Chapter One

Rapheth's eyes shined with wicked mischief as he put a finger to his lips to silence their furious whisperings. They were trying to decide which way to go to get to the inn unseen. He, Ephron and Shukala, his two best friends, were prowling about in the bowels of the upper city, Rhuctium. They were in the unnamed city, which stretched out in a string of ramshackle, loose communities from Jhis to Rhuctium. It was a mysterious underworld that held everything of the fascination and forbidden wonders that young men craved. They went regardless of their parents' fears, regardless of Ilim and Zigal's many dour warnings.

He heard the familiar patter and gurgle of the wide stream below and the whisper of small rivulets of water streaming down filthy stone walls. it stank of rotting garbage but they had learned to ignore this long ago. To them the tavern was a kind of hidden freedom from their respectable families and worth every unmentionable smell crowding the nose. They were now deep underground, nearing Marashiah-Degar's infamous tavern where they'd shown their faces more than a few times for drink, puffs on a water-pipe and a bit of bawdy storytelling and harmless trouble. Harech, one of the regular patrons - so regular he was nearly part of the furniture of the place - had put him on a dare that he could not steal his red cap from his head.

"Shukala, come! I need you to do something for me," he whispered. Shukala and Ephron followed behind, ready for mischief.

"What?"

"Go down beneath the tavern to the center grate. I will bet Harech will be sitting in his same spot right over it."

"Harech. Always predictable." Said Shuakala.

"I know it. Get his attention while you are there. Maybe some trick. I know you can think of something. Then we will grab his cap!"

"He will owe us a week of beer for this!" Said Ephron. Shukala laughed. Rapheth put his finger to his lips once more.

"Quiet now or we will owe him!" Shukala bounded down the path and across the narrow ravine, nimbly avoiding falling into the sewage stream below and made his way carefully down the small cave opening that led to the grate in the tavern floor.

The tavern was a two-story building situated in a small cliff-face, made both of the rock surrounding it and of heavy wooden beams and floors. There were grates here and there in the floors to throw out unwanted things like sewage and other visceral matter from the kitchen. Belligerent patrons who had too much to drink and too much fight in them had the misfortune of being thrown out through these grates too, right into the sewers below. The grate in the main floor led to a wide cave beneath where goods, legal and illegal, were stored for the owner's use and sometimes as a gateway to other hiding places. The three youths were seasoned troublemakers and good in a fight. The seedy unnamed city did not bother them in the least. All three had daggers at the ready in case but rarely did they need to use them. This night was the Day of Glorious Fires, the celebration of Hec who rose brightest and highest in the sky this week. For many people it was a wild time for revelry and people wore masks all week long at night. Rapheth and Ephron pulled over their masks t disguise themselves and entered within the crowds going in the door. Far off a wild whistling call came. Parade was winding its way through the street. Inside they could hear the bawdy singing and playing of a band of musicians. Foreign musicians and singers from Rurria. Such foreigners would never have been allowed to perform in any official public place or noble house in Rhuctium. Hybronians thought only their culture, next to Egian high culture, was superior.

"A fine night indeed!" Said Marashiah, the tavern owner. She was a heavy-set woman with very long, dry gray hair and a few black streaks running through. She wore it in a large double-knot style pinned to the back with a coral head pin that she wore proudly. And she had a short beard. She squinted at Rapheth and Ephron. and then grinned showing large, strong and very yellowed teeth. she took a deep draw of her water pipe. Her tobacco she used was very strong. She blew it to the side in a serpentine stream of smoke in satisfaction.

"I know the look of two fine and handsome young men if ever I saw it!" She said and winked. Ephron chuckled. Rapheth pointed over to the large central table where Harech sat singing along, off key and loudly, his monkey mask affixed haphazardly on his head. The place was crowded and thick with smoke. So noxious was the scent of smoke fumes, body odor, greasy food and sewage that gentler people would have long fainted dead away. The young men sauntered over to the table and as soon as they stepped up the man turned around, his mouth wide and his eyes shining in drunken pleasure.

