BooksChatter: ☀ In the Company of the Dead: The Sundered Oath [1]

Thank you for joining us on the Virtual Book Tour for In the Company of the Dead, an Dark Epic Fantasy Romance by Ciara Ballintyne (22 April 2016, Evolved Publishing LLC, 440 pages).

This is the first book in The Sundered Oath series.

PREVIEW: Check out the book's synopsis and excerpt below. Read the first four chapters with Amazon Look Inside.

Author Ciara Ballintyne will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.

Please do take part: comment on our post and follow the tour where you will be able to read other excerpts (☀), and reviews (✍).

Synopsis | Teaser | About the Author | Giveaway & Tour Stops

Synopsis

Ellaeva’s obligations to the death goddess leave her no time to hunt down her parents’ murderer—until both duty and revenge lead her to the lonely castle where Lyram Aharris has been exiled for striking his prince. As the castle falls under siege, Ellaeva and Lyram must fight to save themselves from political machinations and clashing gods—but the greatest threat comes from an unexpected quarter.

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Only a fool crosses a god, but Ellaeva and Lyram will do anything to get what they want.

Chosen as a five-year-old orphan to be the Left Hand of Death, Ellaeva has nothing to call her own—nothing except a desire to avenge her murdered parents. Her duties leave her no time to pursue the man responsible, until both her work and revenge lead to the same place—the lonely castle where Lyram Aharris is serving out his exile for striking his prince.

Lyram is the son of a duke and third in line for the throne. Hell bent on drowning his grief for his murdered wife in a whiskey bottle, Lyram is ill-equipped to deal with the arrival of a mysterious army. When the castle comes under siege, he believes his prince is behind it, only to have his fears dismissed as the paranoia of a grief-stricken drunkard by those closest to him. He dare not even voice aloud his suspicions of the prince’s involvement in his wife’s murder.

Ellaeva’s arrival brings hope, until she reveals she has not come for the siege, but instead she hunts the castle for a hidden necromancer dedicated to the dark god of decay—a necromancer with a personal interest in using Lyram for his own nefarious purposes.

As the siege lengthens, and with the identity of the necromancer unknown, Lyram finds his faith in those closest to him undermined by treachery and sabotage. Not knowing who he can trust, he turns to the one person whose honesty is unimpeachable – the Left Hand of Death herself.

Caught up in their pursuit of vengeance, and desperately trying to save themselves from both political machinations and clashing gods, Ellaeva and Lyram never realise that the greatest threat comes from an unexpected quarter.

Teaser: Excerpt

     His horse carried him past the girl. She was nothing but a flash of black dress and white face as he jumped. The enemy rider’s eyes opened wide an instant before Lyram caught him around the shoulders. In a tumble of legs and arms, they spilled over the horse’s rump.
     Lyram crashed to the ground, knocking the breath from him and grass whipping his face. Gasping, he forced himself to his knees, then wobbled to his feet.
     The woman stood observing the spectacle. Though the soldier had struck the ground mere feet from her and was already on his feet, moving towards her, her face reflected only a resigned calmness.
     The man reached for her with his free hand. Time oozed with the slowness of poured honey.
     “No!” Lyram choked the word into a strangled gasp, and broke into an unsteady run.
     One step.
     The girl brought one long-fingered white hand up in a gesture of—what? Supplication? Forestalling? Defence even.
     Two steps.
     The soldier seized her by the wrist. With her other hand, she reached out and touched the boiled leather plate over his chest.
     Three steps.
     The sword dropped from the soldier’s fingers. In one fluid motion, he crumpled at the knees and fell face-first into the knee-high grass.
     Time snapped back to normal, and Lyram skidded to a stop over the motionless soldier.
     The fallen man didn’t move a muscle. Dropping to one knee, Lyram reached for the man’s neck, seeking a pulse—but he stopped before touching him. The skin was blue with such intense cold that it chilled his fingers where they hovered several inches short of contact. He let his hand drop back to his side.
     A shadow darkened the dim, rainy haze of the morning and he glanced up. A colourless face loomed over him, alabaster skin, midnight hair made all the darker by contrast, and eyes so black the pupils could barely be distinguished. What he’d taken for a homespun peasant dress was instead the billowing black robes of a priestess of Ahura.

In the Company of the Dead
Available NOW!

About the Author

Ciara Ballintyne grew up on a steady diet of adult epic fantasy from the age of nine, leaving her with a rather confused outlook on life – she believes the good guys should always win, but knows they often don’t. She is an oxymoron; an idealistic cynic.

She began her first attempts at the craft of writing in 1992, culminating in the publication of her debut work, Confronting the Demon, in 2013. Her first book to be published with Evolved Publishing is In the Company of the Dead.

She holds degrees in law and accounting, and is a practising financial services lawyer. In her spare time, she speculates about taking over the world – how hard can it really be? If she could be anything, she’d choose a dragon, but if she is honest she shares more in common with Dr. Gregory House of House M.D. – both the good and the bad. She is a browncoat, a saltgunner, a Whedonite, a Sherlockian, a Ringer and a Whovian… OK, most major geek fandoms. Her alignment is chaotic good. She is an INTJ.

Ciara lives in Sydney, Australia, with her husband, her two daughters, and a growing menagerie of animals that unfortunately includes no dragons.

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