Red at Night

red at night coverTitle: Red at Night
Series: Dragons of Tarakona #3
Published by: Meankitty Publishing
Release Date: July 2018
Contributors: Jody Wallace
Pages: 147
ISBN13: 9781540169174
ASIN: B07FNFMHBQ
Buy the Book: Books2Read; Amazon; Kobo; Apple; Paperback at Amazon
Genre: , , , , ,

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

She rescued him from death, but can he trust her with his life?

Alliah Red has one last duty before she can be truly free of the wizard who enchained her. She must guide the dragons in her master’s stable to the world of Earth. She’s the one who killed him, making them vulnerable to other wizards. Worse wizards. She just didn’t count on Leopold Crystal, the mysterious dragon from the dungeon, tangling her simple mission into a dangerous snarl.

Leo doesn’t trust the proud woman who barges into his cell claiming she killed their master, but he does believe that the pack of greedy wizards on their tails will stop at nothing to possess them. When Alliah leads him through a gateway to another dimension, his entire belief system—about himself, about magic, even about Alliah—threatens to crumble.

Placed in the unexpected position of guiding their companions in a world none of them understand, Alliah and Leo grow close in a way dragons in Tarakona are forbidden to be. But the wizards continue to clamor at the gates, endangering the town that is their refuge. Though Leo vowed he would never let his magic be taken by a wizard, can he learn to trust Alliah and her friends in time to protect them from those who would enslave them forever?

Tropes: This enemies to lovers romance also contains elements of the alpha male trope, the alpha female trope, and the protector trope.


Also in this series:

Mr. Elf’s Very Grumpy Bride

mr elfs very grumpy bride coverTitle: Mr. Elf's Very Grumpy Bride
Published by: Meankitty Publishing
Release Date: TBD
Genre: , , , , , ,

WORK IN PROGRESS!!!

ABOUT THE BOOK

The elven lord takes a bride - and a very cranky bride she is!

A grumpy human woman meets her match in an elven lord desperate to save his sister, even if it means wedding a stranger. Join Arliss Pacifica Edgeworth, the crankiest heroine, when a brouhaha at an interdimensional dating agency winds up with her bound to an elven duke seeking a mate to strengthen his magic in time to save the life of his beloved younger sister.

The fae realm split from the human realm millenia ago due to the mismatch between human and elven psyches. The only way an elf is safe in this dimension or a human safe in the elven dimension is if they are mentally linked to one another. Additionally, bonding to the right human means the elf in question has more power stability and can work greater magical spells, including healing ones.

Or deadly ones.

(Heat Level Predicted: mainstream romance at best, not erotic.)

Red in the Morning

red in the morning coverTitle: Red in the Morning
Series: Dragons of Tarakona #4
Published by: Meankitty Publisher
Release Date: July 2018
Contributors: DB Sieders
Pages: 150
ISBN13: 9781386705697
ASIN: B07FNQ2DVP
Buy the Book: Books2Read; Amazon; Kobo; Apple
Genre: , , , , , ,

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

He’s never met a dragon he couldn’t master—until her.

Katia’s been lost since her liberation. Her wicked former master held her under his cursed thrall, forcing her to do his bidding, but freedom is its own prison. Red dragons of Tarakona are warriors and defenders. But she has nothing left to defend, only a portal to guard, the portal that leads to a place called Earth and the enchanted realm of Magic, New Mexico. A distress call from the other side of the portal provides her the perfect opportunity to be the hero she was born to be.

Too bad a beastly, bossy, sexy earthborn dragon keeps getting in her way.

Dragon Master Ju-long Shi has seen it all. The anthropomorphic dragon shifter line from which he’s descended has tamed every species from tiny fairy dragons to great serpents and everything in between. But the enigmatic—not to mention annoying—new dragon in town intrigues and infuriates him with her infernal antics, as if she has something to prove. He meets his match in the red Dragon who will not surrender to his will or his charms.

When a pack of three-headed giants shows up in town looking for trouble, Ju-long and his merry band of dragon warriors find themselves outnumbered and outmatched. Katia is their only hope, if he can turn the alluring fireball from enemy to partner. Will their epic battle of wills end in a passionate alliance or a fiery disaster?

Tropes: This alpha male meets warrior female romance also contains elements of dominance play.

NOTE
No dragons were harmed in the making of this novella. The three-headed giants were, but they had it coming.


Also in this series:

Cooley’s Panther

a book called cooley's panther by jody wallaceTitle: Cooley's Panther
Series: Felidae #1
Published by: Meankitty Publishing
Release Date: March 2011
Contributors: Jody Wallace
Pages: 30
ISBN13: 9798201940362
ASIN: B004S7MIHE
Buy the Book: Books2Read; Amazon; Kobo; Apple; Barnes & Noble
Genre: , ,

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Miss Nicola Johansen, otherwise known as Cooley, relies on the predictability of her suburban subdivision to keep her feeling safe. When she spies a black panther slinking along her back fence in the wee hours of the morning, her comfortable life is shaken like a maraca. Repeated calls to the cops result in an investigation, and a finger of blame gets pointed at the mysterious man who lives down the street. Like the fact his yard is a disgrace wasn't enough reason to suspect that man of nefarious dealings--the animal pens behind his house are the clincher.

But what happens when Cooley finds out her mysterious neighbor isn't quite the scofflaw she assumed? What happens when she finds out he's absolutely...magnetic?


Also in this series:

A Wintertide Spell

wintertide spell by jody wallaceTitle: A Wintertide Spell
Series: Middle Kingdoms #1
Published by: Meankitty Publishing
Release Date: November 2011
Contributors: Jody Wallace
Pages: 32
ASIN: B0068OMOJW
Buy the Book: Books2Read; Amazon
Genre: , ,

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

If the King is fated to love thirteen women before he turns fifty, is he still husband material? One cold, snowy Wintertide Eve, Queen Geneva of Foresta tracks her straying spouse in an attempt to discover where exactly he goes at night. Has he met his next great love already? Will he put her and their three children aside?


Also in this series:

Witch Interrupted

witch interrupted by jody wallace book cover has a vintage colored asian lady with a tattoo on her backTitle: Witch Interrupted
Series: Shifters #2
Contributors: Jody Wallace
Genre: , , ,

NOTE: Currently Out Of Print

ABOUT THE BOOK

Two decades ago, assassin Katherine Zhang faked her death to escape the Keepers, a secret council of witches who use magic to kill those who pose a threat to their kind. Once a powerful Keeper, she lives a solitary—but peaceful—life as a tattoo artist. Until a strange, handsome lone wolf named Marcus Delgado walks into her shop.

Marcus has his own reasons to hate the Keepers. A scientist who sacrificed himself to test the fragile boundaries between witch and wolf, he believes there’s a way to harness the combustible power between the two species. If he succeeds, he’ll be protected from the Keepers, but he needs a willing partner—and the delicious Katie just might be the perfect test subject.

Katie knows working with a wolf, an adversary she’s undeniably attracted to, is a dangerous proposition…no matter how tempting she finds Marcus’s proposal. But when a common enemy from their past threatens them both, working together might be the only option.


Also in this series:

A Spell for Susannah

the cover for a spell for susannah by jody wallace, a fantasy romanceTitle: A Spell for Susannah
Series: Middle Kingdoms #2
Published by: Meankitty Publishing
Release Date: November 2015
Contributors: Jody Wallace
Pages: 355
ISBN13: 9798201322144
ASIN: B017V92BUY
Buy the Book: Books2Read; Amazon; Kobo; Apple; Barnes & Noble
Genre: , , ,

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

A not-so-Grimm tale about a not-so-obedient princess and the kingdom she’s determined to save

NO BOYS ALLOWED...
Twelve bored royal daughters in a kingdom where the nobility has been cursed to bear no male children. One sly detective who's been tasked to find out where the ladies disappear to at night. What's a princess to do?

