EXCERPT 1 FROM THE NOVEL GULLVEIG TWIN SOULS TWIN FLAMES
Artio now headed back over to Azura’s home and much to his satisfaction, he could see that she was still hard at work with Sam outside, trying to show him how to work with and control his new powers.
As he drew alongside them, Azura turned to him.
“He is a really quick study. And I’ve shown him the spell to quell the flames if he loses control,” she said with a smile.
“That is good,” replied Artio.
“However, you must use your telepathy with caution Sam," he warned.
“Remember not only can you read the minds of those close to you, but you can also send messages as well. Although this is most useful, you’re inexperience may work against you, as you won’t always be able to pick out others who have this gift and you don’t want anyone picking up a message that isn’t meant for them.”
“I’ve already explained that to him,” said Azura.
“I’ve been trying to explain how being an empath works and that sometimes it isn’t always easy to tell what are your own feelings and separate it from others. He will need to learn how to cloak his thoughts and feelings and very quickly,” she warned.
“That is very true,” said Artio. “But try not to worry as I will continue to work with Sam on this once you have gone.
”Azura now sighed with relief.
“I am glad. I must admit I was a little worried and just didn’t know how I was going to teach him all this in the time we have.”
Artio now chuckled at Azura. It was just typical of her to take on all responsibility of someone else.
“Try to just concentrate on his active power and I will teach him the rest,” he suggested.
Azura now nodded and turned back towards Sam.
“How long do we have?” she asked throwing Artio a look over her shoulder.
“About another hour and then you really should be leaving,” he replied.
“Danika and Summa are taking care of all the preparations,” he reassured her.
“That’s good,” she replied and then turned back towards Sam.
“Okay, are you ready,” she asked him.
Sam nodded nervously at her. “I think so,” he replied.
“Good, now attempt to throw fire again,” she said.
“Only this time, I want you to try and trap me in a circle of flames.”
With a gulp Sam nodded and held out his hands while concentrating hard on the task she had set him and much to his surprise he found that very quickly Azura was surrounded by a circle of roaring flames.
Artio nodded with satisfaction at the lessons and quickly walked away from them to return to his own home.
© 2010 Moonwillow
EXCERPT 2 FROM THE NOVEL GULLVEIG TWIN SOULS TWIN FLAMES
Despite his obvious great age, Artio moved swiftly and quickly covered the distance across the attic and came to rest behind a beautiful easel designed in the shape of a golden eagle with its wings widely spread, which held one of his many magickal books.
With an impatient wave of his hand, the pages of this book started to turn over almost seemingly at warp speed as Artio searched for the enchantment he required.
Suddenly the book came to rest and the pages settled open.
With a small noise of triumph, the old wizard smiled to himself.
‘Perfect,’ he thought. ‘This is exactly what I need to place an enchantment in the painting that Derry had brought over from the Britains.’
He now turned around and pulled a large sheet off the said painting and without hesitation stepped forward as though he was going to walk straight through it.
Immediately the painting sucked him into its contents and Artio found himself standing in a small forest.
He turned around and smiled to himself satisfied as he peered out of the painting and could see his attic behind him.
He now made his way along the pathway that had been painted until he reached a floral archway that was suspended in the midst of the trees.
Stopping in front of this archway he now raised his wand.
“Servo Putus, Ostendo Sum Hostes Hostium,” he chanted and immediately a series of blue and white sparks flew from the end of his wand and surrounded this floral archway.
These sparks hovered in the air for a few seconds before gently floating down and seemingly then, almost melted in to the flora of this archway.
Artio now smiled to himself, satisfied. Knowing that the enchantment he had placed upon this archway would only allow those pure of heart and intention through and that if anyone practising the dark arts tried to pass, it would reveal their true nature and keep them trapped inside the painting.
He turned back and returned along the pathway the same way, until he could see his attic and smoothly stepped back out of the painting and back into his room.
He now covered the painting with a large sheet and slid it against a wall where it sat unobtrusively amongst many the other contents of the attic.
Artio now made his way back down the stairs calling out to his house-elf as his did so.
“Touralain, I need you to deliver a message for me,” he said as the little and mischievous elf appeared seemingly out of nowhere at the bottom of the stairs.
“I need you to visit Sam and Diana and warn them I will be coming to visit shortly,” he said.
“Yes, Great Master,” gasped the little elf, at once excited to be going to visit the mortals again and immediately vanished into thin air.