"Why, it's you two foxes! And where is your friend? The black one?" Then he laughed and pointed to his cap. "Think to get my cap, do you?" He chuckled and grinned with his mouth still wide open. Rapheth took off his sand lion mask and bowed mockingly to the man.

"Dear Harech, we did not come to rob you of your most alluring red cap. For it is a most beauteous cap. A most wonderful cap!"

"And a most splendid color of red." Chimed Ephron, taking off his mask and sitting down.

"Eh?" Said Harech, both amused and slightly confused. He scratched his balding head under the cap.

"Harech. We have come to play another round of Hounds and Jackals. We will see who wins this time." Said Rapheth.

"Come to lose again? Are you sure, my little lordlings? Come then, since you both are bottomless pits. And where is your friend, I say?"

"I am afraid you broke him in the last game my friend!" Said Rapheth.

"Yes. He had to ask his father to pay his debts and his father refused to advance him any more coin."

"Did he now? I am sorry I cleaned the poor boy out. Now, what are the terms?" Asked Harech. Drunk though he was, Harech was still sharp in a game when ladre was involved. Rapheth pretended to think of what terms to offer when a thick curl of blue smoke streamed in from the grate under the table. Shukala! The smoke enveloped Harech and covered the table with a thin mist. The smoke turned into figures of lithe, dancing women. Some of the crowd turned to look and gawk in delighted surprise.

"What evil magic this is! Mara! Ah, get it off!" Shouted Harech.

"Since when do you want to escape dancing naked women?" Asked Ephron. Quick as a fox Rapheth whipped himself across the table while Harech was busy slapping away dancing smoke figures, and reached for the cap, snatching it off Harech's head.

"Aha! You all see it the cap! I have it! Harech owes everyone beer!" Rapheth jumped onto the table waving the cap wildly while the crowd roared with laughter. Harech protested in dismay.

"Now Harech. We will have some imported honey beer from Jura and the good Egian barley beer too. Mara, do not water it down. We want the good beer!" Ephron shouted. Mara laughed.

"You lost this time, Harech." She teased gently.

"Cheaters! Cheaters! They used magic against me!"

"Tonight is a night full of magic and mayhem Friendly mayhem. I say we have won the bet. Come now, Harech. Will you go back on your promise?" Teased Rapheth. His eyes danced with a merry fire in them.

"And since when do you not cheat? Come, do as you promised last time." Chided Mara. Harech sat down, his face crumpled in a frown. He nodded and the crowd roared in laughter. Harech could afford it. For a layabout who drank and gambled all night and slept all day he had amassed quite a fortune for a small undertown man.

A group of men sat watching the spectacle in a far corner. One of them smoking a water pipe. He pulled the pipe from his lips and let out a plume of smoke. The man's eyes watched him shrewdly, never leaving Rapheth.

Shukala, looking quite self-satisfied, strode through the crowded tavern and sat beside Rapheth.

"I see we will be kept in good drink for the rest of the night. What is he paying for? The good stuff or the mealy beer in the vat?"

"Oh yes. The best. Nothing less." Said Ephron, giving Harech a pointed look. Shukala, however amused he was and however carefree his friends were was always half alert to surroundings and to people. The men in the corner on the other side of the room did not escape his notice. It was dark where they sat and all he could make out from their table were columns and rings of smoke buffeted around shadowed figures. He felt suddenly as if their center table laid them naked and bare before all while others sat safely hidden in corners to take in the spectacle, of which Rapheth was nearly always the center. As one of the tavern men made his way to their table with a tray of bowls and a large fired-clay vessel of barley beer. Shukala tapped Rapheth's shoulder.

"Eh? Oh, Good trick Shukala! You must show it to me one day. I knew you would not let us down."

"Yes. Of course not. But listen," he lowered his voice, "there are men, there in the corner behind you. You cannot see them but I saw them as I came in. They are watching us. I do not like the looks of them. I think that I have seen them before around here. No! Do not look now." He warned, grabbing his arm as Rapheth turned to look behind him. Rapheth stopped mid-turn and calmly picked up a goblet of beer and took a drink. Ephron leaned in.

"What is it?"

"The men there in the back. I do not trust them." Said Shukala.

