Godly Interventions: Collections, #7

By Meyari McFarland

What is a god but one with the power to change, destroy, improve your life? From ancient gods long forgotten to parents guiding your life and the power of cats to move us, gods come in all shapes, sizes and powers.

Meyari McFarland has collected six stories of gods in all their power for your reading enjoyment.

Includes:

The Heat of the Thorn

Blue

Price of the Gift

Fairy Dragon Blues

Intruder

Floating Paper Strips

Wings of the Dreaming Abyss

With an excerpt of the novel Artifacts of Awareness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Meyari McFarland
• Release date: Jun 24, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393892588

Meyari McFarland

Meyari McFarland has been telling stories since she was a small child. Her stories range from SF and Fantasy adventures to Romances but they always feature strong characters who do what they think is right no matter what gets in their way. Her series range from Space Opera Romance in the Drath series to Epic Fantasy in the Mages of Tindiere world. Other series include Matriarchies of Muirin, the Clockwork Rift Steampunk mysteries, and the Tales of Unification urban fantasy stories, plus many more. You can find all of her work on MDR Publishing's website at www.MDR-Publishing.com.

Book preview

Godly Interventions

Godly Interventions

Collection #7

Meyari McFarland

MDR Publishing

Special Offer

The rainbow has infinite shades, just as this collection covers the spectrum of fictional possibilities.

---

From contemporary romances like The Shores of Twilight Bay to dark fantasy like A Lone Red Tree and out to SF futures in Child of Spring, Iridescent covers the gamut of time, space and genre.

---

Meyari McFarland shows her mastery in this first omnibus collection of her short fiction. Twenty-five amazing stories, all with queer characters going on adventures, solving mysteries, and falling in love are here in the first Rainbow Collection.

---

And now you can get this massive collection of short queer fiction, all of it with the happy endings you love, for free!

---

Sign up here for your free copy of Iridescent now!

Contents

Other Books by Meyari McFarland:

Author's Note: The Heat of the Thorn

The Heat of the Thorn

Author's Note: Blue

Blue

Author's Note: Price of the Gift

Price of the Gift

Author's Note: Fairy Dragon Blues

Fairy Dragon Blues

Author's Note: Intruder

1. Explorer

2. Incoming

3. Ally

Author's Note: Floating Paper Strips

Floating Paper Strips

Author's Note: Wings of the Dreaming Abyss

Wings of the Dreaming Abyss

Author's Note: Artifacts of Awareness

1. Sold

2: Palace

Other Books by Meyari McFarland:

Afterword

Author Bio

Other Books by Meyari McFarland:

Day Hunt on the Final Oblivion

Day of Joy

Immortal Sky

---

A New Path

Following the Trail

Crafting Home

Finding a Way

Go Between

Like Arrows of Fate

---

Out of Disaster

---

The Shores of Twilight Bay

---

Coming Together

Following the Beacon

The Solace of Her Clan

---

You can find these and many other books at www.MDR-Publishing.com. We are a small independent publisher focusing on LGBT content. Please sign up for our mailing list to get regular updates on the latest preorders and new releases and a free ebook!

Copyright ©2017, 2019 by Mary Raichle

---

Print ISBN: 978-1-944269-75-3

---

Cover image

---

ID 36696379 © Dusan Kostic | Dreamstime

---

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

---

Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should be emailed to [e-mail].

---

This book is also available in TPB format from all major retailers.

Created with Vellum Created with Vellum

This collection is dedicated to Ursula Vernon.

Author's Note: The Heat of the Thorn

When it comes to stories with Gods, the Gods Above and Below series beats them all. Gods of the sun, moon and stars. Gods of little painted frogs. Gods of time and death and the sea. Every sort of god, human and otherwise, exists in this world. That series starts with this story so it made the perfect start for this collection.