FORBIDDEN MAGIC...
If you're Princess Susannah, the eldest of the twelve princesses, you research inheritance laws and curse-breaking magic until you develop the ability to work fairy magic yourself—which is completely forbidden. You might use that magic to discover an enchanted land beneath your palace where hundreds of amnesiac princes dance and cavort all night long.

DESPERATION LEADS TO DESPERATE MEASURES...
If you’re the King and Queen, you hire a professional to find out how your daughters are ruining their dancing shoes on a regular basis, despite all the measures you’ve taken to keep them secure. For that delicate job, you choose the handsome detective who instantly gets under your eldest daughter’s skin.

But enchantments and dancing won't modernize the patriarchal laws in time to prevent the Middle Kingdoms from falling into anarchy. Can Susannah outwit the detective, the patriarchy, the curse, and the fairies in time to save her kingdom—and herself?

Author’s Note to Readers: This 105,000 word novel was originally published by Samhain Publishing in 2008. This edition has been reedited, reformatted, and updated with a new cover but has not been substantially altered.


Also in this series:

FIRST SECTION FREE!

Prologue

 

The final sovereign of the Middle Kingdoms signed the petition with a flourish and then fanned the ink to dry it before handing it to the footman. The youngest of the thirteen kings, he was a handsome man with dark brown hair and a neat beard.

“Well done!” The Emperor accepted the completed document and unrolled it to its full length, nodding his head in approval. The charmed parchment, when signed by all thirteen human kings and their Emperor and witnessed by three representatives from the Fairy Alliance for Ethics, would bind the fairy Malady from the human lands, in particular from attending any more christenings with her nasty little gifts.

“It was your child upon whom Malady bestowed her final curse, so it is fitting you be the one to summon the Fairy Alliance to hear our judgment.” The Emperor handed the pearl and ruby conch shell to the youngest king.

“Thank you, Your Splendor.” The man raised the device to his lips and blew several short, eerie blasts. Almost immediately, three fairies materialized in the center of the golden throne room. The breeze of their arrival ruffled the heavy crimson hangings along the long walls and set the tiered chandelier tinkling.

“We’ve been expecting your summons,” Pleasentia said, swishing her gauze dress and smiling at the men gathered in the darkened room.

“Hurry and get this over with.” The fairy Budbud snapped her wizened fingers, and in them appeared a large gold seal. “Recite the document, sprinkle on the fairy dust and let us ratify it. We’ve better things to be doing during the blue moon’s night.”

The third fairy held a crumpet dripping with jam. “Is this about Mali?” Gary asked, licking his fingers. “You know, her gifts really don’t—”

“We don’t want to hear any more of your excuses!” thundered the Emperor. “We have the right to bar specific fairies from our midst if we so choose. In fact we have the right to bar all fairies from the human lands, and then where would you get your precious gold?”

“Oh, do shut up, Hubert, and get on with it,” Budbud said. “We all know you aren’t going to ban all the fairies. You want our spells as much as we want your gold.”

The Emperor flushed and cleared his throat. He began to recite the document, which cast the first threads of the spell that would prohibit Malady from entering human lands until the parchment was burned three times with the feather of a red gold phoenix.

“We the people…”

“They always start their documents that way. Why do they do that?” whispered Pleasentia.

“Hush, dear.” Gary patted her hand. “Let them have their fun.”

“We the people, in order to maintain a more solid union, to provide for the common defense of ourselves and our posterity, do hereby declare the fairy Malady banned and barred from the Middle Kingdoms forthwith. She is forbidden from attending the christenings of any human children, be they noble or common, even if those christenings take place outside the Middle Kingdoms, and should she seek to harm, injure or otherwise take revenge upon any human, let her—”

In a blast of light followed by a billow of reeking smoke, the fairy in question exploded into the vaulted throne room, her wiry hair standing on end. She stamped her feet upon the crimson carpet and the walls trembled.

“What charade is this?” she cried. “Banning me, the great Malady, from your puny human lands?”

The Emperor stared at the wicked sprite in dismay, his mouth hanging open, as the other occupants of the room coughed and waved tendrils of smoke from their faces.

“Keep reading, Your Splendor!” insisted the youngest king. “We shall not traffic with her. Let her see how she likes bargaining with the Sun Demons for her precious gold.” But the Emperor let the parchment droop in his grasp.

“Better not make that face, Hubert.” Malady cackled, raised a hand and an icy globule of magic appeared in it. She hurled it at the Emperor, striking him in the head and immobilizing him. “It might freeze that way!”

Budbud harrumphed. “Always butting in where you aren’t invited. You leave these humans be!”

“I will not!” screeched the black-haired fairy. “I curse these humans! I curse them and the horses they rode in on!”

“Can’t we leave the horses out of it?” asked Gary. “What did they ever do to you?”

“Okay, scratch the part about the horses.” Malady sketched some glowing runes in the air before she wiped them out with a quick hand. “But as for these foolish humans, these so-called nobles who reject my gifts, let them be forever cursed!”

Since the other kings were too intimidated to move, the young king beside the Emperor snatched the document from his limp hands. “We the people, yes, yes,” he said, racing through the text.

“Let them never bear another male child—” shrieked Malady.

“If she should seek revenge, blah blah, let her be banished by the representatives of the Fairy Alliance who stand here—” shouted the king.

“Let them bear only female children from this day forward—”

“Banished to east of the sun and west of the moon for a thousand years and a day!”

“Only girl babies for every king, every duke, every single noble in your stupid, pitiful lands!”

“So be it rote!” The young king snatched the philter of fairy dust from a gaping footman and doused the parchment.

“So be it rote,” echoed the twelve kings.

“Mmmfh!” rasped the Emperor.

“So be it rote,” agreed the three fairies, who’d observed the chant-off with great interest. Budbud hopped onto the Emperor’s dais and stamped the document with the golden seal. A ripple of pale light bloomed outward from the paper, dissipating as quickly as it appeared.

Upon the completion of the banishment, Malady doubled over with hateful laughter. Still chortling, she exploded out of the throne room in much the same way she entered, leaving a burned patch on the crimson rug.

With a gasp, the Emperor tore the icy skein from his face. “Surely that curse won’t stick,” he panted. “Will it?”

 

Chapter One

 

And so it came to pass that the noble inhabitants of the Middle Kingdoms bore no more male children. Ten, twenty, thirty years, and still no male children were delivered to swell their ranks and inherit their lands. The aristocracy tried, how they tried, but daughters alone did they have. Daughters who had fewer and fewer men to marry each year. Daughters trapped by the Kingdom Laws, which decreed women could hold no property nor titles independent of men. Daughters who must remain at home until married. Daughters who grew restless.

Susannah groaned when the Queen slammed open the closely guarded door to her bedchamber and punched the button that made the wrought-iron oil lamps pop on. Their penetrating light joined with the bang of the door and squeak of the hinges to wake her from some much-needed slumber.

“Mother,” Susannah said, “do you have to be so loud?” All twelve sisters, from oldest to youngest, shared a room so they could be guarded more efficiently.

The Queen clanged her toad-headed cane on the closest iron footboard in the two rows of beds. “Yes, I do.” The cane bounced off the footboard and into Susannah’s toes.

Susannah curled her legs up and sighed. Tendrils of a pleasant dream about waltzing with the enchanted princes in the secret land below the castle unraveled before her tightly closed eyes.

As usual on the mornings when the twelve princesses lay abed, Susannah’s mother was not pleased. “I don’t suppose any of you ladies will tell me why you’re so tired this morning?”

Several of her sisters stuck their pillows over their heads. Eyes gummy from lack of sleep, Susannah rolled out of bed, but none of the rest moved.

