Taste of Cyn

Warlord’s Mercy – First Scene Of The First Chapter

By Cynthia Sax on May 18, 2020

Warlord’s Mercy, the fifth standalone story in the Chamele Barbarian Warlords series, is releasing on June 16th.

As we wait for Warlord’s Mercy to release, I’ll be sharing the first chapter. This week I’m sharing the first scene of that first chapter.

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Chapter One

“I love this planet, but I have no choice. I have to leave it.”

Lea uttered that truth under her breath. She talked to herself. Constantly. That tactic had allowed her to survive four solar cycles of mind-numbing solitude. The long stretches of silence had been unnerving.

She was alone this planet rotation also. Again. Always.

The sole sound she heard was the wind whistling around giant rocks. Those monuments of stone shielded her from the severity of the sun’s rays, concealed her in their shadows.

She crouched on a path only two beings knew about—herself, and Har, the garment merchant she saw briefly every fifteen planet rotations. Sweat soaked Lea’s chest covering. Sand shifted around her booted feet. She gripped garments in her hands.

“I don’t want to go.” Her heart was heavy with grief and regret. “Chamele 4 has become a part of me.”

Its rugged wild beauty called to her. Its unforgiving nature tested her. It had taken everything she had to carve out a life on the planet, to earn her survival. And during that unforgiving process, she’d fallen in love with the harsh terrain.

She now considered Chamele 4 to be her home.

“The time has come to find a new home.” Her words were so softly spoken she could barely hear them. “I’ll die if I remain here.”

Her most recent commission confirmed that sad reality. She skimmed her fingertips over the chest and ass coverings she’d fabricated for her late friend, tracing the flower designs she’d pierced into the soft brown leather.

“You always liked flowers.” She addressed her friend, saying the words she couldn’t relay when Flor was alive.

They’d met solar cycles ago, during the long trip to Chamele 4. Lea had happily allocated her spare time to crafting delicate cloth blooms. Those had been woven into her new friend Flor’s long blonde hair.

“We were all full of hope and excitement then, weren’t we?”

Even her overly serious father sported a glimmer in his eyes and lightness in his tread. Relocating to Chamele 4 had been a dream of his. He’d prepared for it for most of Lea’s lifespan.

Flor, younger than Lea by two solar cycles, had been as excited about new start. She had bubbled over with laughter, brightening the interior of the ship with her smiles.

“Everyone loved you.” Her friend had that way with beings. “Including me.”

Flor had been like the sister she’d always hoped to have…which made her failure to save the female even more soul-crushing.

“When we landed, the situation changed…drastically.” Lea tried to block the images yet couldn’t.

Her father died within mere moments of setting foot on the planet’s reddish-brown sands, his dream snuffed out as soon as it was realized.

Daisun and his band of brutes attacked them, slaughtering the males and enslaving the females.

“He laughed when he killed my peace-loving father—a male who had never intentionally harmed another being in his entire lifespan.”

The Palavian had smiled as he kicked her father’s body aside.

She shuddered.

“We ran as fast as we could.” She and Flor had fled the blood-soaked scene, their visions of sanctuary, companionship, a normal life, evaporating under the hot sun. “You were right behind me.”

She didn’t know the terrain, didn’t know where to go or where to hide. Daisun’s males were bigger, stronger, faster than they were. Their pursuers caught up to them, captured Flor.

Lea would never forget the scream her friend had emitted. The sheer terror in that sound haunted her rest cycles.

“I should have stopped, should have helped you.” She had replayed that moment a thousand times in her mind, dwelling on the many mistakes she’d made. “If I had done that, I would have been taken too, but we would have been together.”

Young, inexperienced, and so scared, her brain had shut down, she hadn’t thought to stop. She had reacted based on pure instinct, and those instincts told her to run, to escape her pursuers.

That simple feat had almost been beyond the range of her abilities. It was mere luck she found the entrance to the underground tunnels. The gap in the rocks was large enough for her to slip into, but it was too small for the male to spot, to follow her.

She had waited in the dark like the scared girl she’d been until the screaming stopped and the attackers left. When she emerged, nothing remained. The ship had been stripped to nothing. Her father’s body was missing. Her friend had been taken.

“I tried to rescue you, Flor. So many times.” Lea sighed. She held as little knowledge about freeing beings and covert missions as she held about fending off attackers. “Daisun and his thugs guarded you and the other slaves too closely. You were never alone.”

The Palavian and his horrid males restrained the females, starved them, abused them. The worst was the gags. Their slaves weren’t permitted to speak. They were mute vessels for the males’ vile use.

“Every time I spotted you, you were thinner, your beautiful eyes were duller.” Lea traced the petals of a flower decorating her friend’s final garments. “And I couldn’t do anything to prevent that from happening to you.”

The misery and the wounds etched on Flor’s once flawless face had torn at her heart. It had frustrated Lea until she had wanted to scream.

If she’d had more skills, more experience, she might have been able to free her friend. She could have stopped that deterioration. But it was too late now.

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Read the next scene (available May 25th) here: http://tasteofcyn.com/?p=7118

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Other Chameles view him as the enemy.

She sees the warrior hero he never believed he could be.

* * *

Tolui is a Warlord in search of a planet to rule. He has been leading his fellow clones in a stealth battle, fighting for both control of the Chamele sector and the right to exist. The brave warriors he commands warrant respect, and they deserve the best.

That best isn’t the barren, dangerous terrain on Chamele 4. When Tolui crashes on that planet’s surface, he’s determined to leave it as soon as possible. The tiny human female rescuing him might be as beautiful and as wild as the land she inhabits, but her flowing words, trusting gaze, and enthralling submission won’t stop him from rejoining the war.

After many solar cycles of living alone, Lea is overjoyed when a tall, scarred, muscular warrior falls from the sky. Her savage stranger is strong and severe, and he makes her feel safe, an emotion she hasn’t experienced in a long, long time.

He also insists they must part. Before they do, she’ll show him the splendor of her home, and she’ll enjoy his big form, collecting passionate moments she can revisit when she’s solitary once more.

Every additional moment Lea and Tolui spend together increases the chance they’ll both die. Lea is being chased by female-hating fiends. Tolui is being hunted by the best bounty hunters in the universe. War will soon arrive on their threshold, and the blood spilled might be their own.

* * *

Warlord’s Mercy is based on a much shorter story sharing the same title.

It is a STANDALONE Alien Barbarian SciFi Romance featuring a villain turned hero and a brave, chatty heroine set in a dark, gritty, sometimes-violent universe.

Warlord’s Mercy is the fifth of six core stories in the Chamele Barbarian Warlord series.

Book 1: Warlord Sky

Book 2: Warlord’s Bounty

Book 3: Warlord Unarmed

Book 4: Warlord Reunited

Book 5: Warlord’s Mercy

Book 6: Warlord’s Return

Pre-order Now:

Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0886K65F9

Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0886K65F9

Amazon AUS:
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0886K65F9

Apple Books:
https://books.apple.com/us/book/warlords-mercy/id1511995733