© 2010 Moonwillow
EXCERPT 3 FROM THE NOVEL GULLVEIG TWIN SOULS TWIN FLAMES
Across the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, hidden deep within the depths of southern Britain was another magickal community.
A sister community to Gullveig in the Americas.
The only way to access this community was from the ocean itself and passing through Merlin’s Cave.
This cave laid in the depths of the cliffs below the ruins of Tintagel Castle, rumoured to have once been one of the homes of the great man, King Arthur himself.
This was a place of great magickal power and not unlike Mount Rushmore in the Americas; it was well protected by the ancient spirits as were many of the other ancient sites located around the Britains.
If you entered this cave at low tide, you could walk around the inside of it, although you would still have to access it via the sea.
However at high tide it was completely impenetrable by foot and the only way through was either by boat or other magickal means.
As you looked up you would have seen the stalagmites hanging from the roof of the cave along with the many large clusters of clear quartz crystals in their natural formation.
As you reached the rear of the cave, it looked to the visible eye as if there was nowhere else left to go and it took a huge leap of faith to trust that you would and could pass through what appeared as solid rock, as indeed it was.
However, this rock was in fact, a portal through to another world and you needed to know the name of the spirits who protected this portal in order to gain entrance to it.
Once through this portal, a world full of beauty and wonder opened up before your eyes.
Lush green trees, with what seemed like thousands of different wild flowers in a wonderful array of colours growing between them, provided a beautiful panorama that seemed to almost go on forever.
© 2010 Moonwillow
Blayze quickly scrambled to his feet and made to pass back through the swirling portal, but he was too late.
It had closed and all that remained was solid rock.
He turned to Lucian demanding that he reopen the portal but the older man shook his head.
“Rafe knows what he is doing, try not to worry,” he gave a small smile to the younger man in reassurance of his words.
This had absolutely no effect on Blayze at all, who carried on as if Lucian had not spoken at all.
He turned to Artio.
“Reopen the portal,” he demanded.
“Rafe doesn’t stand a chance against all of them on his own," he insisted gesturing with his head through the now solid rock.
“Rafe will be fine,” said Artio firmly. “And anyway, there is nothing to be done; he made his choice when he pushed you through the portal as it was closing. Whatever happens, we must honour his decision.”
“But,” Blayze started to say.
But he was quickly interrupted by Bugul-Noz.
“To re-open the portal will put everyone else at risk. Is that what you want?” he asked harshly.
Blayze shook his head but still looked miserable.
“Try not to worry,” said Artio kindly. "Rafe is very resilient. I’m sure he will be fine.”
He now turned to the rest of the occupants scattered around the large cavern like area in which they were now all standing behind the rock that had been their portal to safety away from the Drows and the Howlers.
“Where are we?” asked Elysia looking around at their surroundings.
“And how are we going to get out of here?” she asked.
As she finished speaking a white mist gradually appeared in front of them that gradually took the form of Wynona, Azura’s deceased grandmother and Blayze’s mother.
“You must all calm down,” she said. “You are all quite safe here.”
“Where exactly is here?” demanded Blayze glaring at his mother, still feeling frustrated about Rafe.
“This is an ancient sanctuary hall,” she replied.
“And stop worrying, Rafe is fine. Giving them all the run around, he is,” she grinned.
At her words, Blayze visibly relaxed and grinned back at the spirit form that was his mother.
“Is there nothing you don’t know?” he asked.
“Not a lot,” she replied in a nonchalant manner and turned to Lucian and Artio.
“You two do both know how this all works, don’t you?” she asked gesturing to the cavern in which they were all standing.
Both elderly wizards nodded.
“Good,” she replied and turned to the others standing in the cavern, some of whom were opened mouthed in wonder at her appearance.
“What’s the matter?” she asked. “You all look like you’ve seen a ghost,” and then dissolved into fits of laughter.
© 2010 Moonwillow
EXCERPT 5 FROM THE NOVEL GULLVEIG TWIN SOULS TWIN FLAMES
Once the men had departed, Pentea stepped forward and for the first time Azura noticed the beautiful pale blue silk robes embroidered with the finest of silver and purple threads.
“You need to put these on,” said Pentea. “Queen Eria chose these for you herself.”
Azura quickly removed her own robes and noticed that Gallia quickly stowed them away out of sight.
She redressed herself with the new robes and couldn’t help the sigh of pleasure that escaped from her as she felt the luxury of pure silk brush gently over her skin.
