Lights of the Universe

By Nicholas McAuliff

Alia the orc is home again - home at last - in the peace of the Red Canyons. Following a brutal seven year campaign in the southern swamps of Oxa, the soldier is weary of battle and ready to settle down and farm and ride and hunt.

But all is not well in the Red Canyons, home of Alia's tribe of barley farmers and opal miners. Vast deposits of rainbow opals - gemstones which have fueled an empire of man - have been discovered near the great rivers of the Red Canyons. Now, men show up in droves to prospect for the precious stones, and men's encroachment on orc territory stirs up old hatreds. A new military order of man violates established treaties by posting a garrison near the mines.

Alia's greatsword rests undisturbed under the floorboards, hidden away like the darkest secrets of her past. But with her peace-loving tribe facing annihilation, the warrior must make an impossible choice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nicholas McAuliff
• Release date: Jun 22, 2024
• ISBN: 9798227210043

Nicholas McAuliff

Nicholas McAuliff is the author of the Heracles series. The author lives in the heart of the rockies and he enjoys prospecting and fishing and gardening whenever there is a lull in his work. 

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Lights of the Universe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Lights of the Universe

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

Nicholas McAuliff

Lights of the Universe © by Nicholas McAuliff

All rights reserved.

For permissions, please contact the author's agent: [e-mail]

This is a work of fiction. References to historical events, real people or places are used in a fictitious manner. Other names, characters, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any means without written permission from the author, except in the case of quotations embodied in reviews.

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Books by Nicholas McAuliff:

Heracles: the Return (Book 1 of the Heracles series)

Heracles: the Ambrosia of Crete (Book 2 of the Heracles series)

Sea of Two Suns

The Topaz

The Blue God

PROLOGUE

They always came with the brush fires and they came during the hottest point of the day and it was never known if those riders had set those fires.

Some said that they were wisps of fire, birthed from that fire and taking the shape of man. For man and orc had not fought in three hundred years and orcs would never dare to raise their hands against man, lest a real fire would descend upon them. So it must be phantoms of flame, the bards sang. Those fires swept down from the hills, originating from some unseen place in the forests and by the time the lookouts from the towers arrived, exhausted on horseback, already there was a slaughter.

And left was only smoke and ash and the sound of cicadas in chorus so that all of orc-kind prayed for the night. When the softness of the moon would allow for sleep and a reprieve from the terror of these phantoms of flame.

I

There was a stillness to the meadow and in the trees there was a stillness too and Alia the orc closed her eyes in that silence she had not known for seven years.

There was hemlock growing wild and nearby there were narrow asparagus and she picked one and ate the bud. She handed the rest to the mule and he ate the whole stalk.

You greedy mule.

She patted the mule in long strokes and the mule brayed.

Ready to go back?

The mule started eating more of the asparagus.

She looked into the heavy firs. Clusters of white mushrooms and leaflitter and a tiny stream trickling nigh-audible. A long-legged hare hopped over the stream.

I like it here. The quiet. Want to stay until nightfall, then?

The mule kept eating.

She laughed. Ok greedy mule. The rest are for you.

She sat cross-legged in the firs for a long time until there passing through the ravine was a buck, mighty and with eight ivory-white points. The sun fell in scattered rays