"They watch us, Shukala thinks. Do not look or they will know we know they are watching us."

"Huh! I will look if I may. Who will stop me? If they want to stare perhaps we should give them reason to!" Said Ephron defiantly. He swept his gaze brazenly to the back corner. The men averted their gazes quickly. Ephron snorted with disdain.

"What do you think?" He asked them.

"I do not know what to think of them." Said Rapheth, fingering one of his game pieces.

"I think they are Hatchet Men." Countered Shukala quietly.

"Puh! Good-for-nothings." Scoffed Ephron. Rapheth grinned, feeling bold.

"I hope not. In any case, I will not let them stop me from having a good time, whoever they are. We have had our battles. We hold our own. Do not worry, Shukala. I fear my father far more than those dogs!" Said Rapheth and he finished his beer and went back to his game of hounds and jackals, calling for anyone listening to come and play.

They played for hours until the beer was done, only two vessels of beer in all and three games of H and Js - Harech being a cheapskate and they being forgiving and merely looking for merriment. Rapheth stretched his arms and legs and yawned loudly like a young waking lion.

"I am ready for bed. Let us go." He patted his friends on the back and got up, grabbing his mask. He wrapped his robes about him hoping that Ilim was still out and about. There would be lots of study and reading tomorrow, and writing lessons. He was not supposed to be here. In fact, none of them were. It was dangerous for the Aishanana-La to be about in any places but Hevan or Gamina unless they kept their mouths shut, or unless they supported the Golden Temple. Ilim and Zigal certainly did not and neither did anyone in their little community. Yet, sometimes he felt he needed to just have a little enjoyment. His thoughts of late took him to dark places and darker dreams. Dreams of engulfing fire. It was merriment like this with his friends that took his mind off of troubling thoughts. The mysterious pieces of information he gathered from his mother and the prophet Ilim seemed to piece together a puzzle that frightened him. These things he kept to himself. Not even to his friends did he talk of them.

He swept these small guilty feelings from his mind. It was only a little fun. Nothing wrong with that. Ephron and Shukala followed him out.

"Come back soon. Iwill have some special ladies to entertain you boys next time. There's few who are curious about you. handsome young men. I know your folk are stright on the arrow. COme to Mara next time and she will fix that for you. Many women would like to meet you."

"No doubt they would." Said Ephron. And therein lay the danger. Rapheth realized. What sort of women? Who are they? He had been brought up to mistrust people who were not like him. His whole life seemed shrouded in mystery and secrecy. But he did not mention any of this.

"Ah." He laughed weakly at Mara and turned and left. They made their way through the streets moving slowly upward toward the city above. He and his mother had lived here once. Villages intermittently like sudden croppings of trees and bushes might populate a wilderness. Much of it looked like a long and complicated system of catacombs and caves where people simply squatted and made their dwellings; the poorest of the poor, people with dark pasts, criminals and others. The rambling underground city was built during the Age of Empires, an age now largely forgotten by the people above ground or below.

It was when they neared the last level before reaching above ground that they were aware that they were being followed. Rapheth gave silent signals to his friends and they quickly rounded a corner and ducked into a small cave, passing by a group of makeshift tents and holed out dwellings, through long columns of hangings and boxes until they did not see their pursuers. They laughed, after losing them and continued on, nearing the opening of an abandoned cistern. Around the corner one they got outside the four Hatchet Men met them. The youths came to a dead stop, backing into fighting stances. The men had tracked them through another way through the ramshackle neighborhoods below.

"What do you think, Ephron?" Asked Rapheth, not taking his eyes from them.

"I think there are only four and we are three. It will not be easy but we have seen this before." He said. Shukala grunted and they pulled out their knives. However the men whipped open their robes and where before they were invisible or seemed so, now there were long scabbards at their sides. These men carried army issued swords. Rapheth swallowed hard. In a flash Ephron took his dagger and hurled it at the face of one of their would be attackers. The man was nearly pierced in the eye but ducked just in time to be sliced on the temple. He cursed in surprise at the mark. Rapheth and Shuakal did the same but this time their daggers were reflected, though one of the daggers landed deep into the arm of one of the men. The youths took off as quickly as they could, their pursuers right behind them. If they separated it would be trouble and they did not know if there were more pursuers on the way. Shukala picked up a large, broken clay vessel and threw it, prompting the other two to do the same but this did not slow the Hatchet Men down. The only thing that saved the boys was their indefatigable speed and nimbleness. The men had a hard time catching up. They turned a corner and found themselves trapped in a dead end with no way to scale the building. The men were angry now.

