Spunky N Sassy: The Belmont Saga

Welcome back to Author Ren Garcia with his Saga today!

Book 1 - Sands of the Solar Empire

GET THE BRANDY TO BAZZ . . .

That’s all Paymaster Stenstrom, the Lord of Belmont-South Tyrol, has to do and the old warbird Seeker is his. He has dreamed of captaining a Fleet ship his entire life.

Little does Paymaster Stenstrom realize that he is in the grip of an old Vendetta and the short trip to Bazz might very well be his last. 

Faced with a dead ship and a lost crew, Paymaster Stenstrom finds help in the strangest places: the thief Marine and the milquetoast young man from the Admiral’s office, and, though he just became acquainted with these two strangers, he discovers they have been influencing each other’s lives for a very long time.

Something sinister hovers over Paymaster Stenstrom and his two new friends, something they are only now becoming aware of. The SANDS OF THE SOLAR EMPIRE stretch out before them in an endless gulf brimming with the unknown. Can a masked Paymaster, a thief, a coward and a once great warbird face what awaits them?

Book 2 - Against the Druries

That’s what they say on Bazz, that the “Deep Sea”, the open space between the two planets, is cursed and full of bad dreams—but nobody ever listens to people from Bazz, do they?

Paymaster Stenstrom, Private Taara and Lord A-Ram struggle to navigate the Seeker, an old warbird, through the shipping lanes to Bazz. If the Paymaster can’t get to Bazz with his cargo of brandy, he loses the ship and will probably end up in jail as well.

Jail? If only . . . The three adventurers are about to discover the old farfetched mariner stories are very real and that the Devil himself waits for the unwary in dark places where there is no help.

The Circle closes in on Stenstrom, Taara and A-Ram, and its judgment for them is far worse than any jail cell. The Seeker is about of become just another ship that set sail from safe shores and was never heard from again, unless . . .

The Belmont Saga concludes in this heartbreaking and action-packed tale of friendship and dedication, of vile evil and hopeless terror, and that sometimes help for those gone astray comes from the most unlikely of places.

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Ren Garcia is a Science Fiction/Fantasy author and Texas native who grew up in western Ohio. He has been writing since before he could write, often scribbling alien lingo on any available wall or floor with assorted crayons. He attended The Ohio State University and majored in English Literature. Ren has been an avid lover of anything surreal since childhood, he also has a passion for caving, urban archeology and architecture. His highly imaginative "League of Elder" book series is published by Loconeal Publishing

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Excerpt

--A-Ram stepped forward. “Sisters,” he said quietly. “You said I too was to have a reward?”

Taara, fully possessed by the Sisters, smiled and sauntered up to him. “Indeed we did, Lord A-Ram. You showed great spirit in assisting Lord Belmont—we’ve not seen that from you before. Therefore, you will have a reward—the first of many. What is it to be?”

A-Ram stood there. “I—I would like you to Stare me for the answer. I’ll not say it out loud.”

The Sisters, sitting on their couches, tittered. One of them leaned forward, eyes-wide and Stared him. Stenstrom watched. The Sister’s eyes were big and fixed on A-Ram. They were the eyes of a beast, a wild animal. He noticed A-Ram twitching under her Stare. He was in pain.

After a few more moments, the Sister leaned back and gave him an open-lipped smile. “Oh, really . . .” Taara said under her influence. She snorted. “You feel ignored? You feel slighted, do you? You showed us nothing, Lord A-Ram. You were a cowardly simpleton not worth our time, as was your whole family. Bad chefs, bad Brandtball players and you. Again, perhaps we misjudged you—underestimated you, just like Admiral Derlith and everybody else, seeing nothing but the frail little man with morbid hobbies. You hide your admirable qualities well, but they are there, nevertheless, and, on your tiny shoulders rest the soul of our Fist. Very well, Lord A-Ram, make your choice.”

The light from the lantern panned away. The fair guise the Sisters had been wearing passed with it. There they were again strange, elongated, somewhat sinister.

A-Ram stood there a moment, and then he walked a step or two and took his place in front of the Sister who had just Stared him. Slowly, her wild-animal eyes fixed on his, she stood up. Sitting there on her couch it was hard to tell just how tall she was, but, as Stenstrom had suspected, she, standing erect, had to be at least eight feet tall.

Towering over A-Ram, she pulled off her headdress and tossed it aside. Cinder black hair came spilling out of her wrappings. She opened and closed her fists, her fingers moving in a spidery fashion. She appeared to want to eat A-Ram. To his credit, he stood there and didn’t flinch.

Taara hovered next to A-Ram. “Oh, we are going to enjoy this, Lord A-Ram. You have made an interesting and exotic choice. Again, you have impressed us with your unexpected bravery today, and we shall make it worth your while. Again, this shall be but the first of many rewards you shall enjoy.”

Taara leaned into him—fully possessed. She started speaking in the first person—Sisters rarely did that, and the things she said gave Stenstrom considerable pause. Her voice was laced with savagery.

“I am going to take you places seldom seen! And I am not going to be gentle—I am going to burn you, A-Ram. Burn you!” The Sister reached out and grabbed him by the nape of his shirt. She lifted him off the ground and pulled him close . . . and she licked him slowly, passionately.

Stenstrom, shocked, couldn’t look any further, he turned away. From: Against the Druries.