The 1st of June marked the start of the sixth Self Published Fantasy Blog Off (details here.)  Whilst the competition is taking part I’d like to post excerpts from some of the books that have entered the contest.  If you’d like to make use of this space to post a teaser to entice readers then let me know in the comments.

The first teaser that I’ll be posting is from one of the books from my own batch: The Five Furies of Heaven (The Five Furies #1) by Ashley Capes.  This book is one of my next reads as it was drawn in the first batch of books and this teaser has certainly made me very curious.  Please find below, generously provided by the author, an excerpt from The Five Furies:

** Excerpt **

Here, moss covered the earth, spreading between clumps of grass like an expensive velvet blanket – like the one Father Bastiem kept hidden away in his old chest. It climbed the fallen logs and surviving, broad trunks, darkening in the shade. Leaves of blue-green had fallen yet did not seem to be decomposing and little white blooms filled the hilltop with a sweet scent.

“Look,” Alira said.

In the centre of the hilltop glade something shimmered in the air.

A silvery cloud, quite large… indistinct yet clearly present in the world too, as though it resisted the eye, as though it had a purpose and that was to remain hidden.

“What is it?” Kilek asked.

“I believe what the Goddess wanted us to see,” she said as she approached, stretching out her hand. “We just have to remove the cloak.”

She pulled.

The shimmering disturbance spun away beneath her grip but Kilek did not see where or if the fluttering shape landed.

An enormous skull now sat upon the earth.

Moss covered the base but the open jaws and their forearm-length fangs were white and smooth, as though they had been well cared for. Heavy brows covered the eye-sockets; these were dark despite bone visible within. How large had the creature once been? He could have stood within the mouth and not reached the roof at a stretch.

A dragon.

An actual dragon-skull, here, concealed within the very hill. Kilek shivered, his voice disappeared in the awe that held him but he was smiling too.

“Is this…” Tyar trailed off as he stepped forward.

Mathi’s eyes were a little wide. “I thought dragons had been gone a long time – centuries.”

“Me too,” Tyar said.

“So who’s been cleaning the teeth? Who hid it?”

“The Goddess, surely,” Alira said, but she did not seem sure as she crept forward.

Kilek finally joined her with Mathi and Pax too, neither of whom seemed willing to draw too near but by their expressions, it seemed a similar awe urged them forward, almost against a certain tension in their bodies.

Up close, runes covered the bone. Somehow, they did not seem man or magic made. More… a rightness about the symbols implied they were a natural part of the dragon’s skull. Which hardly made sense, yet who was a mere villager to argue with the evidence? Simply because he’d never read anything like it in all the stories about dragons didn’t mean much. Most of the symbols bore a purposeful look, as though the swirls, slashes and dots held some clear meaning.

“What are they for?” he asked.

Alira shook her head, tears in her eyes. “I do not know.”

Silence fell across the glade.

A sense of vast age, of centuries-old power and majesty now both lost and still somehow lingering, fell over them; it was enough to give everyone pause. For Kilek, it seemed his entire body was trembling ever-so-slightly, in anticipation, in reverence of even such a beautiful creature’s memory.

Finally, Paxoph spoke. “As wonderful as this moment is, I cannot help but worry. How will the skull of a dragon aid us?”

“There must be a message, must be something,” Alira said as she wiped at her eyes. “Why would she send us here otherwise?”

“At last, I have found you all,” said a new voice.

Kilek whirled.

A tall man stood at the top of the stair. A sword hung from his belt, his dark leather pants and boots seeming to suck in the fading afternoon light; yet more unusual, the man wore no shirt or tunic, leaving a muscled torso bare. A white collar covered his neck and Kilek noticed fingerless leather gloves when the man drew his weapon.

** Ends **

Fighting the insect hordes of a malevolent God isn’t easy when you’re a young man with no special talents.

And it’s even harder when a Goddess makes your friends older and stronger – but gives you nothing.

Are you not entertained?  Intrigued aplenty?

For more information about the book and the author click on this link.  And for the cover lovers amongst you here’s something to whet your appetite further: