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Root and Branch
Noah Woodsman learned early that the world takes what it can and calls it justice. He keeps his head down, hunts quietly, and sleeps with one hand on the ground—listening to the trees that whisper him warnings. The old woman who raised him calls it wood magic. Everyone else calls it witch work, and in these lands, that’s reason enough to hang a man. So Noah stays invisible . . . until two soldiers ride out of the dawn, tied to their saddles—one dead, one dying—and trouble follows their blood like wolves on a wounded stag.
Lieutenant Lang Gorlan should’ve died on the border. Instead, Noah hauls him to a healer’s shack and buries the bodies that come looking to finish the job. The killings buy time, not safety. Rich men grow richer on other people’s graves, bounty hunters sell misery by the head, and every road leads to someone who wants Noah’s coin, Noah’s work, or Noah himself. When a freed man with a slave collar and a wagon full of spoils attaches himself to Noah, the forest boy finds he’s building a family whether he wants one or not.
River Bend offers no welcome, only a baron’s contempt and a city full of eyes. A “haunted” farm on crown land promises shelter, but curses don’t keep the living out—only the hungry do. And when war whispers from Carengard, Noah is pushed into deeper work: scouting, spying, stealing truths that can’t be spoken aloud.
In a country that fears mages and feeds on the weak, Noah must decide what kind of monster survival will make of him.
Heart and Soul
My name is Jimothy Van Done, or that’s what the orphanage birth certificate says. Jimothy. I hate that name. I bet some lazy clerk misspelled Timothy. Anyway, that’s just one of many things I hated about my life, but there was very little I could do about it. The corporate orphanage owned us. They housed, fed, clothed, and educated us. If you were smart enough, they gave you specialized training. If you did well in those classes, you were sold to corporations to continue your training and were put to work maintaining corporate equipment.
I will admit that I had it better than some others, but I studied hard and worked hard to succeed. Then I found out the game was rigged. The corporation never had any intentions of letting any of us leave their employ. I was a tier-one asset, which was just another word for slave. I wasn’t sure how, but someday I would figure out a way to escape.
My opportunity came unexpectedly when I went on an off-book job for one of my monitors. He’d gotten deep in debt with the wrong people, and to pay his debt, I had to do a job. The job was to repair a malfunctioning autodoc. No big deal, I repaired equipment like this all the time. However, this was the first time a sentient nanite AI was involved. They were trying to steal the AI, and he was blocking access to the autodoc he was in.
Well, as they say, it’s all fun and games until an eye gets poked out. Or, in my case, a firefight breaks out, where I was shot three times. I woke up in a ventilation shaft, in bloody clothes, with a nanite AI who had taken up residence inside me. To add insult to injury, the corporation would do anything, or kill anyone they had to, to get the AI back. Yeah, my life just keeps getting better and better.
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Rise of the Shadow Mage
When Robert’s mother dies, his whole world caves in on him. Fatherless, he has no one, and nowhere to go. The royal mage shows him kindness by putting him on the royal guard as a “boot” to keep a roof over his head. Robert’s quick wit and willingness to help others serve him well in the guard. He becomes friends with the king’s second son, Randal, who was placed in the guard by the king to teach him discipline. As he ages, he develops mage abilities but keeps them secret.
While on a weekend pass in the city, Robert saves Randal’s life and is rewarded by being made Randal’s liegeman. Robert is moved from the guard to the royal castle and begins specialized training to serve as Randal’s liegeman. Robert sees this as a step up in life and is doing well until he has a run-in with Randal’s brother Raymon, the crown prince.
Prince Raymon is a vindictive bully and tries to blind Robert while sparring. Though Raymon misses, enemies are made. To keep them separated, the king sends Robert to work for the royal spymaster, then on to train as a spy and assassin with the Congee spy guild. Robert returns home after five years of training, where his mage abilities continue to grow, and finds that Raymon has killed his father the king.
Raymon is now the new king. His friend, the royal mage, is in the dungeon, and Prince Randal is being held in the tower awaiting the new king’s pleasure. Robert visits the royal mage in the dungeon to find out what is going on. They decide that the kingdom, and a lot of people, will not survive Raymon’s rule.
The Dog Mage
My name, well, they call me Jack. Though I’ve been called and named other things. Kings have named me, though that has sometimes gotten me into trouble. You see, when a king names you, he wants something. Nothing is free. Anyway, I’m an orphan. Fortunately, I’m a mage. That doesn’t make up for not having parents, but it helps . . . except when it doesn’t. The problem with being a . . . child mage is that everyone wants to use you for their own ends. The guilds, for instance. Not just one guild, all of them, everyone is looking for an edge, including me. My strongest talent is music, though no one sees that. What they do see is that my music . . . renews things, makes them new.
