Athena Grayson

SFRteasertuesday

It’s Tuesday Teaser time! I don’t get a chance to participate in this all the time, but when I do–I like to share big! To start off, let me tell you a little about the exciting new series of space opera with girl-cooties. If you liked “Gossip Girl” but wanted to see more “Battlestar Galactica” or “Babylon 5” in it, well so did I, so I wrote it.

Meet the Scions. They get anything they want…except a future.

The noble houses of Landfall rule over the entire star system–from the overcrowded city-planet to its pastoral moons and the treacherous debris belt that prevents them from settling the outer system. But heir sons and daughters have only the personal power they amass from the SoCap Index–the market in which their social capital is traded, speculated upon, and manipulated by Probabilities Brokers that wager on their every move–whether their wardrobes of credit-wasting designer fashion, or the scandal of their behavior. Princess Ione Ra, daughter of the Emperor, is skilled at walking the fine line between notoriety and scandal. But this time, she may have gone too far…

As the son of one of Landfall’s most powerful families, Denaat Hades has lived beneath the shadow of his powerful father his entire life. His status, his friends, and perhaps even the woman he cares most about, have all been products of his father’s ambition for the family name, until now. Den is about to make a name for himself outside of his father’s influence–if he can manage to do it without exposing his own terrible secret.

This excerpt is called “Fool’s Gambit” and introduces our hero, Denaat Hades, in an attempt to distinguish himself before his classmates at the Academy and representatives from the powerful ruling houses of Landfall’s elite.

Fool’s Gambit

©2016 Athena Grayson Please link–don’t redistribute elsewhere. Don’t share my typos, okay? 🙂

Denaat Hades held his blade extended, his arm outstretched. He held the lunge on one burning thigh muscle while he stood in near-complete darkness, waiting for the spectacle to begin. The landscape of the party had given way to the evening’s main event—an exhibition duel and bladework demonstration between himself and the Academy’s Blademaster with a twenty-five year record.

Gone were the ornamental topiary plantings that created nooks and alcoves for socializing, and gone was the impressive display of fine foods and the waterfall made from champ-ale bubbling and fizzing over cut-crystal held under pressurized glass until it burst out of the pursed lips of a crystal nymph into glasses for guests. They’d been discreetly cleared away for anti-gravity pods holding comfortable seating for up to a dozen guests. The pods jockeyed for position along x, y, and z axes based on the credit amounts donated by their occupants, except for the single, stationary pod holding his instructors and closest classmates, fixed to the floor at the edge of the ring of drones generating the light field for the dueling area.

Gone also was his shiny, holo-patterned suit and the starsilk shirt beneath it, and the ornamental lights in his hair. His finery—picked out by his class’s style consultant to display his status and wealth—was stuffed into a storage container in favor of light, form-fitting carbon-fiber armor, with a matching face mask. Gauntlets secured to his wrists generated power for the sensors emitting an electro-mesh shield around his body that shifted with the movements of his off hand. His weapon, an elegant blade of wire and light, derived its power from his main hand gauntlet and the glove that protected his hand. Tuned to full, the blade could melt steel or puncture the transparent alloy that made up the dome above his head.

Thankfully, this was an exhibition duel. The blades would sting, but not incapacitate or kill.

He waited, holding his ready position, as the banners came down, displaying his family’s banner, with the twinkling ribbons of support from classmates and other interested parties, and the Academy banner, under which Master Kenndar dueled. Tradition kept the Academy banner free of ribbons, but his neural interface told him the odds of his loss were just under fifty percent. The markets were calling this a close thing and the players in the markets were nothing, if not savvy odds-players.

The lights came up around the ring, plunging the shifting observation cars into darkness as Master Kenndar entered from the other side of the oval. He took his cue to step forward, meeting his opponent in the center of the ring. He executed the formal bow, hand-grip, and blade salute deserving of a worthy opponent and prayed his master’s teachings weren’t wasted. He returned to his ready position to await the chime beginning the match, but not before he glanced towards the stationary box and spotted her in the front row, the lights in her hair twinkling in time with the flashes of crystal on her dress.

Ione wore a small smile of bored amusement, echoing the expressions of probably everyone in the audience, and he knew their thoughts. Yet another Academy student, ready to show off for status and praise, as if the privileges of his born position didn’t already come with their own accolades. His gaze flicked to the VIP box and he saw another bored, slightly amused expression, only he knew this one masked keen interest. As if the man sensed his scrutiny, Invicti Hades lifted one eyebrow and Den heard the words as surely as if they’d been broadcast for all to hear. What new way have you found to disappoint me?

The lurking paranoia he’d lived with for ten years summoned itself to the forefront of his awareness as the lights in the arena changed to a soft blue. The chimes sounded for Ready and Arm, and his blade flared to golden life. Across the ring, Master Kenndar assumed his own ready position. Den felt the eyes of the spectators crawling over him, adding weight to his protective gear. Waiting for him to fail.

The last chime sounded. Engage!

He leapt forward, his awareness extended out to the blade’s end, as he’d been taught and trained by Kenndar to do for ten years. And knew he’d made a mistake.

If you’d like to be notified when Scions launches in a month or two, and get sneak-peeks and exclusives on my books, plus some sweet-ass deals on sci-fi, fantasy, and romance every so often, stick your email in the box. You get a free box of books in the deal, and I don’t do spam.

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