Description
A Strange Place in Time, Book Two: The White Palace Awakens
– Alyx Jae Shaw
Arrowsmith goes from being in prison for having drunken conversations with himselves, to learning that the true home of their group of friends, the White Palace, is rising from the ground.
This isn’t entirely good news: the palace only rises when Significant Happenings are afoot. It falls to Arrowsmith to travel to the realm of the gods to find out why, and he discovers a plot to destroy the Court forever.
The only way to fight this kind of subterfuge? A sneaky plot of their own involving stealth, spying, and lookalikes. The question now is: where do they find a stand-in for a five-foot-ten, virgin albino prince?
Maybe the world’s meanest 12-year-old girl has the answers.
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EXCERPT:
Arrowsmith awoke to the gentle sound of rain falling outside the barred window of his cell. His back ached viciously from having slept on the floor, and he sat up slowly, carefully. He was the only one in the room, and the quiet around him was a little frightening. He wondered if they were going to leave him there to starve to death, and if they had done anything to Harley. However, his wondering was interrupted when a guard came to let him out.
“Well, good morning, Lord Seer,” she said. “I trust you slept well?”
Arrowsmith stared at her sourly. “So I say one dumb thing. Is this going to haunt me forever?”
“Quite likely,” she said. “But drunk and foolish is only good for one night in the dungeon. You can go now.”
“No, I can’t. Where’s Harley?”
“Harley?” she asked as she drew a large iron key from her pocket. She unlocked the heavy wooden door. “Is that your dwarf friend?”
“Harley’s my motorcycle; what have you done with him?”
“Oh. Well, the machine was sent over to the Court of the City, where a judge will decide whether or not to have it destroyed.”
Arrowsmith froze. “Destroyed?” he said, his heartbeat becoming fast and irregular. “Harley? Destroyed?” He tried hard to control his breathing, but he felt as though he was going to choke. “You can’t hurt that bike. Please don’t hurt my bike.”
“That is not something I have any control over. The judge will decide whether it is a magical device or technical. If it is technical, it will be taken apart and melted down.”
“You can’t do that!” he screamed. “You have no damn right to decide what people can and cannot own! You sure as hell got no damn right to melt down my fucking motorcycle. Let me the fuck out of here; where is this judge? I gotta save my baby.”
“Two floors down and right across the street. I don’t recommend you do anything foolish; we have cells far darker and much less clean than this one.”
“Yeah, well, if that bastard kills my Harley, then I don’t give a shit where you put me.”
She let him out, but as Arrowsmith ran out of the cell and down the narrow stone stairs, he noticed that she was right behind him. That was fine; he might need her to prevent him from killing a judge.
Neither the building nor Harley were very hard to find. Harley sat regally in the street, red and gold paint gleaming wetly in the light spring rain. The sun was peeking nervously through the clouds, causing his paint to reflect the brilliant light. A small crowd of people had gathered around him and seemed to be discussing the bike. Arrowsmith charged into the midst of the crowd, stopping near Harley in a protective stance.
“Nobody is taking my bike,” he said to no one in particular.
A small figure clad in a grey robe with silver trim moved forward, a woman with long dark hair. “Is this your creature?” she asked, smiling.
“Yeah. And nobody, but nobody, is taking Harley apart and melting him, at least not while I can stand up.”
“Of course not,” she said calmly.
That was not the response Arrowsmith expected to hear, and he stood, dumbfounded. As he stared at her in confusion, the woman said, “We only destroy technical devices.”
Arrowsmith looked from the robed woman to Harley and back again. “Huh?” he said.
She smiled, then reached into a little silver bag she had about her waist. She took out a small round medallion, made of silver. “This was a gift to my Temple many lifetimes ago, from the Wizard. It shows whether a device is magical or not. Let me demonstrate.”
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