The Queen whacked her cane on the next footboard in the row. “Get your royal bottoms out of bed!” She rapped out their responsibilities for the day. “Calypso, Peter, Hortense—shopkeeper visits. Esme, Lilly—library. Annabelle, Nina, Temple—castle accounts. Fay, Ella, Rosa—herb gardens.”

No one budged.

The Queen stalked to the middle of the long room. The square stones and wooden beams of the ceiling echoed her words with chill precision. “If you persist with this disobedience, I’m going to start giving you away to the first men who ask for you, commoners or no.”

At that, Hortense sat up. “Kingdom Law Number 333 states that those of noble blood cannot be wedded to those of common blood unless that individual performs some quest or feat which earns him or her elevation to the ranks of nobility.”

“Besides, Papa won’t let you,” Susannah reminded her mother. “You’ve been trying that for years.”

“You devious girls haven’t been sneaking off in the middle of the night to exhaust yourselves into a stupor until recently. Your dear Papa is getting extremely frustrated.”

“It’s not our fault Malady cast the Female Curse,” Ella said. Susannah cast the teenage troublemaker a “shut up” glance behind her mother’s back, but Ella ignored her. “You and the other kings and queens brought it on yourselves when you banished her from attending any more christenings.”

While Susannah agreed with her sister, she did so in silence. Antagonizing their mother in the morning was unwise. Antagonizing her at other times was foolish, as well, but not so much as after one of their prolonged snoozes.

The Queen shook her cane at Ella. “Curse or no curse, you are going to put your lazy selves to work doing something constructive. Idleness will turn you even more wicked than you already are.”

Susannah took her corset off the hook on the tall cedar armoire beside her bed and began snapping it over her night rail that doubled as a chemise. The Queen hadn’t yet assigned her a task, which struck her as ominous. “Mother, what am I to do today?”

The Queen, ignoring her comment, bent down to the cool, gray floor and snatched up a pair of ruined silk slippers. “Look at this rag. Do you girls think shoes grow on trees?”

Susannah gave her mother a mild look. “We keep the shoemaking elves in business. Otherwise, they’d be haunting the unemployment office.”

“That doesn’t stop you from putting many guards out of a job. You know good and well your father fires everyone who lets you wicked girls keep doing…whatever it is you’re doing. I should have you all put in the stocks in the public square.”

Hortense, voice muffled through her workaday dress as she slid it over her head, cleared her throat. “Kingdom Law Number 432 states that no one of noble blood shall be stocked, hided, whipped, tortured or imprisoned in the lesser dungeons at any time. They also cannot be disowned, denounced or otherwise demoralized without indisputable proof of treason, immorality or misallocation of kingdom funds.”

“Shut up, Hortense.” The Queen turned to Susannah. “Today, Miss, you’ll be helping me select the next batch of sentries. The guards shall know it is you personally, Susannah, who causes them to be thrown from the castle in disgrace. Your father has agreed when more guards lose their jobs, you’ll be responsible for apologizing to their families and finding them employment outside the castle.”

Temple, one of Susannah’s youngest sisters, lay down on the floor and scrabbled under her bed. A pair of tattered silk dancing slippers skidded into the middle of the room, then another, and then a red croquet ball. Her head under the dust ruffle, she asked, “Couldn’t Father just quit firing the guards? None of them succeed. It’s not fair to make them suffer.”

At Temple’s naive comment, Susannah froze in the middle of her hasty ablutions. So did her sisters. Their shoulders hunched as they prepared for an onslaught from their aggrieved mother.

Temple leapt up and knocked her shins into her bed frame. “I mean, there’s nothing for them to be guarding us from, after all, so how could they succeed?”

More frightening to Susannah than the harangues, more painful than the whacks and smacks, was the calculating expression that crossed the Queen’s face. Her bright blue eyes narrowed and her thin lips curled up in a sneer.

“I wasn’t going to tell you this, but your father has decided enough is enough.”

The Queen had such a look about her today that an ill-omened pressure built in Susannah’s stomach. She and her siblings had always thwarted their mother’s attempts to catch them when they crept off at night to dance with the enchanted princes. She knew how dreadful it would be if the King and Queen discovered what their daughters had been doing at night, and how they managed to get there. So far, they’d been lucky. But luck always ran out.

The Queen strode down the bed-lined, narrow chamber and tested the iron bars on the sunny windows at the end of the room. She stamped the iron heating vents, covered for the warm season the past fortnight, while Susannah and her sisters stood in silence. Despite the fact she never found anything, the Queen often turned the room upside down in a search for secret doors or magic items. She used her cane to flick aside the brightly colored velvet tapestries adorning the outer walls, sniffed and stalked back to the middle of the room. Her skirts brushed against the pale stones of the floor with a faint shushing.

“Too many pairs of ruined slippers. Too many torn chemises and spilled bottles of cosmetics.” She struck her cane against a footboard to emphasize each point, the sharp clang making Susannah flinch. “Too many guards dismissed for failure to perform and too many mornings twelve perfectly healthy young women slumber abed. Most especially, there have been too many episodes of disregard for the commands of your parents!”

Tendrils of the Queen’s smooth blonde hair escaped its careful twist as she paced. “Your father and I are not monsters, my dears. We realize your position entitles you to certain luxuries. We realize that, unwed as you are, cloistered as you are, as old as some of you are, it was inevitable you get up to mischief. In fact, we consider ourselves lucky we had thirty-five years of relative harmony, unlike some of our neighbors.

“But this ends now. Whatever it is you’re doing, we’re going to find out, put a stop to it and punish you accordingly.”

The Queen stopped pacing in front of her eldest daughter. “Susannah, be in my office in fifteen minutes. I have breakfast waiting, so no dawdling in the kitchen.” With that, the Queen swept majestically out of the room, reminding Susannah her mother was, indeed, a force to be reckoned with. She tended to forget that fact in her obsession with the enchanted princes.

Chapter Two

 

With more speed than finesse, Susannah shoved her mass of hair into a knot at the nape of her neck. From her carved wooden armoire, she grabbed a white blouse and a dark, sensible overdress in hope of convincing her mother that she could be a prudent woman. A quick trip to the nearby bathing chamber, where she splashed face and hands in cold water, and she raced to the Queen’s office.

She closed the door softly behind her. “Hello, Mother.”

The Queen grunted. She sat in a brown leather chair at the plain sturdy table she preferred to the massive desk shoved into a far corner of the room. To an outsider, the room was a cheerful, tapestried chamber with lush blue carpets and elegant shelves of books and curiosities, but Susannah knew it as the place she and her sisters were frequently brought to task. Susannah nibbled on ham, rolls and currant jelly, and sipped peach nectar and water. Her mother’s large quill pen scratched across a stack of parchment.

“Now, Susannah,” the Queen began, setting aside her quill, “you can put a stop to all this if you just speak with me, woman to woman, about what you do every night.”

Susannah swallowed a lump of bread. “You know what we do, Mother. You spent the night with us only a week ago.”

Susannah hated lying and wished she could confide in her parents. But she knew how much trouble she’d be in if the King and Queen discovered their precious daughters cavorting with ensorcelled men several nights of the week, entirely unchaperoned.

More importantly, she knew what kind of an uproar it would cause if anyone found out how she’d discovered the princes in the first place—she, mortal woman, had learned to use fairy magic. The fairies bequeathed christening gifts, warded the Middle Kingdoms’ borders and bespelled many devices for humans in return for the coveted gold they were unable to mine or work, but mortals weren’t capable of the magical arts. It was an unspoken law of nature nobody questioned. Yet Susannah had found a way to do it. That knowledge could destroy far more than her relationship with her parents.

