Free Sample from Blood Siren 2nd Edition!
Coming Soon! Blood Siren 2nd Edition!
In preparation for the July 1st release, below is a free sample of what Blood Siren has to offer!
2nd Edition will feature:
—New Chapters!
—Glossary!
—Character Information!
—New Artwork by Michael Lam!
Enjoy!
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| Art by Michael Lam 2013 |
—From Blood Siren 2nd Edition by Michael Formichelli
(Copyright 2012, 2014)
On Kosfanter
the Great Houses made their homes in kilometer-tall towers of varying designs
instead of floating arcologies. Ikuzlu’s Galactic Quarter was a sierra of
geometric shapes and swooping angles that cast odd shadows on the poorer
neighborhoods across the lagoon.
The
Intelligent Systems tower had four right-triangular sections of dark-blue
poly-glass standing at right angles to one another. They supported a large
silver egg-shaped section with the wide end facing up and longitudinal electric
blue lines tracing from its apex to its nadir. The egg housed the central
offices and spacious living quarters of the Cronus family, while the four
triangular structures housed the offices and banks of computer servers that
made up the Intelligent Systems’ headquarters.
The Cronuses
tended to eat in the smaller of two dining halls in the tower. The table seated
ten. There was an oval alcove with a crackling fire behind the table’s head.
The chamber, modeled in white marble, was lined by domed sconces on two of the
four opposing walls. At the end of the table opposite the fireplace was a huge
picture window through which could be seen distant clouds over calm seas lit
orange, pink, and red by the setting sun.
Sable and
Sophiathena were already in the room when Cylus entered behind an artificial
servant. The latter bowed and left promptly with its head high in the air.
Cylus’ friends rose from their seats and bowed formally to him. Sophi lifted
her gloved hands and drew back her hood.
His gaze
followed her white braids up to where snowy hair framed her narrow, chalky
face. Arctic blue eyes regarded him, making him feel like she was studying his
appearance for flaws before she smiled slightly and nodded. Cylus had never
grown comfortable with her dissecting him like that, but as usual he did his
best to shrug it off. She judged everyone and everything around her with those
eyes so he knew he shouldn’t take it personally. Others in her past had not
been so understanding.
There were
rumors that Sophi was really an artificial and not human, but he knew her
differently. Her eyes warmed when they were in private, becoming the friendly,
beautiful things he liked to gaze upon. She was a full person behind closed
doors, full of life and an overwhelming intelligence. It was only in public
that she was so guarded.
“Welcome
brother.” Sable came around the table and hugged him.
“I’m glad
you made it.” Sophi took her turn next. She added a brief kiss on his cheek
before stepping back.
“Are you
going to be all right?” He gestured towards the window.
“The light
is sufficiently dim now, and the glass is polarized to block ultra-violet
wavelengths,” Sophi said.
The door
behind Cylus opened. He turned and had to hop out of the servant’s way. Black
pupils set in white orbs met his eyes, sending a shiver down his back. It was
one of the ways the industry marked artificials, making them without iris or
skin pigment so one knew who was human and what wasn’t, but Cylus didn’t like
the way it looked. If he could, he would have Ben’s pigmentation changed.
“The
Baroness Hephestia Cronus, the Baron Yoji Mitsugawa, and Heir-Representative
Aurora Cronus,” the servant said.
Those named
entered the room in that order. Hephestia and her sister Aurora were both
dressed in sparkling evening gowns of silver cloth studded with diamonds around
the hem and cuffs. The dress’ cut did more to emphasize Aurora’s round figure
than Hephestia’s narrow one, but it did go well with their honey blonde hair
and vibrant blue eyes. His former step-uncle, Yoji, had changed into a formal
black kimono and still had his hair up in the cue. His dark, narrow eyes were
pensive, and his brow showed the lines of hard thinking.
Cylus bowed
as they entered, and they returned the gesture formally.
“Baron
Keltan, I’m happy to see you here tonight,” Yoji said.
