I’m happy to be taking part in Lori J. Fitzgerald’s blog tour and helping her get the word out about her romantic fantasy adventure novelette The Dragon’s Message. Lori recently joined the Magic Appreciation Tour, bringing us up to an amazing total of 67 authors with 166 books. If you love to read magical fantasy, check out the book listings.
Lori is stopping by The Vaetra Files today to give us a brief introduction to her new Dragon Tome series and to share an excerpt from her new release The Dragon’s Message. Please don’t forget to enter Lori’s giveaway at the end of this post!
Welcome Lori!
Here Be Dragons
by Lori J. Fitzgerald, White Raven Writing
Lady Rhiannon’s world is one populated by the fantastical creatures found in medieval tapestries. Unfortunately, these creatures have become scarce because they have been hunted over the centuries by lords and their wizards, who believe that they contain the source of magic. So unicorns are poached for their horns and dragons for their blood. The dragons, being sentient and highly intelligent creatures, know that the source of magic lies elsewhere (which is a tale for another Dragon Tome story). They have found a way to pass on their knowledge and their magic to ensure their survival through the Dragon Tome, a book that contains their language and their secrets. Here is an excerpt from The Dragon’s Message:
When Rhiannon was small and had just learned to read, her mother brought her into the hall one day when her father was on campaign, and led her to the large table upon which a great map of their lands lay. She instructed Rhiannon to read the words of the landmarks: castle, road, mountain, forest, village. The young girl touched words inscribed over a place where trees met craggy peaks. “What does that say, my love?” her mother prompted.
“Here be dragons,” Rhiannon answered, glancing up at her mother.
Her mother nodded, smiling. She knelt down in front of Rhiannon so they were at the same height. The lady’s hazel eyes sparkled as she whispered, “I have a secret to share. But I can only share it with a little girl with red and gold hair,” she pulled playfully on Rhiannon’s braid,”who knows how to read.” Rhiannon giggled. “Are you a little girl such as this?” Rhiannon nodded eagerly, and her mother laughed. She stood up and gestured at a tapestry on the wall. “Come, child, the dragon guards our treasure.”
Hand in hand they walked to the tapestry of the sleeping dragon. “Your great-great grandmother wove this tapestry when she was an old woman. It took her a long time to complete, with her hands gnarled so, like the twisted oak by the drawbridge.” The dragon was curled up in front of a turret, with stone dolmens in a semi-circle behind it, interspersed with trees and a mountain peak in the background and bright blue sky above. The dragon’s scales were crimson and woven through with glittering gold thread, and its curved horns and talons were gold. As they paused in front of the large tapestry, Rhiannon looked closely at the eyes of the dragon; she thought perhaps she could see a slit of gold, as if the dragon were only pretending to be asleep.
Rhiannon’s mother stood on tiptoe and moved part of the tapestry to the side, revealing a slit in the stone wall. With her free hand she reached in and drew out a large leather-bound tome. She motioned her daughter to come sit with her on one of the benches that lined the walls. “Look and listen well, my daughter,” she said, and ran her fingers along the smooth cover, “this book is our special treasure, and it contains many secrets within its pages. I am going to teach you how to read them.” She opened the book as Rhiannon snuggled closer to her, her mother’s loose red-gold hair falling over the girl’s shoulder and brushing the crinkly parchment pages of the book which she turned until she came to the picture of a girl.
“The first secret is a story…”
About The Dragon’s Message, a Dragon Tome novelette
A dragon writes a cryptic message with its ember breath in the evening sky…
Lady Rhiannon watches from the turret wall with an ache in her blood. She’s the only person who can decipher the message as the sole keeper of the Dragon Tome. When an old enemy threatens the castle, her father charges his knight with escorting her to a safe haven—the same knight Rhiannon had a crush on as a girl. But she must now convince him to change his plans, for she has her own sacred charge to fulfill…
So begins a journey to hidden ruins where magic slumbers in the stones and love lies in the heart, waiting to awaken. As Rhiannon and the knight face seemingly insurmountable odds, only the dragon knows if they can fulfill their destiny…
The Dragon’s Message is available on now Kindle and Nook for $1.99.
* Get the Kindle Edition at Amazon
* Get the Nook Edition at Barnes & Noble
About Lori J. Fitzgerald
Lori J. Fitzgerald lives in New York with her fellow English Major husband and their two little bookworms. Medieval literature is her passion, and she wishes she could spend more time traipsing around Renaissance Faires and shouting “Huzzah” at jousts. She was a middle school English teacher for many years and was best known for her dramatic readings of The Princess Bride. Lori is currently a Staff Writer for the website Once Upon A Fan, the popular fansite for ABC’s hit show Once Upon A Time. You can contact her by email at WhiteRaven829 [at] gmail [dot] com. She is also on Twitter @MedievalLit and her website is www.WhiteRavenWriting.blogspot.com.
