The Plight of Angels, Blood of the Temples

By Elijah Reed

Facimus plans to meet a powerful southern warlord in an attempt to gather enough power to overthrow the emperor but runs into trouble on the road home. The general and his new companion now have to navigate through a maze of political intrigue, religious power and torments beyond human comprehension to achieve their goals. Natural and supernatural threats await him as he gathers his forces. An imaginative fantasy tale based heavily on Roman, Greek and Germanic cultures.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elijah Reed
• Release date: Jul 9, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370032204

Elijah Reed

I love writing fantasy stories as a hobby, check out my website, facebook and twitter if you want to chat.

Book preview

The Plight of Angels

Blood of the Temples

Written and published by Elijah Reed

Copyright 2017 Elijah Reed

Distributed by Smashwords

Blood of the temples

It was a quiet morning, tepid and calm was the mood of the air and the trees waved their bough as if to greet it as it came. The rattled calls of the forests magpies echoed through the thick sea of trees. Forests were rarely this empty, normal was it to trip on the snare of a lazy huntsman, become the visual attraction of a stray dog or maybe even face the unwarranted hassle of one of the forests more opportunistic denizens. Forests often played host to criminals, a merchant’s first lesson is to avoid them, and the forest. On this day however, no one walked the forest’s foot beaten paths. The only men stood in the forest this morning were Facimus and his escort.

Word had reached the dwellers of the forest that a general, the emperors favoured general, would be patrolling the forest today. It had been seven whole months since Facimus took up the mantle of a general and already he was followed by hearsay, his legions aptly named The Assailants, had no objective, and were tasked to do nothing by the emperor. Yet they had already cut the necks of twenty criminals and many more naysayers, most of which were done on a single week. Rumours reached far and the forests emptied as the small platoon escorting Facimus approached.

Facimus was here to meet someone, a warlord who sat among the tribal council. Facimus was early and kept to a calm pace, followed close behind by twenty soldiers who were to be his escort. One of those men walked beside the general, noticing his distant appearance he considered questioning the general but held his tongue. He didn’t know why Facimus was so quiet but knew better than to ask him why. In truth, the general was nervous. The man he was set to meet was not only powerful… but ruthless, a southern warlord with lands on the border of the frozen wastelands. The gentle pace of the marching soldiers allowed for the moment Facimus needed to calm his nerves.

Blood of the temples

Facimus thought back to his co-conspirator and the hours they spent talking after he agreed to overthrow his friend. The woman held the demeanour that one might see in the fanatical. He hadn’t a clue why he trusted her, nor considered that she could be lying, or crazy, or simply just trying to cause trouble. "Trust isn’t the virtue