THE HOUSE OF CHALICE by T. T. Escurel giveaway and Excerpt

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. One randomly chosen commenter will receive a $20 Amazon gift card, an autographed copy of AURONIA, and an autographed copy of THE HOUSE OF CHALICE. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

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Vartan is lost. His fiancé has just run off with his mortal enemy and now his mother, the Queen of the House of Rose, has disappeared. Venturing into a land with no magic, no army and no fiancé, will he be able to survive?

Lia is in trouble. Clashpeak has a new king who requires a bride, one who has eyes for the young baker’s daughter. During a violent coup, Lia seizes her chance to escape. With every soldier in the kingdom looking for her, nowhere is safe.

An ancient curse lingers in the air, still working its magic. Madness has seized the blood of the royals of the House of Chalice. A battle for power, the likes of nothing Auronia has ever seen, is about to begin…

Enjoy an excerpt:

The corridor opens up into a massive hall, easily ten times the size of the one in the main castle. I look around in awe. There are no decorations, just walls of blackened stone. Those black marks almost look like…

Halox sniffs the air. “That’s odd.”

“Uh, Halox,” I murmur.

“I’ve never smelled that before. Hmm. It’s kind of a smoky flavor…”

“Halox!” I say more insistently. “I think we’d better…”

“Just give me a moment to identify it. It’s overpowering the queen’s scent and…”

I reach down and grab his muzzle, raising it up to look at the glowing red eyes of the massive dragon towering over us.

“…oh. I guess that makes sense,” he says.

The dragon lets loose a massive blast of fire, torching the spot where we were standing as we sprint between its legs and past its tail.

“He missed us,” I say. “Keep running!”

“My tail’s on fire!” Halox counters.

“At least your body isn’t on fire,” I counter. “Stop whining and run.”

“Aren’t you supposed to slay these things for fun?” Halox counters.

“Oh,” I say, suddenly remembering. I slide to a stop, turn around and hold my sword up in challenge. “Prepare to taste enchanted steel, vile creature!” I cry.

The dragon roars, its hot, putrid breath slamming against me in a wave.

“Nope,” I say, thinking better of my situation. I turn and run.

“I thought he was going to taste steel,” Halox says.

“There is no doubt in my mind what he was going to taste, and it certainly wasn’t steel,” I counter. “A wise king knows when to fight and when to run.”

“Since when have you ever been wise?”

“A lot has changed in the last… minute,” I say. “Duck.”

About the Author:

Science Fiction/Fantasy writer in Southern California where the sun shines, the waves roll in and the roads become a backdrop for an apocalypse movie every time the word "precipitation" is mentioned.

Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?

I grew up on a sailboat. That did something odd to my imagination, I think. There is a certain type of surreal serenity that comes with living aboard a boat. That undercurrent seems to run through all my books, even though most of my characters have far more conventional backgrounds. Growing up on a boat helped teach me a stable world evolves not from your environment as much as from your perspective. My books are full of strange worlds and even stranger people, but all my main characters seem to have that grip on reality despite being dropped in the heart of chaos.

Blog: http://ttescurel.wordpress.com
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