The
Lost and Broken Realm
Things Forgotten
Things Forgotten
Book 1
Chris M. Arnone
Genre: Contemporary
Fantasy
ISBN: 9780991397907
ISBN: 9781311266194
ASIN: B00HEOMU6M
Number of pages: 325 print
approx 299 ebook
Word Count: 103,000
Cover Artist: Cassandra
Whitney
Book Description:
Gabriel Drake had royally
fouled up his life. Before his wife died, he was wealthy, respected,
and loved. He pissed away the small fortune he and his wife built,
drove away his friends, alienated his family, and even took a few
precarious steps on the wrong side of the law. He lost his way. The
world had forgotten the man he was, and then a head-on collision
between his Jeep and a tree changed everything.
Death would have been easier. Instead, he’s woken up in a strange place where all the lost and forgotten things and people of our world go to rest. The laws of physics seem to be driven more by magic than logic. Cats fly and talk into his mind. He’s in a place where real power has been trampled under the foot of a maniacal emperor, and Gabriel alone has the power to free these forgotten people from the emperor’s iron grip. Which will Gabriel save: these lost and broken people, or his own shattered life?
Death would have been easier. Instead, he’s woken up in a strange place where all the lost and forgotten things and people of our world go to rest. The laws of physics seem to be driven more by magic than logic. Cats fly and talk into his mind. He’s in a place where real power has been trampled under the foot of a maniacal emperor, and Gabriel alone has the power to free these forgotten people from the emperor’s iron grip. Which will Gabriel save: these lost and broken people, or his own shattered life?
Excerpt from Chapter 16:
The expansive cave was filled with
statues. Gabriel was immediately reminded of the terracotta army in
China, row after row of warriors guarding the tombs of ancient
Chinese emperors, but these weren’t warriors. They weren’t
distinctly Chinese, either. They were cyclopean; that was the first
thing Gabriel noticed. Rather than two equally distanced eyes, each
statue had one large eye right above the nose.
Unlike those Chinese statues, these
weren’t uniform, either. Different bodies, faces, attire, genders,
and ages of Cyclops made up the horde of stone figures. Dread began
to creep back up Gabriel’s spine as he saw something they all had
in common other than their lack of depth perception: every carved
face was locked eternally in an expression of fear. Stout warriors
crouched, hiding their faces. Women with horrified looks stood
guarding their children. Gabriel wondered what foul mind could have
sculpted such horrors over and over again.
“What is this?” Gabriel asked in a
hush, frightened voice.
“I don’t know. I’ve never even
heard of this place,” Anansi responded. For the first time since
Gabriel had met the manticore, he heard and felt doubt and fear
coming from the creature. Zhiyan kept staring at the ground,
impassive, as Finkle Prime led him along.
“Who is here?” said a voice from
the darkness. It sounded like a young woman, with a bright, luscious
voice. Something was amiss with it, though Gabriel couldn’t figure
out exactly what.
“Who is that?” Gabriel asked
Anansi.
“I asked you first, mortal,” The
voice said playfully. Gabriel realized what was wrong. The ‘s’
sounds were extended, like Cobra Commander in G.I. Joe, or like a
snake using a human voice. Gabriel couldn’t figure out where it was
coming from. It wasn’t in his head. He’d heard enough telepathy
to know the difference, but this woman’s voice seemed to bounce and
echo around the cave and off the statues that filled it.
“Gabriel. My name is Gabriel. Who are
you?” He asked, trying to keep his voice steady.
“Gabriel. So kind of you to visit. No
one comes to visit anymore. Zhiyan, he keeps them from me. Now here
he is, marching to his death, how fitting,” She said happily.
“Prime, halt,” Gabriel said. The
big clockwork man stopped and Gabriel saw Zhiyan with his head still
bowed, but his eyes were closed tightly and a small smile crept over
his face.
“Oh, shit,” Anansi said, suddenly
angry. “Zhiyan, if we live through this, I hope the council draws
and quarters your giant ass.”
“What is it?” Gabriel asked
nervously.
“Ptolema. Eldest and most vicious of
the Gorgon sisters,” Zhiyan finally said, still holding his eyes
closed tightly and smiling wryly.
“Gorgons? Monsters like Medusa?”
Gabriel asked, half in disbelief, half in growing panic. His mind
raced. He tried to think of Medusa’s sisters, but the monster
didn’t give him time to remember them.
“What do you know of my sister? She
was no monster. She was a sweet, innocent girl. Raped and then
villainized. No, she was no monster,” Ptolema said, her voice
smooth as silk.
“Don’t look her in the eyes!”
Anansi suddenly screamed telepathically. He almost didn’t say it in
time.
“I am the monster,” She said, her
voice dripping with venom. Out of the corner of his eye, Gabriel saw
a woman come out of the shadows and into view. One moment later, and
he would have looked at her squarely. Instead, he looked several feet
to the side of her, taking in her form using his peripheral vision.
She was tall as a man, a bit taller than Gabriel from what he could
tell, and she wore a ragged red dress that came almost to the ground.
Rather than legs, Gabriel saw a mass of writhing snakes skimming
along the ground. She tried to dart directly into Gabriel’s view,
faster than he expected, but he dropped his eyes fully to the ground.
Her arms gleamed a brilliant, shining gold color, and reflected light
from Prime’s shoulder lamps all around the cave. Gabriel wondered
if her hair was made of venomous snakes like the stories told, but he
didn’t chance looking up near her face.
“Why do you look away, Gabriel? Why
do you not meet my gaze? Am I not beautiful?” Ptolema asked, almost
pouting.
“No thanks. I’d rather not turn to
stone today,” Gabriel said, his voice shaking. He remembered the
stories of Medusa, how she turned men to stone with her gaze, and how
Perseus destroyed her with a mirrored shield.
“There are worse ways to die,”
Ptolema said, all the playfulness, seduction, and beauty suddenly
gone from her voice. She was deadly serious. And then she was moving.
She was fast, so much faster than Gabriel could have imagined. He
leapt out of her way, but only just in time. He felt the wind move
past him and smelled her, a waft of rotting flesh and dry snakeskin.
Gabriel scrabbled along the cave floor
to get away from the horrifying woman. Tiny snake heads snapped at
the air behind his heels. He looked all around for something,
anything to fight with, to hide behind, anything.
“Oh, get up, little man. Die on your
feet,” Ptolema balked, and then laughed at him, but only briefly. A
massive shadow suddenly came over Gabriel, blocking out the light
from Prime’s lamps. Fearful of looking up, he looked around and saw
a massive paw, like one belonging to a lion that was three times
larger than it should have been. A deafening roar filled his ears and
Gabriel crawled out from under the creature, seemingly unnoticed. It
was almost a giant lion, except it had two equally huge red feathered
wings and the tail of a scorpion, its stinger poised to strike some
thirty feet up in the air.
About
the Author:
Chris grew up in
Independence, MO. He attended college at Truman State University
where he pursued his loves of theater, music, and the written word.
Now, he makes his home in Kansas City, MO with his wife Christy and
their four cats.
Aside from writing feverishly, he is an avid supporter of the Kansas City burlesque, performance, and arts communities. He is an occasional emcee, outspoken supporter of LGBTQ equality, and King of the Nerds. No, you didn't vote for him; that's why he's king, not president.
Aside from writing feverishly, he is an avid supporter of the Kansas City burlesque, performance, and arts communities. He is an occasional emcee, outspoken supporter of LGBTQ equality, and King of the Nerds. No, you didn't vote for him; that's why he's king, not president.
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