QSFer Nita Round has a new queer fantasy steampunk book out (lesbian, poly), Towers of the Earth book 7: A Touch of Unity.
Bring your people home, Ascara. Bring them home.
The echoes of the betrayal continue to rumble throughout Veritas. Weeding out the rot is no simple task. Not when the roots of secrets and lies run so deep that they infect every part of the organisation.
There are other matters of greater need, and time is running out. Covenants of tower and clan must be met. Lucinda must raise her last tower to complete her ascension pact to the great Mother. That is if the trinity can survive long enough to find it.
Powerful, dark forces conspire against them to thwart their plans. They must face their deadliest foe yet. If the Trinity fails, it will plunge the world and all existence, into eternal darkness.
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Excerpt
Change, betrayal, and trust. These were the themes that chilled Lucinda to the bone despite the warmth of the late afternoon sun. Three weeks had passed since Quentin’s fall, and the betrayal had not lessened. Magda had remained distraught ever since. Quentin had been her friend, confidant, and staunchest ally. Or so she had thought. In the end, he had taken that away from her, and she had barely smiled since.
Magda and Ascara’s days and nights were spent dealing with the aftermath. Every day brought some new purple wrongdoing to light. The purple was insidious, relentless, and so hard to detect. It could be anywhere. And it continued to tear Veritas and the rest of the world apart, even if no one could see it happening.
Such malevolence would have repercussions for months. Years, even. Lucinda had every faith that if anyone could overcome such difficulties, Magda and Ascara could do it. Even if it took every moment of every day, they would rebuild what they had.
The distinctive thwomp of propellers called her attention. There were dozens of ships in the sky. Some of them were traders, some were smaller messenger ships more often used for city-to-city flights, and others were warships.
Over at the base, hundreds of troops were being trained. Not all the soldiers were Veritas recruits. Clan men and women flooded in from all over Ama’Rica and Ama’Sota. In the same way that the ship Mar Kasha had brought together the Oceanics and the clan, now Verity Field joined Veritas and the clan folk. They had a common enemy and were preparing for war.
Lucinda shook her head. This war wasn’t something for the future. It had already begun, and the casualties were many.
This was the legacy of purple.
Cruck and Prruk flew in from wherever they had been hiding and landed heavily on Lucinda’s shoulders.
“Tick,” said Cruck.
“Tock,” Prruk added.
“I know. I know. Time is passing, but we need to prepare.”
“Fire,” said Cruck.
“Ice,” said Prruk.
“War,” they said together.
“But we are not ready yet,” Lucinda said.
“Clockmaker knows,” Cruck said.
“I’m sure she does, but she also needs to make sure everyone else does, too.”
“Wise Ice,” Prruk said.
As the birds nestled against her, she became lost in a stream of consciousness that wasn’t entirely her own. The tower’s imagery flooded her mind, mostly figurative rather than literal. Faceless people, astrariums, the book of hours fanned open in front of her but too fast for her to see the pages in any detail. A forest, mountains, a tower, and time seemed to slip away.
The tower shivered, and the vibrations beneath her feet pulled her out of her thoughts. Cruck and Prruk squawked at the same time and flew off again.
“Need eat,” Cruck told her.
He was right. Lucinda’s stomach rumbled with hunger. Solitude was one thing, but being lost in her thoughts at the expense of all other needs, like eating and drinking, did not get problems solved. Usually, Tayha and Phara would deal with such things, but they had left the tower to visit their clan family. She needed to deal with such things herself.
Downstairs in the kitchen, she half-heartedly made a soup and found stale bread wrapped in cloth in the pantry.
She didn’t even hear the door to the tower opening, but she certainly heard the loud admonishment of Tayha when she entered the kitchen. “Lady Raven, you can’t eat that. You need better food.”
Lucinda stared at the coloured bits swirling about in the weak stock. They were probably vegetables. It looked sufficient. She tasted a bit and grimaced.
Tayha bustled inside. “Can’t leave you alone for even five minutes, can I?” She pointed at the table and the chairs next to it. “Sit. I will make you something decent.”
Lucinda sat in one chair and made herself comfortable. “Thanks.” Her thoughts drifted for a while, but then the smell of cooking brought her attention back to the here and now. Her stomach grumbled again.
“I hear you,” Tayha said.
“I thought you went to stay with your family?”
Tayha added something to a hot pan, and the sizzle drowned out anything she might have said.
“What was that?” Lucinda asked.
“They went back to Gidhera.”
“Did you want to go with them?”
“Yes.” She stirred the pan, and the food sizzled a little more. “No.”
“You will miss them,” Lucinda said.
“Of course, but not as much as I would miss being here at the tower. They are all safer in Gidhera, and even apart, I feel them.” She banged her chest. “Right here.”
“I know what you mean.” Lucinda only had to think of Magda and Ascara to know where they were, and even their mood. Right then, she sensed they were both a little frustrated. Angry, even. She would ask them about it later.
“The clan is learning to fight with Veritas soldiers beside them,” Tayha said.
“Yes, and training each other, sharing skills.”
“As it should be, I think. All clans are gathering, and maybe they will also make alliances with other peoples for the good of all,” Tayha added.
“I saw several clan riders arrive yesterday. Is that what they talked about? Alliances and war?”
“Yes, that and other things.”
Author Bio
Nita Round is a British author who creates vibrant and unique new worlds as quirky as she is. She takes inspiration from her studies of history and blends together ‘what was’ and creates fantastical worlds, ‘what could be’.
Monsters, heroines, magic, and the strange are all woven into tales of hope and courage. Where women battle evil, something with nothing more than a stout heart, and no matter the odds, ultimately prevail.
| Author Website | www.nitaround.com |