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Both a gripping independent novel and intriguing conclusion to the Books of the Elements (a four-volume set of fantasies set in Carce, an analog of ancient Rome), David Drake’s opens in a new windowAir and Darkness is a complex journey through both real and magical places, set in a time when the supernatural is dominant. Battling magicians, spirits, gods, and forces from supernatural realities, soldier Corylus faces deadly dangers in a final battle not between good and evil, but in defense of logic and reality. Please enjoy this excerpt.
CHAPTER I
“Help us, Mother Matuta,” chanted Hedia as she danced sunwise in a circle with eleven women of the district. The priest Doclianus stood beside the altar in the center. It was of black local stones, crudely squared and laid without mortar—what you’d expect, forty miles from Carce and in the middle of nowhere.
“Help us, bringer of brightness! Help us, bringer of warmth!”
Hedia sniffed. Though the pre-dawn sky was light, it certainly hadn’t brought warmth.