The Heat of the Thorn

Xun stopped, panting. Her legs ached. So did her back. Sweat dripped down her spine, beaded on her forehead and then slowly rolled down the arch of her nose to tremble at the tip like a fly that just wouldn't go away. She stank so badly of sweat that she wanted to gag, only she didn't have enough breath to do so.

No flies up here at least. Small grace. Xun would take flies and stink over the too-thin air and trail that went ever upwards until her legs wanted to give way. With her tongue as dry as the soles of her shoes, Xun's mouth tasted as sour as her sweat smelled.

Keanu Marchetti stood a few yards ahead and nearly ten feet higher than Xun, eyes wide as he gazed out over the valley below. His backpack sat easy on his back. Damn him. Didn't look like he'd even gotten winded so far despite climbing all day to get this far. And even further to go before they reached the top.

Valley of the Thorns.

Not what Xun would ever have wanted to do, visit the Valley of the Thorns. Especially in the summertime when the vines would be strong and awake, flexing as they blindly searched for prey. But Mama Rosario had ordered and thus Xun had to follow through. She could have picked someone else, someone bigger and stronger and better able to climb a mountain and then scramble through predatory vines to save the world.

The view is amazing! Keanu exclaimed. Look, you can see all the way to the bay. I never thought I'd see the ocean.

This, Garnett growled from behind Xun, is not seeing the ocean. Are we done standing around? I'd like to get this done with as soon as possible.

His growl was probably for Xun but Keanu still bowed a florid little apology his way, fingertips swirling through the air and sending off bright shimmers of magic. Showy. Far too showy. There were ground voles that would gladly attack anything with the slightest hint of magic off in the gravel scree on either side of the trail. Not that Keanu seemed to care.

No, he bounced up the trail, humming happily while Xun glared at his back and stubbornly put one foot in front of the other as she made her way after him.

Damn Mama Rosario anyway. Six other children, all of them taller and stronger than Xun, and she had stare right into Xun's eyes as she announced the choice had already been made. No arguments would be heard. It was Xun and no one else.

By the time the three of them made it to the top of the trail Xun was completely certain that this was Mama Rosario's way of ensuring that Xun never came back. Ever. She'd die reaching the valley, not crossing it.

Are you quite all right? Keanu asked as Xun wheezed, her butt firmly planted on a big rock.

No, Xun huffed at him.

Leave her alone, Garnett snapped at Keanu. She was carrying her own body weight up the trail, unlike us. You could have asked for help.

Xun shook her head. No, she couldn't. They might have food and clothes and, who knew? Keanu probably had frilly little handkerchiefs with lace on the edges and embroidered initials. She didn't.

She had family pruning tools and magical salves that might, maybe, save her life when the thorns attacked. All of it was warded so that no one else could touch it. And all the food she'd brought was dried, carefully wrapped and spelled to stasis so that the vines wouldn't sense it either.

Did… Xun took a deep breath, relieved that the stabbing pain under her ribs was fading. Did you stasis spell your food? The vines will sense it, seek it out.

Garnett nodded. Of course. My father gave me a set of charms that should hide our body heat and the vibrations of our feet from the vines, as well.

Oh. Keanu stared at them both, eyes far too wide. Is that necessary?

Xun stared back at him. Then turned to stare at Garnett whose lip had curled up like he wanted to punch Keanu and send him tumbling back down the trail towards the base of the mountain where the voles would eat him alive. She sighed.

Yes, it is, Xun said. What do you think we're facing?

We're to go into the Valley of Thorns and retrieve Prince Cyrille and his lover Akuchi Nylund from the Priests of Dorji Kita, Keanu said as if that was the simplest thing in the world to accomplish.

And what do you know of the Valley of Thorns? Xun asked.

Not much, Keanu said with such a bright smile that she was tempted to stab him and then throw him down the slope herself. Apparently, it's rather dangerous but no one said why or how. Ah, do we need to worry about those darling little mice creeping up the gravel towards you?

