QSFer J.A. Merkel has a new queer fantasy book out (ace, bi, demi, gay, lesbian, non-binary), Song of Saudade book 1: The Fourth Portal.
Upholding her tribe’s highest law, Fenri must keep her heart—the body’s fourth portal—closed at all times, or face execution.
Fenri is a Knowledger, a brilliant collector of information who dreams of discovering the ocean’s secrets. The tribe’s Masters grant her permission to explore the ocean, but only if she first traverses the perilous desert with four strangers to retrieve a precious base metal. Despite a condition that makes her slower and weaker than her counterparts, Fenri accepts the mission, eager to prove her worth. She will succeed or die trying.
When hormone-sniffing beasts begin stalking their group, it’s clear that someone has opened their fourth portal. Determined to protect her chances of exploring the ocean, Fenri vows to find and eliminate the traitor before the love virus spreads. As forbidden feelings surface, the group begins to unravel, turning their mission into a race to close the fourth portal before the beasts or their fellow tribesmen end them. That is, if they don’t kill each other first.
THE FOURTH PORTAL is the first book in a multiple POV epic fantasy series filled with elemental magic that is rooted in the seven chakras residing within all of us, exploring the sacrifices we’re willing to make for love when it’s forbidden.
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Excerpt
From Chapter 16:
“Luzon, hurry!”
He knelt beside Craeya moments later and pulled a mortar and pestle from his bag.
“I thought only Healers carried those,” Fenri said.
Luzon pulled out the crystals he had collected and began grinding down into his array. The crystals chipped into smaller pieces.
“Who do you think makes the tilq?” Luzon said.
“Luzon?” Craeya wheezed. “When did you get here?
“Save your energy,” Fenri said. “Please, Craeya.” Turning her gaze to Luzon, she asked, “Will it work?”
“It either will, or it won’t. Bodies are resilient. They want to stay alive. They do anything they can to stay alive.”
“Some bodies,” Fenri said.
Luzon turned and took a good look at her. Caked in blood, covered in dirt and gravel, beaten down … she was a mess, but still … she was not broken.
She’s an Unable. Her body doesn’t work the same as yours, or Craeya’s, but that doesn’t always mean the hardware is faulty.
“Your issues center around food. Nutrients.” Luzon said. “It’s a problem of distribution. Isn’t that right?”
Fenri’s seablue eyes flickered in the light, and something moved behind them. Luzon felt the intensity of her look, like she was trying to see into him. Luzon looked further, saw into her the way he saw the crystals, their chemical makeup, the inner workings of her machine, churning in time.
“Your body is remarkable,” Luzon said. “Knowledgers have incredible brains. The amount of information you can hold in there is unfathomable. I wish I had a fraction of that power.”
Fenri closed her eyes as though this was difficult information to process, then opened them. “Well, look at you. Look at what you can do.” She was staring at Luzon’s hands. “All of us Knowledgers are the same, but Makers make very different things. You are not like the other Makers I have known. If you can craft a submership, then clearly you hold information I can’t even begin to grasp.” Fenri coughed flecks of dark red into her hand, which smelled of iron. “For you, it’s not about knowledge. It’s about application. I probably couldn’t even make the lower part of that netbed.”
“Our skills are different. That’s why we’re put on the same dispatch team. To bring out the other’s best qualities. I wish I was better at remembering things.” Luzon shrugged.
No point in wanting things you don’t have.
And then, just like that, he was seeing it again. What he had seen at the nation-feast. Craeya’s face. Beside him, she turned as white as the hancrystals. This dying Craeya, the Craeya in the alcove, the other face, they all converged into one pink-white swirl in Luzon’s inner mind.
The other face. Who was she?
Luzon found himself sitting outside a safety pod. The head of a woman lay in his lap, limp, eyes shut, lashes fluttering. Her entire body burned with fever.
What is that?
“Bring out the best qualities …” Fenri said, considering.
Luzon tried to snap himself back to the present moment. He took the white powder between two fingers, rolled it into a compact ball with the heels of his palm.
And some things are better left not remembering, Luzon thought. Still, he wanted to know where the thing came from.
“Is it done?” There was desperation in Fenri’s question.
Luzon held up the pill. “Yes.” He opened his cylindre of water, nudged Craeya awake.
“Craeya,” he said. “Hold on, okay?” He opened her mouth and gave it to her.
“Oh ancestors, Luzon,” Fenri said. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” he said, watching Craeya with growing weariness. “Now we wait to see that it works.”
As if this was all the blessing Fenri needed, she leaned back against the wall, and shut her eyes. Luzon did the same, and it wasn’t long before exhaustion overtook him too.
Author Bio
J. A. Merkel writes speculative and science fiction filled with multiverses and second chances, and his worlds are packed with anti-heroes, love as magic, and tragic reversals. For Merkel, writing isn’t a chore. It’s a fantastical kingdom with thousands of doors where readers can stumble into their own special adventures, laughing, shouting, and journeying to find home, wherever that may be.
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