"Take the one there in the middle," one of them said to the others, nodding towards Rapheth, "and kill the other two." They moved in swiftly, ugly curved iron swords at the ready, when just as swiftly another stranger appeared behind them with a bright sword flashing like a torch in the late evening. He cut down one of the Hatchet Men before he had a chance to move, running him through. Then he was on to the second one, snatching up his braid from behind and slashing his throat. One of them bore down on him but the stranger moved away quick as a side-winder and grabbed up a large pot near a doorway and bashed his face with it, breaking the pot to pieces. One escaped down the alley but the apparent leader of the group, the one now with the bleeding face stood his ground. He lifted his sword to slash at his opponent and charged. The stranger nimbly moved and then did a thing that surprised the youths and the other man - he lept over the man, powerful and graceful like a desert ram and landed behind him. However, the Hatchet Man was quick and moved to turn and slashed again nearly taking the man's head. He ducked just in time and with his body, using it like a whip lashing toward the man with ferocious speed and the man was suddenly pinned to the ground, panting with the last moments of life left in him. The stranger's short, broad sword in his gut he stared at his opened gut in shock and then he cried out in agony. The stranger bent over, took a knife fromt he man's belt, covered his mouth with his hand and cut his throat. He stood up and looked at the youths, then spoke as if to command them before they would try to escape. His face was covered. He lifted his face covering and faced them squarely. They merely stood, gaping.

"Do not move. I was sent to see about you and watch over you. Especially you, boy." He nodded at Rapheth. Rapheth lifted a brow.

"Why?"

"A woman named Zigal sent me." Rapheth drew in a sharp breath.

"Why did she send you?"

"She thought you might meet trouble. Seems worried about you. I can see why. All three of you are reckless and stupid. You do not belong in the unnamed city. You are soft Rhuctiumites." Ephron sniffed and Rapheth frowned.

"I was raised in the unnamed city. What is it to you?"

"I already told you. Your mother sent me. You may have been raised there for a time but not your whole life, otherwise those men would never have been able to find you so easily. You are Aishanna-La. and those schismatics that are at odds with the Golden Temple, at that. I can tell." Rapheth detected a slight sneer in the man's voice. "Good boys. Why do you come around these dark places? What fascination does it hold for you? You will be killed. Certain people are seeking your soul, boy and your friends will be killed right along with you. Your mother sent me to look for you. Come with me. Those men are not the only ones looking for you and as you saw, one of them got away."

"I can fight." Said Rapheth, suddenly feeling put out and humiliated.

"Of that I have no doubt otherwise you'd already be dead. It grows late. I know a way we can avoid being seen by too many people. Where are your weapons?" He asked. The boys carried more than a single dagger and they showed him. he grunted in satisfaction and showed them the way out of the alley and through a small, narrow door just around the corner.

"So. . .who are you?" Asked Rapheth.

"A mercenary."

"Mercenary! Not very honorable." Said Ephron. The man ignored him. Shukala was silent.

"What is your name?" Asked Rapheth. The man looked about quickly and said in a low voice.

"Rhajit. I am from the desert."

"A tribesman then?"

"Yes. As we all are in one way or another."

"True."

"You acknowledge this fact?" Rhajit seemed surprised.

"Of course. All peoples come from the tribes. They are our first mothers and fathers." Said Rapheth.

"All things that are pure and righteous come from the desert." Said Ephron. Rhajit grunted in approval.

"Where did you learn how to fight like that? You jump so high in the air! Like an eagle!" Asked Shukala.

"I learned it from my life in the desert, long ago."

