 Today's usual episode of Hidden Face is postponed until next Friday in favor of a celebration for my new novella, Wings Beneath Water, which releases today! If you aren't part of my email list, you want to be, because you'll be getting some goodies in your inbox today. What's WINGS BENEATH WATER? Dragons. Legends. An ancient power. And two brothers who refuse to give up on one another. Click here to check out the description, book trailer, and reviews, and to buy your own copy! In the spirit of celebration, here are some special treats: First, I'm also offering a full-resolution desktop wallpaper depicting the white dragon of WINGS BENEATH WATER. (I'm using it currently.)  Right click or Control click to "Save As..." and download the "White Dragon" wallpaper. Secondly, I present the first chapter of WINGS BENEATH WATER! Excerpt from WINGS BENEATH WATERThey say if you see wings beneath the water, you get a second chance to live. If that is true, I may live yet. If it is not true, my blood will stain these waters within moments.
The marsh mists swirl around me like transparent hands, chilling the sweat on my forehead as my footsteps explode through the murky waters. I pause, catch a gnarled branch, and lean gasping over it. The surface of the dark waters shows the face of a boy, with round cheeks and frightened purple eyes. Will the Karagi have mercy if they see me as a child? No. They know what I am, and they will not waver. They will remain at a safe distance, and shoot to kill. They are master bowmen. I should know. They trained me. That was before they knew what I am. According to the wise woman, some say it only happens when you are born to the marshes on a moonless night. Others say that it begins when a child looks into the waters and, unknown to him, the Siyeen looks back at him from beneath the surface of the waters. Still others say it is a gift given to the one who seeks truth above all else. If a gift results in your death, is it not a curse instead? I have lingered too long. Even as I move, some instinctive twitch saves me, for a death-breeze fans my chin and a crimson ribbon opens across my collar-bone, the warning of a razor-sharp arrowhead. I turn, and they are there, emerging like ghosts from the mist, their long dark hair loose around their lean faces, their leather vests leaving bare their muscled shoulders. Emotions stab my stomach, for Uraun leads them, the scar upon his right cheek lit in silver by the wavering moon. “A child?” one hunter asks, glancing quickly at the foremost of the men. “It is an illusion,” Uraun says darkly, and draws his shaft to the corner of his lips. I cannot outrun his arrow. I have watched too many times the stumble of a woodland buck, stricken while in mid-flight by Uraun’s skill. I am also tired, too tired. This hunt has taken all my strength, all my heart. How do you run away from someone you love? “Uraun.” My voice carries across the waters. “Please.” So long as he holds his breath, he will not shoot. Experienced archers release only at the exhalation. I stand upon a small hillock of marsh weeds. The waters beyond my feet ripple like black silk, for I have come to the edge of the deeper waters, where the bottom is invisible and the feet find no purchase. Many things that have been lost to the deep marshes. “Uraun,” I say again. The corner of my vision snags upon something, a glimmer in the water, like light reflecting upon an outstretched wing. It is here. Then Uraun’s jaw tightens, and, plunging, I give myself to the waters. The arrow’s shaft pierces my side and my instinctive gasp fills my mouth with liquid darkness. Something smooth slides beneath my grasping fingers, then jaws clamp around my ankle and pull me downward, deep. I struggle, panic-stricken. Have I misunderstood? Did I see a wing, or only the glitter of a marsh eel’s serpentine body? I spiral downward until my mind becomes as dark as the waters around me and my breath burns and explodes in my head. Then light births, broadens, shimmers, and I rush toward it. Am I swimming down? Or up? I cannot tell. That is when I see the face staring back at me from the other side of the water. My face. I know it is my face because only I among the Karagi possess eyes the color of wild irises. It is the mark of my separation.
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