Blood - Emperor's Blood Excerpt

The following is an excerpt from Chapter 37 of my manuscript Emperor's Blood. (As you can tell, this one's a cliffhanger!) Fifth (or sixth?) draft of EB arc 2, unedited. (Written today.)

I'm sorry that I haven't had much to post lately. Most of it's been too spoilery for public eyes!

I'm having a lot of fun writing Ki's POV in this draft so far. I think it's going to work (hopefully) and that I'm not going to do another bloody version of this arc in six months. (EB arc 1 is finalized.) I want to move on to writing Kill Copper (the next book in the trilogy) damnit! I've a great deal of hope for this draft though. The characterizations are a lot better, there's more equality in the distribution of writing for the protagonists (though Ki obviously still gets the most screen time, being protag #1) and things are a lot more true to the very first draft. (EBV2. The (two?) versions before V2 never made it even into the second arc, which is okay, because those ones sucked. Tech problems gloriously killed them.)

Yay! Enjoy!

All material (c) Rosanna P. Brost.
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A scream of pure unadulterated agony slashed the still silence, making Ki leap awake, heart pounding. Had it been real? Or his imagination? He’d heard a scream once upon a time and Eva had told him that he was just dreaming as he had ran shaking to her bed. He looked around, then remembered that he couldn’t see, that there was no light and he shrank back, further under the blanket, straining to listen, flinching at the light sound of the rain outside, which should have helped him calm down under normal circumstances.

“EEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRRERR!”

Ki nearly fainted at the shrill, animalistic call that rang through the corridors of the keep, then the snarling that followed, beastly and harsh. Something pinged metallic out in the halls, then there was a fierce cry and another animal snarl, then a gargled scream of pain, then something metal hit the floor as more growls sounded.

“Lys! Lys, yin Sketzine! Lys!” snarled Kelveniska. Ki jumped at his voice, suddenly realizing that the drakoon had left him, that he was somewhere near the door, shouting through it like he was goading on attack dogs. “LYS!”

There was a ferocious reeling animal snarl, then a disturbing sound like a breaking egg, then cruel quiet for a moment before a chorus of angry sounding whines accompanied by excited shouts, then whispers. Somebody was being praised like they were heroes. Ki huddled deeper under the blanket, pulling a mat overtop of himself too. He had the feeling that somebody had just died. He had a feeling that they had been murdered.

“Cwid Sketzine, cwid.” said Kelveniska breathlessly through the door. “Cwid yin Sketzine, hana…”

Ki closed his eyes, grimacing. He wanted the sounds to stop. He wanted to know for sure what had just happened and why it had just happened. He wanted - blood. Ki smelled it, as heavy as perfume on the air. Blood. Rich, full of iron and scarlet, cloying, so potent that he could practically taste it. Blood, not the stuff you get when you cut your finger, but blood, arterial blood, blood straight from the heart -

Somebody was definitely dead. Ki fainted.