Excerpt from Ignotus (Fringe Worlds #3)

As readers probably know by now, the next book in my publication cycle is the third novel of my Fringe Worlds series (working title: Ignotus).  I had actually planned to have this one done a while back, but got sidetracked.  That said, I plan to finish it in the very near future, but in the meantime I thought it would be fun to publish an excerpt. (Needless to say, the usual caveats apply to this passage: hasn’t been edited, proofed, etc.)

 

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The woman closed on him fast, but seemed to check her speed as she drew near.  Twice now she’d been spurred into taking action that could be construed as imprudent – namely, leaving her feet. Doing so had allowed Maker an opportunity to engage her companions individually and had cost them the advantage of numbers. She appeared wary of making any more missteps.

On his part, Maker knew that he was seriously outclassed. As a native of a high-gravity world, this particular opponent was stronger and faster than him, and had far greater endurance.  More to the point – judging from the look on her face – if she got her hands on him, she’d break him in half.

Bearing that in mind, Maker worked on keeping a healthy distance between himself and the woman. Stated plainly, he retreated from her advance, constantly keeping his feet shuffling backwards. Needless to say, it didn’t take his opponent long to catch on to his game.

“Come on, cutie,” she said in a surprisingly feminine voice. “Don’t play hard-to-get.”

A moment later she lunged at Maker, barely missing as he scooted hastily aside to evade her grasp.  She was even quicker than he had suspected, with cat-like reflexes. The only advantage he had was that – given the woman’s height – her legs were short and she didn’t have a great deal of reach, despite the fact that her arms seemed slightly elongated.

“Please, handsome, just one little kiss,” she mocked, puckering her lips teasingly. “I promise I’ll make it worth your while.”

Maker ignored her quips, refusing to engage with his adversary either physically (which would have been foolish) or verbally (which would also have been folly). Exchanging words with her would simply have winded him, and his opponent had a lot more stamina than he did.

In addition, he didn’t need the distraction that conversation would evoke; he had enough to do just keeping an eye on his adversary while also sparing the occasional glance behind him to make sure he didn’t inadvertently trip over anything while keeping a safe distance between them. Not helping matters was the fact that he still only had one shoe on, which had the effect of throwing his equilibrium off to a small extent.

Despite appearances, however, Maker wasn’t just randomly retreating; he had a plan of sorts, which he stayed mindful of as they moved through an area of the park populated by towering trees with broad, rectangular trunks. 

It was around that juncture that the inevitable happened: as Maker continued to fall back, his unshod foot, covered only by a sock, came down on something hard and unforgiving – presumably a stone or something similar. Pain shot up through his foot, and Maker drew in a sharp breath through clenched teeth as his leg buckled slightly. He recovered almost immediately, gingerly moving away from the offending object, but the episode gave his opponent the opening she had been looking for.

Noting that Maker was now favoring one foot, the woman dashed forward, arm cocked back. Hampered by his injury, Maker instinctively realized that he’d lost the ability to be evasive. That being the case, he steeled himself, and a moment later the woman rammed a meaty fist into his midsection.

Air exploded forcefully and painfully from his lungs as the wind was literally knocked out of him, and Maker’s body essentially folded around his attacker’s clenched hand. In fact, her fist was the only thing holding him up, as he otherwise would have collapsed to the ground.

Leaning towards his ear, she whispered, “Guess I kind of took your breath away, huh? I tend to have that effect on men.”

Then, giggling at her own joke, she made a flicking motion with her hand – like someone trying to shoo away an annoying insect – and the next thing Maker knew he was flying through the air backwards.