I’m reading an excerpt from the exclusive serial for my Patreon Gryphons ($5 a month backers), the Ikkilion Chronicles.
By John Irvin
So, here’s Part 3 in my Author Reading Excerpts trilogy for my YouTube channel. It’s from the exclusive Ikkilion Chronicles—this is the only time you’ll get to hear a snippet from it, unless you go to Patreon and click the “pledge $5 a month” button.
Becoming one of my awesome supporters who helps me with my monthly finances so I don’t have to spend as much time at my other jobs away from my writing. I want to thank you ahead in advance for your support.
If you can’t support financially right now, sharing this blog, or the vlog, liking both of them, commenting on either, will help me as well. So thank you in advance for that also!
Now, go check out the reading:
What’s in the Works for Now?
So, if you’ve been keeping up with both my blog and vlog, you know I’m launching a GoFundMe campaign sometime next month. The money we bring in from this campaign will fund my first Author Book Tour, set for August of this year!
I’ll be discussing this more in next week’s vlog just so you know. That video I’m actually going to be sharing across my networks and I have a Launch Team ready to share it as well.
I also would like to announce, Book 3: As Flesh Rots, is finally published! Here is the link to Amazon:
And now, the vlog transcript.
John Irvin, Author Journey Series
Episode 9, Reading Excerpts Part 3
Welcome back to John Irvin, Author Journey Series, Episode 9, Reading Excerpts Part 3.
What is Patreon? It’s a site where artists of all types can set up a profile and share the work with the world. People can sign up and make monthly pledges for these artists, which gives them a chance to spend more time with their own work rather at some dead-end job.
It’s almost like a monthly crowdfunding, one person can pledge $5 a month so it only costs him maybe a Starbucks coffee once a month. But then, when an artist has 100 of these backers, he’s getting $500 a month while not costing each backer that much. I also reward my backers as does the rest of the Patreon community, in tier levels.
My rewards are mentions in my upcoming book dedications as well as two free e-books—one the first month and the second on the second month—and a weekly episode in the Ikkilion Chronicles serial.
This is an excerpt taken from Ikkilion Chronicles, Episode 2: The Great Escape:
“You just going to watch or are you going to help like a good husband?”
Clearing my throat, I scurry to her side, reaching for the wall. My skin brushes against cold wet stone.
Gross.
The moss growing between the cracks is gooey.
I narrow my eyes in the dark. Gooey moss between the stones might actually be a good thing. My fingers move southward as I crouch. I grin when I find what I’m looking for.
Fea kneels down at my side.
“Find something?”
“Just maybe.” I bob my head, still grinning. I trace the edge of sandstone.
There’s a puff of air in constant stream against my fingers.
Clenching my jaws, I push one hand against the crevice and nearly shout for joy when it gives way.
The stone bricks crumble, opening up into a small hand-sized hole.
I grab both sides with my hands, ramming again. With every push, I tear the wall to pieces until there is a gaping maw large enough for both my wife and me to crawl through.
“You first, my Love.” I grab Fea’s arm, ushering her forward.
Fea bends over, scooting through the gap. Her jeans right cuff snags on a corner, nevertheless she yanks it away, tearing a small seam.
I drop to all fours, scrambling through after her. I notice her black leather boots are covered in the muck of the cell.
I’ll clean those for her if we make it out of this, I promise myself.
“This isn’t the outside of the dungeon.” Fea squeaks. Her voice echoes in the chamber we’ve crawled into.
I propel myself onto my feet, surveying the room.
It’s twice as large as our cell and a little brighter.
Where’s the light coming from? I wonder. My cold steel eyes bounce around until I find what I’m looking for.
A small window lodged in the sandstone brick wall to our right.
“You think we can reach it and get through?” Fea voices the questions in my mind.
I shrug, tip-toeing over to the wall. Staring up at the window, I measure how high up it is. My lips moving while I calculate, I narrow my eyes.
The window is set twenty bricks above us. With each brick measuring maybe four inches in height, the window is eighty inches above—or rather, five feet and ten inches. Perfect.
“You’ll have to climb onto my shoulders.” I inform Fea.
She crosses her arms over her chest. “What will you do once I’m through?”
“I’ll climb up.” I grin, trying to exude confidence. Kneeling down in front of her, I wink. “Remind you of a day not too long ago?”
She crinkles her nose at me, yet says nothing. Her boots rise from the floor, planting themselves on my shoulders.
I’m glad they’re not steel-toed. That would probably hurt.
For her height, she barely weighs a thing. My Fea has always been about staying healthy, keeping fit, all that good stuff—every since our engagement, she was my go-to workout partner.
“Coming up.” I grit through my teeth, pushing on my knees. I stretch until I’m standing upright.
Fea grabs the window sill. “It’s wide enough for both of us to fit through.” Her fingers latch onto the bottom ledge.
I hoist my shoulders, giving her a little extra boost while she pulls herself through the escape hatch.
“So glad someone didn’t think to put bars on that window.” I remark to no one in particular. Turning around, I gaze toward the window, watching my wife’s butt disappear outside. I’ve always thought she had the sexiest butt and those legs, Mmm. Wow.
“You climbing yet?” Fea’s voice interrupts my observations.
“Right now.” I smirk, shaking my head. Stretching my hands above my head, I find a toe hold at the base of the wall. My own black leather boots fit my feet nice and snug, making it easy for me to feel my way up.
My fingers find all the crevices while I strain my forearms, pulling the entirety of my body weight every inch.
When my hands reach the window, Fea reaches in and grabs a hold. She grunts and groans while I squeeze air through my teeth.
My head feels like it’s about to explode—climbing stone walls shouldn’t be this hard. Finally, my shoulders fit through the window. I’ve nowhere else to go, except out.
The cool night breeze puffs on my face.
I smell salt.
When the blood stops pounding in my ears, I start to hear waves beating against a shore nearby.
Breathing in deeply, I crawl the rest of the way before going rigid.
If I’d kept going forward another foot, I’d find no more brick wall beneath my hands and knees. I’m right on the edge looking down at a drop of maybe thirty feet.
Below, the ground slopes for another twenty feet before diving into frothing waves.
That’s the Utragorn Bay which leads out to the Southerly Sea.
The West Wing of the Palace sits right on a small peninsula to the south of town, overlooking the Bay—at a lesser life-threatening time, I’d say it was the most beautiful view I’d ever seen.
This side of the Palace doesn’t have the city lights in view so there were more stars in the evening sky.
Apparently the sun had gone down while we were still being questioned by the Witch Queen.
“There’s a ledge heading around the West Wing.” Fea points off to her left—I do not like how close to the edge her heels are. “If we follow it, I think I see a staircase heading down outside the wall. Since we’re on top here, we can jump over the gate at its top.”
“Sounds like a plan to me.” I state. Rising to my feet, I almost trip over a dislodged piece of sandstone.
And that’s all for today’s book reading. This completes my book reading trilogy.
If you’re interested in supporting me, please click the link below and it’ll take you to my Patreon site.
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