Joely Sue Burkhart

My super brilliant editor, Deena, called Gregar lethally sexy. I totally agree. 

I hinted last week that I had some ideas for Gregar’s prequel.  This little story will be most meaningful to those who’ve read The Rose of Shanhasson and need some Gregar action to tie them over until book 2… but I’ll do my best not to give away too many spoilers or depend too heavily on the overall series arc in the main series.  Of course, if you love Gregar’s story, he’s a very important character in the series and you will definitely want to read more.  *wink wink* 

If you want to read more about how Death Riders are first Called to sacrifice, check out the free read Touch the Sky.

I don’t know how many scenes I’ll get out of this, nor if I’ll hit every single week or not, but I’m jumping into the Well and will trust Gregar to guide me.  When I finish the whole story, I’ll put it into a pdf and load it in the freebie section.  This is the opening section I wrote Dark and Early this morning to:

The Shadowed Blood

The most honored Death Rider stood on a smoldering black ledge above a lake of fire in the heart of the Mountain and wept.

“Great Wind Stallion, hear my prayer. Lift Your Shadow of Death from me. I can’t bear it. I can’t bear to hurt her…”

Shuddering, Gregar fell to his knees. The hem of his memsha began to smoke, his flesh blistering, but he did not rise. In his dreams, the woman’s eyes were the same brilliant blue as the cloth wrapped about his hips, as blue as his kae’valda. His throat constricted, his heart thudding painfully in his chest.

He carried more kae’als than any Death Rider before him, each red bead in his hair representing a sacrifice in Vulkar’s name, and he defiled his kae’valda every night. Shadow walked in his dreams, corrupting his gift and tainting his soul. Each nightmare dragged him closer to her, and thus closer to her death.

Last night’s dream had driven him in desperation back to Vulkar’s Mountain, the beginning of his doom.

Midnight eyes pooled with tears, she lay beneath him, trembling as his life’s blood poured out on her skin. She had not come easily to his embrace. She never did. Fighting for her life, she’d enjoyed wounding him as much as he’d relished her pain.

She fed his darkness like no other.

“I love you.”

“Aye,” he whispered, smoothing his thumb over the pulse thumping frantically in her throat. “My heart is yours, na’lanna.”

My beloved.

And he buried the ivory rahke in her heart.

“Not her!” Gregar roared, throwing his head back and shaking his fists. “I have killed in Your name countless times! I have heeded Your Call and sacrificed blood as You demanded, but I shall not sacrifice hers! Deliver me from this Shadow, Vulkar, or let me die. ”

Hands trembling, he unsheathed the ivory rahke on his hip and laid it on the ledge. He untied the braids at his temples, pulled each kae’al from his hair, and tossed the beads one by one into the burning lake. He ripped off his memsha and tossed it into the fires as well.

In vain, he searched for a vision, some sign of forgiveness. Smoke and steam wheeled above the heartfires of the earth, but no magnificent Stallion reared up out of the molten lake as before. No bone-crushing voice thundered in his skull.

Hoarse and raw, his throat burned from the fumes of charred minerals and melted rock. “I’ve killed her a thousand times in my dreams, and I don’t even know her name.”

Shoulders slumped, he glared at the ivory rahke, his gift from Vulkar when he’d become a Death Rider. The blade glinted as pure as snow, untouched by the smoldering rock and the numerous marks he’d terminated. How many had he killed? A fist, two fists, dozens? Why wasn’t the ivory darkened by the Shadow he carried in his heart? Why wasn’t the pristine blade stained with blood?

At the thought of her blood dripping from the rahke, his mouth watered.

His prayers had not been heard.

Picking up the knife, he stood and faced the lake of fire. “So be it.”

Gregar gripped the ivory rahke in his teeth and leaped into the flames.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 27th, 2008 at 5:37 pm and is filed under Friday Snippets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.