Jonathan Moeller Novel Excerpt Tuesday: FROSTBORN: THE EIGHTFOLD KNIFE
It’s Jonathan Moeller Novel Excerpt Tuesday! This week’s excerpt is from FROSTBORN: THE EIGHTFOLD KNIFE.
I do enjoy “small-town-terrorized-by-mysterious-monster” stories, and I got to write a novel-length one in EIGHTFOLD KNIFE.
In this excerpt, Calliande unknowingly helps chart the course of Gavin of Aranaeus’s life.
FROSTBORN: THE EIGHTFOLD KNIFE is available at Amazon, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon Canada, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iTunes, and Smashwords and available in audiobook at Amazon, Amazon UK, Amazon AU, iTunes, Kobo, Google Play, & Audible.
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“Aye,” said Gavin. He started to draw the fake scar upon her forehead. “More than I would like.” He drew the spider’s body, and then traced the legs across her left temple. “I’m going to kill my father.”
“I see,” said Calliande.
“Are you going to try and talk me out of it?” said Gavin. He felt his voice grow angry, but he did not care. “After all the people he killed? After he kept that spiderling in our house for years? He probably murdered my mother so he could marry Morwen.”
“I know,” said Calliande. “And I won’t try to talk you out of anything.” He finished the legs on her left temple and started upon the right. “I have no right to give you commands. You ought to forgive him, true, because the Dominus Christus commands it and otherwise your hatred will eat you out from the inside. But if any man deserves death for his crimes, it is Cornelius.”
“Then you think I should kill him?” said Gavin, reaching into the pot for more paste.
“No,” said Calliande. “You should let Ridmark or Kharlacht do it.”
“Why?” said Gavin. “My father betrayed me and everyone else in Aranaeus.”
“Because if you kill him,” said Calliande, “I think you’ll become like Ridmark.”
Gavin frowned, finishing the legs upon her temples. “Is that bad? He is a great knight and warrior.”
“He is,” said Calliande. “Has he told you anything about his past?”
Gavin shook his head and then remembered that she could not see him. “No.”
“He lost his wife,” said Calliande, “and he blamed himself for her death, even though it was not his fault. He has never forgiven himself for it, and believes he deserves death. So he drives himself on, putting himself in greater and greater danger.”
“What does that have to do with me?” said Gavin, painting the lines upon her jaw. “I want to kill my father, not…”
“You want revenge,” said Calliande, “but it won’t end with your father. Ridmark puts himself in danger because he believes he deserves to die. Your father does deserve to die. But killing him will not quench the fury in your heart. So you’ll look for someone else who deserves to die, and someone else, and someone else, and it will consume you the way guilt and despair have consumed Ridmark.”
Gavin said nothing as he painted the rest of the fake scars. He remembered the day his father had wed Morwen, remembered the cold smirk upon her red lips. He remembered the tired, dull look upon Cornelius’s face as he gave the dead woman to the spiderlings.
And he remembered Ridmark’s icy, hard eyes.
“Done,” said Gavin, stepping away.
Calliande opened her eyes. “That itches more than I expect. I can only imagine how it feels with beard stubble. How do I look?”
“Positively ghastly,” said Gavin.
“Good,” said Calliande. She smiled. “But you probably shouldn’t say that to women very often.”
-JM