The Queen sighed. “You sleep, indeed, but what else do you do? What wears out brand-new slippers in one night and sprinkles fairy dust all over your skin?” Susannah glanced at her chest, where her modest blouse revealed a few tiny glints on her neck from last night’s revelries. There was probably more on her bosom, for she’d worn a low-cut chemise. Her partner for the evening, one Prince Agravar, had been covered in the insidious stuff.

She tried for nonchalance. “Someone threw a powder puff at me.”

The Queen raised an eyebrow. “I’ve heard that one before. Do you know what I think? I think there are men involved.”

“You must be joking. How could there possibly be men involved? No way in and no way out? All locked up from dusk till dawn in the most secure room in the castle?”

“Hardly dawn,” the Queen said with a snort. “I can smell men on you. I can see certain looks growing in your eyes, looks no unpromised maid should have.”

Susannah rolled her eyes. “I’m hardly a maid. I’m thirty-five, even if I’ve never been anywhere or done anything my whole life. What man would you promise me to in this accursed land? The butler? The baker?”

“It doesn’t take a titled male to spark a gleam in a lady’s eye. What do you do, seduce the guards? Do they all deserve to be turned out?”

If only her mother knew! “No, Mama, of course not. We know our place.”

“Then what do you do?” The Queen picked up her pen and stabbed it into the inkwell. “Susannah, I’m your mother. You can tell me anything and I’ll still love you, you know that.”

The Queen helped their father run a tidy little kingdom. Susannah figured her mother could forgive their dancing with hundreds of adoring men, but if she knew Susannah had learned to defy nature’s laws, how far would that love extend?

She never wanted to find out. “We sleep. We stay up late talking, but eventually we sleep. We discuss how unfair it is there are no men for us to marry. We talk of how we think the Middle Kingdoms should solve their inheritance troubles. I’m of the opinion the Kingdom Laws—”

The Queen laughed, breaking the tension. “I’m aware of your opinions. Don’t get sidetracked bashing all the hidebound old men in charge of things.”

“I should think you would be able to influence Papa,” Susannah began, but her mother interrupted her again.

“It won’t do, Susannah.” The Queen tapped a tapered finger against her chin. “I’ve switched your bedchamber, I’ve separated you, I’ve spied on you through the night. I’ve stationed a maid on a cot in the center of your room. I don’t suppose an appeal to your love for your distraught parents would do the trick?”

“Mama, there’s no cause for distress. I promise you, your concerns are groundless.” Susannah stared at her mother’s finger as it tapped against that elegant, determined chin. She sincerely hoped her mother didn’t separate them again. That had certainly been a challenge.

“But you’re doing something, aren’t you?”

Sometimes Susannah opted for a half-truth when the lump in her deceitful craw grew too large. “We aren’t doing anything to disgrace you or ourselves.”

In truth, the princes were no threat to the princesses’ chastity, considering the effects of the enchantment—or curse, as it were. Something kept the princes impotent as well as amnesiac. Despite the best efforts of certain siblings, not much was even possible. Perhaps that was a kindness to the men. They were trapped in a timeless place with nothing to do but dance and play games. No women, except the princesses, and no telling how long their curse would last.

Unless Susannah could break it.

“One might actually believe you were telling the truth, for you’ve never been able to keep secrets from me. There is always someone willing to tattle on the others.”

“There’s nothing to tattle.” A trickle of sweat slid between Susannah’s breasts. “We practice our dance steps quite a bit, and the flagstones in this palace are not exactly smooth. Not to mention you have us running enough errands to spoil hundreds of slippers.”

“Susannah, Susannah.” The Queen shook her head. “I don’t believe that for a minute. You don’t wear dancing slippers for everyday errands. If I forbid the elves to deliver any more, no doubt you’d ruin your everyday slippers instead.” She picked up an uneaten roll from the serving plate and eyed it as if it contained answers. Susannah held her breath.

The Queen replaced the roll and dusted her fingers. “I don’t know how you’ve managed to cow all the other girls, but I’m going to find out, starting today. Half a year of this nonsense is more than enough.”

“Whatever you say, Mama. Now let’s choose some guards.” Susannah always cramped with guilt when their guards were fired. Finding them new jobs was hardly a punishment, even if most of them would have preferred to remain employed by her father.

The Queen signaled a maid to clear the breakfast remains from the table. Sunlight filtered through the clear glass windows, and the office hummed with authority and power. While the King spent his days settling his subjects’ disputes in the Justice Chambers or traveling to other kingdoms on missions of diplomacy, the Queen ran the kingdom from her office. She functioned as a chatelaine for the entire land. Her room wasn’t positioned behind the throne, but it might as well have been.

“Today we’ll interview guard applicants from outside the castle.” The Queen eyed Susannah as she waited for a footman to place her chair beside her mother’s. “Your father employed a talent scout to find these candidates. I plan to hire as many as I deem necessary.”

“You mean a headhunter?” Susannah’s eyes widened as she settled into her seat. “Mama, royals don’t use headhunters.”

“They do now.” The triumphant grin on her mother’s face unsettled her.

The first man to interview was a bearded giant. “Aye, I’ll see to it the little missies don’t go scampering out of their room at night.” The giant grinned, showing several gaps between his large teeth. He crouched on the ground in front of the table instead of sitting on, and crushing, the chair positioned for the candidates’ use.

“How tall are you, sir?” Susannah asked. Giants rarely came to the Middle Kingdoms, and even crouched upon the rug he was as tall as she or her mother.

“Tall enough to see whatever it is you’re up to.” The giant let out an unmanly titter. He dug his fingers into his wiry beard and scraped his chin with a sound like a carpenter’s sander.

“Where have you worked before?” The Queen scratched down notes with her pen, the feather dancing this way and that.

“I did siege work with the late King Nobbyknees, more siege work with King Torrance and some gate bashing with King Phillip, who hired me right out from under King Torrance’s nose during the siege, he did.”

“Are you an employee who cares most about gold?” the Queen asked. “If, say, my daughters offered you a great deal of money to look the other way, would you take it?”

The giant again scratched his chin. “It would depend on if His Highness offered me more.”

“He’ll do quite well,” Susannah whispered to the Queen. “Considering we have never bribed anyone, his loyalty will never be tested.”

The Queen pursed her lips. “You might not be the right giant for this assignment, but you may talk to the steward to see what other positions are open.”

The giant rose to his full height and nearly crashed into the ceiling. His huge navel, eye level with the seated ladies, looked exactly like a bathtub drain. “Thank ye, Your Highness.” A footman flung open both doors so they were wide enough for him to exit.

The second man was a tiny brownie whose head was level with the top of the table. If brownies weren’t reputed to be so sharp-witted, Susannah would have welcomed the chipper man onto the castle staff. They hadn’t employed a brownie in years.

In a surprisingly deep voice for such a small fellow, the brownie said, “Greetings, Your Highness! Greetings, Princess!” He hopped into the chair and swung his legs. “I’ve come about the job. The princesses can’t possibly pull one over on me.”

The Queen inclined her head. “That’s what we hope. You do realize the punishment for failure is dismissal from castle service with no letter of recommendation?”

“Aye, everyone knows that. The guards hoodwinked by the princesses are talking about forming a union. But I shall not fail.”

“There has been no hood to wink.” Susannah sniffed. “What jobs have you held?”

“I guarded a sheep farm for many a year before setting off to seek my fortune. Besides, I was tired of the smell of sheep.”

This wasn’t going to be as bad as she thought. Susannah whispered to her mother, “If I’m the ringleader and the other girls my flock, you should indeed hire him.”

The Queen sighed. “Guarding sheep isn’t like guarding twelve girls too clever for their pantaloons. If you’d like to visit our steward, he may have other positions open.”

The next to interview was a haughty young man with golden hair. He reminded Susannah of Agravar from the enchanted palace.

“Mr. Finder,” the Queen said. “What skills can you offer for our special project?”

