I know that my blogging has been worse than sporadic BUT since today is the release day for The Great Pursuit by Wendy Higgins and not only I adore her but also LOVED LOVED LOVED The Great Hunt, I had to take part on the Release Day Blitz to celebrate it!
THE GREAT PURSUIT (Eurona Duology
#2) by Wendy Higgins
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 512
Formats: Hardcover, eBook, audiobook
One hunt has ended, but the pursuit for love and justice continues.
The kingdom of Lochlanach has traded the great beast that once terrorized the realm of Eurona for something far more dangerous: the ire of powerful Lashed woman Rosaria Rocato. Rosaria demands that Eurona overturn the laws prohibiting magic, or an innocent will be killed each day.
Despite the king’s resistance, Princess Aerity believes they must make peace with the Lashed, and though she’s accepted a betrothal to the man who took down the beast, she cannot help thinking about Paxton, the Lashed man who stole her heart and disappeared.
Aerity soon discovers that Paxton has joined Rosaria’s army in the war against her family. Though her feelings for him are still strong, her duty to her kingdom and her family is stronger—especially when her parents are kidnapped and she has to step up to the throne and once again put aside what’s best for her in order to do what’s best for her people. Paxton and Princess Aerity must fight to see what is more powerful: their love or the impending war between the magical Lashed and the non-magic humans.
Grab the eBook 1 THE GREAT HUNT for just
$1.99!
EXCERPT
CHAPTER ONE
A new beast roamed the kingdom of
Lochlanach, killing at will. A second unnatural monster created by the hands of
Rozaria Rocato, granddaughter of the most infamous and hated Lashed One of all
time. Princess Aerity Lochson’s mind was a blur of piled-up worries as she
rushed from High Hall of the castle, away from the frightened commoners and
guests who’d come for her betrothal ceremony, and toward the office of her
father, King Charles. She turned at the sound of heavy footsteps behind her and
found both her childhood friend Lieutenant Harrison Gillfin and her betrothed,
Lord Lief Alvi, following. Lord Alvi looked every bit the hero—his broad
stature striking, with elk furs about his shoulders and a black kilt to his
knees above leather boots. His blue eyes were filled with bright passion and
hunger, but those emotions were not for her. They were for the beast. The new
hunt.
He had killed the first creature, thereby
earning her hand in marriage. The thought twisted Aerity’s stomach with
discomfort and turned her mind to the man who’d disappeared weeks before when
the beast was killed—the Lashed man who’d taken her heart with him and would
likely never return. She clenched her jaw. This was no time to think of Paxton
Seabolt or her drowned desires. The kingdom was suffering again—rendering
everything she’d sacrificed to have been in vain.
Her eyes shifted from Lord Alvi’s to
Harrison’s and found a fierce, protective comfort there. Harrison stood tall,
lean, and capable. Never faltering. The thought of her noble friend fighting
yet another beast filled her with sharp fear. So many lives had already been
lost, including Harrison’s cousin Breckon, who’d been the true love of Aerity’s
cousin Wyneth. Half a year was all it had taken to trample the dreams and
futures of so many.
Aerity gave the men a nod to follow her.
She lifted her long white skirts and moved quickly down the tapestry-lined
hallway to her father’s office. Guards and soldiers ran past, shouting orders,
fully armed with bows, swords, and lines of throwing daggers strapped across
their uniformed tunics.
She opened the door without knocking. No
fewer than twenty faces shot toward her. She recognized the burgundy red hair
of her mother, along with her aunts and uncles, military elite, and royal
advisers. Her father invited them in with a quick flick of his fingers.
When the door closed he asked her, “What is
the state of things in High Hall?”
“The people seemed to have calmed for the
moment, Father,” Aerity said. “And supper is being served.”
“Your daughter gave a rousing speech,” Lord
Alvi pro- claimed in his rumbling voice. “She is to thank for the calm.”
