The Shade of the Soul
This is a novella of our deepest fears. No one knows where the noki came from, or how they got here, but they are terrible fiends. Black as night, drifting, floating wraiths which can drift through any substance as if they were ghosts, but their claws can be as sharp and as solid as the sharpest blade, when they want them to be. The tentative civilisations have survived only because the noki have a deadly aversion to jade; jade posts keep them at bay, jade weapons will kill them, jade walls are impenetrable to the noki, but the noki are growing in number, and now they even have men helping them. Posts moved to let them in, prisoners taken, these are new and troubling times, and nowhere is safe - not any more.
He has spent his life hunting them. His name is Rigel, he who abandoned the priesthood, and lived to tell the tale. He flits through the jungles like his quarry, hounding them as they have hounded the rest of humanity for centuries. He dabbles in the black arts of sorcery, and pacifies angry Gods with succinct rhymes. Everything is simple, until he finds the smouldering remains of a village, which tells him of these troubling new times.
Talyin who is destined to be a priestess, her cousin Asli, a warrior monk from the island of Chiku who calls herself Emma but is not quite what she seems, a man called Thuan from the furthest east, and Rigel are thrown together and parted again amidst the staggering backdrop of three civilisations, each of which is affected by the noki, each of which will fall unless someone can solve the mystery and rid the world of the noki. Is ever anything so simple?
Excerpt
Her eyes caught the burning flames, reflected them, and shone with warmth and strength. She moved not like the clumsy child she had been, but elegant, as a priestess should be. She walked into the ring and began to walk around it, circling the stone. The drums began to beat, music played, and Gedrin began to chant. Gedrin waved his hand and his apprentice came forward with the tools; a bronze chisel and a hammer. The apprentice knelt ceremoniously beside the stone, and began to chisel the name of Talyin onto the rock, in a line running down it. She continued to walk around, while the music increased in its intensity, the beat became a pulse and a signal, a code and a spell. Gedrin’s words drifted up as if on wings. Then as the last character was struck upon the stone, the chanting and the drums ceased, sparks flew from the rock and the chisel, and a great bowl of jade, filled with water was placed atop the sacred stone.
The water rippled and sung in a tone which matched Gedrin’s chanting, a long rich note, deep and melodic.
“Look into the water dear Talyin,” said Gedrin, “and tell us what you see.”
And so Talyin who had been walking around, orbiting the stone, slowly walked inwards and spiralled towards the stone, and the bowl, while Gedrin left - leaving her alone within the circle. She reached the bowl and glanced inside, her eyes cool, emotion gone and hidden by the trance she was in.
“I see this village, burnt. I see that we will all die this night.”
Further Reading
I created a lens on Squidoo that contains a lot of information about the world in which ‘The Shade of the Soul’ is set. Hopefully you might find it useful.
http://www.squidoo.com/theshadeofthesoul/
Where to buy
There are many places where this novella can be purchased. Here are a few of them.
The Shade of the Soul on Mobipocket.com
The Shade of the Soul at Fictionwise.com
The Shade of the Soul at Powells.com
There are of course others, but that should be enough…