“Please call
me Cylus, uncle. The baron thing makes me uncomfortable.” Yoji and the Cronuses
were the last living links to his own parents, even if he was no longer
technically related to them. Titles were too formal for people so close to him.
Yoji smiled.
“Cylus, please sit.”
Hephestia
cleared her throat.
“Sorry, my
lady,” Yoji said and bowed to the master of the tower.
“Good to see
you looking whole again, Cylus. You’re always welcome at my table.” She emphasized
“my” and glared at Yoji.
His face
broke into a smile.
Cylus waited
for them to take their seats before sitting in his. The chairs were high
backed, made from native wood and leather, and very comfortable. The table was
set with the Cronus’ fine china, glass goblets, and an eight stick
candle-holder in the center with twigs of white-berried holly arranged around
its base on a red lace doily.
Hephestia
raised a bell that was placed near the head of the table and rang it once. A
train of servants entered and filled the waiting goblets with dark-red wine.
When the cups were full she raised hers and the small silver bells tied into
her curly blonde hair jingled.
“To our
health, and Yoji’s success. May Zalor fail and the Confederation be saved,” she
said.
They all
drank. Cylus took only a single mouthful of the sweet wine before placing his
cup down. He didn’t want to repeat the other night when his inebriated state
nearly caused him to pass out in Sophi’s bed. It wasn’t that he thought his
aunts would care, but it would be embarrassing if they found him in such a
situation.
Hephestia
rang the bell again. The servants brought in a large bowl of Greek salad and
began serving them in synchronized motions. The second wave brought silver
trays bearing courses of dark-green grape leaf rolls, golden-brown loaves of
roasted lamb surrounded by a bed of seasoned potatoes and slices of lemon. The
scent of garlic, oregano, and well-cooked meat made Cylus worry that he might
drool all over himself before the food was even on the table.
“Father, I
have a question,” Sable said between bites.
Yoji nodded.
“What did
Baron Revenant say to you on the floor before we adjourned? Cylus and I were
trying to figure it out but we couldn’t. We’ve never seen him act like that before.”
“I found it
odd as well. He told me I had played the card well and that he’d have a
response for me soon, but also that he’d do me the courtesy of buying me time
to reconsider.” Yoji shrugged.
Sable
snorted. “In other words he let you know he has something up his sleeve and
your move would be ineffective?”
“Something
like that, I’m sure.” Yoji nodded.
“It’s still
not like him,” Sophi said. She speared a single olive on her fork and placed it
carefully in her mouth.
“He hasn’t
been known to announce his moves before.” Yoji stabbed the salad and scooped a
portion into his mouth.
“He’s got to
be up to something. Did you see how uncomfortable that whore, Brudah, was?”
Hephestia said.
“Baroness
Altair? She wasn’t happy about something, but it couldn’t have been what Zalor
did. He didn’t really give anything away.” Aurora signaled the servants to
bring bread.
“Maybe her
daughter’s decided to help out another of her enemies? Who knows? She’s one of
the co-conspirators against the Confederation, and that’s all that matters,”
Hephestia said.
“Her
daughter?” Cylus didn’t know Baroness Altair had any children.
Aurora
glanced meaningfully at her sister. Sophi and Sable were staring at Hephestia
along with him.
“It’s not
public knowledge, but she does have one. I’m sorry I brought it up, it’s
nothing you kids need worry about.” Hephestia pressed her lips together and picked
at her food.
Cylus opened
his mouth, but caught Yoji’s stare.
“Let it go,”
the older man said.
“Sorry,” he
muttered.
Sophi and
Sable exchanged suspicious looks. Cylus knew then that Sophi was already on the
Cyberweb with her implant, looking up whatever she could find on this
mysterious daughter. Very little could stay hidden from Sophi once she got an
itch to know something.
Silence hung
heavily in the air.
