New Short Story Release: Jalaya, a short story of conflict, family, and duty

The stand-alone edition of the novelette, Jalaya, released on January 7, 2024, and is now available for purchase. It can be found individually at any of the platforms on this Books2Read link, and it can be found as one of the stories in: A Collection of Battle and its Aftermath.

For those of you wondering what it's all about. Well...

The Short Version:

It's about family, duty, love and war, and the perils of past secrets.

The Longer Version:

It's about:

A yearly tradition.

A dance not forgotten.

A planet torn by a long-running war.

Hunted by an implacable foe, and driven into the ruins of a town he once called home, Mark Leader, Michael, must try to save his people against savage odds.

And try, too, to save the woman he loves.

Will the secrets of their past save or doom their future?

How It Begins:

Michael looked down at the town in the sand. Red, flat roofs of clay interspersed by the elegant, wooden gables of buildings from northern climes, still stood in a basin of protective hills. From where he stood, the rotting boards were invisible, as was the sand that swirled along the unkempt streets.

He tried to see the town as it had been ten years before. There had been trees standing inside walled islands of stone dotting the center of the main streets, and the sweetly scented jalaya flowered beneath them. There had been window boxes full of color clinging to the walls and the town had been white, the color of snow and light-hearted purity, not red, the color of old blood and war.

Caroline had danced in the streets with him on the first day of the new year, and the unseen rains had made the river roar with power as it rushed between the white stone walls of the canal.

That had been ten years ago, just before the Scorpions had first attacked, and the town had emptied shortly thereafter.

Caroline’s family had disappeared in the melee, along with his son, but Caroline had refused to grieve them. They were safe, she insisted. His son was safe, she said, but he had to take their daughter.

Michael had had no time to argue or grieve, but instead had clung to her promise. His son was safe. His daughter would be safe with him, but of his bride-to-be…

Caroline had refused to go. She had said she had duties that must be attended. She had asked him to stay, but Michael had possessed other duties, other responsibilities that had forced him to leave her behind, so she said she would dance the streets on the first day of every new year in his memory.

When he had protested that the day was no longer safe, she had promised to dance them at night.

Michael had begged her to come with him, to wed him in the desert, but Caroline’s eyes had glistened with tears.

“I have to stay,” she’d said, and insisted the reasons secret until they married and united as family. She had said she would not take him from his duties, hugged him fiercely tight, and then fled swiftly away.

Where to Find It:

That Books2 Read Link, again: https://books2read.com/u/3JGvge