Ground voles, Xun said. She held a hand out to Garnett who shook his head as he helped haul her back to her feet. They attack in swarms and eat living meat. Like us. We're food to them.

But they're so cute! Keanu exclaimed, hands crossed over his chest. The red eyes are quite darling. Though I suppose the red teeth are a bit disturbing.

Garnett snarled at him while backing away only to freeze as Xun reached into the side pocket of her backpack and pulled out a small bundle of carefully preserved meat. She unwrapped it, broke the stasis spell and tossed it down the slope. Voles erupted out the gravel in a wave of snarling grey fur and snapping red teeth. When the meat was gone, they turned on each other, tearing into their neighbors' flesh with just as much enthusiasm.

A present from my gardening instructor, Xun said. She smiled, amused at the horror in both Keanu and Garnett's eyes. It was coated with a spelled oil that makes them go into a feeding frenzy. We should move on before they get over it and come after us. I've only got three packages of it and we do still need to get back down the mountain.

The Valley of Thorns was really the Valley of Vines. Long sinuous vines with red-green stalks decorated with thorns both long and short. Some were as delicate as the hair on a baby's arm. Others were as long as Xun's thumb. Every single thorn glistened with oils that would burn their skin unmercifully if they brushed against it.

Sweet, cloying sap dripped off the longer thorns, staining the ground and filling the air with the smell of rotting fruit. The smell was so heady that it made Xun's head spin when she breathed too deep. Damn near like that time the hounds had gotten into the winery and broken bottles of cherry wine all over the floor.

Keanu shivered behind her. He'd been stupid enough to touch one of the leaves and now his hand was purple and swollen despite the salve Xun had used. They'd had to tie his arm to his chest, restraining him from swinging it around while yelping his pain, or he would have brought the vines after them for sure.

At least his ridiculously cheerful attitude was gone.

Someone wanted him dead. It was the only thing that made sense. To send a man like that into a place like this was a death sentence.

Xun couldn't in good conscience let him die. Mama Rosario would be very upset if she did. And it would make it hard for Xun to sleep well, too. An innocent, ridiculously inexperienced person like that couldn't just be thrown to the vines to die in agony.

Unfortunately.

Both of the men had been quite surprised that Xun had spelled pruning gear in her backpack. She'd taken the lead, clipping the ends of vines that got too close with her big pruning shears, the ones that were half as long as she was tall. Her little hand ax did a great job chopping down branches that had extended across the trail. So far.

The whole Valley of Thorns was an overgrown mess. Her gardening instructor would have taken one look and promptly started making plans for burning back some of the vines, rooting up others, and generally cleaning the place up. At one time it was supposed to have been the most beautiful garden in the world. Not anymore.

Instead of tending the place, the priests of Dorji Kita had let the vines take over, all the better to shield them from those who would seek to stop their unnatural rites.

The closer they got to the Temple of Dorji Kita, the higher the vines reached. Pretty soon she'd have to enlist Garnett to trim the vines drooping down like arches overhead. She just wasn't tall enough to reach those. And those were the ones that would kill them, snaking down to wrap around their necks, cutting their throats and draining their blood.

Several skeletons half hidden in cocoons of vines proved that.

I… have a spell that might help, Garnett offered in a low murmur that carried less than an unvoiced whisper. It will push the vines up and away, back towards their roots.

Xun stared at him and then nodded. Hard. Please. Just ahead of us, though. Don't use too much strength. How long can you hold it?

It should hold for a full day, Garnett said but he didn't look confident of that, not with that bitten lip and the way his eyes shifted to the left so that he couldn't meet Xun's eyes.

He stepped past Keanu, then past Xun. She didn't see if he pulled out a spelled parchment or book or anything. His hands were tucked very close to his chest so maybe it was another of his lovely little charms, like the one that hung around Xun's neck.

Either way, magic swept outwards from Garnett. Soft, gentle, like Mama Rosario