Today is the first of the month, and I have a new Hot Flash up on the Hot Flashes page.

I haven’t posted an excerpt from the SAGE trilogy in a while. This one is from THE FALL OF ONAGROS, Book 1 of SAGE (long sample). In it, Andrin, the Royal Waymaster, has just done an I-Chingy divination thing. Hayward, who visits him immediately afterward, is the usurper’s brother, married to the dethroned ruler’s sister.

Andrin’s Warning

excerpt from THE FALL OF ONAGROS, Book 1 of SAGE
by Marian Allen

Hayward Oliva had only his siblings’ coloring in common with them. He was plump, with muddy brown eyes and a heavy chin, a soft mouth and pudgy hands like paws. He kept his hair, more tightly kinked than his sister’s, cut to a velvety fuzz.

“You’re on your way to the tower?”

“From there. Landry sent for me late this morning.”

That would have been before my own interview, Andrin thought. He called for Hayward, heard me, then decided what to do with his brother and his brother’s wife.

“You’re on your way back to the manor, then?”

“I’m to bring Sorcha and the children. There’s some sort of trouble brewing. We’re to move into the castle for safety.”

Andrin’s mouth went dry. He held up his teabowl; Hayward took it, filled it, and handed it back.

“Mind if I join you?” the younger man asked.

“Please,” said Andrin.

Hayward took a bowl himself, and sat by the adept. In silence, he looked from the pattern on the easel to the open book, to the face of the Waymaster.

“You’ve been reading the pebbles?”

“Landry wants to know who stands between him and the crown.”

It was more than the heat of the tea, more than the effect of the herb on his system, that beaded Hayward’s face with perspiration.

“What shall I do?” he whispered.

“What you must,” said Andrin. “Does Sorcha want the throne?”

“No. She says not, anyway.”

“Would she support another claimant? Suppose an heir of Karol’s body turned up. Would she support one against your brother?”

“She says she doesn’t care. She says she wants no part of any of it, and wants no part of it for our children. I agree.”

“Does Landry know your wishes?”

“He knows them, yet he doubts them. Nothing would convince him….”

Hayward stopped speaking. He took a long draught of tea and put down the bowl.

“Goodbye, Adept.” He pushed himself awkwardly to his feet.

“Come and see me when you bring Sorcha and your family back.”

“I will. Though we’ll both have aged a bit by then.”

~*~

THE FALL OF ONAGROS, Book 1 of SAGE is available at Amazon in print and for Kindle and the free Kindle apps for computers and mobile devices. So are Books 2 and 3, actually. It’s a trilogy, so that’s it until I get the stories collected.