Guest Post - Joanna Fay interviews Xereth

Xereth has the dubious honour of being the lead villain of The Siaris Quartet. By some strange fortune (or quirk of his author), he is also the only character to be a viewpoint character across all four novels. This is his first public interview, so we cannot vouch for his behaviour!

JF:  Xereth, thank you for agreeing to an interview. I know this is dangerous territory, but would you like to start with a bit about your background?

X:   Are you asking me to pack 90 000 years into one sentence? Everyone knows who I am, don’t they? (sniffs) Very well, I was created by the god Keth as the third of nine ‘children’ known as the Aer. We went our separate ways, always a family of wanderers. My oldest brother was killed – well, I had a hand in that, but it was his own fault, for crossing the Morraeth.

JF:  The Morraeth?

X:   The only gods in this world with any sense! As shown by the fact that they are the only ones left, and the only beings in Siaris to be able to give me what I want…if the Time-Storm doesn’t suck them out of their fortress first.

JF:  So…that’s why you put yourself in service to them? What exactly do you want, Xereth?

X:   I want justice. I want the Aer gone, along with our wretched cousins, the Hinir. And any others among the Orders of the Guardians who sympathize with them.

JF:  Is this because of Sirene?

X:   Don’t mention that name, if you enjoy your life.

JF:  Perhaps it would do you good to talk about her…

X:   (frosty stare) Is this an interview or a therapy session?

JF:  Okay, moving on. How would you say your current plans are progressing?

X:   Nicely, thank you. The Hinir are fools; they have no idea what’s going on in their own protectorate, right under their pretty gold noses. They never understood the petty minds of mortals. Humans are easily turned, elden are weak, and dryads are as timid as kulus. Riana and her clan are too trusting, and Riana was ever the idealist. How she could be, after what happened to her Twin, the gods only know.

JF:   What about the Aer? Mightn’t they guess what you and the Morraeth are up to? I mean, your brother Sier did manage to rescue your enslaved children a few decades ago…

X:   (stands and flicks a blue wingtip across JF’s neck. The lights in the room flicker. A light-bulb shatters. Xereth settles the thorns forming in his spell-sheen and sits down again, breathing heavily) Sier will pay for stealing my children, in time. At present, I keep an eye on my youngest daughter, Sitia. She has a restless streak. I predict she will leave Sier’s home – and this world has its perils.

JF:  You being chief among them.

X:   (inclines his head graciously) Will that be all? I do have a few matters to attend to…

JF:   Of course. Thank you for your frankness. Let’s meet again when your plot has thickened. 

 

Reunion, second novel in The Siaris Quartet

Immortal love was never meant to be broken, but the road to restoring it is beyond imagining.

The world of Siaris has been thrown into chaos.  Xereth, still reeling from the loss of his children, has bided his time and waited years for the perfect time to exact revenge.  That time is drawing near.  Little does Xereth know, he’ll have unsolicited help along the way.

Long-dormant prejudices have surfaced among the humans and elden of Siaris, and they are turning their hate toward their Guardian protectors. Neither visions nor spell-craft can predict the mutiny being prepared in their protectorate, and when a human and Guardian fall in love the rule banning their marriage only ignites the drive to retaliate.

In the world Riana and her Guardian family protect, war has broken out, led by the man who once loved her, now Lord of the Shadow Realm. The old rules are crumbling, the spells engraved in the Guardians’ bones are breaking down.  Will Siaris and its Guardians survive the changes?



Strength coursed through Riana’s body as if a river had been unleashed, driving her into a sprint. She hurtled down the dark hallway, swiveling an image of the fortress around in her mind’s vision. Locking onto her position, she took an ascending passage.
She ran hard. Mottled folds of cloth whipped around her ankles. The fortress’s black walls pressed in close, dank and smothering. Her footsteps were muffled, all sounds eaten in the gloom. Her bare feet stung where they met the fierce cold of the floor. She veered around a twist in the corridor and rocked back on her heels. Eyes gleamed in front of her, colder than the stone beneath her feet.

“Riana.”

The voice slid like ice through her head. No mercy lit Maegren’s features, no hint of the knowledge she’d seen. Torchlight licked at the hem of his cloak, sent a chill line down his black feathers.

Riana forced down panic. “Maegren, let me go.”

She held herself still, but a betraying tremor touched her words. He laughed. Backing away, Riana spun about and slipped into a narrow opening to her left. She fled down a pitted slope into deeper blackness lit only by her fractured halo.

She ran until the breath caught in her lungs, until her feet began to slow. The strength she’d built was sapping from her limbs, draining from fractures in her spellsheen.

I can’t escape.

Every turn and kink in the line of the path was drawing her further into the fortress. The dark communal will at its centre closed in fast, tightening the noose. The soft mutters of the gods gnawed at the edges of her mind. Ancient decay cloyed in her nostrils. She lurched to a halt.

Impossibly, Maegren stood before her again. A vindictive smile curled his lips as he swept a low bow. The black hair framing his face swung in glittering sheets. Catching a faint blue glow at the periphery of her vision, terror knifed through Riana and sent pinpricks though her limbs. She glanced back over her shoulder, searching the darkness. In the corner of her eye, an indigo form closed in on her with predator stealth.

“Xereth,” she whispered.

Her cousin’s blue eyes narrowed, transfixing her.

Trapped.

Run to ground like a wild thing.

Sensing something else, unbelieving, she looked down. Low in her belly a point of light welled. New cells sparkled where an egg snuggled in the wall of her womb. She gasped and put a trembling hand to her body. Maegren’s suppressed sound of shock caught her ear. Reacting to Xereth’s presence, she shielded her sudden awareness with all the power she could muster. The white glow in Maegren’s eyes dulled. Weakness crept up Riana’s legs as a picture formed in front of her. She sank to her knees, oblivious to the icy bite of the floor beneath her hand. Before her stood a little boy, quite calm, his eyes shining. He held a hand out to her, one cheek dimpling.

“Mother, it will be all right.”

 

Joanna Fay lives in the Perth Hills of Western Australia with her teenage son and a menagerie of small pets, including a magical white rabbit. She writes fantasy novels and short stories, works as a therapist, meditates, and keeps an eye on the sky for unidentified flying objects. Her poems and short stories have won awards and been published in Australia, the UK and the USA.

You can buy Reunion: The Siaris Quartet Book Two

From Musa    From Amazon   From Barnes & Noble

You can buy Daughter of Hope: The Siaris Quartet Book One

From Musa   From Amazon    From Barnes & Noble

Joanna Fay:

Website: http://joannafay.me/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoannaFay11
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