One of the first things I renewed was a pair of full-sized wooden dogs. I renewed them so well that they came to life and became my protectors. Circumstances forced me to protect myself from those who would force me to work for them. Unfortunately, bodies were left on the floor, and I was forced to leave one city for another. I became too good at protecting myself, and the bodies kept piling up. That’s when the king and his spymaster took notice of me. They saw me as a means to an end and wanted to use me as a weapon against their enemies.
The problem was, their enemies weren’t necessarily my enemies, and I hate being forced to do things against my will. So, the bodies that piled up were of those who tried to force me into bondage. All I wanted was to be left alone, but no one seemed to understand that.
So, let the bodies fall where they may; you’ve been warned.
Mage Throne Prophecy
A routine physical shows Captain Ross Mitchell has a flesh-eating virus that specifically targets the brain. Prognosis says he'll be a vegetable by week's end. Having survived numerous incursions in combat around the world, he decides he's not going out like that. He drives a rented corvette into a cliff face at over 200 MPH. The fiery impact catapults him toward the afterlife.
Instead of finding the afterlife, he finds himself in a different body with an old man stabbing him in his chest. He fights free, killing the old man before passing out. He wakes to find he's now in the body of Prince Aaron, the 15-year-old second son of the King.
In this medieval world, the Royals are Mages. The old man who was trying to kill him was a Mage "Vampire". Instead of blood, the old Mage was trying to steal Ross/Aaron's power, knowledge, and in this case his body. When Ross/Aaron killed the old Mage, his vampire power was transferred to him. He now has the memories, knowledge, and powers of the old Mage.
Ross/Aaron must navigate this new environment of court intrigue with care. His older brother, the Crown Prince, hates him. His older sister has no use for him. The King sees him as an asset to be used, agreeing to marry him to a neighboring Kingdom for an alliance. Before the marriage takes place, the castle is attacked. Someone is trying to kill him but is finding it most difficult. Where Mages fight with Magic, Ross/Aaron fights with magic and steel. It's hard to cast a spell with a knife through your skull, or your throat cut.
As Ross/Aaron travels with his fiancée toward her home for the marriage to take place, they are attacked at every turn. Someone doesn't want this wedding to happen. Ross/Aaron has had enough of people trying to kill him. With Aaron's knowledge, and Ross' training, they take the offensive. The Kingdom will never be the same.
A Thief's Gift
Jamethon Trent, the second son of a low-ranking baron, once again finds himself in the city jail. This is nothing new for Jamethon; after being driven from home by an overbearing father and a bully older brother, he became a thief to survive. Thief he may be, but he only steals from thieves—which, it turns out, is a dangerous profession, as robbed thieves hold a grudge. Jamethon’s life is never the same after a dying cell mate, a thief mage, gifts him a pair of enchanted gloves. The gloves are keys to what the mage calls the “side realm,” a dimension that exists alongside the real world. The gloves allow the wearer to reach into the side realm and steal whatever they can reach. However, the gloves turn out to be more of a curse than a gift, as fate takes particular delight in making Jamethon’s life . . . exciting at every turn. Kings, generals, assassins, mages, spies, and thugs—he meets them all, and all seem to want to kill him. On the upside, the gloves does give him an advantage, but before he can use the advantage, he has to learn to use his ghost hands, to enter the side realm to become a ghost walker. Once he achieves that, he’ll be unstoppable.
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Thief's Gift: Book 2
Jamethon Trent’s retirement is not going as planned, and working for King Arcus and General Mallet is not as easy as he had hoped. Jamethon tries to keep his family safe by changing his guise, name, and occupation. But the harder he tries, the more he is pulled into situations that put him and his family in danger. Jamethon and his family become targets when he stumbles into plans involving the royals, less-than-honest businessmen, and an organization that wants to take over countries by any means necessary. Trying to maintain his anonymity is proving to be a challenge, as those who seek him are willing to kill, steal, and destroy to find him. His enemy sends entire armies and powerful mages against him. They destroy his businesses and kill those around him to draw him into the open so they can end his interference in their plans once and for all. Jamethon must adapt to fight an evolving enemy that uses magic and military technology against anyone who opposes them or their agenda. Unfortunately for them, their attempts to stop Jamethon only strengthen his resolve to find out why they want him dead so badly and who is behind it.
