Tales of Tervia - Gripping High Fantasy Tales From A World All Too Familiar To Our Own

By Richie Billing

"Billing is an imagination stoker, a writer cloaked in humanity's secrets, with a coveted writing style that grips a readers own inner demons. He is an author to watch." Whiskey & Wit Book Reviews

Welcome to Tervia, a land of forgotten histories, ancient magic, foul beasts, and heroes of all shapes and sizes.

 

Follow the stories of myriad characters, from a fearless general faced with a terrible choice to a peasant girl fighting to keep her family alive. Lose yourself in this unique high fantasy world which unravels with each story and draws you deeper and deeper. By the end, you'll never want to leave. 

 

Fans of high fantasy, epic fantasy, low fantasy, urban fantasy and low fantasy will love the stories that make up the Tales of Tervia. Readers of Joe Abercrombie and George R.R. Martin will appreciate the gritty realism of Richie Billing's writing, yet at times it possesses a light-hearted and humorous touch akin to the works of James Barclay and Nicholas Eames. And for those who adore the coming of age heroes of Brandon Sanderson and Patrick Rothfuss, you'll find characters that will whisk you away on epic journeys of discovery, intrigue, friendship and love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richie Billing
• Release date: Jun 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393497141

Book preview

Tales of Tervia

High Fantasy Tales From A World All Too Familiar To Our Own

Richie Billing

2020

First published July 2020.

Copyright © 2020 Richie Billing

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN: B08C4QHB83

Illustrations by Mark Vernall. Copyright © 2020

All rights reserved.

Grunge Fantasy Border by Marylise. Copyright © 2020

All rights reserved.

The line images used in this book were obtained from Freepik.com and Moorstation.org.

www.richiebilling.com

Contents

A Gift For You

Welcome To Tervia

Follies of the Proud

Noodlin’

The Pigeon Catchers

The General

Forgotten

Ducks

The Monster of Grug

A Gift For You

About Richie Billing

A Gift For You

As a thank you for downloading this book, I'd like to give you another for free!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

(Or go to https://richiebilling.com/join-the-community/)

Welcome To Tervia

TERVIA IS THE FIRST world I ever created, and will forever be my favourite. It's the battleground for the forces of good and evil—The Magpies and the Dakyra—and the home to myriad characters, from peasant girls to great warrior heroes. It's characters I love above all, and through them I explore themes ranging from loneliness to pridefulness.

Many of my readers tell me how much they love the world of Tervia and how they want me to write more stories set in this fantastical land. Well, my current work in progress, The Hills of Moragon, should satisfy you, and in this collection of stories you can read the first story in that collection, Follies of the Proud.

While all of these stories are set in the same world, some of them are more closely connected. I'll let you piece together the clues. But if ever you find yourself wondering, I wonder what happens next?, keep reading and you'll find out.

On the next page you can find a map of Tervia, drawn by my talented brother in law, Mark Vernall. Upon it you can see the locations of some of the stories. The Hills of Moragon, unfortunately, is set in a different part of the continent, so isn't on the map. That will come soon, no doubt. I hope you stick around to see it.

Sit back. Get comfortable. Stick that phone on silent. It's time to enter the world of Tervia.

For the Magpies

One for rain,

Two for sun,

Three foretells a tremendous gain

And four, of a life just begun.

But five means that joy shall wane,

And six brings only heartache and pain,

Seven speaks of treachery terrible and sly.

To see eight or more means the End is nigh.

Follies of the Proud

First published by TANSTAAFL Press in the anthology, ‘Of Witches, Warriors, and Wyverns’

THE SURFACE OF THE Hidden Lake shifted and stirred as if some great beast was rising from its peat-stained depths. Squirrels darted up trees to their dreys, birds swooped back to their nests. Safe, warm, sheltered, unlike Jyn. He sat beneath his leaky canvas, teeth chattering, numb fingers clinging onto his fishing line. He wished he could scurry home too, out of this vicious wind and rain, but that was the one thing he couldn’t do.

Jyn looked up at the unbroken blanket of grey and shuffled his knees further under his chin. The thrum of rain bored into his head. It hadn’t let up since yesterday evening. His receding grey hair clung to his forehead, hiding deep lines of age and hardship. Raindrops trickled down his crooked nose and into his unkempt beard, the tip of which looked as if it had been dipped in grey paint. He pushed back his shoulders to a chorus of clicks, worked out the stiffness, and forced open his weary eyes.

Nature, it seemed, was conspiring against him, first taking the fish from the River Sinann, then forcing him a day’s walk through woodlands and over moors in search of them, and now plaguing him with gods-awful weather. It was the last thing he needed. Judging by the dip in temperature, the first snows of winter weren’t far off and, after such a pitiful summer harvest, the family stores were too low. The winter would be tough for everyone in Grenda, and that meant trouble. Jyn glanced to his left where his sword was thrust into the ground. Only fools travelled the Hills of Moragon unarmed. Hanging from the cross guard was his tabac box. He opened it and sighed. With his little finger, he scraped up the last bits of leaf, rolled them into a ball and began to chew. He should have shown more thrift with his rations. It wasn’t his intention to be away for so long, though. How are they faring without me?

Nico, his brother, had found this backwater lake when they were kids. That day, they'd returned home with enough fish to feed their families for a month. No other fisherman knows of this place, Nico had said. Only you and I. There was another angler here, though. In the canopy of the trees on the opposite bank, a grey orb was hunched against the rain. It unfurled its broad wings, pushed itself into the sky, and with a lazy grace, glided down into the water before a clump of reeds. Meandering neck straightening, it turned it’s fiery, sword-like beak toward Jyn and stared as if in challenge.

Jyn frowned and looked back to his line. He forced himself not to look at the heron, to watch for takes, but his eyes kept returning to the bird. For minutes it remained still as a cloudless night, until, in a flash of movement, it plunged its head into the water, reappearing a moment later with a flapping trout in its beak. The heron tossed the trout into the air, catching it more cleanly, before swallowing it whole. Jyn ground his teeth. It was as if it was mocking him, like a fat lord licking his fingers after a hearty meal. The heron made a scratchy cry and flew back to its perch. Jyn watched it go, hatred intensifying with each beat of its wings. The bird was stealing the food from his wife and daughter’s mouths. He hawked and spat.

The line coiled around Jyn's square reel suddenly tightened. It was the moment every fisherman lived for: the commencement of the hunt. Hope’s crescendo. Jyn yanked back his line to sink the hook into the fish's mouth, only for him to fall on his arse, slack line coiling upon him. He lay there on his back a while, staring at his hole-ridden canvas, rain pattering his face.

Eventually Jyn sat up, a sense of defeat hanging over him as he wound in his line and examined his dwindling supplies of worms and corn. The fish had shown no interest in either. He had half a sodden loaf of bread too, but he was saving that for himself.