Title: A Broken Winter
Author: Kale Night
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: November 25, 2019
Length: 81000
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy, LGBT, Fantasy, futuristic, hurt/comfort, soul mates, re-incarnation, political terrorism, prison, religious extremism, scientist
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Synopsis
General Auryn Tyrus is tired of serving an emperor who turns political dissidents into expensive steak and claims to have swallowed Ankari’s sun. He is fed up with pretending not to know Emperor Haken is buying biological weapons and collecting taxes for a war that doesn’t exist. Auryn’s role in the entire mirage leads him to drastic choices, but unexpected news halts his plans. Seven-year-old Keita Kaneko, the son of a former lover, is captured by the emperor’s special forces. Auryn secretly intervenes and spares Keita from execution.
Keita changes everything. Instead of feeling helpless and oppressed by a self-proclaimed living god, Auryn works to expose the emperor as a fraud. But he knows exactly will happen if he’s discovered, and the extent of Emperor Haken’s lies is worse than anticipated. If Auryn expects anyone to believe the truth, he’s going to need proof. And a lot of help.
I’m sharing an exclusive excerpt from A Broken Winter. This excerpt shows some early interaction between Auryn and Reisen and introduces one of the key sources of conflict in the novel – inkworm, a malicious parasite with the power to enlighten or destroy. Enjoy!
“You won’t get away with this.” They sat in the mess hall, Reisen smoking and conversing with a portable video game device he often carried. Auryn didn’t understand the appeal of pixelated characters and blinking lights, but Reisen could stay immersed in it for hours, pushing buttons long after complaining of sore thumbs.
“Talking to that game again?” asked Auryn as he peered over at the screen. A pulse of jealousy reminded Auryn of his growing fascination with Reisen. He wished he could monopolise as much of Reisen’s time as that primitive machine. He wanted to eradicate the space between them, to feel Reisen’s hands on him instead of rescuing imaginary princesses.
“Don’t judge me,” murmured Reisen. He was quiet for a moment, then erupted into righteous indignation. “Seriously, dude! Sixty rupias for a loaf of bread and no discount? Are you out of your fucking mind? Go ahead, make that face! Throw me out! I’m coming right back in there with my flying monkey and he’s going to shit all over you.”
Auryn jabbed his meatloaf and shifted it around his plate, appetite lacking. At times he caught Reisen looking at him a certain way, with something approaching fondness, but attraction to a member of the same sex was punishable by death, and he wasn’t willing to risk being wrong about the nature of those furtive glances.
“Kaneko!” An officer charged into the hall.
“Hang on. I’m being eaten by a flower.”
“Now! You’re needed in medical. Tyrus… You’d better come, too.” That could only mean one thing. Someone was either dying or dead.
They rushed to the hospital, past more security than Auryn had ever seen, all the way down to the isolation ward.
“They’re not contagious,” the resident doctor was quick to explain. “We, ah…wanted to keep them away from the others.” She drew back the curtain to reveal the patient. The soldier’s eyes were sunken black pools of tar-like sludge, charring his cheeks as it trickled down his face, lips and tongue grotesquely swollen, each breath a strangled wheeze. “There’s six of them. They were patrolling the Ibaran border and got out to inspect an abandoned vehicle. There was an explosion—a bomb containing some kind of parasite.”
“Fucking hell.” Reisen had a strange vocabulary, often using words Auryn never heard before. Hell. Christ. Earth.
The soldier coughed, spraying black bile, gargling, choking. Auryn stepped back. “You sure they’re not contagious?”
“The parasite is blood-borne.”
“How can I help?” asked Reisen.
“We can’t figure out an effective treatment. Vermicide isn’t working. You work with lots of medicinal plants. Maybe something will ease the infection.”
“Send a sample up to my lab. I’ll see what I can do.”
Auryn knew what his role was. He clasped his hands together and prayed.
#
Reisen had been researching the parasite infecting the soldiers in the isolation ward for weeks. Inkworm, he called it. Auryn rarely saw him, to the point of growing concerned for Reisen’s well-being. Reisen had a habit of throwing himself into his work and ignoring everything else, even at the expense of sleeping and eating. After several days passed with no sign of him, Auryn decided to investigate.
He found Reisen on the floor of his lab. He was covered in sweat, but showed no sign of infection. No black slime leaking from the corners of his eyes. No muscle spasms. No incoherent rambling.
“The sun,” muttered Reisen. “It burns.”
Well, two out of three wasn’t bad. He helped the man to his feet, wondering if he was experimenting with psychotropic plants again. “Reisen. What happened?”
“Tigers don’t like pizza.”
“You stupid shit. If General Mordha sees you like this, he’ll—” He noticed the syringe first. The dark smear of inkworm second.
“You injected yourself with that crap? Are you insane?!”
“I hope so, because the alternative sucks.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Auryn glowered at Reisen, annoyed with his carelessness.
Reisen pressed against him and murmured in his ear, “Aliens.”
“You’re not making any sense.” He checked Reisen’s pulse, cheeks burning, and tuned into his vital signs. His energy felt frantic and dense. “Why would you do this?”
“To prove I’m immune to the infection.”
“There isn’t some kind of fucking experiment you could do to establish that?”
“I just did it.” Reisen hugged him almost painfully tight, dissolving into tears. “God, I’m sorry… So sorry…”
Auryn tensed, unaccustomed to physical affection, but gradually relaxed as Reisen’s warmth enveloped his body, bleeding between them. “For what?”
“Everything, everything, everything, everything…”
Auryn sighed heavily, resolving to refrain from asking any further questions until Reisen regained his senses. “You need to eat something and sleep for twelve hours. You’ll feel better.” There was no telling if Reisen’s condition was the result of exposure to inkworm or something else he’d taken. Hopefully sleep would help.
“Ryn…” Reisen gazed at him with such intensity that he felt exposed, the man’s dark eyes swollen and depthless. “Don’t leave me again. I can’t stay here without you. It hurts too much.”
“I’m not going anywhere except back to bed and I’m taking you with me.” He hauled Reisen to his feet and steadied him. This was exactly the kind of thing he was supposed to report to General Mordha, but that wasn’t happening.
Reisen gripped his arms. “All right, but we gotta watch out for gremlins. The one with the stripe is a real dick.”
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Kale currently resides outside a small town in northern Alberta, where she works in a library. She’s an avid reader with an English degree from the University of Calgary. In her spare time Kale loves playing video games, making chain maille, watching anime, and cultivating a steadily expanding bonsai collection.
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