reminder that Rahadel would be an unbearable monster until the ice broke. Like a trapped animal he would be unable to ply the seas until the mating season ended and the magical frost broke. What Shian should have written was a reminder to make sure that she was at the docks when he needed her, in this of all suns. Now, Rahadel’s reasons mattered little. In a drunken rage, Rahadel had found her up here in the attic, lost in forbidden daydreams. She had barely found the time to hide her special treasure before he burst through the tiny trap door from the commons room below.
Rahadel had well and truly `punished’ her.
Her left eye began to well over again with tears and blood. Frustrated, her one good hand tried to peel open a series of earlier pages but they had long since sealed shut, glued by a dried crimson stain.
Frashille stood in the center of a growing green flame that had jumped from the shroud of the deceased Wanderer to the next body, and then the next. The entire room soon went up in vast green sorcerous fire, roaring into an inferno that Siyin and Graf could see and hear but not feel. A frenzy of feeding flames swept the room like a living creature, swirling in the air, burning across the ceiling, covering everything with the fingers of consumption.
“By the Goddess..” a voice from behind murmured as a guard rushed past Siyin. He slammed into the invisible Ward across the Shelter door and hit the ground hard. With the wind knocked from him, he clutched at a bloody nose. “The fire will burn the whole Palaise down!” he bellowed from beneath his hand.
“No, it won’t.” Graf said calmly, pointing to Frashille. The Elder stood unaffected in the center of the inferno. “Look, he’s unharmed. The Elder is in full control.”
“What is he doing?” Siyin asked in wonder, feeling the sorcerous fire with talents she had just begun to use.
“He is cleansing the room.” Graf answered, helping the guard to his feet. Graf brought his hand across the man’s nose and stopped the bleeding. He wasn’t a Healer but Hathias had taught him a few tricks. Once the blood flow stopped, he, Siyin and the guard stood and watched in wonder as the entire room screamed with the fury of an inferno. It was horrible and glorious.
A quarter candle passed before the flames died away. Frashille did not move in that entire time, his lips kept repeating the enchantment again and again until every cadaver had been totally consumed. When his voice died away, so too did the flames.
Not a single thing other than the bodies and their shrouds had burned. Tables, cloths, tools, everything was as it was before but now, instead of a full morgue, every stone slab was empty, purified. The dead had been cleansed of Daoine taint and Frashille, in his own way, had done his best to honor the deceased Wanderer. The Cleansing was only a token; he knew that. Frashille had performed the Cleansing in part to make himself feel better but if that were the case, he had failed. The ache in his chest remained.
“Are you a sorcerer too?” The Heir Prince of the OuterRealm asked.
“Not yet.” Graf answered somewhat shyly. He had never spoken to Royalty before.
Siyin groaned.
“Don’t listen to him.” she uttered. “He’s possibly one of the most talented and powerful Acolytes that the Legion has ever produced.”
“I am not...” Graf began before Siyin told him to shut up.
“He is, my Prince.”
The Heir laughed at the two. Obviously they were quite attached to each other even if they did not know it yet.
“My name is Zane, not Prince. Really, since I’ve arrived here I have been `Princed’ to death. Darrien is coming as soon as he can get out of his father’s court. You can call him `Prince’ if you want to. He’s a jerk and he likes that kind of stuff. The Elder and the King have been in a meeting for almost a full candle and Mathic has to sit in on it. The King makes Mathic stay for all of his official business so that he can learn what it takes to run a kingdom.”
“What about you?” Siyin asked. “What are you doing here? Why aren’t you in the OuterRealm learning how to be a Prince?”
“I’m on break. Believe me, my father is even worse than Darrien’s. The only reason I got out of sitting in on that session is because I wasn’t in the room with Darrien when he was summoned.”
“Oh, and just where were you?” Siyin asked, her rude curiosity making Graf blush.
“I was looking for you two. I heard that the Elder was traveling with two of his students and I was curious...” he worded cautiously, tentatively.
“About what?”
“About what a student sorcerer was like.” he said, eyes ablaze with excitement. “What kind of stuff do you guys have to learn? It must be really strange.”
“No stranger than being the son of a Prince.” Graf returned. “I suppose it’s just the way you look at it.”
Siyin watched the two begin to talk and yawned not far into their conversation. It was not very interesting. She and Shian had talked about really great things, interesting things.
“I met her you know.” Zane said and Siyin’s interest suddenly came back. “That girl, the one who was at the center of the attack you came to investigate.”
“Did you now?” she asked, butting into the conversation, not that Graf was surprised. “How did she look?” Siyin had not heard from her friend in such a long time that she could not help but be worried. Any news Siyin could gather would help.
“Afraid.” Zane answered quietly, seeing that Siyin and her companion knew the girl personally. “I talked to her before the attack. She had been working in the kitchens and Chef told the Queen that she made the meal. It was really good.” he said, feeling stupid at the comment. These two didn’t care about how well she cooked. “Anyway, Darrien and I introduced ourselves and she almost fainted. I thought that she was just nervous, you know, about meeting us. I guess she had other things to be concerned about.” The young Heir to the OuterRealm lowered his head, realizing that he was not really helping.
Graf rubbed a hand on Siyin’s shoulder to comfort her.
“Well, I guess she made it out alright.” Siyin said, her face covered in a false smile of hope. Her eyes began to tear and she stood to walk away before the boys noticed. She left the room where Frashille had told them to wait and looked for somewhere, any place that might be private. If she could not get the tears under control, they would really begin to flow and she did not want anyone to see her like this.
Remembering Shian had been the trigger. Siyin had seen all those dead people, lying on the stone slabs in blood stained shrouds. Whatever had killed them did so in a room filled with soldiers, savaging them like an animal. How was Shian, her friend, going to survive something like that? It had killed a Wanderer, a full-fledged Wanderer! What chance did Shian have? What chance at all?
Format: Paperback
Size: 6 x 9
Pages: 600
ISBN: 0-595-13509-9
Publication Date: Apr-2001