It’s Excerpt Monday again! Once a month, a bunch of authors get together and post excerpts from published books, contracted work or works in progress, and link to each other. You don’t have to be published to participate–just a writer with an excerpt you’d like to share. For more info on how to participate, head over to the Excerpt Monday site! or click on the banner above.
Today we have another excerpt from my Missing Magic, a scene for one of the antagonists in the novel, Snaithan Unagands. His mission is clear: kill Finn macc Líamór. But nothing is ever straightforward and others have their own agendas in the war.
Damned Court games.
Snaithan kept his smile fixed, aware more than ever he’d no one to watch his back in this place. As he followed Governor Regucan and Commander Hrucon, he took the moment’s interruption to glance around the busy Snow Mount hall. A handsome old hall, all waxed wood and dressed stone, with soaring crossed-beam rafters and bright tapestries. Fires crackled pleasantly in the three hearths and the lamplight gave the whole space a warm mellow glow. Easy to forget it was occupied enemy territory.
An interesting mix of folk cluttered Governor Regucan’s supper table: smug Fomorai officers, Leannai nobles with their anxiety hidden behind a thin veil of politic smiles, and cocky Leannai renegades, all tended by harried Leannai and Formorai slaves.
At the head of the table, a tall, slim Leannai woman with downcast eyes sat waiting alone in a heavy, carved and upholstered chair beside the empty matching chair that must be Regucan’s. She wore fur trimmed velvet and jewels, and her gleaming brown hair was done up in a neat crown of plaits dressed with scattered pearls.
Was this Regucan’s captive mistress, Queen Daíríne?
Mood: Hopeful
