The Lost and Broken Realm
Things Forgotten, Book 1
Things Forgotten, Book 1
by Chris M. Arnone
Genre: Contemporary
Fantasy
ISBN: 9780991397907
ISBN: 9781311266194
ASIN: B00HEOMU6M
Number of pages: 325
print
approx 299 ebook
Word Count: 103,000
Cover Artist:
Cassandra Whitney
Book Description:
Gabriel Drake had
royally fouled up his life. Before his wife died, he was wealthy, respected,
and loved. He pissed away the small fortune he and his wife built, drove away
his friends, alienated his family, and even took a few precarious steps on the
wrong side of the law. He lost his way. The world had forgotten the man he was,
and then a head-on collision between his Jeep and a tree changed
everything.
Death would have been easier. Instead, he’s woken up in a strange place where all the lost and forgotten things and people of our world go to rest. The laws of physics seem to be driven more by magic than logic. Cats fly and talk into his mind. He’s in a place where real power has been trampled under the foot of a maniacal emperor, and Gabriel alone has the power to free these forgotten people from the emperor’s iron grip. Which will Gabriel save: these lost and broken people, or his own shattered life?
Death would have been easier. Instead, he’s woken up in a strange place where all the lost and forgotten things and people of our world go to rest. The laws of physics seem to be driven more by magic than logic. Cats fly and talk into his mind. He’s in a place where real power has been trampled under the foot of a maniacal emperor, and Gabriel alone has the power to free these forgotten people from the emperor’s iron grip. Which will Gabriel save: these lost and broken people, or his own shattered life?
Excerpt from
Chapter 16:
The expansive cave was filled with statues. Gabriel was
immediately reminded of the terracotta army in China, row after row of warriors
guarding the tombs of ancient Chinese emperors, but these weren’t warriors.
They weren’t distinctly Chinese, either. They were cyclopean; that was the
first thing Gabriel noticed. Rather than two equally distanced eyes, each
statue had one large eye right above the nose.
Unlike those Chinese statues, these weren’t uniform, either.
Different bodies, faces, attire, genders, and ages of Cyclops made up the horde
of stone figures. Dread began to creep back up Gabriel’s spine as he saw
something they all had in common other than their lack of depth perception:
every carved face was locked eternally in an expression of fear. Stout warriors
crouched, hiding their faces. Women with horrified looks stood guarding their
children. Gabriel wondered what foul mind could have sculpted such horrors over
and over again.
“What is this?” Gabriel asked in a hush, frightened voice.
“I don’t know. I’ve never even heard of this place,” Anansi
responded. For the first time since Gabriel had met the manticore, he heard and
felt doubt and fear coming from the creature. Zhiyan kept staring at the
ground, impassive, as Finkle Prime led him along.
“Who is here?” said a voice from the darkness. It sounded
like a young woman, with a bright, luscious voice. Something was amiss with it,
though Gabriel couldn’t figure out exactly what.
“Who is that?” Gabriel asked Anansi.
“I asked you first, mortal,” The voice said playfully.
Gabriel realized what was wrong. The ‘s’ sounds were extended, like Cobra
Commander in G.I. Joe, or like a snake using a human voice. Gabriel couldn’t
figure out where it was coming from. It wasn’t in his head. He’d heard enough
telepathy to know the difference, but this woman’s voice seemed to bounce and
echo around the cave and off the statues that filled it.
“Gabriel. My name is Gabriel. Who are you?” He asked, trying
to keep his voice steady.
“Gabriel. So kind of you to visit. No one comes to visit
anymore. Zhiyan, he keeps them from me. Now here he is, marching to his death,
how fitting,” She said happily.
“Prime, halt,” Gabriel said. The big clockwork man stopped and
Gabriel saw Zhiyan with his head still bowed, but his eyes were closed tightly
and a small smile crept over his face.
“Oh, shit,” Anansi said, suddenly angry. “Zhiyan, if we live
through this, I hope the council draws and quarters your giant ass.”
“What is it?” Gabriel asked nervously.
“Ptolema. Eldest and most vicious of the Gorgon sisters,”
Zhiyan finally said, still holding his eyes closed tightly and smiling wryly.
“Gorgons? Monsters like Medusa?” Gabriel asked, half in
disbelief, half in growing panic. His mind raced. He tried to think of Medusa’s
sisters, but the monster didn’t give him time to remember them.
“What do you know of my sister? She was no monster. She was a
sweet, innocent girl. Raped and then villainized. No, she was no monster,”
Ptolema said, her voice smooth as silk.
“Don’t look her in the eyes!” Anansi suddenly screamed
telepathically. He almost didn’t say it in time.
“I am the monster,” She said, her voice dripping with venom.
Out of the corner of his eye, Gabriel saw a woman come out of the shadows and
into view. One moment later, and he would have looked at her squarely. Instead,
he looked several feet to the side of her, taking in her form using his
peripheral vision. She was tall as a man, a bit taller than Gabriel from what
he could tell, and she wore a ragged red dress that came almost to the ground.
Rather than legs, Gabriel saw a mass of writhing snakes skimming along the
ground. She tried to dart directly into Gabriel’s view, faster than he
expected, but he dropped his eyes fully to the ground. Her arms gleamed a
brilliant, shining gold color, and reflected light from Prime’s shoulder lamps
all around the cave. Gabriel wondered if her hair was made of venomous snakes
like the stories told, but he didn’t chance looking up near her face.
“Why do you look away, Gabriel? Why do you not meet my gaze?
Am I not beautiful?” Ptolema asked, almost pouting.
“No thanks. I’d rather not turn to stone today,” Gabriel
said, his voice shaking. He remembered the stories of Medusa, how she turned
men to stone with her gaze, and how Perseus destroyed her with a mirrored
shield.
“There are worse ways to die,” Ptolema said, all the
playfulness, seduction, and beauty suddenly gone from her voice. She was deadly
serious. And then she was moving. She was fast, so much faster than Gabriel
could have imagined. He leapt out of her way, but only just in time. He felt
the wind move past him and smelled her, a waft of rotting flesh and dry
snakeskin.
Gabriel scrabbled along the cave floor to get away from the horrifying
woman. Tiny snake heads snapped at the air behind his heels. He looked all
around for something, anything to fight with, to hide behind, anything.
“Oh, get up, little man. Die on your feet,” Ptolema balked,
and then laughed at him, but only briefly. A massive shadow suddenly came over
Gabriel, blocking out the light from Prime’s lamps. Fearful of looking up, he
looked around and saw a massive paw, like one belonging to a lion that was
three times larger than it should have been. A deafening roar filled his ears
and Gabriel crawled out from under the creature, seemingly unnoticed. It was
almost a giant lion, except it had two equally huge red feathered wings and the
tail of a scorpion, its stinger poised to strike some thirty feet up in the
air.
About the Author:
Chris grew up in
Independence, MO. He attended college at Truman State University where he
pursued his loves of theater, music, and the written word. Now, he makes his
home in Kansas City, MO with his wife Christy and their four cats.
Aside from writing feverishly, he is an avid supporter of the Kansas City burlesque, performance, and arts communities. He is an occasional emcee, outspoken supporter of LGBTQ equality, and King of the Nerds. No, you didn't vote for him; that's why he's king, not president.
Giveaway:Aside from writing feverishly, he is an avid supporter of the Kansas City burlesque, performance, and arts communities. He is an occasional emcee, outspoken supporter of LGBTQ equality, and King of the Nerds. No, you didn't vote for him; that's why he's king, not president.
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Thanks for the spotlight!
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