Recently in Penumbra Category

A thin line of smoke faintly lit against the night sky was the first sign of civilization that they had seen in over five months, and when they saw it they altered their course to head directly for it. There was no telling what reception they might receive- they were entering unknown territory- the disposition of the nightside tribes on the dusk-side of the black winter was unknown. They could be ...

Kerron narrowed his eyes and a sheen of starlight ran across the edge of his knife. He lowered himself deeper into his crouch and tightened his leg muscles in preparation for the leap forward they would soon have to take. The bear, massive and white, like a living mound of snow, made a low growl, very much like that of a dog. The growl an animal made before an attack was launched. The lips of the ...

Salazar gave Kerron not even a moment to regain his wits. "Come on, Kerron, we must get moving. This was a supply caravan, not a scout, which means we're farther behind their forward elements than I dared to believe. We must be hasty, for there will be others not far behind them." Kerron's mind caught up with the events that had unfolded around him and he gasped aloud, the knife stumbling out ...

They left the camp with neither fanfare nor goodbyes, which suited Kerron well. The family structure of the night-dwelling tribes was in many ways reminiscent of certain desert animals. Close relatives gathered in small familial groups known as cribs. The exact makeup of these packs varied from family to family, but they were usually led by a crib-mother, often but not always the birth mother or g ...

Embers were all that remained of the campfire, usually kept blazing throughout the night, but now left alone and unfed to run down to ashes and fragments. Asherei, Kerron's tribal leader, used the end of her walking stick to prod a few of those fragments, exposing unburned segments of wood to the flame, which flared briefly as it found fresh fuel to consume. The sky was now so light that the added ...

The dirt on the ground shifted to either side of the end of the stick as it passed over, small mounds of earth created on either side of the tiny trench that was formed by tip of the crude tool. If he looked closely,Kerron could see the individual grains of sand that formed the pattern he was drawing, tiny multicoloured fragments of rock, but with his face so close to the ground the pattern itself ...

Sorry, sorry, sorry to my two faithful readers for having to break my covenant with you. I thought I could finish Penumbra before November 30th, but the problem is I am now in New Zealand until the end of the month, and my time here is limited, and I have a lot of family and friends to see in a small bracket of time, so I don't have a lot of spare time to devote to writing. The book will be fini ...

It is worth considering at this time that, for the people of Alys' world, hell was not some abstract concept, or some faraway place. They did not follow the sun for no reason. Their hell chased them continuously, as they in turn chased it. It was the place where the criminal and infirm, those who could not stay on the great circle, were sent to be punished. The place where nightmares dwelt, when t ...

The heat from the burning tower seared one side of Alys' face, even as the other side stayed cold against the night. She looked about frantically, trying to think of a way out of her predicament. Below her and to her left the tower continued to burn, spreading across the now-shattered wood of the tower. Within minutes the fire would spread to the remains of the turret she clung to, if it already h ...

With the exception of a few bowmen manning the windows, Alys was soon left alone in the mess, as each and every warrior had scrambled up or down the ladders, each according to his role in the line of battle. Rogan and her father had gone to the stable level, each barking orders at their men as they did. Before he had left, Rogan had grasped his sister by the shoulders. ...

Borin was hurled to the dewy grass of the penumbra, crying out as his knees and bound hands hit the ground roughly. He was weeping without shame, and had been stripped of his Frontiersman's uniform. Keleth, Lord of Arms and fist of the King, stood over him. He was not dressed in armour any finer than all other warriors of the realm, but he had a presence and authority about him that hung like an ...

When Alys came to, shaking nightmares of fingers and teeth out of her hair like cobwebs, she found that she was in a small, single bed, in a small room with a curtain for a door. The gentle rocking motion of the room told her immediately that she was in one of the watchtowers, and a quick glimpse at the terrainpassing by out of a small window by the bed confirmed this. Alys felt slightly queasy bu ...

Traveling North along the line of the Frontier, the sun neither set nor raised, a burning orange sky burst through the trees and hills to Alys' left, while to her right lay the eerie void of the night. To Alys, it seemed as though a great cliff lay just beyond her view, dropping off the edge of the world to an endless fall. Or worse- that she was already sideways on the cliff itself and it was the ...

The soft tolling of a bell and the heady scent of straw was the first thing Alys registered when she awoke in the tower for the third time. She had spent much longer there than she had first intended, but also realized that she had been travelling to the Frontier for well over two moons, and her body had been holding back much of its weariness from her- now that she had an opportunity to rest, all ...

Thick hooves beat the hard ground as Atrius swept towards the approaching darkness. Alys, who had never before known the true absence of light, was surprised to find that her eyes were adjusting to the dimness of the penumbra. Whilst what surrounded her was a colourless world, she began to become aware of a variety of greys within the darkness, and she soon found that she could see quite well in t ...

Night was falling. Dark fingers of shadow stretched out from the bases of the twisted trees on the horizon, deep fissures of emptiness crawling slowly away from the setting sun. It was almost as if the trees, in their slow cycle of death, were leaking bitter sap into the earth below, to have it infect the earth, seep through the tundra and spread like a virus through the surrounding hills. Mergin ...