Aerity’s face flushed with heat at the unexpected compliment. Then he put a
heavy hand on her shoulder and pulled her close. Aerity fought the urge to
shrug away. For the sake of the kingdom, she had made a commitment to become
his bride, and she would follow through regardless of what her heart wanted,
and regardless of the fact that she was certain feelings had grown between Lief
and Wyneth.
“Did she?” The king’s eyes softened with pride, and her mother, Queen
Leighlane, smiled at Aerity and Lief, no doubt thinking what a lovely couple
they were. If she only knew.
Behind them Harrison cleared his throat.
“Are we to begin hunting the creature, Your Majesty?”
King Charles nodded, his face lined with
anxiety. “Aye. But most of the hunters have dispersed.” Or been killed, Aerity
thought with sorrow, remembering the men who’d come from all over Eurona and
even a huntress who’d lost her life.
“I can have a message sent to Tiern
Seabolt,” Harrison said. “I’m certain he would return with haste.”
Aerity’s abdomen tightened. Tiern was
Paxton’s younger brother. He’d nearly been killed by the first beast and had
been saved by Paxton’s Lashed magic. It was the very reason Pax had fled the
kingdom—using magic was illegal, even to heal. Aerity didn’t want Tiern to hunt
again. She didn’t want Paxton’s sacrifice to have been a waste.
“And his older brother?” the king asked.
“Nay.” Harrison paused. “He disappeared
after the hunt. We don’t know his whereabouts.”
“Must you call Tiern back?” Aerity asked.
When her father’s eyebrows drew together she emended, “He’s . . . so young.”
“He’s the same age as you, Daughter,” the
king reminded her. “Seventeen. A man who’s already proven himself in the hunt.”
Aerity pressed her lips together and nodded. She could not keep Tiern safe any
more than she could force Harrison to stay out of harm’s reach. Their heroic
hearts would urge them forward.
“Can we send word to the Zandalee?”
Aerity’s uncle Lord Wavecrest asked.
The king shook his head. “I’m afraid not
this time. The letter from the Rocato woman stated that her creatures have now
been released in all the lands of Eurona. The Zandalee will be needed to fight
in their own drylands of Zorfina.”
A fearful silence fell over the room. Each
kingdom was on its own with its own beasts to battle now. Lochlanach was a
quaint kingdom of fishermen and crop villagers, farmers, that had enjoyed many
years of peace. The people had risen together to fight the first beast, but how
much more could the king expect from them? It was too much. To imagine this
kind of horror inflicted on innocent people all over Eurona sickened Aerity.
“Perhaps another proclamation?” Lord
Wavecrest suggested carefully. At this proposal from Aerity’s uncle, the men in
the room glanced around at one another, and the hairs rose on the princess’s
arms. The queen caught her daughter’s eyes, and they both went still.
The last proclamation had offered Aerity’s
hand in marriage to whoever killed the beast. The only thing left to give was
the second princess, Aerity’s fifteen-year-old sister, Vixie. Her father stared
down at his desk.
“No.” Aerity stepped forward, out of Lord
Alvi’s embrace, her body trembling. “You cannot offer Vixie’s hand.”
The king’s hazel eyes, filled with regret,
rose to hers. “I have nothing left to give.” With Vixie’s hand would come her
dowry of lands. Using Vixie as a prize would surely smother her soul. Aerity
wouldn’t stand for it.
“And why should you oppose it?” her uncle
Preston asked haughtily. “The first proclamation provided you with a fine
match. It can do the same for Vixie.”
Aerity stilled, forcing back the torrent of
words that flooded her mind: unfair, poor match, confinement, no joy, no love.
She was to endure those things for her kingdom, but the thought of Vixie losing
her freedom to choose her future . . . it gutted Aerity. She knew how it
appeared to the world—that she’d landed a handsome, noble, brave lord—but the
heart didn’t care about appearances. It wanted who it wanted.
“And then what?” Aerity asked. “Who shall
we offer for the next beast, and the one after that? Your own Wyneth? Or
perhaps six-year-old Merity?”
