“Always remember you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, smarter than you think and twice as beautiful as you’d ever imagined.”—Rumi

In a fierce battle described in Malevir: Dragons Return, the narrative’s antagonist, called the Malevir, attacks a child named Kurnan, who has become a dragonrider. In the second novel of this soon-to-be trilogy, Where Dragons Follow, Kurnan’s physical wounds from that battle heal over the years, but not his spiritual pains. The Malevir draws the vulnerable young man away from everything he has known and leads him into Dragonwolder’s wilderness. Here is an excerpt from Where Dragons Follow, Part II: New Allies, p.76.

His legs ached, but Kurnan’s feet danced across theglazed expanse of snow. Muddy muck no longer tugged at his feet. The voices stopped pounding against the inside of his forehead. Only twice, as he pushed onward, did he hear their whispers: “Follow thatfrozen streambed” or “Turn there, at that rotted tree.” His body followedtheir bidding, with stops for bites of stale bread crusts or a sip from that strange little pod. He thought, why should I care where the voices take me? They said this amulet will free me. They must know. It doesn’tmatter anymore.

He broke the frozen surface of a pond with a fewsharp kicks of his boot heel. Kneeling, he filled his gourd and gulped the glacial water. After sealing and stowing his gourd, Kurnan looked into the distance ahead. As usual, the valley was living up to its name [the Veiled Valley]. Even during this Winter-Turn, ground mist shrouded the land. Beyond, the dark silhouette of the Coldside Mountains loomed against a dull gray sky.

Kurnan turned toward the pond again. The boom of breaking ice caught his ear. Cracks zigzagged across the pond’s surface. Slabs of ice tilted on end then thudded into each other and sank under sloshing waves. He gaped at a glistening mound of water rising from the middle of the pond, like a giant bubble in a boiling pot. As the bubble burst, a dark mass surged out of it.

…”What–what are they?” Kurnan could barely speak as he looked at the hunched beasts wading toward him. Covered in long, dripping fur, they raised their arms and glared at him through cavernous red eyes.