Today's Teaser Tuesday comes from author Katie Thornton!
Enjoy & Comment!
The Lands of Ayrenia was once a place that flourished with
Magic until the Cataclysm, an event that eradicated all Magic. Three hundred
years have passed since, and the gods seek a way to bring Magic back into the
dying world. They choose Braelyn, a young girl, who is captured by pirates and
sold as a slave to a gladiator house. Born to a warrior clan, Braelyn uses the
skills her father taught her to rise in the ranks as a gladiator in order to
earn her freedom. If she survives, the gods have great plans for her.
EXCERPT:
The next few days were quiet in the village on the coast,
with a few visitors to the Inn and very good catches at sea. There was rain one
evening, followed by very thick fog that came rolling off of the ocean and
settled over the village. The fog was still there in the morning, making it
difficult for the children to concentrate with the sword practice.
“Let us go down to the beach,” Braelyn told the children. They laughed as they
made their way carefully down to the beach. Some of them chose to play around
in the water but the rest chose to build sand houses. Braelyn was in the water
for a bit, until she thought she heard what sounded like an oar dipping into
the water. She turned to face the ocean but could only just see a few feet
before her.
“Out of the water,” she whispered to her friends, waving her arms to get their
attention. They quickly did as she said and they all waited nervously on the
beach watching the water. Beyond the barrier of pointed logs twenty feet out
they could just barely see the outline of the barrier itself.
Braelyn focused on the water, listening. Then she heard the unmistakable sound
of oars in the water and men cursing.
“Go alert the village,” she whispered to her friends. “Jack and Jon, go. Be
quick.” She watched as the two boys ran off up the beach. “Meg and Ryan, go to
the docks quickly!” Those two left at a run as well. To the remaining four she
told them to head for the blacksmiths where there were weapons that would need
to be passed out and most likely used.
“What about you?” one of the girls her age asked her as she turned to go.
“I will stay here.” Braelyn pulled a dagger from her boot and ushered her on.
The girl ran as Braelyn went over to a sand dune to hide behind.
She did not have to wait long till she heard a scream from the water where
someone had met badly with a pointed log. Braelyn heard curses and then someone
said, “This village is more prepar’d for water ‘tacks than them other ones.”
“Quiet, you lout! Sound carries in the fog!”
Braelyn rolled her eyes at the incompetence of the pirates as she noticed that
the fog was thinning. She could finally see the longboat that the pirates were
in on the other side of the barrier, and there was a man literally stuck on the
point of one of the logs. Blood dripped down into the ocean as the man squirmed
in death throes, only sinking himself deeper onto the log.
Braelyn heard shouting from the location of the dock and then heard the crash
of the dock falling apart.
“Something’s happened to our ship!” one of the men in the longboat exclaimed.
“This village is not like any of the others.”
“Just ‘cause they’re ready for us doesn’t mean we can’t take ‘em,” another man
said.
She heard the creak of logs being moved by hand and she turned back to the
ocean. There were men in the water moving the logs to allow the longboat and
another behind it full of men through. Twenty pirates came onto the beach and
headed up the path to the village. Braelyn followed through the long grass just
behind them.
She heard shouting up ahead and then saw many of the pirates stagger back with
arrows in their chests. The other pirates drew bastard swords and advanced only
to be met with the steel of the villagers. The blacksmith was among the
villagers and he fought with his giant hammer, smashing in heads and breaking
arms that came near him.
“Back to the beach!” one of the pirates yelled out when he noticed fire from
near the dock that he realized was their ship. A bell tolled on the ship which
seemed to signal that they indeed needed to retreat so they took off at a run.
Braelyn headed back down to the beach along with them, but when she reached the
beach she was ahead of them and she did not hide in time.
“Well, lookie here.” One of the pirates saw her as she tried to duck down
behind a dune. “A villager brat!”
“Might as well get one, than none,” another said as they advanced on her. One
of them reached out to grab her but her dagger flashed in her hand and cut off
a couple of the man’s fingers. He screamed in pain and fell backward as she
slashed at another who jumped back and into the other man who pulled him down
with him. Some of the other pirates came to their comrades’ aid and surrounded
her whilst the others rushed to the longboats.
The pirates yelled curses at her as she warded them off with her dagger. She
caught flesh a few times, and punched quite a few where it counted. There was
an opening in the circle that she took advantage of; she thought she was clear
of them when someone grabbed her hair and yanked her back. She let out a yelp
as he pulled her up by the hair and then cursed as someone yanked her dagger
out of her hand.
“Hurry it up!” a pirate from the longboat yelled to them. “There are people
coming to the beach and the ship is waiting!”
“You have caused quite some trouble, girlie,” the pirate holding her hair told
her as he shook her roughly. “You should have stayed hidden, ‘cause you’re
gonna be in the Shadows soon.”
Someone tied her hands and ankles quickly, and then she was thrown over
someone’s shoulder before they headed for the longboats. Braelyn heard yelling
from the beach as she was thrown into the longboat, and she looked up to see
villagers coming after them, yelling her name. She kicked and wriggled out of
the ties on her hands and punched one pirate in the nose as hard as she could,
hearing the sickening sound of the nose breaking. The man fell over the side of
the longboat and did not attempt to get back up: cartilage from his nose had
gone into his brain killing him.
Braelyn grabbed hold of another pirate’s bastard sword and pulled it from its sheath
in one swift move before disemboweling the very pirate the sword belonged to
and pushing the man into the water. She turned on the other pirates but was not
quick enough to avoid the blow to her head that knocked her out. She sank down
amongst the viscera from the last man she had killed, and she knew nothing else
but darkness for quite some time.
website: www.katiethorntonk.com
Katie
grew up with a love of reading, and started writing in her early teens. By the
time she was done high school she had written a novel. She went to Wilfrid
Laurier University in the Archaeology program to become a Medieval
Archaeologist. The knowledge she gained about the Classical and Medieval world
she used to incorporate into her writing. She lives in a small town in the
township of Howick, the County of Huron, Ontario, Canada. She is very happily
married to her amazing and loving husband Jason. She has an adorable son
Daniel, with another child on the way. They have two cats, Orion and Andromeda.
She loves reading and writing, and getting her feet dirty. She hates the cold, worships the sun, and likes sundresses. She likes all animals. She loves life, and is looking forward to the future.
Fantasy novels is what she
enjoys most, in what she reads, and writes. It's an escape. All of her
heroine's have a part of her in them. She created the Lands of Ayrenia to be a
Magical world, where anything can happen. Keeps you on your toes. Wanting more.
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