Lord Wavecrest scowled.
“Enough, Aerity,” Queen Leighlane said
quietly. Aerity met her mother’s eyes and felt an understanding there. No one
knew better than the two of them how this would crush Vixie’s spirit. These men
couldn’t possibly understand.
“Vixie’s nearly sixteen,” Lord Wavecrest
pressed. Aerity wanted to claw out his eyes and force him to stop speaking.
“A proclamation offering Vixie’s hand will
be my very last resort,” King Charles said, standing taller. “It is my hope
that the people will rise of their own free will to protect their families and
lands as they did in the last hunt. I will not hinder them with further
curfews.”
Lord Wavecrest shook his head and crossed
his arms. Aerity breathed a temporary sigh of relief.
“Sire, we should address the other part of
the Rocato woman’s letter.” This was from the king’s oldest adviser, Duke
Gulfton. This duke had been the closest adviser to Aerity’s grandfather King
Leon. His views on the Lashed were legendarily conservative and strict, and he
was a proponent of keeping the Lashed lists up to date. All persons with Lashed
capabilities and their families were notated in the records and checked
regularly for markings.
The stooped man wore
a sea-green robe around his shoulders and a perpetual serious frown on his
face. He leaned on his cane. “We cannot do as the Rocato woman demands. We
cannot burn our records of Lashed Ones in these lands, or give them rein to
take over our kingdom.”
A few of the other older men murmured their
agreement.
Harrison stepped forward. “What if we made
a copy of the list? Then it wouldn’t matter if one was destroyed.”
“I’ve got scribes copying pages as we
speak,” the king responded. “But the Rocato woman has called for the records to
be burned by sundown. The copy won’t be complete. There are thousands of
names.”
Thousands of persons with Lashed blood in
Lochlanach. Amazing, Aerity thought. Only a small percentage of those on the
list actually had magic, though. Paxton’s family was not on the list. Aerity
wondered how many others of magical blood had been able to elude the system.
“How will the madwoman know the
difference?” Duke Gulfton asked. “Burn papers to appease her, then kill her and
her monsters once and for all. End of story.”
“Here, here!” a few men shouted, as if it
were that simple. As if they wouldn’t have done it by now if they could.
The king’s jaw was set. “I have a terrible
feeling this woman has eyes and ears everywhere.”
The room quieted and a sense of unease
spread as heads turned and everyone eyed the others present. Her father’s
council was a small group of family and a mere handful of wise advisers, all
landowners, who’d been loyal to the kingdom since her grandfather ruled. She
couldn’t imagine this group being compromised.
“With all due respect, gentlemen,” Lord
Alvi said to the room, “we will find every beast and even Rocato herself, but
we cannot guarantee immediate success. The last hunt took two months.”
“Aye,” Harrison added. “And she’s
threatening to kill seven men each week.”
“You’ll have to work faster this time,”
Duke Gulfton told them.
The room tensed. During the last hunt
they’d had a hundred men. They’d sought the monster nearly ten hours a night
and spent the days scouting and preparing. The lands of Lochlanach stretched
far and wide. Yet people like Duke Gulfton were expecting a miracle of the sea.
Queen Leighlane cleared her throat. “The
fact of the matter is that we’re going to have to at least put on a show of
honoring her wishes. We need to buy time as we plan.”
Another elder, Duke Streamson, asked, “What
are you proposing, Your Highness? Rocato is demanding that all Lashed be
allowed to freely work magic.”
Magic that wasn’t all bad, Aerity thought.
Magic that had saved Tiern and could save others. If only she could get them to
embrace that.
“I have an idea.” Aerity’s brain whirred as
all eyes turned to her. “What if we set up a public area just outside the royal
lands and invited Lashed from throughout the kingdom to come, and any Unlashed
who wishes to seek their healing can receive it?”