“I always choose the correct door,” the man claimed. “It’s my christening gift. If the princesses evade my watch I’ll always know what door they hide behind.”

Susannah wondered if the man could detect what magical door they hid behind, but the door didn’t exist. She used her powers to create it each time. In fact, she could do it from anywhere in the castle, though it was easiest through Calypso’s armoire. Hers had the fewest clothes in it.

“Where have you worked before?” Susannah asked him.

“I worked with Pete & Benjamin’s Animal Circus in the funhouse,” he admitted, shamefaced. “I helped children find their way out of the mirror maze. But I did a little sideshow work—lady and tiger stuff.”

With a spare quill, Susannah scribbled her mother a message.

Choose him! He will know at all times we’re behind the door of our bedchamber.

The Queen drew an “X” through Susannah’s note. “Mr. Finder, your skill might be better put to use in our Lost and Found department. If you will go into the hall and turn to the left…well, I’m sure you’ll know what door to open.”

As the day progressed, Susannah and her mother interviewed a seamstress with a directional needle, a cook who never burned the broth, a soldier who could talk to fish, a man with seven-league boots and a minstrel whose lute playing would soothe the princesses into deep slumber. They interviewed a centaur, a giant badger and a coachman who was down on his luck and just looking for a job. Susannah grew more light of heart and the Queen more surly.

“Come, Mother,” she said during their teatime break. “I have never known a talking badger before.”

“I’m leaning toward the minstrel. He can sleep all day and play his lute all night.”

“Shall I call him back?” Susannah suspected she could dig up a counterspell to lute-induced slumber in one of the tomes in the castle library’s archives. She could create the door to the enchanted land, see and hear through walls, cast illusions, light candles, defeat truth spells, inspire slumber, make beds and heal aches and pains, and her powers were expanding daily.

She wished she could also read minds, although she doubted that would be on the safe list of ethical uses for magic Hortense and several of her sisters had worked out with her when her powers first surfaced. The Queen shook her head. “The headhunter inventory says we have one more candidate. I’ll interview him and then make my decision.”

Susannah straightened the skirt of her somber brocade overdress and brushed a few crumbs onto the carpet. Her hair tickled her neck and face, escaping from her hasty knot, and she shoved it behind her ears. “What is his name?” she asked her mother.

“Jon Tom.”

“Jon Tom what?”

The Queen frowned. “It just says Jon Tom.”

“But that is two first names and no last. What does he do?”

“It says he is a…detective.”

Clapping her hands, Susannah laughed. “A detective! What does he detect, stolen sheep? Burning broth? Anyone who needed something detected would come to the King’s Lost and Found department.”

The Queen shot her a sour look and rang the silver bell. The tall double doors swung open and Jon Tom the detective walked through. Susannah examined him, as she had the other applicants, for potential threats. He had a swarthy face, dark hair and white teeth, which gleamed brightly in the afternoon sun streaming through the tall, thin windows.

“My Queen, my Princess,” he said, executing a low and graceful bow.

“Greetings, Jon Tom,” the Queen said. “Please, make yourself comfortable. I understand you’re a detective?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“What exactly is a detective? What is it you detect?”

“I detect solutions, Your Highness. Solutions, answers, reasons and culprits.”

“Solutions to what?” Susannah wanted to know. The man had a wily look she didn’t like. His dark eyes glanced about the room, assessed everything and everyone in it.

The man regarded her coolly, almost insolently, as if he knew her secrets. “Solutions to who killed Cock Robin. Solutions to what happened to the Queen’s tarts. Solutions to where twelve naughty ladies go every night when the sun is down and the night is full.”

The Queen stopped scratching her quill on her notepaper and leaned back in her chair. “Do you indeed?” A smile spread across her face.

“Not every city has a Lost and Found department as assiduous as yours,” Jon Tom complimented the Queen. “Not every kingdom has a king who puts his own daughters to work solving the citizens’ problems and caring for the community.”

“Have you been detecting solutions for long?” the Queen asked.

“Many years, Your Highness. I hail from Pavilion, where the late ruler’s failure to produce a male heir has resulted in near anarchy. The kingship has gone to a baronial cousin who isn’t bearing the burden particularly well.”

“We would like to avoid Pavilion’s troubles, but first we must control our daughters.”

Susannah pressed her lips together. As if she wanted this strange man thinking of her as out of control!

“You seem to know quite a bit about our situation already.” The Queen steepled her fingertips near her chin. “Perhaps you would like to share your theories at this point?”

“Oh, no doubt there is a man involved.” Jon Tom winked at Susannah.

Had her mother noticed this bourgeois man, this detective, wink at a royal princess? Susannah turned to her mother to protest.

But the Queen’s face was lit with pleasure. “That’s exactly what I said.”

“And I told you, Mother, there isn’t a man involved,” Susannah snapped.

Jon Tom smiled, seemingly pleased by the outburst. Her eyes drifted away from that face, from that hawk-like nose and strong chin, to his broad chest, two strong arms crossed over it as he lounged in his chair. Down to tan trousers encasing a fine pair of legs. The man was as attractive as any of the enchanted princes in the land beneath, but he had such an air about him, such a dangerous air, as if he’d sooner snatch her up and eat her than dance a reel.

“So tell me, Your Highness, about your daughters. The more information I have, the more easily I can solve the case.”

“Well, you have met Susannah. At five and thirty, she is the eldest and I fully believe she is the ringleader of whatever is going on.”

“I make no mistake about that,” the man agreed. “Princess Susannah.” He rolled her name around in his mouth like a toffee. “I am charmed to make your acquaintance.”

Susannah sniffed and turned her head to one side. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the man smiling a strange, slow smile.

“My second eldest is Calypso,” continued the Queen. “She is a tomboyish gel who loves horses and polo. She hasn’t the sort of trickery about her to instigate this matter, but she’s game for any adventure. My third daughter is Peter.”

“Peter? That’s an odd name for a princess.”

The Queen inclined her head regally. “His Highness was convinced an amulet he acquired on the black market could defeat the Female Curse and named her Peter before the doctor could say, ‘It’s a girl.’ It wouldn’t do to tease Peter about her name, though. She’s very sensitive about certain things.”

“She’s as sensitive as your wooden cane,” Susannah muttered.

“Hortense is next. She’s a law-abiding woman who isn’t the type to go along with escapades.”

“Never be surprised the lengths to which a lady will go when there is a man involved,” the detective assured the Queen. “Even a proper girl can have her head turned by a handsome man…or a very determined sister.”

Susannah focused an intent glare upon Jon Tom. It would be nice if she could use that pincher spell and needle him in the…but she didn’t dare. Her hostile regard didn’t discomfit him. He gazed back at her knowingly until she looked away first.

Why did her mother not notice the things this man was saying to her with his eyes? “Mother,” she whispered, “I don’t think this man will suit. He’s disrespectful.”

The Queen ignored her and continued to catalog her daughters.

“Do you mind if I write this down?” The detective took some tiny paper and a black crow’s feather out of a small pocket on his tunic.

“Do you need ink for your quill?” The Queen gestured to her inkpot.

“Oh, this is an enchanted quill—never runs out of ink. A fairy gave it to me when I aided her on a confidential matter. Please continue. I’m learning a great deal.”

Susannah rested her chin on her hands as her mother described Susannah’s sister Lilly. “She would make a lovely bride,” the Queen said. “Not that there are any men for her to meet and marry.”

“No men you know of,” Jon Tom commented. “I’m willing to bet Princess Susannah knows differently.” He wrote another note in his book and tapped his mouth with the dark quill.

Susannah twisted about in her chair. “Mother, do we have to hear any more? This man is clearly a fraud.”

“You seem anxious to get me out of here, Princess.”

“I’m anxious that my father not waste his gold hiring a charlatan. Who has ever heard of a detective, anyway?”

