QSFers Beryll & Osiris Brackhaus have a new MM space opera book out, Virasana Empire: Sir Yaden book 7: The Two Princesses.
Their first mission after the Calarni leads Yaden and Ivan to Goa, tracking down N’Bosoti artefacts. Encounters on the estate of Princess Kumari have implications both personal and political, but most importantly, lead to Yaiciz – right into the machinations of Princess Anya, Ivan’s deranged sister.
Facing ancient monsters, an obstinate Vertex, a recalcitrant Duke and a traumatised Goddess, Yaden, Ivan and Colin will need all their courage and personal growth to save the day once again.
Written by award-winning authors Beryll and Osiris Brackhaus, ‘The Two Princesses’ is a riveting space-opera adventure novel about the difference between family and relatives, and the seventh book of the acclaimed ‘Sir Yaden’ series.
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Excerpt
They walked down the cobblestone road in silence for a while, past crumbling fieldstone walls and the occasional pile of brambles, but it didn’t take Myriam long to get back to the subject at hand.
“Doesn’t sound like we are dealing with fungal zombies here.”
Fungal zombies were a relatively common occurrence on Leichnam, and thankfully, only on Leichnam. The specific mould fungus that settled in corpses, took over their nervous system and reanimated them as long as they weren’t too decayed, didn’t survive in any other climate. Fungal zombies were slow, dumb, moderately infectious and – as long as there weren’t too many of them – easy to avoid by simply moving out of their way. Definitely nothing that could run and jump at people.
“Agreed. So what other kinds of zombies could it be?”
“Well, there are also cybernetically animated corpses, curses, demonic possession or demonic magic, good, old-fashioned necromancy and of course, corpses animated by a kinetic,” Myriam listed. “Given the look of this place, I would guess demonic something, necromancy or cursed.”
“So how do we deal with this?”
Myriam grinned up at him. “Burn the zombies, find the person who made them, burn that person as well.”
Yaden smiled back at her and this time, affectionately ruffled her hair. “That’s right, my darling little dragon.” Normally, a Lotus Knight mission would have added the extra step of trying to talk to whoever was responsible, to figure out whether a peaceful solution was possible. But he could bring that up should they encounter someone capable of reason. Or something, for that matter.
They followed the cobblestone road out of the village and into a dense forest. Gloomy, moss-bearded trees loomed in the mist, all grey and dripping wet. Judging by how some of the ‘trees’ sported completely opaque crowns, they probably weren’t technically trees but rather the tree-sized mushrooms that became increasingly common towards Leichnam’s equatorial regions. By now, the road had turned into a muddy dirt path and eventually, they could make out a solid structure rising high to their left – the graveyard wall. Fungal zombies were a relatively common occurrence, so all graveyards on Leichnam were surrounded by walls high enough that no zombie could climb them. This way, fungal zombies could be contained and at regular intervals, dealt with by the gravedigger who usually doubled as zombie exterminator. Of course, a magically animated zombie would be a lot more dangerous and could pose a serious threat to a village gravedigger.
This wall was a good bit taller than a man and built from roughly hewn, massive, grey fieldstones. Somewhere behind it, Yaden sensed slow movement, which suddenly stopped. Their approach had been noticed. This was another strong indication that they weren’t dealing with fungal zombies, which only noticed things in their direct vicinity and line of sight. Moments later, the movement behind the wall resumed, quick footsteps coming towards the wall, accompanied by a long, low moan. Judging by the sounds, someone was climbing the wall to get to them.
“Seems we are getting company,” Myriam announced, her stance changing.
Yaden sensed how she concentrated and gathered heat. They both faced the wall, curiously waiting for whatever was climbing the other side.
Then, a decaying hand reached over the top, followed quickly by an equally decaying head, showing bits of skull. The eyes, however, were filled with a sickly green glow and the zombie groaned when it caught sight of them, scrambling to make it over the wall and get to them.
It barely managed to pull himself up onto the crest before its head exploded in a spectacular fireball from Myriam, blowing little pieces of charred, decaying flesh back into the graveyard.
“Glowing eyes? Really?” Myriam snarled. “I’m putting my money on demonic.”
Behind the wall in the graveyard, they heard more moans and groans rapidly approaching. They now definitely had the zombies’ attention. Yaden spread his senses out further, searching for that typical, sickly-sweet taste of rotting mushroom he had come to associate with demonic involvement. Out here, it was barely noticeable, so faint it could have been his imagination. But farther within the graveyard, it grew stronger. To the south, there was one spot so cloying it made his stomach roil.
“I’ll open the wall for us, you keep the zombies at bay,” he told Myriam calmly.
She took up her fighting stance, hands folded over her stomach, fully concentrated. It was a little weird for Yaden to watch how differently his cerebral daughter used her psi compared to him and Ivan. But she was just as effective.
With a gesture of his hands, Yaden parted the stone wall before them. The stones folded aside and opened a window onto a whole horde of zombies in various states of decay, quickly closing in on them, glowing, green eyes staring at them eagerly.
Instantly, a wave of heat rolled out from Myriam, igniting into cherry red fire once it had passed Yaden, and blasted into the zombies, burning them down.
They moved through the makeshift gate and Yaden closed it behind them. The graveyard was made up of the typical collection of simple graves. No one on Leichnam bothered with deep or elaborate graves when corpses were likely to get up again. Crypts were especially shunned. There was hardly anything more annoying than a crypt full of noisy zombies, that had to be broken open for them to be removed. The entire problem could have been avoided if they started cremating their dead, but suggesting something like that on Leichnam was considered a deep insult and cause for a riot, if you were lucky.
“How do we defeat our friends here most quickly?” Yaden continued his daughter’s lesson, leading them towards the spot in the south he had sensed.
“Get rid of the demon and the zombies will fall properly dead again,” Myriam answered promptly.
“And how do you get rid of a demon?”
“Depends on the way it manifests, as they have different ways to hold onto our reality,” Myriam lectured, clearly reciting from some text book. “If it’s a squatter that has taken over some sort of vessel, simply destroying the vessel will be enough to force the demon to return to its home realm. If said vessel is a sentient, we ought to find out if their soul is still present, then we’d call for an exorcist. If not, we kill them. A conjured visitor demon has a body of their own, but needs constant energy to maintain it. Easiest would be to cut off their energy supply, but destroying their temporary physical form will work as well. Lastly, true devic demons have entered our world through some sort of portal and can remain active indefinitely. Those have to be killed the old-fashioned way, but at least then will remain dead forever. Most effective against all of them is theurgy, but brute force will work just as nicely.”
Yaden smiled at her. “Very good, love.”
She grinned back. “Basics, Dad,” she answered, but was glowing with pride at his praise.
Author Bio
Beryll and Osiris Brackhaus are a couple currently living their happily ever after in the very heart of Germany, under the stern but loving surveillance of their three black cats. Both of them are voracious but picky readers, love telling stories and drinking tea, good food and the occasional violent movie. Together, they write novels of adventure and romance, hoping to share a little of their happiness with their readers.
Beryll
An artist at heart, Beryll was writing stories even before she knew what letters were. As easily inspired as she is frustrated, her own work is never good enough (in her eyes). A perfectionist both in the best and worst sense of the word and the driving creative force of their duo.
Osiris
An entertainer and craftsman in his approach to writing, Osiris is the down-to-earth, practical part of the duo. Broadly interested in almost every subject and skill, with a sunny mood and caring personality, he strives to bring the human nature into focus of each of their stories.
| Author Website | https://www.brackhaus.com/ |
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