Excerpt One
Everthing was shrouded in darkness as a ghostly pale woman
ran heedlessly down the steep hill. Twigs snapped beneath her bare, icy feet digging their way into her tender, pink flesh.
The sudden warm gushing of blood replaced the numbing cold. Whorzhog, hellish doglike beasts barked their deadly intent close
behind her teeth bared through harsh breath.
She didn't have time to brush back the limbs that
slapped her repeatedly in the face. her lips were swollen and bruised. She could taste the blood, metallic on her tongue. Blinded by tears she stumbled forward and smacked her face hard on a stone jutting from the earth.
The world spun violently as she fought the urge to collapse.
Excerpt Two
Near the castle the pines were losing their luster
and some were even dying. Their needles blackened, fell to the ground. Their trunks looking scorched by unseen fire.
A sickness was spreading. Animals fled from its presence for everything
it touched was contaminated. The streams were beginning to run black and people were beginning to thirst in the areas it infected.
Calyce sat upon her throne, eyes blackened, circles
formed below them. Her lips had turned to ebony, her skin bleached. She looked of death. She carried the poison now in her
skin, her blood, and everything she touched. If she couldn't find her enemies she'd flush them out by any means necessary.
She tainted the land with her evil and wouldn't stop until she had what she wanted.
