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Free Webnovel Update!

“What’s up LadyStar fans? Ranko here. Goofy and the rest of the crowd are over at the band room updating like crazy so it’s up to me and Miss Shannon to give the heads up to all our comic readers. Chapter Three of our webnovel Descent into the Ivyreef Deeps is up and ready for action.”

“Ranko and I have got quite a fight going with some nasty shrieks too. Descent into the Ivyreef Deeps is the first story in the Ajan Champions Series and it updates every Wednesday and Saturday. Our new story chapters are written for the web, so they’re quick reads, just like our comics. The Ajan Champions Series takes place after Jessica Hoshi and the Ajan Warriors. We’ve got all our powers and training, so you can expect a lot of action and battles!”

“That’s what we do best! If you need a break from all this adventure, come on over to the Band Room and see what the Goofball Express is cooking up. There’s always something going on around here, folks. See you on Saturday for the next update! We out!”

“Bye everyone!”

“Okay now we’re all pretty sure the character in this story is the same person that’s in our new color webcomic but we’re not sure sure yet. This is called the Plot Against the Vicereine, and it’s a preview from the upcoming third book in the Ajan Warriors Series called Call of the Huntress. Here’s Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four.”

“I hope she’s nice to us, too.”

Fury of the Venom Legion Page One Color Print only in the LadyStar Gift Shop!

Plot Against the Vicereine Part One

Ruthless designs are being drawn against a Gacenar noble by a deadly band of vicious assassins. Who are they and why do they plot against the Vicereine? Can she escape their evil plan?

Plot Against the Vicereine Part Two

Who is the Vicereine Reina and why does she confront the merchants of Prince Branven Square? What power does she possess?

Plot Against the Vicereine Part Three

The maimed assassin Kenesh, the Scaled One, seeks a weapon to use against the Vicereine, and recruits a henchman. The stage is set.

Plot Against the Vicereine Part Four

The Scaled One waits in the shadows for a chance to steal the Vicereine’s chains, but even his poisoned blade may not be enough to defeat a Scribe Arcanist.

“Well, at least now we know who she is.”

“She was in the story part that we had on Tuesday too.”

he Vicereine picked her way down the gentle slope of the gully step by step. She stopped near where Cici had fallen and very slowly began to crouch down. Using her staff for support, she allowed her hands to slide down the smooth twisted wood bit by bit. She winced and groaned in pain several times before coming to rest on her knees. She sat hunched over for a moment as if exhausted, clutching her staff to the side of her head. Her cowl hung down, covering her face. A few locks of white hair were visible along her back and along the edge of the cowl. Cici tried again to stop crying, but her ankle was very swollen by now, and her shoe was beginning to hurt her foot.

After a few moments, Reina finally placed the staff flat on the ground next to her. Cici felt a hand under her own and turned her head. She gasped as she saw a grayish slender hand with jewel-encrusted rings on all four fingers reach down and take her by the wrist. Cici sniffled and looked up. The woman seemed to be busy concentrating on something.

“Do not pull against the tree trunk.” Reina said.

Cici sniffled again. She didn’t know what to think. She was sure the robed woman was really mean, but now she sounded different. Reina looked at Cici’s dirt-streaked and astonished face. The woman’s gold-colored eyes made Cici feel better.

“I am not your enemy,” Reina said. “Sit up.”

Cici realized she wasn’t really stuck. She was just snagged on the tree and had been pulling in the wrong direction. She stopped pushing against the ground and gradually crawled sideways far enough that she could push herself up. The moment she tried to move her foot, however, she was rewarded with a stab of pain from her ankle. Cici cried out and pulled her foot up to her hands.

“Will you help me cast a healing spell?” Reina asked. Cici looked down through the blur of tears at her right foot. Her ankle was swollen and the skin around it was darker. She sniffled and looked up at Reina, then nodded.

“Sit up slowly this time,” Reina said. “Place your foot flat against the Earth. Gently.” Cici gingerly pushed herself up with one hand as Reina reached over and retrieved the Chronicler’s Lantern lying sideways on the ground. The robed woman placed the shining gold lantern upright next to her staff. The light from the lantern illuminated the side of the gully nicely. By now Cici was sitting up and rubbing her face with her hand, only succeeding in adding another layer of dirt.

