A First Page Look at Primnoire and The Ignited Moon
Page One of Primnoire
“We need to leave,
Cole,” Anna said, drawing up her hood, hiding the burns covering half her face,
“Grandfather will beg that I campaign if we’re not quick.”
She slipped, tucked, and buckled Cole’s lengthy saddle strap, giving the storm bison a rub between his long silver hooked horns. She tapped two fingers to the pouch at her hip. The vial of deer lure sloshed inside. Anna applied the storm bison bridle, hoping at such an early hour Williamton’s people were asleep. It soothed her to walk under the waking sun with only the wind to upset the quiet morning.
Straw crunched as they left the dry-stone stable through a tall, aged set of doors. The final remnants of rain clouds manifested from Cole’s nostrils and drifted out them. Clumps of soggy straw clung to Anna’s calf-length boots. She scratched behind the storm bison ear. Cole nuzzled her cheek with his wet black nose.
She stifled a giggle at how cold it was against her cheek. Anna looked up, narrowing her eye at the highest floor of her home. The doors to her grandfather’s balcony were shut, and the window beside it closed. He hasn’t woken yet, Anna yawned, rolling her shoulders. Her lord grandfather had kept her up late, and all over Lamparien politics again. His passion for it was admirable, his care for others was truly boundless, but of late, with the need for a new prime or primnoire coming, his rants were becoming repetitive.
She took in the homes beyond her own. Some were old and run down, built when her family founded Lampara and made its laws. The Brightons’ had even secured binding trade agreements with each country bordering Lampara. She brushed a fly off her shoulder, putting aside history for the hunt ahead.
Anna and the storm bison passed a stretch of stables lining the length of her home’s grounds. Banners swayed from the servant’s quarters above them, displaying her family sigil of a silver eight-pointed star on a field of red. Faint clattering and chatter came from the closest quarters. Its chimney bellowed smoke, reminding Anna to break her fast before leaving town.
Her eye rested upon the town’s outer wall looming over the courtyard. Anna ran her fingers over the pale bear brooch pinning a flowing green cloak about her neck. She prayed that since the courtyard’s snow had melted the woods still held some.
Page One of The Ignited Moon
“I beg you,
Non, goddess of oceans. Grant my one request. Dissolve my marriage to the Storm
King.”
Yatzil took a deep breath and opened her eyes.
T, the reflective sheen on the polished
tile floor muddied the reflection of her slender figure and ice blue skin. She rose to a kneeling position,
closing her eyes in a last desperate plea with Non. The goddess remained
silent, following the lead of those in her pantheon. Did they believe her
marriage would keep the city of
She groaned from the soreness in her neck and craned it to look upon Non’s likeness. The statue was crafted from onyx and towered at the far end of a grand pool. It was eye level to the dais she had been positioned beside for hours. The pool’s salty aroma relaxed her, but to meet the ocean goddess’s immense eyes and jade beak boiled her blood. A great hook rested between the goddess’s eyes, sharp like the frequent cramping in her calves. Yatzil focused her frustration upon her hands and ground her teeth.
She flared her nostrils, ice ran over her skin, crackling over her cheeks. Her eyes ignited yellow, but then she remembered her brother was present. His calm meditative state on display brought her patience. Yatzil thawed her features to flesh and decided perhaps Non required more time. Her brother opened one eye to the smooth white tile steps leading out of the multileveled room they were in. A faint grumbling emanated from his belly. Yatzil drew back her curiosity at how he was hungry once again, focusing on her time with him.
It was their final ocean ritual, but she didn’t want it to
be, even if it meant just being his older sister. His calm
Drumbeats removed Yatzil from the storm of worry in her
mind. Without her notic
Her parents descended them one step at a time.
Their feet garbed in sandals inlaid with jade and gold squares. She sneered at
her mother, slightly relieved for the hollowed-out
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