Duke Streamson made a choking sound. “Round
up the people of Rocato to turn against us in one place? That’s precisely what
she wants!”
Aerity rushed on. “I don’t believe all
Lashed are ‘her people.’ The entire area would be heavily guarded so that if
any Lashed got out of line, they could be dealt with immediately.” The old
dukes scoffed at her.
One of the military advisers stepped
forward. “Our numbers are not as large as they once were. Our troop sizes have
been modest in the past fifty years. I’ve got to keep men patrolling the seas
and borders, and we’ve lost many in the past months. I worry that a large-scale
showing of the Lashed will bring crowds.”
The room broke out into fervent debate.
Those who were against Aerity’s idea were adamant, passionate in their fears.
Those in favor seemed on weak, shaky ground.
“Given permission to put their hands on
innocent people, it could be a massacre!”
“What if the Lashed overwhelm our guards?”
“They’ll rise up throughout the lands!”
“. . . commoner revolts . . . war . . .”
Aerity felt a hand on her shoulder and
turned to see Harrison, his light brown eyes showing the never-faltering
respect he seemed to hold for her. She gave his hand a quick squeeze of
gratitude before he released her. Aerity caught Lord Alvi watching the exchange
with curiosity, so she turned her gaze forward again—she would let him think
what he wanted.
“Enough!” King Charles’s voice silenced the
room. “I will think on it. I must put safety first. I’m not ready to overturn
our laws—” Aerity opened her mouth to argue that she wasn’t suggesting a
complete overturn, but a one-time, enclosed, secure circumstance. Her father
held up a hand to stop her. “This blasted parchment from Rozaria Rocato is
bound to have our people in terror. If I take the stability of our rules away,
it will cause chaos. Tonight on the lawn we will burn whatever pages my scribes
have managed to copy, to keep Rozaria satisfied, but the original lists remain
with us. I pray to the sea this works.”
He looked at the hunters. “Lord Alvi.
Lieutenant Gillfin. Gather as many hunters as you can and begin hunting this
new beast immediately.” They nodded and took their leave. Aerity watched them
go, swallowing a dry lump in her throat. The king looked to his military
advisers. “I want every soldier on duty, and round-the-clock patrolling of
royal lands. I want Rozaria Rocato, dead or alive.” He turned to his top castle
guard. “Send messengers to the other four lands to let them know of our new foe
and to find out their circumstances.”
Without another word, the king swept from
the room with Queen Leighlane and a line of advisers close behind.
Aerity felt the brush of velvet on her arm
and peered
down at the old man beside her. It was Duke
Gulfton, his eyes glistening. “I mean no disrespect, Princess, only a piece of
advice. In times of fear and upheaval, absolute routine and stability in the
law are called for. Any slight change can set the people off.”
“As I recall,” Aerity said steadily, “Mrs.
Rathbrook healed your ailing heart last year.” Mrs. Rathbrook was the royal
healer—the only Lashed allowed to work magic.
He grasped the top of his cane with both
hands. “Aye.”
“Should we not allow the people of this
land to benefit from magic as you have?”
He looked down at his hands, nodding
solemnly. “Not all Lashed are as trustworthy as Mrs. Rathbrook. You saw the
Rocato woman face-to-face. You know the evil of which she is capable.”
“I suppose everyone is capable of evil,
Duke Gulfton. None of us is immune, Lashed or not. But I choose to believe the
best in people until they show me otherwise.”
Duke Streamson, waiting in the doorway,
cleared his throat. Duke Gulfton peered up at Aerity and patted her hand. “Once
they show you otherwise, it is often too late. As a rule it is not safe to take
such chances. Seas help Lochlanach in our time of need.”
As Duke Gulfton shuffled away, Aerity
whispered in return. “Seas help us, indeed.”
About the author:
Wendy earned a bachelor's in Creative Writing from George Mason University and a master's in Curriculum and Instruction from Radford University. She is represented by Jill Corcoran of the Jill Corcoran Literary Agency.
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