Heartwood Mage
Jamethon Trent’s retirement is not going as planned, and working for King Arcus and General Mallet is not as easy as he had hoped. Jamethon tries to keep his family safe by changing his guise, name, and occupation. But the harder he tries, the more he is pulled into situations that put him and his family in danger. Jamethon and his family become targets when he stumbles into plans involving the royals, less-than-honest businessmen, and an organization that wants to take over countries by any means necessary. Trying to maintain his anonymity is proving to be a challenge, as those who seek him are willing to kill, steal, and destroy to find him. His enemy sends entire armies and powerful mages against him. They destroy his businesses and kill those around him to draw him into the open so they can end his interference in their plans once and for all. Jamethon must adapt to fight an evolving enemy that uses magic and military technology against anyone who opposes them or their agenda. Unfortunately for them, their attempts to stop Jamethon only strengthen his resolve to find out why they want him dead so badly and who is behind it.
Inherited Revenge
Chuck, a fifteen-year-old hardened war orphan has seen friends killed and now lies dying on a salvage battlefield himself. But the universe has a different plan for Chuck. A mortally wounded man offers to save his life, and Chuck accepts his help. A moment later Chuck regrets his decision when his rescuer forces Chuck’s mouth open and a reptilian octopus is ejected from his rescuer’s mouth and into his.
Because of Chuck’s symbiote, Tom’s desire for revenge, Chuck finds himself drawn into a shadow war with an alien race. Chuck must hide from the aliens because they would rather burn the planet to a cinder than let Tom escape. He must also hide from the government because they want Tom’s knowledge of advanced tech and will do anything to get it.
Chuck has a few advantages: Tom’s DNA has mixed with his, giving him access to genetic memories; Tom’s race is aquatic, which gives Chuck the ability to breathe underwater; and no one knows Tom is a symbiote, so no one is actually looking for Chuck.
Chuck is content to hide in plain sight as a salvager until someone kills his new family while trying to kill him. Now all bets are off as Chuck is on a search-and-destroy mission looking for those responsible. He uses every piece of war salvage he must to find and kill them. Inherited revenge or not, revenge will be had.
Dragon's Mage
Dragon’s Envoy David Slinger, Em, and their friends continue to face new challenges and opportunities. But with new opportunities, old rivals and animosities return. They must also remain vigilant to the growing threat of the dark priests and their thirst for power. It seems very few can be trusted, as everyone has their own agenda.
As Slinger’s and Em’s power and influence grow, so does their list of enemies. The dark priests have taken a personal interest in them. The dark priests’ influence and power are on the rise. When they draw first blood, Slinger and Em take a personal interest in their misery, vowing to visit retribution upon them. But have they underestimated the dark priests’ strength? Slinger and Em need to gather allies to meet the threat, as it seems not even kings are safe from their reach. As they meet each new threat, Slinger grows toward becoming a Dragon’s Mage.
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Mercenary Salvage Company
Countries then worlds no longer kept large standing armies. They preferred to hire mercenaries, spending their citizens’ money rather than their citizens’ lives. Governments found it more cost-effective to keep their populations working, continuing to pay taxes rather than dying on some battlefield. War became a business. As in times of old, owning a mercenary company became a way for the ordinary man to become wealthy . . . if he survived.
Dad and I own the Cain Salvage Company. Some call us carrion living off the carcass of war. Buzzards picking the bones of the war machines left behind on cold battlefields. I suppose that’s one way to look at it, but they still bought our salvage.
No one is immune to the effects of war. Except maybe the rich or corrupt, who are often are the same people. Liquid fuel is expensive and hard to get, so local farmers contracted us to salvage a nuclear-pellet-powered electric vehicle that would run for years before needing to be refueled. It was a good deal; rather than cash, we’d receive a percentage of the farmer’s crops for ten years to sell or eat as we needed.
Nowhere is completely safe, especially around the battlefield, cold or not. I felt the proof as I wiped the sweat from my face, starting the wound to bleed again. I’d already been blown up once today and didn’t feel like repeating it again.
Dad called that “gallows humor.” I started to smile, but my smile faded remembering the fresh grave not twenty feet away. I had sealed dad’s body in a body bag and buried him.
I’d wanted to cry, but I’d had no tears left. In the last five years, I’d buried my mother, then my sister, and now my father. This war had taken all my tears. You’d think an eighteen-year-old would have had more. This was supposed to be an easy salvage job, but in the business of war, nothing is ever easy.
I knew I’d have to fight through hyenas, people who steal and scavenge from other people, to fulfill the contract with the farmers. I looked over the battlefield and saw in my mind’s eye a vision of my future. I would start a mercenary salvage company. I had no problem killing hyenas or anyone else who got in my way. This battlefield had left me weapons, ammunition, and equipment to get the job done with plenty left over to start my company.