“Susannah!” exclaimed the Queen. “That was very rag-mannered.”

The strength of her annoyance surprised Susannah, but she didn’t back down or apologize. There was something about this man that activated her hackles.

Jon Tom held up a strong brown hand. “Don’t worry about my feelings, Your Highness. The Princess’s discomfort is natural when the end of her clandestine revelry is so near.”

“You don’t know anything about it. Or about me.” Susannah crossed her arms over her chest, echoing his posture. “Mother, you shouldn’t allow a commoner to speak to one of royal blood in such a way. Father would be most displeased.”

“I think your father will be delighted.”

“What do you mean, ‘Father will be delighted’?”

The Queen twitched a single finger in a silencing gesture but didn’t otherwise acknowledge Susannah’s interruption. First her mother said she was out of control. Now she shushed her like a child. When Susannah peeked at the detective, he twitched his own finger in a similar fashion, and it was all she could do not to jump up from the table and pull his stupid, shining hair out by the roots.

“My twelfth child,” the Queen said, finishing her litany, “is Rosa, my baby. She was twelve this past Snow Faire.”

“I’ll enjoy meeting all your children, Your Highness.”

His assumption he’d meet all her sisters was overconfident. Susannah’s ire rose. “This man shouldn’t be introduced to my sisters, much less Papa.”

“Your father is going to enjoy meeting Mr. Tom and discussing possible theories with him. Tonight.”

“Tonight? You’re hiring this man?”

“I am.”

“Mother, please. I don’t like the look of him. He will probably be gone in the morning with half the crown jewels.”

“I’m wealthy already, Princess. I have the luxury to choose my cases based on which ones interest me. This one interests me very much.”

Susannah clutched her mother’s arm and lowered her voice. “He winked at me. He keeps intimating things that aren’t proper.”

“Don’t be silly, Susannah. I intended to hire the candidate to whom you most objected. By the strength of your objection, Jon Tom will do a wonderful job. You have outsmarted yourself, my darling.”

Susannah’s mouth opened and closed like a fish, and at that moment a flicker of fear scampered across her skin. Could Jon Tom truly use these detective skills to discover her use of fairy magic and the enchanted realm beneath? Just what were these skills? Had he some magic mirror which answered questions? Had he some djinn in a bottle bound to obey its master’s commands?

“Your Highness,” Jon Tom said, “I’m flattered by your quick decision, but you’ve yet to hear my terms.”

That seized the Queen’s attention. “You would barter with the Queen?” The regal lady’s eyebrows flew up toward her hairline.

“I would, Your Highness. I have certain requirements for proper detective work. One, that I not be dismissed until the princesses evade me at least three times, as according to the common rule of three. Two, that royal chaperonage customs be relaxed so I can spend time with the ladies alone. And three, when I succeed, I wish a house and fertile lands instead of gold.”

It was the Queen’s turn to gape like a landed fish. “We’ll talk to the King,” she finally said. “You may discuss your terms with him. And you, Susannah, may repair to the library for the rest of the day.”

Susannah rose and stalked as far away from Jon Tom’s chair as she could get without being too obvious. Not that obvious mattered at this point, for she’d expressed her disapproval of the man clearly enough.

“Princess Susannah,” Jon Tom said, just as she gained the safety of the door. Reluctantly she turned. Jon Tom had risen from his chair and stood facing her, a glint in his coal-dark eyes.

“It was a pleasure to meet you,” he said. “I look forward to discovering your secrets, no matter how you hide them.”

“My only secret is I wish the headhunter had never found you.”

“The headhunter didn’t find me, Princess, I found him. I found him, and soon I’ll find out about you.”

BUY LINKS

A Mage by Any Other Name

a castle silhouette set against a blue and gold sky that is the book cover with fancy border around itTitle: A Mage by Any Other Name
Published by: Meankitty Publishing
Release Date: December 2011
Contributors: Jody Wallace
Pages: 100
ISBN13: 9798201334178
ASIN: B006RO3LVS
Buy the Book: Books2Read; Amazon; Kobo; Apple; Barnes & Noble
Genre:

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Mary's new job with Wizard Williwim is perfect. Through gainful employment and access to the classified central library, she hopes to discover a route to the respect and approval she yearns for. For years she’s attempted one plan after another, and this one appears to be working.

But Mary’s life has never been that easy. When an enemy from her past reappears to endanger everything she has nearly achieved, she has to decide whether to confess some dangerous secrets she’s been hiding.

A tricky choice, when those secrets could lead to her and Williwim being cast out of the district...or being very, very dead.

This fantasy novella is 26,000 words long and contains a bonus deleted scene at the end. Rated PG-13.

CHAPTER ONE

 Mary had only been Wizard Williwim’s assistant for a month when the challenge came. A black pigeon fluttered through the open window, landing on the back of the wizard’s chair. He freed the tiny parchment cylinder from the bird’s limb.

His wrinkled face grew more wrinkled when he read the message.

“Bother,” he muttered, his white hair floating around his head like a dandelion puff. “This is far sooner than I’d anticipated.”

Mary set aside the mortar and pestle she’d been using to crush the dried rose petals into a dust fine enough for the most discriminating spell caster. Pigeon mail meant bad news, and bad news for her employer was bad news for her.

“Has someone died, sir?”

“I’m sure someone has died somewhere, but it has nothing to do with the message.”

Williwim renewed the animal’s health with a rub of his index finger and sent it flapping back out into the summer morning. “It’s a wizardrite challenge.”

“Are you being invited to referee?” she asked hopefully.

He shook his head. “We should be so lucky. It’s a challenge for me.”

“You? But you haven’t been challenged in ages.” Rumor was, Williwim had transformed the last opponent into an animal of some sort. It had been hushed up by the Council, but no one had wanted Bannoch-Faoran enough to fight him for it in years.

Until now. The timing was a bit too on the nose to ignore.

“I suppose they think I’m getting decrepit.” Williwim didn’t meet her gaze. “Why couldn’t they pester Cheng or that Annui woman? They’re both a hundred and forty if they’re a day.”

Apprehension curled through her like ivy. “It’s because of me, isn’t it?”

“Nonsense.” Williwim allowed the parchment to curl back into a cylinder, a tiny phut of sound. “I kept it quiet when I let Tomas and Frieda go.”

“It’s got to be me. Most wizards have experienced assistants, while I—”

“Need to finish the roses. When you’re done, we’ll discuss the challenge. I need to think.” The frown line between Williwim’s brows deepened as he unrolled the parchment and released it again. And again. Phut, phut, phut.

Mary shut her mouth and ground the pestle into the remaining petals. The powder might put Williwim one step closer to perfecting the youth spell he intended to name after his patron, but it didn’t lessen her anxiety one bit.

During a wizardrite challenge, the strongest assistant stood beside the wizard on the field. Mary was Williwim’s only assistant. While they’d developed a friendly rapport, she wouldn’t say they worked together as well as a…mortar and pestle.

More like a dog and pony, before they’d trained for that show.

If Williwim were to lose the challenge, he’d be demoted to mage and the winner would take his place as wizard here. Williwim could find another job, but Mary needed this one. This particular one, with Williwim, whose powerful magics obscured her own and whose status gave her access to the central library. The other option that would conceal her magics was a spellball factory, but that would be unwise, considering why she left the last one.

She’d known when she’d applied to Williwim that challenges would be inevitable, but she hadn’t counted on her new employer firing his other assistants in one swoop. She hadn’t counted on being thrust onto the challenge field so soon, if ever.

Considering she knew no disguise spells that would survive tournament purification, she had to find a way out of this. Not only would it be embarrassing when her true appearance came to light, but that combined with the alias would cause Williwim to distrust her.

A wizard wouldn’t want an assistant he couldn’t trust, and he surely wouldn’t grant her library access.

