THE DEATHWIND TRILOGY, by T. C. Rypel

THE DEATHWIND TRILOGY, by T.C. Rypel

Fantasy master KAI MEYER says:  "GONJI is the most important rediscovery of classic fantasy since Conan.  Dark, complex, and fantastically well-written.

BOOK ONE: "RED BLADE FROM THE EAST."

  
“A wyvern!” came the grated whisper at Gonji’s side. It was Garth, hefting two children whose heads were buried in his bear’s chest.“You’ve seen such a thing before?” “Only once — a long, long time ago,” Garth replied. “In the British Isles. Never — never so close. It’s a fearsome, filthy thing. Everyone must take cover at once.” He was breathing hard, eyes slanted upward as he spoke. “Its — its saliva — and its waste — they’re —” “I know — lethal,” Gonji finished for him. Shuddersome thoughts leapt in his mind. A kaleidoscopic vision of mutilated monks and his own cold-sweat ride of panic and children huddled against searing death. And his shame and rage intensified.“What’s happening? Genyaaaaa —!” Wilf cried to the skies in mindless terror.“Wilfred — you others,” Garth called, “get these people indoors.” He carried the children to his house. Gonji made to move, found that he was restrained: a child, a small blonde girl, had attached herself to his leg and was clinging in abject terror. He experienced a surge of compassion for the pathetic waif, whose father perhaps had been a Rorka trooper slaughtered at the castle.“Come, little one.” He scooped her up and bounded off toward Garth’s house.“Vedun, your skies mock you!” The one called Paille again. Somewhere, amid the screams of primal fear — laughter. Klann’s troops, enjoying the spectacle of a city swept by the wilting fear only sorcery can inspire... ---from RED BLADE FROM THE EAST, Book One of "The Deathwind Trilogy"...  I was making some promotional rounds today and it occurred to me that a lot of people on my own main FB page possibly still don't know much about this ongoing series of books I've written.  And if so, geez---why not?!  Get thee to Amazon at once and buy some reading excitement.  In classic sturdy trade PAPERBACK or in cyber-zippy modern-day KINDLE form, from Borgo Press!

             BOOK TWO: "THE SOUL WITHIN THE STEEL"
   
“Cholera — what in all the hells is that?” Gonji breathed. Then, shouting: “Get to the damned weapons! Fan out. Head for the sides of the cavern. Hurry — we need bows and guns —” “It’s a serpent,” someone behind said in awe.“Nyet, it had claws.” “We’ve got to get to the tunnels, Gonji,” Wilf cried. “We can’t fight that thing!” “Get hold of yourself,” the samurai shouted.“There’s no one left alive here to rescue!” a man screamed. “Let’s get out before we’re next!”A rumbling eruption came again from the direction of the tunnel that exited into the hills. Then the subterranean scraping came again under the cavern floor. Swift and ominous. The creature slithered under their feet impossibly fast, imparting a primal fear that one could not count on the solidity of the very earth beneath his feet.“Then let’s get out of here now,” Gonji agreed, swallowing back the lump in his throat. “You men with the armament — grab what you can and get back to —” “Gonji!” Paille was yelling, sprinting out of the southern valley tunnel, three men trailing behind him. “Gonji, that thing’s burrowed up into the tunnels, blocked them off with tons of earth! We can’t get out this way!” “Back to the city tunnels,” Gerhard yelled, waving them all toward the way they had come. But a fresh explosion of rock before the door through which they’d pried their way in stopped them in their tracks, some men pummeled by the hurtling stones. The beast emerged, triumphantly clacking its clawed tentacles, and its segmented, wormlike body — forty or fifty feet of flexing and extending rings — bowed and stretched eerily in place, churning up rocks behind it with its tail, such that the portal to the city tunnels was effectively blocked in seconds. It reared up on its tail and wove its beaked, eyeless head, birdlike, as if listening. The men in the cavern all stood and stared in abject terror, their claustrophobic shock paralyzing them. Every man now understood what was happening. The training cavern had become a larder, a livestock pantry for the worm-thing’s casual feeding. ---from THE SOUL WITHIN THE STEEL, Book Two of "The Deathwind Trilogy" - NOW back in print and on Kindle from Borgo Press.

                                                       
                                         BOOK THREE: "DEATHWIND OF VEDUN."

Tumo was shinnying up the bell tower in undulating rolls of quivering fat. A growling, maddened humanoid slug. The pulpy flesh of a thigh suddenly bulged a foot inside the third level grating. Gonji bounded over the boards and plunged the Sagami eight inches deep, ripping a gory arm’s-length gouge across his vision. The giant bellowed in infantile anguish and squeezed the tower with all its might. Masonry crumbled and stone caved inward, spidery cracks shooting up the walls. Gonji scurried up the curling stairwell, passed the hideous, bloody face. Its cavernous mouth blared like a demon herald through another grating, blocking his ear. He kept running upward, notching another war arrow, kissing the stole as he reached the belfry. The samurai’s heart beat at battle tempo. A section of wall caved in just below him, and a great bleeding fist punched through and slammed about. He stumbled, righted himself, glanced down — back up — past the now clamoring bells — a giant hand gripped the belfry portal — peering in: that terrible torn face, red tongue lashing across malodorous splay teeth — Gonji pulled back mightily, grunting with the pain, and fired. His clothyard arrow penetrated the cheek just below the left eye, the head emerging through splintered bone at the eye socket with a sick tearing sound. Tumo’s mouth gaped as he howled and fell, shaking the tower’s foundation at the street below. Gonji roared in triumph at the arch, peering down as the screaming beast whirled about in the darkened square like a sun-stroked scorpion. It tore the shaft from its ruined eye and bowled over and over in its pain, scattering horses and men. With any luck, Gonji thought, the arrow had struck the brain. Death would follow. ---from DEATHWIND OF VEDUN, now back in print and on Kindle from Borgo Press.