Will finding out about their pasts bring two people together or tear an entire world apart?
Hopper's life is torn apart when he is
kidnapped. His mind and body abused--leaving him with no memory of the past.
Now, as captain of the ship Amaya, he finds information about the woman who
haunts his dreams.
Trapped and injured, Eiko is startled
to find Hopper is not dead. His attempt to save her is derailed when some of
the same forces who put his kidnapping into place abduct Eiko. Can Hopper, with
Amaya, his living ship, their friends and the Blessed Three bring down a
dictatorship or die taking a stand for honor, and right?
A
woman’s voice. But not someone she recognized, so not one of Nyoko’s cronies.
“Um,
yes?”
“Who
are you?”
Wouldn’t
a god know who she was? “Um, my name is Eiko.”
“Eiko?
As in Captain Hopper’s Eiko?”
Eiko’s
stomach flipped. “You know Hopper?”
“Yes.
I’m his second-in-command. I’m Maria.”
“How…how
am I talking to you? I thought Hopper reached the ninth level. Are you a god?”
Maria
laughed. “Me? A god? That’s rich. Right now, the captain is down on the planet
we’re orbiting. And you must be using some sort of communication device. But
you keep cutting out. Do you have the frequency set right?”
“Orbit?
Frequency? What are these words? I don’t understand.”
“Eiko,
is there a box or panel with a bunch of symbols or dials or buttons?”
“Yes.
The cat led me to this strange box and showed me which button to push.”
“The
cat led you…? Okay, we’ll skip that for now. Describe the box to me.”
Eiko
did.
“Okay.
Do you see the little blue knob on your…hmmm. Are you facing the box? Is the
machine in front of you?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.
There should be a blue knob on the right side of the box.”
“There
is. I used it before.”
“Good.
I want you to turn that knob, slowly, toward the back of the machine. One click
at a time until I say stop. Count the clicks out loud as you do.”
Carefully,
Eiko grasped the knob and turned. “One. Two. Three. Four…”
“There!
Stop!”
Eiko
jumped back as if she’d been burnt. “Did I do something wrong?”
Maria
chuckled and now Eiko could hear her as if she were standing in the same
cavern. “No, not at all. You did something very right. We were a tiny bit out
of sync, and you got us where we needed to be.”
More
words she wasn’t sure she understood. “Oh. How are we talking?”
“The
machine in front of you is a communication device. I have a similar device here
with me. These machines allow us to talk to each other across great distances.
So…Eiko. You’re a real person?”
Eiko
laughed. “Yes, I am real. But if you are not a god, are you one who leads us to
the ninth level?”
“What
are you talking about? I don’t understand.”
“The
ninth level of life. The final one. The one where we dwell with the gods.”
“You
mean death? You think Hopper is dead?”
“Yes.
The priests told me he was.”
“Oh,
my, you two do have a lot to talk about. No, Hopper isn’t dead. He’s very much
alive.
Amazon
Walmart
Target
BooksAMillion
Indie Bound
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
Google Books
ITunes
Vicky learned
to love reading and writing at a young age thanks to her father. They spent
long hours together doing crossword puzzles and word games. By the time she was
in junior high, Shakespeare and the Greek tragedies shared book space with the likes
of Marguerite Henry, Walter Farley, and Carolyn Keene. While her tastes have
grown up, her love of a good story hasn’t. As a writer, she writes fantasy,
science fiction, paranormal and romance novels and novellas.
Website:
https://www.vicky-burkholder.com
BlueSky:
Vicky Burkholder
Other titles by Vicky Burkholder:
Danger
Among the Stars
Lost
Among the Stars
Searching
Among the Stars
Found
Among the Stars
The
Gingerbread Lodge
Raining
Jellybeans
The
Cane, the Puzzle, and Magic
Finding
Akashan’te
Blowing
Bubbles on the Moon
Excellent excerpt! I'm interested.
ReplyDeleteHappy to share this Great excerpt!
ReplyDeleteCongrats, Vicky. sounds like a fascinating read.
ReplyDelete