… because her story has just been re-released back onto kindle by Blue Hour Publishing!
Freya is one of my favourite characters. She’s got a lot of potential for stories after this book – I’m already planning how she gets to be the first Dragon Empress of Elysia for over five hundred years… and I’ll give you a hint, it’s not just because she’s the only legal heir to the throne.
*sighs happily* I just love writing about dragons…
It also introduces another of my favourite characters, a wise-cracking ball of spirit light by the name of Vox. The idea for it (it’s genderless) came from an aborted Tabletop RPG game where the GM (not me this time) had an NPC that was a ball of light. I borrowed the concept and developed Vox.
Anyhoo, this book is tied to Book 2: Party at Castle Grof rather neatly, but it can still be read as a standalone story.
Freya has many assets, the least of which is her exotic beauty. Having been freed from the benign slavery of the Pleasurehouse, she journeys to Jinra to meet up with her brother Grald. Along the way she meets Sir Vrenstalliren, Paladin of Espilieth, who insists on becoming her guardian.
In the next town the two become five, having been joined by Kraarz, an Orc Shaman; Vox, his Otherworld Spirit Guide and Lin, an Elysian warrior on a quest of her own. It is just as well, for she is walking into a danger she is ill equipped to face alone…
Time for the Excerpt…
“Are we there yet?” Lin asked.
“Would you stop asking that? I can’t concentrate on what I am following if you keep talking,” Vox snapped.
Lin looked at Kraarz and the blind Urakh grinned.
“Be at peace my friend. Vox is following a scent in the otherworld instead of following it directly…”
“This corridor leads all the way round the outside of the dungeon.” Vox said absently.
“We’re going the long way round?” Lin burst in. “Why? My Lady could be dead by the time we get there!”
Vox stopped and looked up at her.
“Lin, please be patient. The route I’m taking avoids the majority of the rooms in this dungeon and with a bit of luck, we’ll reach the Prison without being detected.”
Lin nodded and the Flixen started moving again, his black nose held to the floor.
“How much bigger is Vox going to get?” Lin asked Kraarz quietly. “He won’t fit through the corridors if he gets much bigger, especially with that wingspan.” She glanced up at the folded wings, the tips of the flight feathers brushing through cobwebs near the ceiling.
Kraarz held one hand out and Vox swished its tail, the black tip brushing across his palm. “Hmm. I’d say that he had another foot to full growth. But we’ll be out of here before that happens.”
At the next junction, Vox stopped.
“The prison is to the left.” He sniffed the air and turned right.
“If the prison is to the left, why are we going right?” Lin halted and folded her arms. “I’m not moving any further unless you explain yourself.”
Vox blew out an expressive breath and turned his head back over his shoulder to look at her. “She isn’t there. Why would we go somewhere she isn’t?”
“You said she was in the prison!”
“I was wrong.” Vox shrugged. “It happens sometimes.”
Lin sighed. “All right. Let’s go.” She slipped her sword out of its sheath.
“Good idea.” Kraarz nodded approvingly and snapped his fingers. A ball of green fire appeared over the top of his staff.
The Flixen rolled his eyes. “There aren’t any creatures around. I’d be able to feel them if there were.”
“I thought you said that the Dark Gods shielded dungeons and their creatures from you?” Lin frowned. “Make your mind up.”
“I don’t have a mind, so how can I make it up?” Vox ignored her exasperated cry and moved forward again.
“Where do you think you two are going?” a voice asked from behind them.
“Two? Hello?” Vox blinked. “What about me?”
Lin spun round, the tip of her sword flying out to land in the throat of a large devil demon. A dribble of blue-black blood stained the steel and ran down the creature’s upper body. She pulled back into a defensive stance.
He backed away.
“Steady on. I mean you no harm. I just wanted to know why one of our allies was in the company of an Outlander.” The devil demon looked at Kraarz.
“My race turned from the Aracan Katuvana eons ago,” the Shaman replied. “We found our freedom and a home without him.”
The Devil Demon frowned; his golden cat slit eyes narrowed.
“Then you are an enemy; and the new Custodian was right.”
“New Custodian right? Right about what?” Vox asked.
The corpulent demon straightened his shoulders.
“Looks like I get to do a bit more training.”
Kraarz and Lin had shifted positions gradually, Lin moving in front of Kraarz, but allowing him a clear view of the demon. She raised her sword and the demon grinned, flexing the long black claws on his hands.
“Come on then, Little Outlander. I’ll snap you in half like a fresh femur.”
“Oi!” Vox growled, pushed Lin aside and stalked right up to the demon, tail stiff. “Can you even see me, Blubber butt?” Vox tapped the demon with one huge paw, knocking him off balance and onto the floor.
“What the…” the demon looked around confused and Lin took her moment. Leaping over Vox, she landed, turned and sliced the demon’s head off all in one smooth motion.
“Very well done, Lin,” Kraarz applauded softly.
“I wouldn’t have been able to do it without Vox pushing him over.” Lin used the shaggy red fur on the demon’s twitching legs to clean her sword.
“The demon couldn’t see me,” Vox tilted his head to one side. “Vaarzasia, Hel and Fiör created this body for me. Maybe they have made me invisible to the creatures of the Dark Gods?”
Lin hid a smile at Vox’s confusion.
“Maybe they wanted you to realise that you aren’t the centre of everyone’s attention all the time.”
Vox growled at her and stalked away down the corridor.
Kraarz and Lin followed, laughing.
*****
There are two places that you can read more about Freya and Vox and find out how the rest of the book turned out. The first is in the ebook:
Buy Link – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Freyas-Freedom-Tower-Eye-Book-ebook/dp/B01H3YJ4ZW
The second is in the Omnibus Book which is available in both print and electronic forms:
Buy Link – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tower-Eye-Kira-Morgana/dp/1326421301
The World of The Teigr Princess 