She stood still as Pentea fastened a matching cloak around her shoulders.
Gallia then gestured her to sit in a chair and proceeded to fix her hair and weave in a variety of flowers to match her robes.
When she had finished, she instructed Azura to stand while she inspected her handiwork.
Pentea nodded approvingly, apparently satisfied.
“You look like royalty now,” she said. “In fact,” and she looked more closely at Azura. “You look a lot like Princess Helea, don’t you think so?” she asked Gallea.
Now Gallea studied Azura’s face.
Azura face burned scarlet and she squirmed, feeling decidedly uncomfortable under their close scrutiny of her.
“Yes, she does,” Gallia agreed with her sister.
“In fact, it’s quite remarkable,” she said with a smile that lit up her face. “That’s good. No-one will question that you are indeed family.”
“Now you need to go with Oedipelus,” said Pentea. “And we will meet up with you later.”
Before Azura had a chance to say a word, Oedipelus had taken her firmly by the arm and was leading her silently outside and through the quiet backstreets of what appeared to be a very quaint village.
Azura would have loved to have stopped and explored further, but Oedipelus firmly guided her on until they reached the foot of a panorama of hills at the outskirts of the village.
The hills ahead of Azura appeared lush and green and more fertile than anything Azura had ever seen.
There was an abundance of wild flowers and frits growing furtively as nature intended as far as the eye could see.
The apple groves unique to the islands were well-stocked and the trees boughs hung heavily with the burdens of their fruit of golden apples.
The firebirds were known to feast on this fruit under the cover of the darkness of the night.
This fruit was however, forbidden to be eaten as other fruits in their daily diet due to the extraordinary magickal healing properties they possessed.
This fruit was always harvested very carefully for potions that needed a healing quality and to enhance and extend the length of a person’s life.
The herbalists were still testing and exploring what other hidden properties they had yet to discover about these golden apples.
The vineyards and orchards on the island were always thriving due to the unique irrigation system the island was fortunate to have and the islanders had an endless supply of the finest wines.
As far as the eye could see, undulating green hills arose into the horizon … their beauty and serenity finding its way into the souls of any person fortunate enough to be in their presence.
On the apex of the highest mount stood a glistening palace that from a distance appeared to have been carved from the finest crystal cut glass.
It was only as Azura drew nearer that she could see that it was sandstone … bleached almost to a pure white by the heat of the sun that the islanders were blessed with daily.
As she entered into the palace gardens, her eyes feasted on the most exotic and beautiful panorama.
To Azura, it appeared as though the Summerlands had truly existed in this place for all time such was the beauty for her.
The aroma of sweet smells from the surrounding flora arose and the aromatic scents of herbs arose and tantalised her senses.
On further investigation, she discovered pathways that led from one panorama to another, each one more beautiful than the last.
From the height at the top of the hill, she could see the sparkling from the clearest of blue oceans below that surrounded the island with a wisp from the occasional white froth that shimmered on the surface of the ocean as the swell of the ocean’s tidal waves swelled in their natural rhythm.
The air was warm, fresh and so clear that Azura could almost taste the sweetness of its purity.
As she entered the large and airy palace, she was greeted with cool and airy hallways that led into equally large open-plan rooms … well suited to the warm climate.
Luminescent silky white drapes were hanging at the windows and they were swaying lightly to and fro with the warm breezes.
The furnishings in these rooms were simple but very elegant and luxurious, their coverings in white silk embroided with the finest of gold threads.
Freshly picked flowers adorned every room in what were obviously hand-thrown vases.
Large bowls full of delicious assortments of the island’s fruits were on display and available for snacking whenever a person felt the need.
The sound of girlish laughter reached Azura’s ears as the giggles of a young girl’s enjoyment drew closer to her.
As Queen Eria and her daughter Princess Halea entered the room, Azura gasped in momentary shock.
Her astonishment was not at Queen Eria’s beauty, although she was undoubtedly the most beautiful woman Azura had ever laid eyes on with her long wavy golden hair that reached her tiny waist and her fine and delicate features.
No, it was her daughter Princess Halea that drew Azura’s attention and gasp of surprise.
For the young girl stood in front of her was the image of her own daughter Summa.
© Moonwillow 2011
This excerpts and the artwork used on the jacket cover posted here remain the © Moonwillow 2011
For further information or to purchase your copy of the 1st Gullveig novel Gullveig & the Breaking of the Hexes visit
