Sneak Peek: Secret of the Souls #Fantasy #Excerpt #PoolofSouls

I'm FINALLY able to share a snippet of Secret of the Souls with you all!!!!!!!!! What IS SotS? It's the 2nd & final installment in myPool of Souls adult fantasy series set to release November 6, 2014 from J. Taylor Publishing.

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Blurb:

Thrust out of their homes by a human High Priest on a vengeful mission, the Natives of Derlund no longer have a place to call their own. One escaped capture, however, and now she, Hyla, is the only one who can save her people.

For, Hyla, though, saving her nation isn’t her ultimate goal—returning to the Pool of Souls is. Becoming its Guardian and preserving their faith is her heart’s desire. The perils of her current journey, though, could leave her unable to fulfill that dream.

To find her way back to the Pool, Hyla must live among dangerous, powerful humans willing to defend the Natives, and must submit herself—her Talents—to them. While her protection is paramount, plots to end Hyla’s life will push her to her physical and emotional limits.

On the edge of sanity, her courage tested, and convictions nearly broken, Hyla’s final test of loyalty to her faith comes with the death of one she could have loved.

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Excerpt time...

Conlin closed the door to Belwig’s private chambers and hurried down the carpeted hall, his dark robe swishing against his legs. The red stone of the massive keep towered unseen overhead, weighing against his mind and heightening his anxiety to return to Kardon Rock.

Double crossing. Spying.

He pursed his lips and brushed too-long curls from his forehead with a trembling hand. If the High Priest of Varosh learned of Conlin’s lies, he would be tortured—or worse. Belwig’s Persuader had battered Conlin’s face and mangled more of his fingernails than he cared to remember before Conlin had decided to begin his devious ways.

As the only Native traversing the keep’s hallways rather than rotting in its dungeon far below, Conlin drew more than one surprised glance from other priests, servants, and students of the University. A few of the younger men even stepped from his path, gaze averted.

He had arrived five birth passings earlier to fulfill his mother’s dream of her son becoming a scholar, but in that time, his people had been imprisoned, the faith of his forefathers disclaimed by Belwig, the self-appointed leader of the new Church, and Conlin had become aware of his Gift. Powers the High Priest sought to awaken within all the Natives had been shackled in darkness, to help him take the throne of Derlund from House Eotherian.

At least Belwig’s soldiers had failed to fulfill their purpose at the Pool of Souls. The three humans had been slain; the five Natives remained safe within the stone arches of Kardon Rock.

For the time being.

Conlin entered his private chamber and locked the door. His stomach growled, but he ignored it and curled up on the woolen blanket covering his bed. Hunger he could deal with, but lack of sleep would hinder his soul-walking.

 Thanking Fadir he’d been able to rest most of the previous day, Conlin set his mind on the Native woman who had stolen his heart and probably that of his best friend, as well. Hyla. In a flash of blinding light, his soul departed his prone body and sped across Derlund into the deep forest of the Endwood.

Longing to enter the Pool of Souls flooded through Conlin as his soul shimmered into existence at Kardon Rock. Towering stone arches surrounded a clearing over a furlong wide, the amber Pool at its center. His gaze lingered on the shallow depths for a heartbeat before moving toward the clearing’s occupants.

Aldric, the last full-blooded Native, lay on his side by the Pool, a gnarled hand resting on its golden surface. Miri, Hyla’s elderly friend, sat cross legged beside him. Hyla’s guardian, Soroca, sat just beyond them; Rae, a young woman close to Hyla’s age, hunkered beside her, both still wrapped in their woolen travel cloaks although winter’s sun shone within the clearing in perpetual summer.

The big oaf, Obrin, and little Laine scampered about the grass, chasing tiny white butterflies, but Belwig’s old secretary, Brother Dohren, hadn’t moved from his huddled perch against one of the arches. The priest glanced away as Conlin’s gaze rested on him.

“Toad stool!” Jadon, Conlin’s childhood friend and the only human present, called out. “That didn’t take long.”

~~~oOo~~~

Other books in this series:

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WHATCHATHINK?

Read Eye of the Soul, PoS #1? Anxious for book #2??