Untitled: Novel Excerpt The last section of this sample is an excerpt from a fantasy novel, as yet untitled, for a taste of something entirely different from Professor Armstrong.
Royal Court of Kesseial, Castle Aldtoer in central Kesseial, Late Autumn 1543 AD The summer and fall passed in a strange way. The hollow terror of the sickness pervaded everything we did, even as the plague remained confined to the city. It wore at our tempers and by late fall, half the castle would have preferred for the plague to strike, simply to counter the forced sense of calm we held. There was little about those months that bore us happiness; the sickness spread rapidly throughout the country, and rampantly inside the city of Kesseial. My days were filled discussing relief efforts, funds, and the inevitable death counts with Temir and Ira and my nights with making the fine instruments that the physicians and magic weavers required. Dinizi worked alongside me, taking on more of the basic work as the demands became more complicated and spending most nights assisting her brother’s efforts to beseech the stars for information. We saw each other for only a few hours at mealtimes during those days but those hours were the brightest ones of the year and even they were filled with quiet dread of the certain eventuality. It was near winter when the disease finally reached the castle. It came as a surprise to us; not because we had thought we were to be spared, but rather because of the person it struck first. I was working on one of Lord Rahul’s instruments by lamplight sometime between two hours past the midnight bell and dawn when the door to my workroom was abruptly flung open. I looked up as my lamps flickered in the sudden gust and immediately moved to clasp the prince’s arm. “What has happened, Ira?” “Sofey. It is Sofey.” 16