Aurora
cleared her throat. “You kids might as well know the important parts of what’s
going on without hearing the idle gossip of old barons. Right before the war
began we arranged for an agent, a mercenary of sorts, to go to Ganymede and infiltrate
Brudah’s compound there. Our agent got a hold of some encrypted files that
proved to be very interesting reading. We’ve learned a lot from those files,
enough to know that Zalor is making some kind of grab at the Premier’s chair,
but not enough to know exactly how or when.”
“It’s been
seven years, so whatever his plan is, it’s slow, methodical, and therefore very
hard to detect. We haven’t learned much more since then,” Yoji said.
“Did it
implicate him in my parents’ death?” Cylus said a bit sharper than he meant.
All eyes turned to him and he found himself frowning back at them, blushing.
Yoji and
Aurora exchanged glances.
“The files
implied that Baron Revenant was arranging for some things to happen; a shipment
to Cleeb from Sol, funds transferred from various accounts, that sort of thing.
The more interesting parts were the people involved. Baron Revenant, Baroness
Altair, and Zalor’s little pet, Baron Olivaar.” Yoji said.
“Did any of
it imply him in my family’s massacre? Did he make some deal with the Brogh to
kill them?”
“Nothing
that straightforward Cylus, I’m sorry,” Aurora said, seemingly hugging him with
her eyes.
Yoji glanced
at Aurora. “There was one thing though, a mention of some cargo being shipped
into Broghite space. The dates of the shipment would’ve gotten it there about
fourteen days before your family was killed.”
“What was
it?” Cylus leaned forward with his palms digging into the edge of the table.
“It didn’t
say, just a codename,” Aurora said.
“It’s
nothing to go on, Cylus. We haven’t been able to learn anything more about the
name or what the ship—” Hephestia said.
“What was
it?” Cylus interrupted.
“The
codename was Siren. That’s all we know about it. Cylus, I’m sorry. Your parents
were good people, your siblings too. I used to bounce Sando on my knee when he
was a baby. I feel for your loss but—” Yoji said.
“But what?”
Cylus said. Being ten years older than Sable or Sophi, he knew he remembered
some of those moments better than they did. He watched as Yoji and his father
had talked, laughed, drank together, but that didn’t excuse keeping him in the
dark for seven years. He had nothing to go on, nothing at all until this
moment.
Yoji
abruptly looked confused, like he didn’t know where he was or what he was
doing. His fork rang out as it hit the floor.
“Darling?”
Aurora said.
He blinked. “Sorry,
what was I saying?”
“About the
Keltans,” Aurora almost whispered the words.
“Right, so
your parents were, were—” Yoji stood up abruptly. “Siren, that was the name,
I—ah—”
Sable and
Sophi were on their feet.
“Father?”
Yoji moved,
heading for the window. Sable attempted to get in his way, but the larger man
grabbed his son’s wrist and twisted the boy’s body off to the side.
“Yoji? Yoji!”
Aurora was frantic.
Cylus
watched the next few seconds as though viewing stars through a ship window in
E-R Drive. His uncle moved towards the window, flipping the ornate brass switch
on its side as he got close enough to reach it. The window slid up obediently,
blasting them all with the frigid night air at a thousand meters above the
fast-crete pavement. It was nearly the same smell as the Barony had that
morning, wet and briny, a cruel and ironic twist to this moment where he stood
powerless and watched Yoji step calmly up onto the window sill. He shook off
his family’s groping hands, and placed his foot into the air.
His eyes
were vacant like an artificial’s.
Then he was
over the edge, and gone.
Cylus’ aunts
screamed. Sable dashed to the window, staring down in horror.
Cylus looked
over at Sophi. She was standing by her chair, not having moved since she got
up. She seemed to feel his eyes on her, and turned her head to meet them. He
could tell from her expression she was already thinking, analyzing, plotting as
she always did. She was a strange point of calm in the sea of madness that
followed.
At some
point he remembered suggesting they contact the Abyssian Praetor, Nero Graves.
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