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TALES OF THE ZINGARI: BOOK 1: THE WIZARD'S HEART

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by S.R. Howen

"The old one will come. When he comes, his one true wife must carry within her a child of the old one who would be king. Only then can the heart be found and the evil of the world kept in its bounds." –The Prophecy of the Land

Sorann is the queen's daughter and training to be an empathic healer. Javert is a member of the wandering tribe called the Zingari and their future king. When Sorann's failed healer's magic test brings them together, they discover the prophecy governing the land is false. In order to prevent magic, and the Zingari, from being wiped from the land, Sorann must become Javert's wife and leave everything behind that she once held dear.

Tricked by demons, and followed by the queen's soldiers, they must find the fabled Wizard's Heart in the frozen Winter Valley.

What sacrifices will they have to make along the way, and will Javert ever discover the true meaning of the Wizard's Heart before his people and the love of his life are lost?

This is the first book in the fantasy series Tales of the Zingari.

Enjoy this excerpt:

The wolf growled, and she fell on her face in the frozen snow with the weight of the huge wolf on her back. Her cloak tore as the wolf worked to get at her flesh. Javert laughed.

With a scream, Sorann tried to push the wolf away, she regained her feet only to fall down again. She lay in Javert’s rocking wagon on his bed. Clutching the blankets tight around her trembling form, she sat up.

Javert sat in the padded chair with his feet resting on the trunk. This day, he wore black from head to foot. Not the sorcerer’s robe, but the clothing managed to convey the same sense of fear. With his dark skin and long black hair, he looked dangerous and sinister. Sorann met his gaze expecting to see anger and the same glowing evil she saw in them before she’d fainted. He stared at her, his face devoid of any emotion.

Javert swung his feet down and sat forward in the chair.Sorann let out a yip and pressed herself to the wagon’s wooden wall.

“Stay away from me.”

Javert got to his feet and moved to stand between the bed and the trunk.

“I mean it. I’ll scream. I’ll tell them all what you are.” Hysteria colored her voice. She didn’t care.

Javert sat on the trunk and withdrew a small knife from a pocket. Sorann leapt out of the bed, dropping the blankets and running into the door when the wagon lurched over a bump. She clawed at the bar across the door sobbing. The sturdy oak beam with an iron lock at both ends didn’t move. In despair, she sank to the floor only to realize she wore only a thin shirt--a man’s shirt.

“You were soaked to the skin,” Javert told her. Vaguely, Sorann remembered the water tank above the door crashing down during her struggle with Javert. Calmly, he opened the knife.

“When we stop for the night, you will see to Esmeralda.”

Sorann glared at him. She shuddered at the thought of him undressing her. “So I am your wife now,” she snapped.

Was it better to be raped unconscious or awake? Either way, she had been promised to him and now their marriage was a true one.

“I’m not a hideous creature who needs to render a woman unconscious to get her into my bed.” A smile tugged at his lips, and Sorann looked away.

“Do the others know what you are?” She’d almost screeched again how she intended to tell them. She held her words. When he took her to Esmeralda, she would tell her and any others she chanced talking to. They would get rid of Javert and help her.

“You think they don’t know? Come, Sorann, you’re not thinking at all.” He gazed at her as he cleaned under his fingernails with the knife.

“They wouldn’t let you live if they knew.” She scooted along the floor of the wagon on her behind keeping her gaze on him. Her clothes hung near the fire and she wanted them back on.

“You can tell Esmeralda if you like. You can tell the entire camp this night at the fire storytelling. They will laugh at your stupidity for touching my things.”

Sorann snatched her skirt down off the line across the back of the wagon expecting Javert to stop her. He kept cleaning his nails as if he wasn’t aware of what she did. She stood up, quickly tying the skirt around her. Unwilling to take off the shirt even with her back turned, she grabbed her blouse and sat on the end of the bed as far away from Javert as she could get.

“I doubted all the queen told me, but one thing is true, very true.” She sobbed. “The Zingari are creatures of evil.”

“Sorann, everyone in this camp, and every other camp is well aware of who and what I am.”

Her new awareness told her Javert wasn’t lying. She glanced at the trunk he so casually sat on. Perhaps he was and could cover it. She planned to tell anyway.

Javert stood up so quickly she didn’t have time to react before he held her arms and raised her off the bed. He shook her, glaring at her.