The rose petals reduced to dust, Mary sealed them into a baggie. “I’m finished.”

Williwim paused in the act of unrolling the parchment. “Did you save all the dust? We can’t lay hands on that particular species again for a year.”

“I was careful, sir.” She shifted her bulk in the hard seat. “Can we talk about the challenge now?”

Phut. The parchment curled around Williwim’s finger. “I suppose.”

“Who is the challenger?”

“Not someone I’ve seen on the circuit before. A Professor Grantus. Are you familiar with him?”

“Did you say Grantus?” Surely she hadn’t heard correctly. The sudden buzzing in her ears had drowned Williwim out.

“He’s with Concerto College. It’s in the Velde-Faoran district. Primarily a shield and bludgeon sort of mage, but he’s got admirable reserves. Drat his hide. I should have known during the last lecture series he was up to something beyond his regular posturing.”

The bottom fell out of Mary’s stomach. Grantus on the wizardrite circuit? Grantus the Lion, who loved his role as big mage on campus? “Could you have misread the parchment? Perhaps he’s officiating.”

Williwim glanced at her with mild irritation. “I have access to a wellspring. There’s nothing wrong with my eyesight.”

“It’s just, I never thought he’d have the stones to—” Mary stopped herself with a shuddery exhale. “I’m sorry, sir. Questioning you was rude of me.”

Why was this happening? Of all the mages she’d ever met, Grantus was least likely to drag himself out of his cozy academic world for a run at a wizardrite. She’d banked on that when she’d come up with this plan.

And of all the districts in all the kingdom, Grantus just had to challenge the wizard in this one. This tiny, unimportant district she’d chosen because no-one coveted it and the wizard had two assistants already.

Mary swallowed hard enough that her tongue clicked. This could go from terrible to worse very quickly. This could ruin everything she’d been striving for. “Who…who is Grantus’s second?”

Williwim glared at the parchment, as if by the power of his will he could change the words. In fact, he could, but that wouldn’t change the message.

“Black Lily,” he finally answered.

Mary slumped against the back of her chair, the blood draining from her head so fast it left her dizzy. Her heart pattered like a trapped bird. If she hadn’t had herself tested by one of the best curse-breakers in the kingdom, she would have wondered if her consistently rotten luck were magically-induced.

Alas, it was Mary-induced. And here was more of it, coming home to roost above her head and shit upon her.

“I thought,” she began in a squeaky voice, “Black Lily was on the quest for the dragon fire scepter.”

“Apparently she’s back. Hm. Isn’t she a college-named mage? I can’t recall where she matriculated.”

“Nor I.”  If her heart leapt any more, it was going to choke her. She surreptitiously pinched the fat of her thigh to reroute the building panic.

Luckily, Williwim was too intent on the parchment to notice her reaction. “If it was Concerto, wouldn’t that be a kick? I gather mage students hate their professors by the time they finish schooling.”

“I’ve heard,” she ventured, “they have good reason.” Mage professors were responsible for busting inept students off the path to high magics, and their methods could create ineptitude where none had been before. It wasn’t a pleasant undertaking for anyone involved.

“Perhaps.” Williwim flattened the parchment. “Quite the coup on Grantus’s part either way. I wonder if signing the notorious Lily is why he, as you so eloquently pointed out, developed the stones to pursue a wizardrite?”

It wasn’t as much of a coup as the rest of the magical community might assume. More like favors of one nature begetting favors of another. She couldn’t share that information, though. Williwim would want to know why, and lying to his face was more difficult than lying by omission.

Instead, Mary said, “Could be.”

“I’m sure he offered a bonus the size of Mount Vorundum. This new generation is so mercenary. I’m glad you’re not collegiate.”

Mary managed a weak smile. If only he knew.

He slapped a hand against the tabletop. “No matter. We’ve got this. You won’t lose your position so soon.”

“I’m not worried about my position, sir.” She had more to worry about than a job with Grantus and Lily involved. Was the challenge their way of letting her know they’d found her, or was it a coincidence of the worst sort?

Williwim raised a thumb. “That’s the spirit, Sally. I’ve handled worse than Black Lily in my day.”

Mary gave him an even weaker smile. Her stomach graduated from floppy to queasy. Even if he pulled a win, or a bunny transformation, out of his pointy hat, there was still the issue of what he’d do when he realized she’d lied to him. And what would happen when Grantus and Lily recognized his assistant.

His quiet, harmless nobody of an assistant who was only trying to keep her head down and use her magics for the good of the kingdom. They had to be used, after all. As she and her estranged parents knew all to well, damming them up was unhealthy for anyone in the vicinity when they broke loose.

“We’ll start preparing this afternoon,” Williwim said with a decisive nod. “We haven’t tried combining our power as much as I’d like.”

They hadn’t tried combining their power at all. “When is the challenge?”

Maybe she had time to contract a disease. Get pregnant. Run away. Possessing the moral fiber to see things through was overrated when you stood to gain nothing but humiliation. Or worse.

Williwim sighed. “As to that, well, it’s tomorrow. He’s trying to ambush us.”

“Wow, that’s…a surprise.” The words could scarcely pass the lump in her throat.

“They do call it a surprise attack.”

What in the stars had she done to deserve this? Besides nearly explode a city block full of people when she’d been sixteen and totally untrained, that is. All she’d done beyond that incident was stroll past the wrong, supposedly deserted storeroom at the wrong time in college.

He folded his message parchment into quarters. “I wouldn’t have pegged either of them for the sort to pop onto the wizardrite circuit with no fanfare. And to challenge me first? I might be old, but I fancy I still have a fearsome reputation.” He flicked the parchment across the table like a tiny missile. It landed in a basket.

Thoughts spun in Mary’s brain like a drunken May circle. She shoved her mortar, pestle, books and papers aside on the wide table. She needed a clear space in case she was forced to bang her head. “Holy Stones of the Father, this cannot be happening.”

“Maddening, isn’t it?” Williwim agreed. “I hardly have time to choose and bespell a tournament field, post the announcement, notify the Council, and find an appropriate referee, much less prepare you for your first wizardrite event. It doesn’t seem fair.”

He had no idea how unfair it truly was. Mary wracked her brain for escape clauses. “Can we postpone? Claim hardship?”

“What hardship?” Williwim gestured, and the parchment returned to his hands, where he prepared to flick it again. “We’re not under attack or pestilence, and our employment rate is favorable. Comparatively.”

This time the parchment missed the basket.

“I thought two fortnight’s notice was standard.” Damn Tomas and Frieda, getting themselves fired like that! Why did they have to go and get pregnant?

“Standard but not required.” He scratched his scalp with a crooked wand. “Bugger it.”

“They should require it. These things take time.” Who could stand beside Williwim in her place? George, from the factory? He owed her a huge favor. Karina, the village hearth witch? At least she could stand there and look pretty.

“The wizardrite system exists as it does for a reason. You must be able to defend your patron and community at a moment’s notice,” he pointed out. “Only our best and strongest can wield the wellsprings.”

“I know, I know. It’s for the rite. It’s for the kingdom. It’s for the good of all.” It would be simple for Williwim to defeat any mage with the wellspring, but that wouldn’t be a fair assessment of which practitioner deserved to be wizard of the district.

“You took the oath when you took the position with me,” he reminded her. “Didn’t you read the contract, Sally? You seem so meticulous.”

“I read it, sir. Didn’t it mention—” Mary drew it out as if trying to remember, when in fact she knew the oath and its fine print by heart. “Hm. Was there something about how a host wizard can skip field preparations if desired?”

If Williwim didn’t organize a safe battlefield ahead of time, it would delay the tournament by a day or so. Every second might count.

“That wouldn’t be wise.” He shook the wand like one of those newfangled mercury thermometers. Smoke poofed from the end. “It’s the politics of the thing. Refusing such a courtesy implies you’re desperate to save strength. That puts you at a disadvantage, especially if your patron has reason to be displeased with you.”