"I want to learn how to wield a sword like that! Can you teach us?" Asked Rapheth. The man turned and gazed at them, his eyes wide but inscrutable to Rapheth. It seemed that the corners turned upwards in a grin but his face was mostly covered again.

"That I can do if you so desire. A young man of your age, it is high time you learned how to use a proper weapon. Like a sword. One day you will wield one. Yes, I will teach you and your friends. But come now. It is a wild night and a dangerous one. Among the revelers there are murderous plots in the air and wild dogs prowling about and I do not mean the four-legged kind." He picked up his pace and took them by ways they did not recognize back to Rapheth's home, the little community in the northern quarter of Rhuctium with Rapheth and his two friends hurrying to keep up. Rapheth wondered what omen this was that his life was saved this night. Feeling guilty and foolish about the whole affair he promised he would make an offering of repentance at the temple. And he dearly hoped that Ilim would not find out that he had left his studies to go cavorting around with his friends. He would be ashamed if the prophet knew.

But to wield a sword like that! It would certainly punctuate his days with excitement in between the reading of the Holy writings and the Laws.

The Middle-Earth network has a special event happening on Sunday, May 5th at 6PM EST. It's called Legendarium Presents: GIRL POWER. GP is about women in fantasy and science fiction geekdom in general and will be hosted by five of our own members specifically. Arwen, Sabre, Rachel, Marita and Britta talk about how they have managed to turn their love of geeky things into employment and about geek-girl culture in general. All geeks and nerds - girls and boys, come and join us! It will be a live event, Sunday May 5th at 6pm est. To find out when and how to be a part of this event, follow the link below:

http://network.mymiddleearth.com/legendarium-presents/

Come and join the fun!

One thing I will look out for with this book that I did not know to look for in the first one is formatting. If any one received a badly formatted book over on Pubit when Schisms first came out I apologize. I will definitely work to make sure that doesn't happen again.

So what's this story about really? Well, the first book was loosely about schisms in the religious sense but also in a social and political sense, both in the earthly realm and the heavenly realm. A prophecy is about to come true and some major changes in society are about to take place. Some people look forward to them and others do not. All kinds of things are about to be overturned and dark things brought into the light. It will benefit some and alienate, even destroy others. This book is about prophecy; not how unreliable it is but how  some prophecies can seem unreliable if one does not examine them closely. How the lies and truths and the sayings of other people - how these things can seem simple but are really deceptive and how other times they can be seemingly cryptic but later be revealed to be truthful. I'm still working that out, actually. Sometimes when you think of a title first and then try to build a story around that you have to consciously revise once the editing passes start. It's always exciting when  you can see the end coming, when the story comes together well.

I can see myself writing a spin-off series as well but that's for another day.

Two characters that have really come forward for me in this book are Kaisha and Rhajit. In the first book Kaisha was a young girl with romantic and often silly notions of love and romance - what girl doesn't have those sometimes? She was also a minor character who becomes a major character in this book. She gets married in this book and her world is shattered when she finds that her marriage is not what she'd dreamed it would be. She then has to find her footing again and she has to figure out what it means to be a woman. Is it simply marriage and babies? Is that all a woman is worth? She has to go on a journey to find who she is. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying marriage and children are unimportant. They are extremely important but how one enters into a marriage determines whether they can weather the storms of marriage.

Rhajit is also a person in crisis. He has served no one's interests but his own but in a world that is about to be turned upside down he finds himself caught up in the Grand Purpose simply through drifting along and begins to wonder if there really is a purpose for his own life besides just satisfying his own needs. He also has to come to terms with his past, especially a specific incident in his past which is causing him to feel guilt. He tried his best to bury this but he is confronted with demons from his past that force him to reevaluate where he is headed.

So that's it for now.I have roughly ten chapter left to write. This out of Thirty-four chapters already written.

And once again I will be putting up chapters for my second book in the series, Cryptic Tongues, on the blog. Look for those at the end of this month.Instead of doing ten chapters I will put up five or six chapters. Why? Well, I have a tremendous amount of writing to get done and so I would prefer to concentrate the lion's share of my time writing and getting the actual book out. For those of you that have not gotten a chance to read the first book, Schisms, it is out now on Amazon, Smashwords, B&N, iTunes and Kobo. You can find them under the link titled "Bookstore" in the link bar near the top of the page. For the first ten chapters of Schisms, you can download those for free over at Feedbooks.

