Windwalker: Forbidden Flight (The Aeternum Chronicles, Book 0) by H.G. Chambers

Release date: April 24, 2018

Subgenre: YA Fantasy

About Windwalker: Forbidden Flight:

 

Sixteen-year-old Kiva Fariq has always dreamed of soaring on the four-winged raptors that scour the desert skies. But the windwalker sect is closed off to women. What's more, it's said the deadly predators can only be bonded by men.

Undeterred, Kiva attempts the deadly windwalker trials in secret. Should she survive, she will face an even greater challenge: bonding a raptor of her own. When signs of an ancient enemy appear upon the plains, she desires more than ever to protect her people. But the threat is closer than anyone realizes, and will soon bury them all in a tomb of sand and stone—unless she can stop it.

 

Excerpt:

 

Kiva glanced up, and spotted it—a cavernous opening in the rock face. She had nearly reached the entrance to the kiraeen roosting grounds.

I made it! she thought triumphantly. Sitting with her legs dangling over the edge, Kiva took another drink, and waved to the crowd below. She could hear the faint sound of half-hearted cheering as the curious onlookers grew in number.

A black shape swooped into her peripheral. Kiva had just enough time to leap back out of the way. A great kiraeen thumped down into the tunnel entrance, onto the spot she had been sitting seconds ago. Kiva’s heart pounded in her chest. A few paces away, the creature studied her with beady orange eyes, set just above a large, razor sharp onyx beak. Several red feathers, angled back on its forehead, stood starkly against the black covering the rest of its body.

Screeok!

Kiva grimaced, ducking her head at the deafening sound. She looked into its eyes, meeting its gaze directly. Never before had she seen one this close before. The kiraeen was hunched over in the tunnel entrance, forward weight resting on the bent leading edges of its great feathered wings. Black talons extended out from where the wings met the ground.

It’s beautiful, Kiva thought with wonder.

“Sahl,” she said in a soothing tone, holding up her hand. She held her other hand over the khanjar dagger at her belt.

“Sahl,” she said again.

The creature tilted its head, eying her with curiosity. Kiva took a step forward. The kiraeen took up nearly the entire tunnel. If it attacked in here, she might be able to outmaneuver it.

The beast must have also been aware of the disadvantage. It leapt backwards out of the tunnel entrance. Kiva ran to the edge of the opening and watched as it spread its great wings, and soared back up into the sky.

Kiva swallowed. There would be many more of them up above, where she would face the second test of her unlawful challenge. She turned, continuing deeper into the tunnel, and came to a set of rough stairs, carved from the rock. She followed the curving staircase, which eventually led to an overhead opening. Bright sunlight streamed through it, illuminating the last few steps. Kiva cautiously ascended, peeking her head up through the opening.

The sight she beheld stole the breath from her lungs. She had reached the top of the walls of Madina Basin. The roosting grounds of the windwalker kiraeen. Before her stretched a path with great jutting stone formations rising up on either side. Lodged into the rocks were dozens of kiraeen nests, constructed from sticks, shrubs, bones, and the skins of their prey. Many of the nests were empty, however there were still several occupied with formidable beasts.

 

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About H.G. Chambers

Harold George Chambers is an award winning fantasy science fiction author. He’s also a dad, helicopter pilot, web designer, musician, and a huge board game nerd. Inspired by the great fantasy sci-fi authors of the past and present, Harold published Recreance, the first book of The Aeternum Chronicles, in 2017. The story continues with Vigilance, released early 2018. Harold makes his home in a small Canadian town on Vancouver Island with his wife and two-year-old son.

 

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