Earthbound Opening Chapter Sample

Thought I'd post this sample of Earthbound up here. This is from the middle of the 1st chapter. Take a peek at our introduction to Serafina.

“Stop!” One of her pursuers called. She didn’t have to look back to know he was the one with the beautiful eyes, the features so statuesque that they could have been carved from marble. She’d seen him before in the Court of Furled Wings. Only a few years older than her, he was still a boy, really. Aleron, she thought his name was, the Captain of the Guard. That they had sent him spoke of the Emperor’s desire to have her captured.

“Surrender yourself now. Your father has already been captured. It’s over!” His voice was imploring, but she wouldn’t listen. She folded both pairs of her wings and dove, dropping like a stone. Calls of alarm met her ears, but she knew that Aleron and his fellows wouldn’t follow her so deep into the storm. It was suicide to do so.

There was no telling how close she was to the ground in this thick of cloud cover. She could hardly see more than a few feet ahead of her, so, as she fell, she drew her sword from her chest, a spirit-blade forged in the fires of her soul. The firelight of her blade lit the way as she went deeper into the smoke, fighting the noxious fumes that choked breath from her mouth and nostrils.

With sweat beading thickly on her brow and her lungs feeling like they would burst from want of air, she continued her nauseating plummet. Spots danced before her eyes and she let in a choking half-breath that nearly caused her to go into a coughing fit, but even with her eyes watering, she could still see it ahead: the pylon.