A soul In The Hand: Rockwell and Mariotte

Authors Marsheila (Marcy) Rockwell and Jeffrey J. Mariotte read a brief excerpt from their fantasy novella “A Soul in the Hand,” a fantasy novella introducing the characters Elin and Kord, which is contained in the Sensational Six box set and the anthology Neverland’s Library (both available wherever ebooks are sold!).

Kord is a mercenary, fighting for whoever pays the most coin, his morals and principles left behind long ago with the father figure who’d betrayed him. Elin is a rebel, willing to play the long con in order to bring about a lasting peace. When their paths—and purposes—cross in a scriptorium in the middle of a primal jungle, memories and magic will be released in equal measure, and the encounter will simultaneously tear them apart and bind them together in ways it will take them a lifetime to unravel…but those lives might not be long ones.

If you want to follow along as the authors read, the excerpt is in text below.

Out of the corner of his eye, Kord saw that Elin had engaged the other soldier. Their blades clashed as they traded thrusts and parries. At Bragga’s agonized scream, the soldier glanced toward his superior—a moment’s distraction, but all Elin needed. While Kord ended Bragga’s misery with a slash across the throat, she cut the soldier’s thigh with a quick jab. His sword dropped to defend his groin, and she thrust high, the tip of her slender blade penetrating his eye and punching through the back of his head. He was dead before she could yank it free.
Elin met Kord’s look, panting from exertion, a fierce grin on her face. She was bathed in blood, and Kord reckoned he must look the same. But he shared her exultation over a hard fight won. “So where’s that passageway?” he asked.
“You won’t need it, Kordell,” another voice said. “You’ll not be leaving here, not in this life.”
Kord and Elin whirled toward the door. Nestor stood there, with a dozen soldiers. Swords, spears, and arrows all pointed at them.
“You do, however, have a choice,” Nestor said. “You can give me the Hand now, and die easily. Or you can resist, die slowly and with immense pain, and I’ll take it anyway.”
“What makes you think we have it?” Kord asked.
“You wouldn’t be in such a hurry to go if you hadn’t acquired it.”
“As much noise as you made coming in, we thought the entire Red Legion had arrived. Staying
would have been suicide.”
Nestor shrugged. “Suicide either way. Fast or slow, those are your only options now.”
Kord caught Elin’s eye. “Can you take six?”
“If they’re all as easy as those last,” she said.

And even thought authors didn’t read this part, I want to show the start of the story, because DAMN it hooked me, so maybe it’ll hook you. *grin*

Excerpt 2:

In the dream, Kord was Panther. He moved through the trees like an unmoored shadow, lithe and black, paws lightly brushing the earth with each step. This was not the hardwood forest he had been born in, at the empire’s edge, or the swamps he had come to know in later years. It was jungle, densely wooded, steamy, thick with life at every layer, from the worms and insects underfoot to the birds inhabiting the highest canopies, their plumage flashing, brilliant as it caught sunlight that only reached the floor as a muted and filtered green haze.
Panther followed a scent trail he couldn’t name. It was rich, heady, familiar and strange at the same instant. Whatever it was, the scent was clearer in this place than the few signs of passage left behind by his prey: a crushed leaf here, there a vine yanked free of a tangle. Panther’s eyesight was sharp; he missed nothing. But odor was the only trustworthy guide, and Panther filled his nostrils with it at every step, confident that he was closing in.
That confidence vanished when a sudden surfeit of smells confused his senses. He tried to sort them, but he was unused to the jungle and most were scents he had never encountered before. The only ones he knew for sure were blood and human flesh. The trail he had been following had vanished into the olfactory chaos, and he didn’t know which way to turn. One path would lead toward . . . something, he was not sure what. Something he wanted, at any rate. Any other path might make him something else’s meal.
Standing still was not an option. He would have to choose a course and count on wits and strength to keep him safe. He decided to continue as he had been, always keeping the sun before him. Soon enough, he found it again, the trail he’d been following, and an image of the creature that had left it almost came together in his mind, but then blew apart like seeds in the wind. It was as familiar as home . . . but Panther hadn’t had a real home in so long. He inhaled the scent and continued on. The scents of blood and flesh were stronger this way, too, and he had not covered much ground when he saw why: a human arm, caught in the fork of two branches, with blood spattering the trunk and the leaves below and the soil beneath those.
Then a foot, ripped off at the ankle, a line of ants looking like stitches against its pale skin. Most of a face, limp and curled like drapery, dangling from a thorny bush.
And Kord realized he was human, no longer Panther, and whatever had strewn these parts
about—not the same thing that had left the tantalizingly familiar scent trail, surely?—wasn’t far away, hunkered in the shadows, waiting.
He’d had a choice to make, and he had made the wrong one. Story of his life . . .

Marsheila Rockwell and Jeffrey J. Mariotte Author Bios:
Marsheila (Marcy) Rockwell and Jeffrey J. Mariotte have written more than 60 novels between them, some of the most recent of which are The Shard Axe series and a trilogy based on Neil Gaiman’s Lady Justice comic books (Rockwell, dark and urban fantasy) and Empty Rooms and Season of the Wolf (Mariotte, urban and supernatural thrillers). They’ve also written dozens of short stories, some of which are collected in Nine Frights (Mariotte) and Tales of Sand & Sorcery and Bridges of Longing (Rockwell), and miscellaneous other things, including Rhysling Award-nominated poetry (Rockwell) and Bram Stoker Award-nominated comic books (Mariotte). This is their first published collaboration, which originally appeared in the Neverland’s Library anthology (Ragnarok Publications). You can find more complete bibliographies and news about upcoming projects, both collaborative and solo, at marsheilarockwell.com and jeffmariotte.com.

Marsheila Rockwell and Jeffrey J. Mariotte Social Media:
Website: marsheilarockwell.com and jeffmariotte.com
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