White Star - Book 2 of The Making of a Mage-King

A hundred and forty-eight mages had survived his coup. Most of them had been the sleepers he had shielded while they slept; a handful had been completely snuffed of their magic. There were also twenty-four non-magical survivors. They were the men who had fought Laon, or at least they would have, when they won through the door. Laon was responsible for an additional nineteen dead men at that door.

Laon had vouched that Sean likely wasn’t interested in taking prisoners, so the survivors were sent home, but home wasn’t an option for some of them. Like the one girl that had spoken to him, all these nearly twenty children either had no families, or their families refused to take them back. Shielded or not, their families and friends feared them. For that matter, Sean was sure the entire town feared them all.

Sean turned to his friends gathered at the table for ideas. All the ideas, few that there were, were unsatisfactory, so he went to talk to the kids.

The innkeeper had housed them in what he called the common room up in the attic. It was a room where guests could buy a bed for the night rather than a whole room. The innkeeper had insisted that their door was locked and guarded, or else they could go somewhere else. Sean had the guard unlock the door, and, followed by Cordan, Larry and Laon, he entered the room.

Sean’s entrance didn’t cause much of a stir. Only a few of the room’s occupants could bring themselves far enough out of their shells to raise their heads and see who had entered. The rest of them were in varying degrees of coil as they wallowed under Sean’s shield and struggled with the sudden lack of guild control.

Nineteen small bodies were here; all of them were dressed in the same plain gray shift the girl yesterday had worn. There had not been enough beds for all of them by half at least, but the room was warm, so they didn’t seem any worse for their confinement. Sean saw that more than one bed held two, three and even four children as they huddled together like lost puppies.

Sean had a guard remove the chamber pot from the corner and stepped farther into the room to sit down on the foot of the nearest cot.

The girl he had talked to yesterday seemed to be one of the few in the room capable of functioning; she might have been the oldest one in the room too. “You didn’t use any magic,” she said, as she watched the guard disappear with the chamber pot.

“I use quite a lot of magic during the normal course of events; I don’t need to use it for the little things too,” said Sean, when he noticed where her eyes had looked.

One of the youngest boys shuddered and started crying. The girl pulled him into her arms. “What are you going to do with us?” she asked, as she rocked the boy.

“What do you want me to do with you?” asked Sean.

She looked around at her companions. “We can’t stay here,” she said simply.

“Why can’t you go home?” asked Sean. “You said your father was afraid of you.”

“Yes, that’s the way it is for some of us. Some of us don’t have any family left. Some of us have the unfortunate memory of destroying our family.” She looked down at the boy in her arms. “Some of us… Our families fear for our safety if we try to stay.” She took a deep breath. “We didn’t have a choice. We couldn’t stop what was happening.”

“I know,” said Sean. “I’m sorry.”

“You could take us with you,” she said hopefully. “You’re a stranger here. You’re not staying – are you?”

Sean was afraid she was going to get to that. The alternative was to turn them into a cluster of street urchins forced to sell their bodies for food, or forced to steal, and if they were ever caught, their fate would be so very much worse than a common thief or whore might expect. Sean toyed with the idea of talking to their families; he might be able to decrease the numbers here by a few, but that still left the rest of them.

He looked at the little boy in the girl’s arms. Had he been instrumental in the destruction of his family? Sean saw a delicate red glow streaked with light blue. Had he been able to fan his flames wherever he wanted? It was likely, yet he hadn’t been able to protect them.

“You’re just kids,” Sean said, agonizing over the dilemma. “How old are you anyway, twelve, and I can’t afford to remove your shields, not yet anyway.”

Tears glittered in her eyes, but Sean could tell by the set of her shoulders that she would take whatever he dished out and cry later.

“We can still work,” said an older boy, as he pulled himself upright on his cot. His voice was horse and strained. “My…” he struggled with himself. “My ma… She used to insist…” Sean watched his jaw clench on a memory that was laced with pain. His face was thin and aged beyond his tender years. He might have been twelve – maybe thirteen.

Sean looked around at them. The youngest, the boy who was crying, looked to be about eight – maybe. He looked at Cordan. More than likely, he would be the one who had to deal with them most of the time.

Cordan shrugged. “We might be able to find them apprenticeships in other cities. We might need other mages too somewhere along the line.”

Sean looked back at the room full of kids. “Okay, we’ll leave in the morning.” He turned back to Cordan. “See to it that they are properly dressed and mounted.” Sean stood up and looked at the two who had spoken. “I have to cover a lot of distance in a very short amount of time and I’ll tell you the same thing I’ve told others who wanted to follow me. If you can’t keep up, I’ll leave you behind.”

“We’ll keep up,” said the boy, as he sat up straighter.

Sean looked at him. “The shields stay.”

