Title Of Book: To Ash and Dust
Series: The Deliverance Trilogy: Book Two
By: HL Walsh
Genre: Fantasy
Sub-Genre: Action/Adventure, Coming of Age, Epic Fantasy, Fantasy, High Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery
Blurb:
The war has begun anew. The Demon Army marches on Newaught. Their newly constructed canons catching the city unawares. With the first shot destroying a large portion of the walls, the leaders surrender without a fight. An order is issued to turn Malach and his friends over and they are forced to flee the city. Finding other refugees along the way, they must shepherd them toward the safety of the Angel Army, however, their journey might be longer than they anticipate. During their flight, Malach’s mother has been found. She is being held in a prison deep in Demon Territory. They must deliver the refugees of Newaught to safety before gathering their strength and a recuse party. Can they make it to her in time? Or will she perish before they can reach her?
Excerpt
Chapter 1
Kragen stole through the shadows. The rest of the town slept, blissfully ignorant they had seen their last sunset. Kragen had infiltrated Whiteshade under the guise of a former guard of Newaught, now a refugee. He even managed to work his way into a group of refugees from the actual town he claimed to be from. Most of the town had evacuated, making it all the easier to gain the people’s trust. Simply put, they didn’t have enough guards to defend the people who hadn’t fled to the Angel Army’s camp, they had trusted him
quickly.
Too quickly.
Tonight was the night that he would finally be able to shed his disguise and kill these people. Their kindness and generosity disgusted him. These people didn’t understand that the only way to get ahead in life was to take what you wanted, even if it cost others dearly. They assumed that their kindness would save them, but they were sorely wrong. To make things worse, they refused to believe angels and demons never left and the war hadn’t started again.
Simpletons, he scoffed at their ignorance.
Kragen had been trained for years by a particularly nasty demon. This demon knew no mercy, and for each failure that Kragen had made, he had taken his due in unspeakable terrors. Never Kragen’s hands or fingers, as he had with some of the other, lesser servants. No, the Demon had taken his revenge in terrors that would never leave visible scars. Now, Kragen was one of the best spies in the Demon Army and most proficient with the devices that the demon had invented. They called them explosives. Kragen called them
Hellfire Machines. He had to sneak the pieces of those infernal devices into the city and created each one once inside. They could be made to size, and sometimes Kragen bought the ingredients needed from the very people he would use them on. Once the powders inside were mixed correctly, they would make a large, fiery explosion that could collapse a single building or whole sections of a city wall. The power that Kragen wielded gave him an indescribable rush.
This city’s wall wasn’t even made of stone. He had only planted three devices: two on the side that the army would infiltrate, and one as a distraction on the other side of the city. The one on its own was hidden next to the main barracks and would also serve to kill most of the remaining guards. All three devices would set what was left of the wall on fire and burn it to the ground. They wouldn’t even have much of a fight. The Demon would be disappointed.
He enjoyed killing.
Kragen received the signal that the army would move against the city that night and was off to set the first device. He had signaled back he was still alive and that the walls would be down. He arrived at the first device and lit the fuse with a flick of his flint and steel. He turned and ran right into the Captain of the Guard.
“Sir, I found something I think you need to see,” Kragen said, the lie automatically springing to his lips.
“Save it,” the Capitan’s sword was already drawn.
“So be it.”
A few short minutes later, Kragen was running through the city at full speed. It wouldn’t be long, and either the Captain’s body would be found, or the explosive would detonate. He hadn’t pulled his sword to fight the Captain.
He simply pulled his firearm and shot the man. He was given the firearm as a reward for assassinating the leader of the Dark Hollow, a group of assassins in Newaught. He kept the thing loaded and on his person for a situation just like this. The crack of the shot would draw attention but so would a drawn-out fight, and there was no guarantee he would have won. The warning bells rang only seconds before the explosion shook the ground.
The explosion silenced the bells, no doubt collapsing the tower attached to the barracks. Kragen was able to cover a lot of ground quickly with his six foot-four-inch frame and the conditioning he received. Soon the other two devices would detonate as well, and he would be off on his next assignment.
Meet HL Walsh
Award-winning author of the Amazon Bestseller in Christian Fantasy, From Men and Angels: The Deliverance Trilogy: Book One. I write Sci-Fi & Fantasy.
Connect with HL
Website: hlwalshbook.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HLWalshbooks
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HLWalshAuthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hlwalshauthor/
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/H-L-Walsh/e/B08B39Q3HC/ref=aufs_dp_fta_dsk
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19724893.H_L_Walsh
Current Promotions
Legend of the Gods on Kickstarter
The Book
Discover a world where magic has been outlawed, its users hunted down by the merciless members of the Tsar’s
Stalkers. The trilogy follows Devon, a young warrior who fought to defend his kingdom and unite the Three Nations, only to find himself serving a tyrant Tsar.
When Devon turns his back on his former masters and rescues a young woman named Alana from the Tsar’s Stalkers, he is labeled a traitor to the crown. An outlaw now himself, Devon must flee with Alana and make for Northland – the only land that remains beyond the reach of the Tsar.
But Alana has a few secrets of her own. As the hunters draw near, she must decide if she can truly trust the former soldier. Can the renegade and the disgraced hero conquer their mutual distrust and to escape the hangman’s noose?
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