Books

Magic with a terrible price. Sky-pirates. Demons. Inside Duty and Other Stories: Duty A standalone short story set in the world of The Slain God Saga, a forthcoming epic fantasy series. Power of any kind has its price, and the power of life and death bears the heaviest of all. The women of the Dui, a secretive order of magical healers scattered across Doth Domhan, pay this price every single day to carry out their duty: to heal. Míanann has always done her duty, and each time she has paid the toll in full. Now there is nothing left of herself to sacrifice, no strength left with which to do her duty. Nothing left, until a little girl comes through her door, dying in the arms of her terrified father, and Míanann feels the pull of her duty once more... This short story was originally published in Bards and Sages Quarterly. Voyage of the Skyriders A standalone short story set in the world of a forthcoming epic fantasy series, The Slain God Saga. The Mountain Swallow hides a dark secret. Still reeling from a recent defeat, Ingtar must rally his crew for a treacherous passage to Catharleas to replace their ship's failing engines. But there is weakness in him that has never been present before, and no place in the world punishes a weak heart harder than the skies above the Sundered Plains... Voyage of the Skyriders is a short fantasy story (approx. 6000 words). The Shadow Binder An excerpt from my episodic progression fantasy series, 'The Shadow Binder'. The stars are going out. This is the only certainty, besides his own name, that Casek wakes with, strapped to a table among the ruins of a faintly familiar building. Armed with only a strange voice in his head and what few, fragmented memories survived his age-long sleep, he must escape his prison and survive long enough to build a new life of peace and happiness for himself. Unfortunately, the world outside is one ravaged by the Shadow: parasitic, demonic entities that sustain themselves with the energy of other living beings. World by world they have stripped the stars bare of life, and now the final dying embers of a once-great human civilisation fight a losing battle against an inexhaustible enemy. The Last Human City, Oreia, remains hidden from the enemy, and its force of Shadow Binders continue to stand firm, a final, formidable bulwark against the encroaching dark. However, their numbers dwindle by the day, and the Shadow prepares its forces to overwhelm the last of humanity's resistance. If Casek is to survive for long, he must find the city before it falls, and somehow discover a way to turn the tide against impossible odds before it's too late.