Title Of Book: ForeSender Resolve
Series: ForeSender Chronicles Book 5
By: Adrian Murphy
Genre: Fantasy
Sub-Genre: Action/Adventure, Colonization, Dragons & Mythical Creatures, Epic, Sword & Sorcery, Myths & Legends, Norse & Viking

Blurb:

A formless evil bent on remaking the Earth by dark magic. A courageous dragon-shifter sleuth. Can she save billions from an excruciating demise?

Galindra is overjoyed at reuniting with her mother. But celebrations are stalled when she faces the greatest challenge of her life. Stranded on a strange planet called Earth, she’s desperate to stop an ancient entity from unleashing a ruthless foe.

Closing in on her adversary, Galindra is determined to capture or kill the creature. But she’s in for a shock and fears her abilities won’t be enough to protect her mother and all humanity from mortal danger.

Can she thwart the most formidable sorcerer that ever lived and prevent global devastation?

Excerpt

Chapter 1 ~ Formless Realm

Colors, more startling than a rainbow after a summer rain shower, streamed past Galindra’s eyes and swirled around her head.

She looked down and gasped. The floor of the portal chamber in Havenwood’s Palace of Golden Boughs was nowhere to be seen. Instead, multi-hued streaks of brilliant iridescence sailed by beneath, alongside, and above her, disappearing into the far distance.

On impulse, she reached out a hand to grasp onto a solid surface. There was none. Yet, her footing was firm despite the lack of a visible support.

A curse caught her attention, and she turned. Valeth stood a few feet away, wearing a bemused expression. Galindra rushed to her and the pair embraced. “I thought I almost lost you again, Mother.”

Valeth stroked Galindra’s hair as the edges of her lips curled in a soft smile. “No, daughter-mine. We are together still. It would be heartbreaking indeed to be parted so soon after only just reuniting.” A grim look chased the joy from her face. “But it seems we have a new peril to contend with. What is the last thing you remember?”

Galindra stepped back and cocked her head, her eyes going wide as recollection flooded in. “The troll mage’s dark spell! It reemerged and sought to gain power over us. I heard its foul words in my mind.”

She ducked as an especially intense band of shimmering color flashed past her head. “We, along with Melnik, were in the portal chamber at the Palace of Golden Boughs, in Havenwood. We were on the verge of bringing the portal back under control and preventing it from exploding after the Dane-entity used the gateway to journey to Earth.”

Valeth wore a distant expression, gazing into their surroundings. She rubbed a hand against her cheek, her demeanor pensive. “Yes, I too experienced the incantation’s vitriolic pronouncement inside my head. I suspect it is responsible for our present dilemma.”

“Where are we?”

Valeth paused before replying as a warm breeze ruffled her hair. “Stories are told of the existence of this place. I was never certain I believed them until now.” She bent, tapping the invisible, yet firm, ground, then straightened. “Unless this is a bizarre, shared hallucination, I’d hazard a guess we are between dimensions, in the formless realm.”

Galindra’s eyebrows arched, and she frowned at the shapeless colors crowding them on all sides. “The primeval land beyond a portal’s threshold? I had always deemed it to be a myth.”

“It would seem not.” Valeth took a few tentative steps forward. “I often wondered what became of our essence when portaling. Now, it seems, we know.”

“The transition from one location to another is usually instantaneous,” Galindra said. “If what you suggest is correct, then by what means have we landed here, I wonder?”

She peered at the gyrating kaleidoscope beneath her feet and continued in the silence that followed. “I suspect you are right. It must be the dark spell’s doing. The question is, does it seek to entomb us here forever?” She stroked a finger against the gem at the base of her throat. “And what happened to it after its unsuccessful attempt to gain sway over us?”

A muffled choking sound was her only response. Galindra whirled. Valeth’s head was bent, her mouth opening and closing, lips stretched wide in a startled rictus. She clutched at the crimson-tinged gem at her neck—its tint matching her hair—as a green haze enveloped the stone.

“Mother! What is—” A stinging spear of agony gripped Galindra’s chest, and she staggered backward. She felt tremendous pressure, as if a massive set of bellows strove to suck the very last breath from her lungs.

Cold, as biting as the frigid air atop the highest mountain peak, radiated from her foresense gem. She glanced down. The same sickly emerald-hued nimbus that embraced her mother’s jewel now clung to Galindra’s own throat and chest.

As she watched, the fume detached from around her body, and from Valeth’s. The mist like strands flowed toward each other and mingled, coalescing. An insubstantial form materialized, its substance composed of writhing gray-green smoke. Arms, legs, a torso, and a blocky head emerged, their gaseous outline fluctuating as ripples eddied across the figure.

Galindra sucked in a ragged breath. Realization hit her as she gaped at the apparition. The shape was familiar. It bore a close resemblance to Dorien, the troll mage who had cast the deadly incantation as her dying act.

Scarlet flame glimmered where the eyes would be, and the vapor swirled to reveal a mouth-like orifice. “You think my efforts to master you were unsuccessful? Guess again, ForeSender.” The voice rasped in incorporeal lungs, the tone harsh.

It lifted a smoky arm and wiggled its fingers. “Only in this nebulous dimension may I gain a measure of corporeality, albeit without physical attributes. Now I can complete the mission my mistress gave me.” Its eyes flared a vivid red. “Your demise.”

Galindra not so much heard as felt the hate-filled words as they vibrated through the air. She flicked her gaze away from the phantasm, which stood between her and her mother.

Valeth ground her teeth, glaring at the spell’s spectral form. “What in all the Continuum’s spinning globes is this?” She peered closer, discerning the rough appearance of a tall, blocky being. “Or should I say who?”

“Dorien, the troll mage,” Galindra supplied. “Or rather, her death cast invocation, given a semblance of ethereal existence.”

“At least it is no longer in our heads.” Valeth touched her temple, eyeing the murky apparition. “Though I am not sure this is a vast improvement.”

Galindra gave a tight smile, a wary cast to her countenance. How long would the menacing hex be able to maintain the manifestation? Was it more vulnerable now that she could see and hear it outside herself, or had its powers multiplied?

The incantation flexed its shadowy arms again and gave a gravelly chuckle. “I have found my true form and am free to continue my creator’s purpose. Time for you both to suffer an excruciating demise.” Its head rotated to regard Valeth. Instead of turning back, its body revolved further on the same axis, performing a complete arc and fixing its baleful gaze on Galindra.

“Nothing spooky about that,” Valeth said, “though it’d be a colossal hit at Halloween.” Her fingers brushing her foresense gem. Twin fiery axes sprang to life in her hands.

Galindra did likewise, her dragon staff flaming in her grip.

Meet Adrian Murphy

Adrian Murphy traces his love of fantasy and storytelling to growing up in Ireland, where castles and history abound. He once lived in a town near Dublin with a tall stone tower built by monks in the 8th century as a refuge from marauding Vikings. Today, he makes his home close to the beautiful shores of Lake Huron, Southwestern Ontario, Canada, along with his cat, Mr. G. Favorite authors include Lindsay Buroker, Brandon Sanderson, Tolkien, Heinlein, and Terry Pratchett. Their influences—and many others from fantasy, sci-fi, and mystery—inspire his stories.