I am serial publishing my new novella online.
Yay!
I know you want to read it. 😉
A new chapter comes out each Sunday, at dawn. It is listed at two locations, so depending which you prefer, you may follow it there to get notices for each new chapter:
- Substack: https://thedawnbringers.substack.com/
- Royal Roads: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/166278/the-dawn-bringers-solnoc-dragon-riders-origin
They say nothing survives the light. They are wrong.
In a world dominated by nearly eternal twilight, Darcel Kerrigan, warrior of shadow and ash, witnesses the impossible: women who bond dragons and walk freely in the sun, untouched by the burning force that unravels all living things.
Their arrival ignites fear of the Second Unraveling, worship, and violence among the gloam dwellers, who believe the Dawn Bringers herald the end of everything they are. But the truth is more dangerous than myth.
As ancient balances attempt to reform, and the boundary between shadow and morning thins, and Darcel must confront a choice that will change not only his fate, but the fate of his people.
Because light is not mercy. It is transformation. And it never comes without cost.
Chapter 1 teaser…
At the very edge of dawn, a knocking on the tall, main double doors reverberated along the darkly enclosed stone square.
Not loud or urgent, as it ought to have been at dawn, with screams of terror to be let in. No. It was measured and precise, almost curious.
Darcel Nighthawk stilled mid-step, one hand still resting against the damp stone wall of the outer ring of the city compound of Stonehold. The air here always held the chill of night, even when the sky above the enclosed compound began its slow, reluctant lightening. Most preferred it that way.
Twilight was safe.
Shadows were known.
And the cold was comforting.
Another knock.
He turned, large silver eyes surveying the wooded doors that protected them from the sun.
All Stonehold citizens had already entered in preparation for the day, and no one visited the light boundary of the outer wall at this hour.
Nobody. Not ever.
Or no one that was sane, at least.
Because dawn was upon them. And while the day lasted but a brief time, sunlight was to be avoided at all costs.
The horizon beyond the thick outer ring of stone walls would be thinning now, from twilight to ash-gray to that pale, sickly silver that warned all gloam dwellers it was time to retreat to the shadows.
And the light here did not rise with warmth. It crept. It exposed. And it hurt and killed.
Darcel took a step toward the large double doors, confusion and curiosity warring with the imminent threat of daylight.
The third knock came.
Again, it was calm, not the frantic pounding of a lost or late citizen or unknown traveler. And it wasn’t the scraping signal of one of the shadow-crawlers, with their ebony claws and teeth that killed and maimed, as they had his mate.
This was deliberate.
He hesitated one second more, and then duty outweighed concern. It always had. If someone needed help them he must aid them. Maybe someone had been late in returning, and if he didn’t let them in, they could die.
He strode to the threshold doors and started unlocking the many bolts securing them against the light…
Read the rest here: https://thedawnbringers.substack.com/