Excerpt: Stellar Timing

Stellar Timing

Jennifer L Hart

Prologue

“Surrender or they will die.”
Brennigan ignored the command as he swung his broadsword with exact precision and amputated a limb from yet another of his people. It had just been a bitch of a day from the word go.
A mere five hundred yards away, Lobar the tyrant held Brennigan’s fiancé, Mikara and his two half siblings Snark and Sass, at the edge of the battle’s fray.
“Only whiny little girls issue ultimatums, Lobar. Come fight me for them.” He elbowed yet another misguided fool, regretting every bruise his people would suffer. Most would recover, either by seeking out the healing zone or allowing time to diminish the affects. Pain could be overcome; death was final. Sadly, those loyal to Brennigan had the worst of it. Although they were skilled fighters and devoted to the end, they were greatly outnumbered by the common folk Lobar had fooled with his manipulative lies. The effect was similar to a heard of termites descending on an ancient tree, the results just as brutal as for the tree.
Lobar laughed, the noise rasping out over the distance that separated them and jerked Mikara to him, holding a dagger to her elegant throat. She was so out of place in the arms of the giant brute, her flawless skin contrasting sharply against his pockmarked visage. Brennigan roared in fury, decimating any of the misguided peasants who dared to get in his way. After the fifth one fell, they took the hint and backed off, leaving him to face his foe. The fools might not realize he was fighting for them, but their sense of self-preservation ran deep enough.
Standing on the edge of a blackened ravine, a river of lava flowed past , lava wrought by Lobar’s sorcerer. Before this was all over, Brennigan would make Lobar tell him who the mage was so he could share the villain’s fate. Red lightning flashed across the inky night, seeming to strike in the midst of the battlefield.
Lobar tightened his arm around Mikara. “One more step Brennigan, and I’ll take her pretty head clean off and throw it to the fire gods.” With his free hand he gestured to the molten river.
She whimpered and Brennigan jerked to a stop. “Let her go, Lobar. She is of no use to you.”
“Is that so?” He trailed a finger across her porcelain cheek. “I can think of several uses for her.”
“Please, Brennigan, do as he says.” Mikara’s green gaze shimmered in the light of the fire. Tears spilled forth. She was so young, barely twenty years old, and unused to this kind of violence. The guards I left with her must be dead. His four most steadfast soldiers and good friends had been destroyed? Brennigan funneled his grief into rage and focused all his awareness on Lobar. He’d see the man gutted for his treachery.
“I can see your thoughts, Prince. I would so love to grant your wish and fight you to the death. Your head would cement my place as King; no one would dare rise up against me.”
“Then release the woman, you coward.” Brennigan seethed, looking for the weakness in Lobar’s thick armor. His hulking frame was swathed in the finest protective metals the Kings coffers could purchase. As was fitting for the King’s greatest general.
To his astonishment, Lobar did, pushing Mikara towards the cliff. She tripped on the rocky terrain, arms pin wheeling as she fought to reclaim her balance. Brennigan sprinted for her, but Lobar intercepted him, hitting him in the midsection and knocking him to the ground. He was helpless to watch her lose her footing and tumble over the edge. Her scream cut off suddenly as the fire consumed her.