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Please do not copy and use. These were expensive to commission and are the result of extensive collaboration with the artists.
I hope you enjoy seeing these and visualizing scenes from the books.
~ Kayelle Allen
Art based on Bringer of Chaos book 1 - Origin of Pietas
Artist Nano-Core
Pietas tossed back the tan leather hide covering his ceremonial dagger. Stones the same turquoise as his eyes filled the eyes of the dragon carved into the silver hilt.
His sister caressed the blade as if it were a lover. "This is new."
"It could all but split hair when I bought it. But I sharpened it."
"Of course you did."
"Everything is ready."
She picked up the dagger and angled it back and forth, peering at the hilt. "More dragons."
He clapped twice.
Startled, she frowned at him.
"Focus, Dessy. I'm busy. Let's do this."
*The name Drachensturm means Dragon Storm. The name of the dragon Pietas later bonds with is Stormsinger.
Art based on Bringer of Chaos book 1 - Origin of Pietas
Artist Nano-Core
Built to hold a million Ultras, the ship's bulk filled the sky. A gangway sealed the ship to the opening ahead. The name of the vessel showed through the vast windows.
Rheault slowed and then halted, transfixed by the sight.
Vash-T stopped and came back. "Sir? Is something wrong?"
"Are you aware of the significance of this ship's name?"
Vash-T glanced at the giant letters in white against the black hull. "One moment, sir, while I access historical references. Shall I explain it to you?"
"I understand already." Long-stifled emotions within Rheault fought to rise, but he drove them back. "Let's do this, shall we?" He walked with Vash-T.
Outside, in the cold of space, spotlights traced the hull of Charon's Boat.
*In Greek mythology, Charon was the ferryman of the underworld, and carried the souls of those who had been given funeral rights to the land of the dead. The name of the boat has never been recorded.
Art based on The Last Vhalgenn & Trailing Kaiwulf
Artist Nano-Core
I went to where the child lay and lifted the wee creature in my two hands. He was not quite the length of my forearm and dark red, his eyes closed in sleep, two fists held against his pudgy chin as if ready to fight the world. He won a smile from me without so much as a whimper. He looked far from early. I opened the blankets wrapping him. Perfect, head to toe.
"He's a fine boy." I knelt. "You do want his father to see him. Don't you?"
"Aye, but not yet. He has to go through the Gates. It's our custom." She put out a finger and touched his cheek. The babe sought it with his mouth. Dahr smiled. "No Kellindahrii babe may see his father before he's passed through the Gates of Life. If he does, he'll die."
"Posh! Myth. Ungodly superstition."
"Ungodly, aye, but true." She held out her hands for the babe. "All of us are cursed with it. We've got to pass under the Gates as soon after we're born as possible. Before we see our fathers. It's law in Kellindahr. It's custom. It offends the Faerii not to."
"We had Gates of Life in Qarth as well, hundreds of years before. We tore them down without ill effects from the Faerii." Still, there were those who believed.
Art based on For Her Only
Artist Jamin Allen
The sun beat down on Khyff's head and shoulders. Steam rose from the damp grass. Only the light breeze made the humidity bearable.
"Now we give him to the sky." Mehfawni led him by the hand as they followed the rest of the family toward a distant rise. "Kin don't put their dead in the ground, Khyffy. You're the first human to see this among our clan."
They walked up the small hill and stopped on the crest. Below them stretched a valley filled with what looked like cots on long stilts, each with tatters of cloth attached and floating from them on the breeze. What took Khyff's breath was the sight of bones atop each cot.
Not skeletons. Bones. Something had torn the bodies apart without destroying the cots.
His stomach rolled.
Several males went to the closest cot and reached up to uncover it, exposing a young Kin male with fair furskin and hair the color of honey.
"He's naked."
Mehfawni slipped her arm around him. "That's so the birds can feed on him."
"Feed?" A grating caw drew his attention to the sky. Huge black birds circled overhead. The meaning of her words sent a chill through him.
They gave their dead to the sky. To the birds of the sky. Birds ate them.
All at once Khyff was running, running, anywhere, somewhere, away from the sight of those birds and the bones. Bones that had been picked over and stripped of every last bit of meat.
*Mortay Wahn is translated in the Kin language of Felis as "Death Mouth".Β For moreΒ Kin words visit the Lexicon.
Any of my characters mentioned on this page might be found in multiple books in my story universe. Download a printable book list and check them off as you read.
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