Star Mage Unleashed
I’m posting a little bit of a deviation from the usual snippets of my work in progress this week. After publishing Carrie’s Calamity, the final book in my Carrie Hatchett, Space Adventurer series, I’m beginning work on a new novel, but it’s too new to show you! The book is called Daughter of Discord, and it’s the first full novel in my Star Mage Saga.
I thought I would share part of a related story instead. Star Mage Unleashed covers a defining event in the life of the star mage, Carina Lin. In this story, she’s only ten years old but she’s about to grow up fast. Star Mage Unleashed will appear in an anthology called Beyond the Black in 2018.
A battle had broken out, and it was up to Carina Lin to stop it. The scalobites had escaped from their enclosure and invaded the kruekins’ station. Surprised and all but defenseless, the kruekins were suffering heavy losses. Bits and pieces of carapace had been scattered across a wide area The remains of articulated limbs were still twitching. Spatters of white blood and green goo festooned the station walls.
Scalobites were driving through hastily assembled kruekin ranks. Sprays of acid arched from kruekin mouths, but the attackers were barely affected. The scalobites tore their ancient enemies apart methodically. It was a massacre.
Carina traced the scalobite line back to where they had eaten through their enclosure wall. She stuffed a rag in the gap. It wouldn’t hold them forever but it would do for the moment. Returning to the station of kruekins, she scooped up two handfuls of scalobites and carried them away. As she carried them back to their enclosure, she winced while they bit her hands with fierce mandibles. She dumped the creatures and returned for more.
Six times she made the trip. On the seventh return, only a few scalobites remained. The kruekins were overwhelming them, shooting jets of acid that scored their shells. Was it kinder to leave the last few scalobites to a quick death or return them to safety, where they might linger for days? Carina bit her lip.
She picked out the few who were still active, grasping their legs between her fingers and thumbs, and carried them to their enclosure. But when she put them down, the others immediately set upon them and ate them. Carina decided to leave the rest of the escaped scalobites to their fate. squatted down to examine the hole that had been gnawed out in the plastiwood enclosure wall.
“Carina,” her grandma called from the front of the shop.
Carina frowned. She couldn’t leave her pets. If she did, the scalobites might eat through the rag and escape again.
“Mei Mei,” her grandmother called again, “come here.”
“In a minute, Grandma.”
“What’s that? Carina Lin, come here immediately.”
Carina didn’t reply. She was spraying quick-dry resin over the hole in the scalobites’ home. A few moments later, her grandmother pulled aside the curtain to the back room of the shop. Though the old woman stood around one hundred and forty five centimeters tall, she was a formidable sight. Metal pins were thrust through her severe black bun like daggers, and her worn, plain clothes were stiff with starch. Even her flat cloth shoes seemed menacing as Carina stared at them, not daring to raise her eyes to meet the woman’s gaze.
Carina’s thoughtless defiance melted like a snowflake next to a furnace. She jumped to attention, her chin on her chest, her hands at her sides. At ten years of age, she already towered over her father’s mother, but she dared not even look down upon the woman’s head. She firmly fixed her eyes on her own bare, dirty toes.
“What are you wasting your time with back here?” her grandmother asked. “Why aren’t you polishing stones like I told you? How do you expect me to run a business and support us when you fritter away your time with these useless bugs?”
“I’m sorry, Grandma.”
“Are these insects going to bring us money? Is your apology going to put food on our table?”
“No, Grandma.”
The old woman clicked her tongue and gestured energetically in the direction of the curtain. “I have too many customers. Come out here and serve them before they tire of waiting and leave.”
Carina nodded and followed as her grandmother returned through the curtain.
As she stepped into the front of the shop, a high-pitched whine sounded, filling the air. Carina clapped her hands over her ears. Her grandmother spun around to face her. Terror had replaced her expression of annoyance. She grabbed Carina’s arm, her fingers digging painfully into her bicep. “Not again.”
The alarm had last sounded less than two years ago, when a band of Marauders had landed at the slum settlement. The place had barely recovered from the attack.
Her grandmother was pulling Carina back into the rear room. “We must get into the hideaway.”
Carina resisted. “No. I don’t want to hide. I want to fight them. I want to help defend us.”
“You’re too young. Come with me, Mei Mei. Now.”
The old woman’s grip on Carina’s arm was vice-like and she was deceptively strong for her size. Reluctantly, Carina found herself being dragged into the back room. Her grandmother released her grip and pushed aside a rug. Beneath it, a square door was set into the dirt floor. The old woman tugged on the ring attached to it. “Help me,” she gasped as she managed to lift the door only a few centimeters.
Carina gripped the door edge and heaved it up. After the Marauder attack, when they had both luckily been away collecting unusual stones in the wilderness, she had dug a small hideaway. The hole was barely large enough to fit them both. It was empty and dark. Carina balked at the idea of crouching inside it for hours, hearing the attack and her grandmother’s humble shop being looted over their heads. Besides, if they both went into the hole, who would pull the rug over it to hide the door?
“What are you waiting for?” her grandmother asked. “Get inside, quickly. They’ll be here any minute.” Then the old woman caught the look in her granddaughter’s eye. “Wait. What are you thinking? Don’t you dare—”
Carina pushed the small woman into the hole. As she tried to stand, Carina pushed on her shoulder, forcing her to crouch. “How dare you. Come inside here now.” With her other hand, Carina lifted the door up and over, closing it with a thump. Her grandmother’s protests were muffled.
Carina dragged the rug over the spot. It lifted as her grandmother tried to push up the heavy door, so Carina held it down with one foot. Fingertips outstretched, she grabbed and drew over the scalobite enclosure. The plastiwood box was heavy enough to prevent her grandmother from opening the door easily.
Carina hesitated. Maybe she should stay with her grandmother and protect her? But she could fight the attackers best if she wasn’t hiding. She could already hear the whisper of pulse rifle rounds. Though she hated to leave her alone, the old woman’s abilities meant she was very capable of defending herself.
She knelt on the rug. “Nai Nai, if you hear them coming, Cast, okay? I’m sorry. Stay inside and don’t make a sound. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
She took a bottle of elixir from a table and dropped it down the front of her shirt. Her grandmother always carried hers on a string around her neck.
As she rose to her feet, she heard a faint, Mei Mei. Outside, the screaming had begun.
Carina went into the front of the shop, her jaw set.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s snippet. Read the first Star Mage snippet here.