They swept into the curve, and Daemyn fought the press of the river, centering the canoe in the current.

Everything in Daemyn longed to push the canoe harder, faster, outrace the river and the guards to reach that next bend. And, perhaps, due to Daemyn’s hinting it was a good idea.įour canoes with Alex’s eight guards swooped swift and sure ahead and behind. Alex had chosen to start with Neskahana, probably to honor Rosanna and her family for their loyalty that led to breaking the cursed sleep. This would be Alex’s first attempt at a diplomatic mission to unite the kingdoms under his rule and hopefully prevent another war from further tearing the kingdoms apart. He’d slept through decades of war and woken to splintered kingdoms far different from the ones he’d known a hundred years ago. Though it could simply be Alex’s disorientation. If this scared him, then the rapids ahead would be downright terrifying. In the center, wedged between the packs of their personal items, the awakened and crowned High King Alexander of Tallahatchia clung to the sides of the canoe as if unnerved by the river’s swift current. He set a steady rhythm, one well-practiced from the miles they’d canoed across the Seven Kingdoms of Tallahatchia, searching for the princess who would wake the high prince from his cursed sleep. In the canoe’s prow, Zeke, Daemyn’s great-great-grandnephew, wielded his own paddle, the fringes on his buckskin shirt swinging with each movement. Life awaited ahead, where Rosanna, his curse-breaking princess, said she’d meet him. Soli Deo GloriaĭAEMYN RAND SLICED his paddle into the swift-flowing Onohio River as it pressed against the canoe’s birchbark sides, wild and alive and thrumming deep in his bones as if begging him to remember what it was like to embrace life instead of a numb existence. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, events, or settings is purely coincidental or used fictitiously. All characters, events, and settings are the product of the author's over active imagination. Except for brief quotations in written reviews, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise-without prior written permission of the author. Absence of ™ in connection with Sword & Cross Publishing does not indicate an absence of trademark protection of those marks.Ĭover by Savannah Jezowski of Īll rights reserved. Sword & Cross Publishing and the Sword & Cross Publishing logo are trademarks of Tricia Mingerink.

Defy by Tricia Mingerink