Novel Update, Excerpt Included

It’s been a while since I’ve given an update on my novel, but as of now, I’m still on track to finish by the end of August / September. I’m done with the majority of the re-writing, I believe, so I should be able to keep most of what I already have while making edits along the way. I just surpassed the half-way point recently. Below is an excerpt from Chapter 2. This is one of the chapters where I did a lot of re-writing, and I need to go back and look over it more closely to make sure further edits aren’t needed.

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The campfires burned a deep red in the darkness, hundreds and hundreds of them glowing like the fierce eyes of a host of dragons, and it was a dragon who camped outside the city walls of Alecon, waiting silently in the darkness to strike. He would burn Perceval’s castle to the ground, but for now, he was waiting patiently across the darkened field, the eyes ever watchful and vigilant.

Caelen stood along the battlements staring out at that black field spotted with fire, the smell of woodsmoke strong on a brisk wind, and in the dim light, he could see the dragon banner rippling above Cobus’ tent. In only a few years after assassinating Lolek, Cobus had managed to seize the majority of the kingdom of Aricin away from Perceval, and now Perceval — like his brother — clung to life, grasping and choking inside his fortress of stone.

Death awaited everyone inside Alecon. In time, Cobus would storm the walls and they would die, or he would starve them and they would die, but either way, the end was the same. Death has no master. Caelen hoped Cobus would come, hoped he would lead his men across that field, and that was why Caelen stayed in Alecon. He could have left. He could have followed his lord back east to Cenlis, but he was needed here. Caelen touched his sword’s pommel, a piece of iron fashioned in the shape of a wolf, and he thought of his father and brothers. He was needed in Alecon.