Peacebreakers

Book summary

Caught between kingdoms lies the Outside, a deadly expanse where only outcasts and exiles survive.

The village of Loab is on the brink of destruction as their vital Joxhorn runs out. Desperation leads their leader to assemble a team to retrieve more, but their journey is fraught with unforeseen challenges.

PEACEBREAKERS is a gripping fantasy adventure about survival and unexpected twists.

Excerpt from Peacebreakers

The moon was only half full over Lorb, a small village. The soft light allowed the shadows to creep through the poor excuses for dirt paths by the people who lived there. The drama unfolding in the world didn’t have meaning in a place like this. The Outside wasn’t a place where people worried about something as trivial as the end of the world or a unicorn invasion.

No one was born here. This was the kind of place you went to if you were running away from something. The Outside had no need for memories. If you lived here, the only thing you were worried about was the now.

Lorbians, as the more cheerful members of their loose society called themselves, often gathered at the Black Dragon Inn at the center of town after dark. Tonight was no different. Even the grumpiest people found it better to be here than under the stars of the wilderness, trying to sleep with the monsters that roamed anywhere they pleased.

They didn’t get much more lonesome than Ronald Griffin.

The man in black wandered into town one hot day, covered in golem dust, blood, and an aura of exhaustion. Dragging a black suitcase that had seen better days. Ron never left town. That was all anyone knew about him. Everyone here had a story. It was an unwritten law of the Outside to never ask.

Tonight, he sat in the dark corner of the Black Dragon, drinking a bottle of red liquor, just watching the people do their thing. The same thing he did almost every night.

“Hey, Ronnie, how’s it going over here? I almost thought you fell into a shadow back there,” a woman said. He snapped out of his daze. “No, I’m fine, but thanks for asking,” he replied with his usual quiet voice.

“Did you need a refill?” she asked, and he looked at his bottle. “No,” he replied. “Well, if you do, just give old Alice a call,” she said and moved off. Ron grunted in response and took another drink. It was still early, and he could still feel all his limbs. Calling her back was going to be a sure thing before the night was over.

Ron scanned the room. No one was new, no one was missing from last night. Everything was fine, everything but the annoying piano music coming from the corner of the place, trying too hard to make it a better atmosphere.

The myriad of voices was constant as people talked, shared stories of glory and horrors alike. Some of those past glory stories made Ronald cringe a little. No one had much to do out here but lie, and when they did, it was always a big one. There was no reason to get upset over something like this, but someone was doing it, right now.

Ron shifted his eyes toward the commotion. It looked like everyone else was, too. He just hoped it wouldn’t make its way toward him.

A voice rose above the crowd.

“Are you calling me a liar?” a man slurred his words and stood up. “Yeah, I don’t believe you ever saw a herd of unicorns out there. No one has,” the other said. Gil stumbled to keep his balance. Ron got ready for trouble. Gil was a musclebound brute. He looked meaner than he was, however.

“I did, I swear I did. Just a few miles from the Green Pass, days ago,” Gil said. Ron found it hard to believe. He had been all over the Outside and he’d seen a lot of things but never a herd of unicorns. Tyler wasn’t having it. He drew his left fist back and punched Gil in the face, knocking the orc to the ground.

“You idiot, you drink too much,” Tyler yelled at him, and the crowd laughed. Ron didn’t, even if the story didn’t seem credible, anything was possible. People didn’t want to believe in a horrible thing like that. Ron didn’t feel bad for the orc. He should have kept that story to himself.

With the situation dealt with, the crowd went back to what it was doing before. Alice walked to the guy on the ground and helped him back up. The nyx was the most helpful person in this place. Ron was thankful someone was decent around here.

Ron took another big swig of his drink and felt the burn, but not the effects. Not yet at least. He took a deep breath when someone sat at his table, someone drunk. Ron looked at him, and the man just smiled.

“How come you never join the party, wolf?” he asked. “Not really my thing,” Ron replied, hoping he’d just go away. “You literally have nothing better to do in this heap. Sleep, drink, and maybe if you’re lucky, spend some alone time with a dryad passing through town,” he replied, and Ron set his bottle on the table.