“Fine,” he said. Sean didn’t think he was too willing to take up the magic again, not for a while anyway. He’d want it soon enough, earth magic could be very useful if you were used to it.

Prince in Hiding - Now on Amazon

What an exciting ride this publishing business is. My second book, Prince in Hiding, is now on Amazon. I sold five books during the week of pre-order status. I have no idea who bought them. Some twenty people joined the event on Facebook. One person said shipping was too expensive to the UK. I can understand that. She was excited to learn that an eBook version would be available. I heard from another person in a Facebook group I am a member of; she told me she had order the book and was anxious to start reading it. Now comes the next part of the publishing adventure. I know five people will have my book in their hands very soon, now I have to wait to see if they post any reviews. I SO want to know what they think, and I want to know what they REALLY think. My ego doesn't need stroking with good reviews. I want to EARN the good reviews by having told a good story well.

This summer I decided to sell my books from my website. The only time I can do that is during the summer. Today, I learned the prices for my ordering Prince in Hiding, and though it's predicted that it will take up to four weeks to print up and get here, I've received books sooner. Regardless, that still means Prince in Hiding may be available from me by the middle of next month. Would you like a signed copy of my book?

Of all the used books I've read over the years, I have never found a signed one. Does that mean that relatively few books are signed? I suppose considering the vast number of book actually printed, that is probably true. But I prefer to think that if a reader went to all the trouble of getting a book signed by the author, it remained in their possession to be handed down to the next generation. The very thought that a book of mine would be treasured in such a way by even one person is a humbling thought. I can only hope such a thing will happen.

What about you? Have you published a book, or two? Or more? Is it still exciting for you? Do you still thrill at each sale, not because of the royalty check, but because someone will be reading something you wrote? That is just the best, if you ask me.

Prince in Hiding - PUBLISHED

I now have more than one book out there in the world. Having been through this publishing process once before has only prepared me for the excitement, it hasn't dampened the excitement one whit.

In the super wee hours of the day today, Prince in Hiding made it to pre-order status. Available until June 1 through Bucks Country Publishing for $16.00. After that, it will be available through Amazon for $17.95, and like my other book, King by Right of Blood and Might, it will be available directly from me through my website for $20.00 as soon as I get some out here. The mark-up is to pay for postage. But it will be signed. Keep an eye out; I will be announcing it all over Facebook as soon as that happens.

But enough about the business. Now on about the book:

Isn't that an awesome cover? And the greatest part about it is the colors. You see there are six types of magic: Red magic is fire, Green magic is earth, Pale Blue magic is air, and Dark Blue magic is water. But I did say there were six. White magic and Black magic are both internal and physical. White magic is primarily healing, but it can also be seeing places and people somewhere else. Black magic is harsher; it involves controlling some person or creature, or causing pain or even death. Red or fire magic involves the control of fire or heat. Green or earth magic involves controlling or altering objects, or touching something within a seeing. Pale Blue or air magic, of course controls air, which can mean hearing something out of range, but also teleportation. And Dark Blue or water magic, bringing on a storm or calling water in a desert.

One of Sean's ancestors discovered that certain stones can focus certain of the magics. These stones, of course matched the magic they augmented and at some point, likely to facilitate carrying them around, he or she shaped them into circular wedges not unlike sections of an orange. All six stones put together made a fist-sized ball, just the right size for holding in the hand. Just right for using to magnify all the magics, creating a very powerful weapon. There must have been a need for such a weapon once upon a time, but what it was, was lost to a time before recorded history. The stones could be used individually too, to augment a particular field of magic the holder happened to be weak in.

Over the centuries, as people mixed and matched during the course of their lives, the magics became diluted. Few of the major families tried to maintain any strength in magic. The royal family was the strongest, but even they were only strong in black, red and green magic. There was another powerful royal family who leaned heavily in the other direction, being relatively strong in white, light and dark blue magic. The White House of Healers, in the hopes of balancing the magics within the royal family once again, encouraged the royal house of Barleduc to marry into the ruling family of Ruhin. They had high hopes that a child born of such a union would be strong in all the magics and therefore capable of wielding the stones the way they were intended, to protect the country and it's people.

Not long after the wedding between the crown prince and the young Barleduc lady, disaster struck and the very pregnant crown princess was forced to flee with only a few trusted friends and protectors. Prince in Hiding begins seventeen years later. They had been found. It was time to go back and reclaim the throne. It was time for retribution. Is the son of the Ruhin/Barleduc union the mage the White House of Healers was striving for? Will he be the savior they so desperately need? Only time will tell. You'll have to read to find out. I will tell you one thing; he gets the girl. But can he retain his sanity long enough to see to the next generation? You'll have to read the book to find out. The hard part might be waiting for the next book to come out. Due out about this time next year, The White Star, Book 2 in the Making of a Mage-King series.