Anyway, I just wanted to pop in and leave a note that I haven't disappeared.

Happy Reading!

Magical systems are part and parcel of the fantasy genre, or rather I should say, magic itself. The idea of a magical system that works on certain laws, however, seems to be a newer phenomenon. Such as how magic works in any given "world", who is able to use it, and clear explanations about what governs the magic and the consequences to using it, if there are any. Is it high magic or low magic? Is it based on some mysterious force or supernatural phenomenon or is it based on scientific principles (or pseudo-science would be more like it.)

There are things I like about this and things that I dislike. This is my issue with this phenomenon, while I like the idea of figuring out and explaining your magic system and showing that there are direct consequences that come from using it, I do not feel this is necessary at all in a fantasy story. Want to explain every detail in your system and how it works? Fine, do that. if it done well it enhances the story but it isn't needed. In my opinion it brings fantasy closer to science fiction and as far as I'm concerned, the two, while sharing a few important characteristics, are markedly different. When I want science, I read science fiction. I see no reason to write fantasy and hide behind a science fiction cloak.

Magic is not science and I would go so far to say that it really has nothing whatever to do with science. The wonder and adventure in science fiction is partly due to the scientific or quasi-scientific ideas and technology in its stories. The wonder and adventure in fantasy is partly due to the mysterious and unexplained, basically its magic. Ever heard the saying: "Leave a bit of the mystery?" I think this quality is important in fantasy.

Unfortunately it seems to me that fantasy as a genre is suffering from an inferiority complex these days. So many see fantasy as the bottom-scraping dregs of all genres; childish, foolish and stupid. Are we fantasy readers so embarrassed by the tropes and concepts in fantasy that we would like fantasy stories to "pass" as science fiction instead? I've read one too many forum threads of fantasy readers complaining about magic systems not being explained or not making rational sense and while it might be a nice layer upon the story to have a well explained, logical magical system not all fantasy stories require or this nor should they have this. For a story of high fantasy, it takes away any mythical feel or quality to the story, in my opinion. This doesn't mean that I think that there should not be consequences to the use of magic in a story. Take for instance Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. In it, magic is more of an omnipresent, mysterious thing. There is no actual magical system that is explained or laid out plainly. Magic is infused everywhere in Middle-Earth. It is also used by many beings in that world, great and small, such as the elves who have their own relationship with magical craft, the skill of the dwarves who have fashioned their own magical objects and especially the Maiar and the Valar. Tolkien's magic is wonderment and subtlety. In fact, it works more like divine power than like magic and when coming from beings like the maiar and the valar who have remained in union with Illuvatar, it probably is divine power. Certain objects are infused with magic. Some with evil magic and others, while not intrinsically evil can be misleading and deceptive when used and therein lies their danger. Objects such as Galadriel's mirror, the palantirs,  the rings of power and most of all and full of evil the one ring. There are terrible consequences to using some of these things bit Tolkien did not have to write out any magical system to get this idea across to readers.

Perhaps I'm just being a cantankerous old curmudgeon. After all Brandon Sanderson has great magical systems in his books - or so I hear (I'm getting ready to read the Alloy of Law) and like I've said before, if done well it can be a good thing. But not all fantasy stories need it. Please, for the love of the Valar, let some of the mystery of magic remain.

Get Schisms for $1.50 this week!

Get The Pumpkin Princess for $1.50 this week!

Get The Winter Wolves for $1.50 this week!

In order to be eligible for a prize you will need to email me with one of your favorite science fiction or fantasy reads of the pat year, 2012. Details are still being worked out so stay tuned!

And remember, Edge of Darkness, the prequel to my Red World fantasy series is free at Amazon, Smashwords and Kobo!

Also, I just finished a short author interview for Book Tour Radio! You can catch the show here, my audio starts at the 64 minute mark! It was plenty of fun to do and they have lots of great interviews from authors of all genres so check it out!