#BlogTour #Extract: Second Skin by Sue Bentley @suebentleywords @Endeavour_Media @annecater #SecondSkin #RandomThingsTours

Good morning everyone I’m on the blog tour for Second Skin by Sue Bentley today and I have a great extract to share with you.

Second Skin is available in ebook now for the fantastic price of £1.99. You can purchase your copy using the link below.

Before I share my extract with you here is a little bit about the book.

Book Synopsis:

The moon was being devoured.

Estranged from birth and raised on tales of the great mountain castle of Idrith-Core, where her distant
father serves as Lord Commander and confidante of the King, Aledra Jewel-Wing was now going there to court.

As one of the Drakkoni, a race of powerful shape-shifters and conquerors of a wild land, she joins her
stepmother at the festival for all peoples. But when in attempting to save a life, Aledra shifts into her
Drakkoni Secondskin – her beautiful second soul: a giant flighted lizard with flaming breath – she breaks
an ancient oath, and the tremulous peace between the Drakkoni and Esrans is shattered.

Branded a fugitive, hunted by her father, and aided in escape by the master-mancer who raised her,
Aledra begins a journey for survival across a war-torn continent.

Extract:

After growing up on a remote farmstead Aledra is making her first visit to the famed castle she knows only by reputation. She’s a little spoiled, unworldly and has run wild on the farmstead. Her narrow views are those of her own race, the proud conquering Drakkoni. It’s a culture shock to see such a diversity of people. She is enjoying the spectacle, unaware that disaster and tragedy is about to befall her…

The clamour of voices, screeches and flashes of light roused Young-Lady Aledra Jewel-Wing from her doze. To her surprise, night had fallen. It was full-black inside the carriage, but with a faint glow of movement across the oiled window covering. Their carriage’s iron clad wheels were rumbling over an even surface and she could feel none of the jolting or stone-crunch that had made the journey such a misery. Unfastening the covering, she looked out of the side window. They were crossing a wooden drawbridge. In the wind torn flare of pitchlights, she could make out a patchwork of colour and seething movement. So many people! Some walking on foot, others in wagons and handcarts, and still others walking beside avian-drawn carts. Rubbing the journey dust from her eyes, Aledra blinked up at a towering archway flanked by huge gates. Above the archway and to either side, was an immense bulk of glossy-black stone. Vertical walls soared upwards, blotting out the stars. Idrith-Core — focus of many bedtime stories during her childhood. Larger and more imposing than she had ever imagined. The journey from the farmstead in the dry river valley, which had taken four times longer than expected, seemed a small price to pay. Never mind that a rock fall had taken them many days out of their way and they had narrowly avoided being set upon by one of the hostile tribes who stubbornly — and in her opinion, stupidly — resisted every effort to civilise them. Or that every dip and lurch over rocky track, ditch and muddy trail, had added another bruise to her aching body. Soon she would be soaking away her pains in one of the castle’s famed hot springs. Her spirits rose, as she recalled that she would not have to face the return journey. Not if all went to plan. A soft snore rose from the woman swathed in veils who was sitting opposite. Aledra decided to let her stepmother sleep on. She was enjoying the novelty of so many new sights and wanted to savour them without distraction. There was plenty of time for a closer look as their carriage crawled and stopped, stopped and crawled, hampered by the crush of travellers.
Leaning forward, she studied the crowd. She saw dark and light-skinned tribal folk, dressed in close-fitting garments of woven grass. Others, chest-bare and wearing leggings and waist-cloths, walked on stilts. Smaller, delicate folk swept past; quicklithe creatures, with beads woven into quill-like hair. She waved at a handcart filled with a family group that had honey-dark skins and straight brown hair. The children waved back, smiling to show blackened, filed teeth. Voices in many accents rang out, mixing with the bellows of beasts and jangling of harnesses.
Aledra noticed a group of men with shaven-heads, wearing necklaces and ear plugs of carved shell. Their fish-skin tunics and packs gleamed with tiny rainbows. She had seen drawings of them in the instruction books Sar Rowan brought to the farmstead. These were folk from the independent tribes who lived in the land of the great lakes, to the mid-west of Esra. Generally natives who did not belong to the United Races Alliance kept to themselves. But festivals provided good opportunities for everyone to trade, arrange marriages and strengthen family ties…

About The Author:

Sue lives in a house surrounded by a wildlife hedge so she can pretend she lives in the countryside. She enjoys reading, walking, cinema, researching her books, and painting and printmaking, when she’s not writing — which isn’t very often!

Sue’s latest book, Second Skin, will be out 18th July 2019.