Fairy Wars: Spies Among Us was sent last week to the editor. I anticipate a launch for it of July 1st. I plan on doing a couple of book signings this summer in the Idaho area in conjunction with its release. Check this website for updates about those signings. In the meantime, here’s a teaser from the preface.

Preface—Brutus’s (the Wolf’s) Story

Since our human champion Calen has been captured and imprisoned by the evil sorcerer Galdo, I’ll have to be the one to tell you of the events that transpired before and during our hero’s incarceration.

It wasn’t by chance that Zamir, my supposed former owner, and I were standing on a street corner that day in the village of Lambert when Calen came shopping for a dog. By word of King Aubrey, head of the fairies, who is Prince Enlil’s father and Zamir’s employer, the Creator commissioned me to become Calen’s protector. There I sat, looking all cute, tail wagging. I was sure to lick Calen’s cheek with my wet tongue to seal the deal. I can be very persuasive when I want to.

You see, Zamir is actually a powerful magician, not as powerful as the sorceress Crisa, who can shapeshift into animals and communicate telepathically with the animal kingdom, but mighty nonetheless, although he made himself appear old and feeble that day. He’s the one who made me look like a German Shepherd puppy, although that’s not my true form.

Calen may have thought himself lucky to find a puppy for protection against the dark ones, right when he needed one. If you know the Creator though, you know there are no coincidences, only carefully laid plans.

As you may have guessed, I’m not just a doggone beautiful dog. I told Crisa my secret when she first read my mind. Her response? “Your secret’s safe with me.”
Okay, so are you ready to hear my secret? Drum roll, please. Da, da, da, dat, da. I’m a lycanthrope or werewolf. That’s right, a hybrid that is both human and animal.

Unlike the rest of Fairyland, my race is visible to humans, even without the aid of the Omniweed (a magical plant that allows visual entrance into Fairyland for brief periods), and many tales are told in your non-lupine world of werewolves. Those tales are exaggerated. Silver is not lethal to us; a regular old bullet will kill us, just like you. We don’t change with the full moon into brutish, uncontrollable beasts, but instead transform from wolves to humans and back again with just a bit of concentration. We’re as gentle as they come to anyone with a kind heart, although be assured, I will use the full extent of my teeth and claws to kill anyone who tries to harm Calen.

While I appeared to Calen as a German Shepherd puppy, thanks to Zamir, Crisa later changed me into a wolf to protect Calen’s new identity as a centaur to keep him safe, since the dark ones had seen me with Calen. Ironic that, as a canid, I’m normally a wolf, so she pretended to wave her wand to transition me, but actually she just removed Zamir’s spell.
Without Calen’s knowledge, I’ve protected him all along, as I’m able to “sniff” out darkness in all its forms. Unfortunately, I haven’t always been able to fulfill my duties, like when Calen ordered me out of the house as the basilisk attacked, which the Creator told me Calen needed to battle by himself, and when Calen told me to “stay” outside after Crisa’s cottage was ransacked. Being the “good dog” I am when in wolf form, I do have to obey my master, which Calen has become because of the Creator’s commission.

I learned to wriggle out of my leashed collar early on and followed Calen several times in the first book of his Fairyland adventures. I shadowed him in hooded human form into Lambert where he purchased training supplies and later escaped my leash to be by his side when Galdo, that most evil and powerful sorcerer, appeared in Equis, the centaur village, with his dragons. Unknown to Calen, I’ve also protected him several times from rogue bogle attacks in his training journeys across the kingdom.

A bogle is an extremely dark creature, formed when a fairy, who is a light creature, allows the dark side of him to commit a heinous act, like killing an innocent. That fairy then becomes a larger, evil shadow of its former self. A bogle has a formidable skill set – no corporeal form, a scythe that can cut through bone, and the speed of a cheetah. To keep bogles from taking over the world, the Creator gave us, werewolves and even other wolves, the power to kill these wraiths, and we’re the only animals and numinals, or magical beings, that can. The Creator also made our barks sound like high-pitched squeals to bogle ears, which causes them intense pain. I’d love to sink my teeth into one of those darklings, but I’d have to be fast.

Okay, so now you’re thinking, if I’m such a good bodyguard who has the power to kill bogles, why didn’t I protect Calen from capture?

The day of his capture I traveled with him to Equis, the centaur village, returned with him to Crisa’s cottage and then was commanded to remain outside her gaping front door while he went in to investigate. Being the good “dog” I am, at least from Calen’s perspective, I obeyed. I thought the dark ones were long gone, as I didn’t smell them nearby, although there was a faint, lingering odor of darkness.
Calen was absent for about 10 minutes when I decided to follow him, cutting my pads on some broken glass. I discovered an escape tunnel in Crisa’s basement and followed it into her back yard, but Calen was nowhere to be found. There the recent scent of dark creatures was strong.

So I guess I’m not the hot protector the Creator thought I would be. The Creator tells me He has a purpose for Calen’s imprisonment, which makes me feel a little better, but I still feel like I’ve failed both the Creator and Calen. I must make up for my blunder and find Calen ASAP.