Excerpt Thursday! FROSTBORN: THE UNDYING WIZARD

It’s Excerpt Thursday! This week’s excerpt is from FROSTBORN: THE UNDYING WIZARD, which is available in ebook, paperback, and audiobook.

###

Then Gavin approached with a lit torch, and Ridmark shook aside his dark musings.

“Stand back,” he warned the others, gesturing with the torch. “This might get loud.”

“Loud?” said Calliande.

“Like this,” said Ridmark, and he threw the torch. It spun end over and end and struck the bubbling pool of water. The torch went out with a faint hiss and sank.

“Well,” said Caius, “that was…”

A blue fireball erupted from the water with a plume of steam and an angry hiss. Kharlacht and Caius yelled and drew their weapons, while Calliande raised her hands, white light flaring around her fingers. But the fireball vanished as quickly as it had appeared, leaving only burning grass and moss in its wake.

“What did you do?” said Gavin. “You…you aren’t really a wizard, are you?”

“Marsh gas,” said Ridmark. “Dead plants and animals get buried in the marsh, and when they decay, they give off a flammable gas. Since they are buried, there is no place for the gas to go. Eventually it leaks to the surface, and a single spark will set it alight.”

“I’ve heard the fur traders who visit…who used to visit Aranaeus speak of ghosts in the swamp,” said Gavin. “Blue lights at night.”

“There may be restless spirits in the swamp,” said Ridmark, “but those blue flames are marsh gases, catching flame and burning away.”

“I’d never heard of such a thing,” said Kharlacht.

“I thought were you were from Vhaluusk,” said Caius.

“The northern hills, near the mountains,” said Kharlacht. “Not the swamps. Even Qazarl thought the orcs of the swamps were mad.”

“This has been an enlightening demonstration,” said Calliande, “but why risk it? The light and noise will have drawn attention, if anyone is nearby.”

“Because,” said Ridmark, “I wanted to see if any swamp drakes were near.”

Her eyes widened. “Swamp drakes?”

“The metallic scent,” said Ridmark. “Swamp drake scales. They nest near patches of marsh gas, use their breath to set it afire and kill prey. They can’t fly the way fire drakes can, but they still breathe flame upon their prey.”

“Then why draw their attention?” said Calliande.

“They’re hard to see,” said Ridmark. “Brown and gray scales. Blends perfectly with the marsh. If one’s hunting you, you might not see it until it rips out your throat or sets your head on fire. But since the explosion hasn’t drawn any attention,” he shrugged, “we ought to be safe enough.”

“A sound stratagem,” said Caius.

“It was,” said Calliande, “but I wish you would explain these things. You have a deep and subtle mind, Ridmark, but my heart almost stopped when the water caught fire.”

Ridmark opened his mouth to answer, but then closed it.

She had a point.

“Forgive me,” he said. “I have spent years traveling in my own company, and I…have grown unused to explaining myself at times.”

Caius smiled. “At times, Gray Knight?”

-JM