New Ebook Release (Yay!)

I recently changed e-publishers to make my ebooks available through more ereading platforms and I am very excited to now be able to offer some of my ebooks for perma-free download. So excited am I, in fact, that I promptly began writing a short story to publish. I intended it to be 2000 words. It wound up being roughly 5000. Sigh. Oh, well.

Nevertheless, I made the short ebook a free download and posted it to Smashwords this morning. If it passes the scrutiny of their team, my newest title should hit ibooks, kobo, Amazon and others. Meanwhile, it is available to download (for free) from https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/555437 . But you are already reading this blog, so allow me to tantalize you with the first few words...

The Last Day
Of Avalon, Volume 1 by Beth Durkee
copyright 2015 Elizabeth W. Durkee
All Rights Reserved.

This is the story of how a druid named Melador, who was known in his adult life as the eyes and ears of Saint Mary, came with his family to live on the Scilleian isle. It is also the truth behind how his older brother was believed to be lost on a foolhardy quest after a false legend, the legend of Lord Randall Castle...

 

Before the rending apart of science from enchantment, the island of Avalon was sinking for more than a thousand years. This was due in large part to the conflict between physics and magic in the druidstone (known to scientists as Muscravite) which ran through the core of the island’s sole mountain.

Through the generations, Avalon’s druid population progressively migrated away from their homeland to new homes on the larger landmasses of Albion, Hibernia and other parts of Europe. They moved in villages as the sea water swallowed shores in its climb toward the temple atop Avalon’s mountain – the temple in which King Arthur rests to this very day.

To this same temple, a wizard by the name of Lord Randall came to study the art of magic in all its forms and transcribe the druids’ many books on the subject, for druid priests were known to be the world’s foremost masters of magic. In exchange for sharing their magical knowledge with him, he promised Avalon’s protectors, the dragonlords, a new home.

He commissioned them to bring dwarves from his homeland in the Albion highlands to mine Avalon’s mountain for druidstone. The excavated stone was then cut into blocks, enchanted with a powerful spell of forgetting and sent to Lord Randall’s family lands, where it was laid by the dragons transporting it into a castle like none the world had ever seen.

At the end of this age, when rising water touched the gates of the last inhabited village, the final stones of the castle were set. The dragonlords then went with Lord Randall and the descendants of his dwarf allies (for dwarves are created of the substance of magic so are unaffected by the life prolonging properties of druidstone) to their new home.

Before they moved their attentions to the magical affairs of Albion, however, the dragonlords made sure all their druid kindred were safely away from their ancestral home. All, that is, except the few priests who remained to tend the temple and the sleeping king.

When the final departure day arrived and the last ship was about to be boarded, there were but two dragonlords present. However there were three dragons. Two were the mounts of their lords. The other had come to transport the last apprentices of the age. Their names were Thored and Aeduuard, and they were both sons of high priests. The young men had stayed to see their families off on the voyage to new homes in Normandy. It was the last they would see of their loved ones until their apprenticeships were complete. It was also the last their loved ones would remember ever seeing them, for the spell of forgetting had also been cast over the dragonlords’ rings of station.

On this last day in the season of Avalon, Thored and Aeduuard were supposed to be helping their respective families. But they were so excited about their upcoming adventure that all they seemed able to do was chat with each other via magical communications. A touch to an amulet each wore around his neck and a simple spell gave them the means to speak to each other across any distance – as long as they stayed away from large deposits of uncut Muscravite.

 

Is your interest piqued? You can download the full ebook for free at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/555437 . Please leave it a kind rating/review when you are finished reading. My goal is to reach as many new readers as possible with this story.