“I am called Reina. What is your name?”

“I’m Cici. How come you wear so many rings?” Cici asked quietly, pointing at Reina’s hand while still rubbing her nose. Then she sniffled again.

“Because I like to collect beautiful things,” Reina replied, impressed by Cici’s inquisitiveness. “Do you like this ring, Cecilia?” she asked. Cici nodded, eyes wide. Reina indicated a heavy gold ring on her right hand set with a nearly transparent delicately faceted blue stone and decorated with a dozen smaller white gems.

“This ring is called the Soaring Chime. It was given to me long ago by a scribe named Giho skilled in the arts of gemcutting. He lives on an island in a place called the Princesses Crowns far away in the eastern sea. There are men there who dig deep into the mountains to find raw stones such as this one. The scribe spends years cutting and shaping them into Chimes. Chime stones can make sounds with magical properties.”

“What’s magical properties?” Cici asked, enthralled.

“It means this stone can ring, and the sound from it can heal your ankle,” Reina replied. “Will you help me make the Soaring Chime ring?”

“Can I?” Cici asked.

“Look carefully at the stone,” Reina said, offering her hand so Cici could see. “Do you see the upper edge? Where the tiny symbol is carved into the gold?”

Cici looked carefully and saw that the edge of the setting just above the oval-shaped sky-blue stone had a tiny symbol carved into the polished gold. If Reina hadn’t mentioned it, Cici would never have noticed it.

“All you must do is tap that symbol with your finger as if you are trying to make a bell ring,” Reina said. “Then, listen for the sound.”

Cici peered at the stone and the tiny symbol, then slowly reached up with her hand and held her finger over the ring for a moment. Then she flicked her hand, tapping the edge of the ring with her finger as if testing something she had been told was very hot.

A very soft and faint glow appeared in the center of the stone and Cici began to hear the sounds of chimes and bells all around her. First one, then a second. They began to play cascades of three tones, then five. Then ten. It sounded like someone drawing a stick along a series of bells, each one larger than the one before it, making a luxurious sound like the playing of all the strings of a harp from smallest to largest.

Cici looked at her foot and was startled by the greenish swirl of energy around her ankle. She saw a pale blue glow along the outer edge of her hand where she had been cut, and a silver shower of sparkling energy around the bruise on her knee. Her ankle felt much better. The music was so beautiful that Cici didn’t want it to end. All of her wounds and bruises were healed, and the music faded peacefully along with the glow of the Soaring Chime.

“It’s magic just like my lantern! Are you a warrior like me?” Cici asked. Reina’s expression changed.

“I am all that remains,” Reina replied.

LadyStar™ Call of the Huntress is Copyright © 2007 2008 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved

Read Fury of the Venom Legion in order from the first page

Read Fury of the Venom Legion in order from the first page

In keeping with one of the themes of the current issue of PaperTigers - books published for good causes, I just wanted to flag up the visual treat recently published (September) to raise funds for The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art and presented by Eric Carle himself. Artist to Artist: 23 Major Illustrators Talk about Their Art is awe-inspiring and down-to earth at the same time. This is the book for anyone with an interest in getting behind the scenes and finding out what makes different illustrators tick. Each artist has written a letter about how/ why they became an artist and/or their musings about being an artist – and these are some of the big names in children’s book illustration today. In fact, if they weren’t all listed both on the museum’s website and here (with links), I would feel compelled to list them all, so inspirational is what they each have to say.

The layout of the book provides a photograph of each illustrator as a child, a full page illustration and then a fold-out containing further examples of their work. Take a look at this full review from Planet Esme.

And if you’re lucky enough to live in the US and are aged 6-9, you still have a chance (until 28th December) to win a copy of the book and more – for details look here! Thank you Book Worm’s Diary for pointing this out (ages ago!).

Books of Wonder in New York is hosting an Artist to Artist event