Title: Saga
Series: Legends of the Traveler's
Author: J.A. Campbell
Genre: YA Fantasy
Publisher: Untold Press
Release Date: 17th August 2015
BLURB supplied by Untold Press
Taken from her people as a foal, Saga is plunged into
a world completely foreign to her. All Travelers know other worlds exist, but
they don’t expect to actually experience them until they are adults.
Saga must learn to adapt to her new surroundings if she wants to survive until
she’s old enough to be able to Travel among worlds and
return to her people.
Jarl is the son of the Vanir High Mages and heir to
the throne. Though young, his parents entrust him with the care and training of
the captured Traveler foal. However, none of the Vanir understand just how
intelligent the Travelers are and they may have given Jarl more than he can
handle.
When Saga escapes, the High Mages decide she is too
much trouble and has to be killed. Jarl defies his parents and goes after her.
Will they remain enemies when Jarl finds her, or will they form a bond of
friendship strong enough to save Saga’s life?
PURCHASE LINKS
Amazon UK
EXCERPT
EXCERPT
It took him several hours, and he almost
forgot to eat the dinner that the servant brought for him, but Jarl finally got
the spell to work. For all the effort, it was a relatively simple result. He
was supposed to take a regular candle and make it burn with a green flame.
Lighting the candle with magic was simple enough. However, altering the
components of the wick to make it burn green wasn't as easy. Jarl could have
cast a simple illusion on the flame, but that wasn't the point of the exercise.
Supposedly, once you could perform the spell reliably with a candle, and then
other fires, you would be able to apply the principles to much more complicated
and powerful works of magic.
Jarl, now able to focus on something
other than the magic singing through his veins, distantly heard the bell toll
seven times. He was late! He should have left for the stables twenty minutes
ago. He hastily grabbed a fresh candle, along with the one he'd managed to
craft the spell on, and slipped into the servants' ways so he could run. His
parents would understand. They always did when magic was involved, however he
didn't want to keep them waiting, or they might decide he hadn't mastered the
spell in time.
He hadn't even had time to wonder about
the surprise. He thought it might be a horse of his very own since they were
meeting in the stables. He could ride any horse he wanted—as long as it wasn't
one of the hunting or warhorses. To have one of his very own seemed special. It
also meant his father might start taking him out into the countryside more.
Jarl felt confined, like he was missing out on life, since he mostly had to
stay on castle grounds until he went off to school in a few years. Those with
magical talent had to be protected until they could protect themselves. Shadow
creatures called Ovattr hunted mages, very effectively. Now and again, a body
would be returned to the castle, or the Mage School, torn by claw and tooth.
The treacherous Alfar created the creatures long ago to destroy the human
mages.
Jarl forced himself to walk when he
reached the door leading from the servants' ways to the outer courtyards.
Though still light out at this time of year, the oppressive heat of the day had
lifted, and a light breeze dried the sweat dampening his hair. A seabird cried
out, circling overhead, seeming to mock Jarl for running late. In his
impatience, Jarl ended up half jogging when he wasn't in view of the stables,
and walking as properly as he could when he knew his parents might see him.
Liveried guards stood outside the main doors, the green contrasting nicely with
the stone that made up the front of the stables. They didn't so much as glance
at Jarl. Still, he imagined he could feel their eyes on him as he scooted
passed their forbidding presence. The statue-like guards had always unnerved
him, though he worked hard not to let it show.
Airy and open, the stables smelled of
horse and dust and sweet hay. A dapple-gray that Jarl occasionally rode
nickered when he saw the boy. Jarl smiled and scratched the horse on the nose
before heading deeper into the large building.
A high-pitched angry squeal, followed by
the thump of hooves against a wooden stall, startled him. By the time most
horses made it into the stables, they were quiet. The horses in training and
the warhorses were kept elsewhere.
A bucket crashed to the ground. Jarl
heard other angry thumps and squeals, and he thought he heard the ghost of a
voice screaming: Let me go!
QUOTES
I can teleport between places, much like
you. Jarl, I can teleport between worlds.
~*~
I am not a horse. I will not sleep in a
stall ever again. She stomped her foot for emphasis.
~*~
He heard me. Her mental voice whispered.
Most can't.
"Then what are you, Saga?"
I came from the Crested Mountains. I'm
not a horse, but we don't know what I am.
TEASER
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Julie has been many things over the last few years,
from college student, to bookstore clerk and an over the road trucker. She’s worked as a 911 dispatcher and in computer tech
support, but through it all she’s been a writer and when she’s not out riding horses, she can usually be found sitting in front of
her computer. She lives in Colorado with her three cats, her vampire-hunting
dog Kira, her new horse and Traveler-in training, Triska, and her Irish
Sailor.She is the author of many Vampire and Ghost-Hunting Dog stories and the
young adult fantasy series Tales of the Travelers. She’s a member of the Horror Writers Association and the Dog Writers of
America Association and the editor for Steampunk Trails fiction magazine.
AUTHOR LINKS
Website: www.writerjacampbell.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jacampbellauth
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OTHER TITLES BY J.A. CAMPBELL
INTO THE WEST
SENIOR YEAR BITES
HAPPILY EVER AFTERLIFE
DRAGONTHOLOGY
OTHER TITLES BY J.A. CAMPBELL
TALES OF THE TRAVELER'S
INTO THE WEST
SENIOR YEAR BITES
HAPPILY EVER AFTERLIFE
DRAGONTHOLOGY
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