As if conjured by mention of a displeased patron, Countess Bannoch burst into the chamber. She held a larger parchment in her age-spotted hand and brandished it like an accusation.

“Willie, what’s this nonsense?” she shouted. The Countess was very fond of shouting.

“Darling, so nice to see you.” Williwim rose and dusted his robes.

Mary popped out of her chair and bobbed a curtsy that nearly sent her to the ground.

“Careful, there,” the Countess told her.

Not only were her knees half-jelly with anxiety, but at times she forgot to take her camouflage weight into account. Everyone she’d met since donning this particular alias thought she was oafish.

While Mary righted herself, the Countess leaned on the cane she carried to whack at things she didn’t like. She groused at Williwim. “Your optimism always gets us in trouble. You promised we wouldn’t have to muck around with challenges for years if I let you try that spell out.”

“That was the plan,” he agreed. “Unfortunately, Grantus didn’t get the pigeon.”

“I don’t want that two-faced, stuffed shirt of a goat monger as the resident wizard for Bannoch-Faoran.” The Countess’s voice rose with every word. “Someone needs to remind him the last mage you faced ended up on four paws, wagging a tail.”

Mary blinked. She’d heard the rumors, of course, but rumors weren’t to be trusted. “Then it’s true, sir? You changed someone into an animal?”

“I wondered when you’d get around to asking,” Williwim said with grin. “Impressive, eh?”

The confirmation was reassuring, to know he had that capability, but it wouldn’t help Mary’s problem. If he forced her to stand in the tournament with him, purification and exposure were unavoidable.

“You need to transform Grantus.” The Countess slapped a cabinet with the cane, rattling all the bits and bottles. “Let’s see the Council cover it up twice. Blasted busybodies.”

 Williwim hastened to the Countess and soothed her with small pats on the back. “There’s no need to abuse the furniture, Amelia. Grantus the Lion is a worthy opponent, but his skills aren’t on par with mine. You’ve nothing to fear.”

“Don’t patronize me. I’m the patron here.” The Countess shook the parchment as if it were a castanet. “What about this Black Lily? The news scrolls describe her as some kind of whiz.”

“Black Lily has barely breeched the world of high magics. She couldn’t have earned her mage name more than ten years ago. She’s a child.”

The Countess raised an eyebrow. “And? The scrolls say she’s published. Some articles and a grimoire that sold a thousand copies.”

Williwim shrugged. “Mine sold more.”

The Countess rapped Williwim’s leg. “She led that quest thing for that scepter thing, I forget what, but it was a big deal. Had a stone in it.”

Williwim’s expression didn’t change by as much as an eyelash flicker. “That doesn’t change her inexperience. This isn’t academia. She’s never been in a real wizardrite tournament, and neither has Grantus.”

The same could be said for Mary, and the Countess looked happy to say it. She assessed Mary with a frown. “Who’ll be your second? I can’t spare much gold. Could you rehire Tomas for the day? After all, it’s his pecker’s fault we’re in a lurch.”

The wizard waved a nonchalant hand. “No need. Sally is quite capable.”

Mary straightened her shoulders and tried not to reveal how the Countess’s disregard hurt her—even though she agreed. She wasn’t a good choice for Williwim’s second. “If gold is the issue, Lady Bannoch, I can help fund my substitute.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” the Countess and Williwim said together.

“You can’t afford to help on what we’ve been paying you,” the Countess got in first. “Unless you’re an heiress?”

“I’m not,” Mary said, somewhat afraid the Countess would whack her for it. Even if she had been, her parents had disowned her when the Council had bustled her off to Concerto to receive emergency training. In the ensuing years, she’d drowned out the hurt with determination. It didn’t mean the hurt was gone, but she had a plan.

“Didn’t think so.”

“I know a few magicians we could hire cheap,” Mary offered. “I can pigeon mail them. They could be here before luncheon.”

“Both of you hush,” he said. “Sally is my assistant. She’ll stand beside me as my second.”

Mary clenched her plump, trembling hands. “I’m not good enough.” Or brave enough. Or was it stupid enough? “I…I refuse.”

“You can’t refuse.” Williwim stared at her as if seeing her for the first time. Tomorrow, he would be. “This was in the contract, too. It’s part of your duties. Is there something you need to tell me?”

She considered confessing everything. Dropping the disguise and gushing the truth out like water from a broken dam. If Grantus and Lily were challenging Williwim because of her, he deserved to know. But she wasn’t certain that’s why they’d challenged him, and oh, how angry he’d be! He might be angry enough to serve her up to them on a platter, with a side of carrots.

No, she’d withhold the confession as long as she could in case an alternate solution presented itself. She’d give herself until tonight.

No, tomorrow morning. First thing. Right after breakfast.

Dragons of Tarakona Box 2

the book cover for the box set of dragons of tarakona part 2Title: Dragons of Tarakona Box Set 2
Series: Dragons of Tarakona #21
Published by: Meankitty Publishing
Release Date: February 2021
Contributors: Jody Wallace, DB Sieders
Pages: 750
ISBN13: 9781393958123
ASIN: B08VH2XHCY
Buy the Book: Books2Read; Amazon; Kobo; Apple
Genre: , , , , , ,

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Dragons and wizards unite to save all of Tarakona!

Welcome back to the fantastical, fast-paced world of Tarakona! The Dragons of Tarakona is a light and adventurous paranormal romance series by authors Jody Wallace and DB Sieders set in both the unique world of Tarakona as well as the shared world of Magic, New Mexico, fronted by author SE Smith. In this second box set you'll find a dragon who didn't know she was a dragon, a hero who didn't know he was a hero, a genius dragon inventor, a surly sexy wizard, two former best friends competing to win a dragon race, a grouchy blue dragon who doesn't want to be in charge, and a mysterious wizard who has to pretend she's a human.

The Dragons of Tarakona series stands on its own, but each book does lead into the next, with recurring characters, settings, shenanigans, and happily ever afters. The books in this box set are GOLD RUSH, GOLD FEVER, BLUE STREAK, and BLUE GUARD.


Also in this series:

Liam’s Gold

the book cover for liam's gold by jody wallaceTitle: Liam's Gold
Series: Fae Realm #10
Published by: Meankitty Publishing
Release Date: January 2018
Contributors: Jody Wallace
Pages: 130
ISBN13: 9798201951269
ASIN: B078YDVP3H
Buy the Book: Books2Read; Amazon; Kobo; Apple
Genre: , , , , ,

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

His plan: hide in plain sight. Not planned: falling in love.

Liam Connell is tantalizingly close to the end of his required sojourn in humanspace. On one hand, he’s eager to return and repair the leprechaun’s dysfunctional governing body. On the other, it means leaving behind his mouthwatering neighbor, Sal.

Salvia Rose Winter is no ordinary woman. She possesses a gene that lights up when leprechauns come near, which would blow his cover—and ruin everything he’s worked for. Yet when he learns he’s being hunted by an old nemesis from the Realm, he has no choice but draw closer to her for safety.

Sal never believed her grandmother’s leprechaun tales or that Liam will ever want her for anything other than her computer skills. But when he unexpectedly asks her out on a date, she wonders if wishes really can come true. One smoking hot night later, she’s convinced the answer is yes, oh yes.

By the time Liam realizes his plan has backfired, it’s too late—he’s fallen in love. Which makes her the target of a maniac who’ll stop at nothing to destroy Liam’s future—including murder.

Tropes: This best friends to lovers paranormal romance includes elements of disguise, a fling, a playboy, and unrequited love.

Note: This novella was originally published by Samhain Publishing in 2008. This edition has been reedited, reformatted, and updated with a new cover but has not been substantially altered.

 


Also in this series: