NaNo teaser

Hey all,

I thought I’d give you a sneak peek into the NaNoWriMo project I’m working on.  The story is based on the “Last Chance” series I had posted a couple parts of previously on the Kingdom.

I hope you enjoy!

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He returned to the open page and the details of the spell finally held still for him.  He read through them three times to ensure he memorized every word and captured every nuance and proper inflection.  Closing his eyes he ran through the incantation three more times.  When he was confident he was as prepared as he could be, he opened his eyes and grabbed a small falcon feather off the desktop.

Focusing on his breathing, he slowed his intake and output as he had been taught.  This calming act allowed him to also reduce his heart rate and bring stillness to his mind and body.  He looked within and found the energy that needed to be harnessed to unleash the spell.  He held the feather at the ready in his right hand.  He pushed aside everything else.  There was only the feather and the magic.

The flickering lights faded away.  The sound of the play fight raging outside were muted.  The trembling of his thoughts were stilled.  The words to the spell danced in his mind.  He cupped them together lovingly and tossed the feather into the air.

“Axt loatf cmanomd zrf.”

He spoke the incantation calmly, confidently.  He knew in his heart this would be the time he finally got it right.  This would be the time the spell worked for him.

The feather rocked lazily back and forth until it came to a rest on his left slipper.

Antyn stared down at it in disbelief.  He had done everything right.  He had been so sure it would work.  Why hadn’t it worked?  Why hadn’t the energy been ripped from him and the magic unleashed?  Why wasn’t the feather floating in front of him, suspended by the words of his spell and waiting for the next command?

He looked to the text to double check that he hadn’t made a mistake but the words had resumed their indecipherable swimming.  Squeals of delight from outside filtered through his window and an errant snowball squished against the closed pane causing him to jump from surprise.

Antyn’s inner calm snapped and he lashed out at the tome.  It slid across the smooth surface of his desk and crashed into the adjacent wall.  Unsatisfied, the young man fell further into a berserk tantrum.  His chair was hurled, his bed was shoved askew, his desk was kicked at, books were flung from shelves, candles were toppled and the flames sputtered and were extinguished in overflowing pools of wax.