In January Bell Bridge will publish THE BRANDING, a high-fantasy adventure about a teen elf cursed to slowly morph into a grotesque creature in service to an evil wizard.
She, Morwen Aleacim, was now an outcast, an exile. Morwen now knew that her old life had officially ended.
The Brand flared up again. She cried out. An invisible torturer seemed to tear her flesh off and sew it back on with it thorny branches and salt-dipped needles. The water in the bucket splashed all over the floor as her arm squirmed wildly it.
Armando watched grimly, patting her shoulder.
Just as suddenly as it had started, the pain stopped. Morwen rested her
head on the hammock pillow. She pulled her arm weakly out of the water and held it up in front of her face. When she saw it, she nearly gagged.
She gazed upon a shiny, turquoise-scaled limb with inch-long black claws. The scaly fingers closed into a fist and back out into a flat hand.
She sobbed and looked up at Armando, who rested his hand on her scaly one.
“Morwen,” he said calmly. “Since the Brand has been so active, it will stay put and not spread for about a week or so, but it will still have control over this arm, now that it has completely covered it.”
“I can’t go out into the world with this thing on me!”
Armando went to his chest by the dinner table, unlatched it, and pulled out a thick glove he used to train hawks. He handed it to Morwen, who slipped it over her right hand.
“See? It looks completely normal now.”
“I have to leave the village now. Don’t I?”
“Yes, child.”
As Morwen travels through the wild lands beyond her village she partners with Alan, a mysterious teen elf with a dark secret of his own. Together they battle ghouls, bandits and monsters while searching for a wizard who can life the curse of the Branding before it consumes not just Morwen’s body but also her spirit.
Micaela Wendell is a hardworking honors student who lives in South Carolina. She’s already at work on a sequel to The Branding.
THE BRANDING, trade paperback and ebook. At Amazon.com, BN.com, Borders, iBookstore and other online booksellers.