“I’m fine, really. I’m sure your friends are wondering where you are. You should go back to them,” Ron replied. “My name’s Mayer. Count Mayer,” the man replied. “I have no friends, just servants,” he said.

This man didn’t look like a typical noble, but you couldn’t tell by looking alone. “What is someone like you doing way out here in the dust bowl of the Outside?” Ron asked, and Mayer laughed a bit too loud.

“Wolf, Lone Wolf, I am out here because my stupid servants didn’t like me. They kicked me out of my castle, all of them. Exiled me to the wasteland. So, here I am with you, and all the rest of the rabble the world didn’t want,” Mayer said with slurred words.

Ron stopped caring and started being annoyed. If the story was true, the man was likely just another power hungry sadist, or he was lying. Either way, it didn’t matter. No one ruled the Outside. His title didn’t matter.

“Well, Count. My bottle is empty, and I need you to get me a refill,” Ron said. Mayer stared at the bottle for a second.

“Righty-o,” the man said with a slur, picked it up, and wandered off. “Alice, Alice!” Mayer said, drawing out her name as far as he could, as if it were a song. “Ronnie needs a new bottle,” Mayer yelled out and turned back to point at him, but Ron was already gone.

Alice looked at the door just in time to see it close. She shook her head. “One of these days,” she said to no one.

Ron stepped into the night and started walking toward his shack. In Lorb, everyone had scrap shacks cobbled together from anything people could find.

Most of the time, people left him alone, but it must have been the half-moon that was driving people together. He’d always heard that a half-moon caused opposites to attract more often.

He was thankful that it wasn’t common for people to bother him, but at least they weren’t aggressive. Something about the town just kept people calmer than other outposts he’s been to in the past. It’s been four whole weeks since the last person was killed in the streets over something trivial, a record anywhere in the Outside.

The wind kicked up a slight cloud of dust in the air before he got to his shack, and he had to look away. The wind out here always sounded mournful. No one knew why, but it was worse in town when it whistled around and through the poor excuses for buildings in these parts. It always gave him the chills, not that he’d admit that to anyone.

His shack wasn’t far away from the Dragon. He opened the door and stepped inside. He flipped the switch beside him, but the light didn’t turn on. He grunted a little. Jeb must not have filled up the generator today. He couldn’t get to upset. It wasn’t like anyone was getting paid to run things around here as far as he knew.

The moonlight made things easy enough to see anyway. His eyes adjusted to the dark fast enough as it was. He sat in the rickety chair that felt like it was going to break each time he used it, but never did.

The night was quiet as ever, not even the voices from the Dragon could be heard from here. He didn’t mind. Nothing would sneak up on him this way, but the horrors of the outside usually stayed away from towns, at least they were supposed to.

He stared at the moon through the misshapen hole that passed for a window around these parts and drifted away in thought, closing his eyes. “Take me home,” he said, hoping for the best. Dreams were not always kind, but sometimes they weren’t so bad either.

The dreams came to an end. Ron woke up with the cool breeze of the morning, but the sun wasn’t up yet. It’s what he got for going to sleep so early. That old chair, once comfortable, turned into a torture device. Everything hurt.

Tearing himself out of the chair felt like it was getting a little harder every day, but it was better than sleeping in some haunted rockpile and hoping for the best out there in the wild. The worst part about town life was there wasn’t much to do. No, that wasn’t right, there was lots of busy work to do, but none of it was appealing. None of it anyone volunteered for. He tried lights again, still nothing.

Ron was sure by now that someone, somewhere, would have gone to check on the situation. Maybe they were all too drunk to care. First thing was first, however. He’d make a trip to the restroom on the way to the power station.

Ronald wasn’t sure how long it was until sunrise, maybe it was longer than he thought. The stars seemed right for it, but, well, maybe he was confused, still hungover a little. One foot in front of another. The power station wasn’t much to look at.

Another old shack with wires coming out of it that someone put together ages ago, and people kept adding their own special touch to it before passing on. That the place worked at all was nothing short of a miracle.