The
Ivory Road: A Walk in the Sand
Copyright © 2015 Siobhan Muir
All Rights Reserved
“You're
not going to stop playing, are you, Mr. Crowe?” Iliana shook her head. “Fine.
Play your little game, but I’m done. I don't need this and I'm outta here.” She
swung onto the gray horse and settled her weight in the stirrup-less saddle.
She turned the animal’s head toward a gap in the trees and urged the horse into
a trot.
“By all
the Gods!” he shouted in frustration at her back.
“I told
you women were faithless.”
Ahmad’s
voice made her fury burn brighter, but she’d dealt with trolls in Hollywood.
This guy was only a run-of-the-mill heckler. The gray horse lengthened its
strides as they passed the edge of the oasis, and she did her best to ignore
the corpse, still lying in the glaring sun. If
it really is a dead body and not a dummy.
She
stopped the horse and tried to decide which way to go. All directions looked
pretty much the same. Well done, now
you’re out here alone with no idea which direction is west. At least she
now had a horse. Iliana glanced down to the sand below to try to determine
which way their shadow pointed. She frowned. Had she gotten here in the morning
or afternoon?
“I
don’t think he’s accustomed to being spoken to like that.”
She froze and looked around. No one stood near
her. She sat alone on the horse.
The
horse huffed an indignant sigh and turned his head to eye her.
Iliana
swallowed hard. “Did you say something?”
“Yes, I
said, I don't think he’s accustomed to being spoken to like that.”
The
voice echoed in her ears, but the horse’s lips had remained still. That’s it. I’ve gotten sunstroke. “I’m
going crazy.”
“That
remains to be seen, but we’re still having this conversation anyway.” The gray
snorted and tossed his head.
“Is
this some sort of cosmic joke? Horses can’t talk.” She snapped her mouth shut
and shook her head. “And now I’m arguing with an animal.”
“Only because you can’t seem to accept I can
speak, and well enough for you to understand, young lady.”
Iliana
scrubbed her hands over her face. “No, no, no. This isn’t possible. There is no
magic in the world except what Hollywood conjures. I must be dreaming this. I’m
on a solo hike in New Mexico, minding my own business. This is just a dream
from sun-stroke…” She glanced around uncertainly. “Except the sand is golden
and Taggart Crowe has shown up.”
“The
man you left behind is named Brandon Crowe and you’re in the Karobis Desert,
which is in the country of Knalland.” The horse stretched a leg forward and
rubbed the side of his muzzle against his knee. “The continent on which this
desert stretches is called Absentia.”
“Are
you part of the script, too? When did this become a fantasy story?”
The
horse snorted. “What makes you think you’re in your desert? Have you seen any
equipment from your home world? Have you seen any people beyond Crowe’s
raiders?”
Her stomach sank, but she rallied gamely. “And
I suppose the planet has a completely different name as well?”
“Actually,
in this world the planet is called Earth.”
“No. No
way. I so don’t need this right now.” She pinched her thigh, but the world
around didn’t change. “I know I didn't do the best in school, but I did pay
attention a little. There’s no such thing as other worlds. That’s a science
fiction thing. And talking horses are straight out of fantasy novels. I must
have lost my mind.”
“Not in
the least.” The horse sounded amused as he carried her toward the top of a
dune. “I think you just need to expand your perspective. ‘There is more to
heaven and earth than is dreamt of in your philosophy,’ Iliana.”
She
snorted. “Did you just quote Shakespeare to me?”
“The
Bard is famous in all the worlds I know because he understood there are
different universes and dimensions.” The horse grunted as the dune steepened.
“This one is different enough to allow for talking horses, but similar enough
to keep the same planet name.”
“A
different dimension.” Iliana rubbed her face again. “Come on, where are we, the
Twilight Zone? This only happens in stories, but reality is quite different.
First of all, how did I get here? And who is Kyra? Why does Crowe think I'm
her?”
“You
must have been in the right place at the right time when the dimensions
shifted.”
“Shifted.”
“Yes.
When they shift, they rub against each other a little like sandpaper, and can
wear a hole in each other. At least enough to let beings sift through.” The
horse nodded his head as he climbed. “As for Kyra, do you recall the body we
passed earlier?”
“Yeah.”
She swallowed against the cold feeling in her stomach. “Why?”
“That
was the person Crowe talked about.”
“But
the body looked male. It was a dead guy, right?”
“Yes,
his name was Kyram Tortenson.”
“Then
why did Crowe say he was looking for a woman if that was Kyra?”
“Because
Kyram never pronounced the “M” on the end of his name, never grew a beard, and
had effeminate airs. He also never corrected Crowe.”
“Did
you talk to Kyram, too? I mean, I assume you were his horse.”
“You
know what’s said about assumptions.”
Iliana
resisted the urge to slam her heels into the horse’s side. “Did you talk to him
or not?”
“No.”
“So why
are you talking to me?”
“You’re
prettier?”
She
groaned and secured the veil across her mouth and nose when the wind came up.
They crested the dune and paused, taking in the vista of unending sand. Damn. How the heck am I going to get home?
The Ivory Road: A Walk in
the Sand
ISBN: 9781310022012
Genre: Sci-fi/Fantasy Romance
Serial, Book 1
Word Count: 32,400
LINKS
Website:
http://siobhanmuir.com
Blog:
http://siobhanmuir.blogspot.com
Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5760938.Siobhan_Muir
BUY LINKS
BIO
Siobhan Muir lives in Cheyenne,
Wyoming, with her husband, two daughters, and a vegetarian cat she swears is a
shape-shifter, though he's never shifted when she can see him. When not
writing, she can be found looking down a microscope at fossil fox teeth,
pursuing her other love, paleontology. An avid reader of science
fiction/fantasy, her husband gave her a paranormal romance for Christmas one
year, and she was hooked for good.
In previous lives, Siobhan has
been an actor at the Colorado Renaissance Festival, a field geologist in the
Aleutian Islands, and restored inter-planetary imagery at the USGS. She’s hiked
to the top of Mount St. Helens and to the bottom of Meteor Crater.
Siobhan writes kick-ass adventure
with hot sex for men and women to enjoy. She believes in happily ever after,
redemption, and communication, all of which you will find in her paranormal
romance stories.
Siobhan’s
latest release, A Walk in the Sand,
is the first story in her new The Ivory Road serial. She has published A Hell Hound’s Fire (a free read), The Beltane Witch, and Cloudburst Ice Magic in the Cloudburst
Colorado series, and Take the Reins
and A Centaur’s Solstice Wish in the
Rifts series. Siobhan has also published Bronco’s
Rough Ride and The Navy’s Ghost
in the Bad Boys of Beta Squad series, Not
a Dragon’s Standard Virgin and Queen
Bitch of the Callowwood Pack through Siren Publishing, and Her Devoted Vampire through Evernight
Publishing.
