Twelfth month, twelfth book of The Academy of the Accord series, bringing us to the end of a year of The Academy of the Accord. I’ll still be working on editing, but probably not posting much from it until it’s ready to release. That was going to be 2018, but don’t anyone hold your breath – there’s still a lot of work to do on this series and I’m now rather optimistically hoping for 2020.
I had a really hard time deciding what to post from this book. Parts of this book have several different versions, so I have no idea if this will make it into the final version or not, but…
Jorsen and Autheren are on their way home from a summer with Jorsen’s family. A village they have to pass through is under the control of the enemy so Yhonshel and Brythel have gone to look for them.
Jorsen swallowed hard as he saw Autheren not moving, not even breathing, and drew a deep breath of his own. Brythel touched his shoulder lightly. “It’s just a stasis spell, Jors, holding him between breaths and heartbeats. It will keep him from getting any worse until the Healers can look at him.”
Jorsen nodded and knelt to lift his wizard, and Brythel touched Autheren gently, making him nearly weightless in Jorsen’s arms.
“I don’t know if I can stand seeing him like this the whole way back to Accord,” he choked. “To not be able to talk to him and laugh with him and…”
“We’ll be home tonight, tomorrow morning at the latest,” Brythel promised. “We’re going through Tuanae Wood, the way we brought Az home, and the way we got here.”
Jorsen nodded, relaxing.
“Ready?” Brythel asked.
He nodded, holding his wizard tightly against his chest.
“You know the drill,” Brythel said softly. “I’ll keep a hand on your shoulder the whole way.” As he finished speaking he wrapped the invisibility spell around the three of them and guided him around the blockade and into the town.
Brythel stayed alert, knowing that Jorsen was too wrapped up in his concern for Autheren to pay much attention to anything else. He could hear the other cadet’s ragged breathing and could feel the tension in the strong shoulder beneath his hand.
“Jors?” he asked softly.
“I’m all right. At least, I will be when I can see him.”
“Soon,” Brythel promised.
Jorsen nodded and drew a long slow shaky breath.
“I don’t know what’s worse,” Jorsen said. “Seeing him like this or not seeing him at all.” He shook his head. “I know what the worse thing is. The worse thing is not being able to help him.”
“What happened?”
“He got bitten by a murti spider. I didn’t see the web in time and…”
“It’s not your fault,” Brythel soothed.
“I’m supposed to protect him!” Jorsen stood, breathing heavily as he stared at the smaller cadet.
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Novel Notes 
Uh oh, what’s a murti spider? Obviously something bad. Poor kid, he’s so torn up by guilt. I hope they get home quick and get him help.
Well, yeah he is supposed to protect him but I would bet that he wasn’t expecting a spider web. I don’t think anyone would expect that.
The spider must be a nasty thing to make the cadet so ill. Hope he’ll be okay.
I always love the interaction between your characters and how much they care about each other. Great snippet!
Very good. I like the characters and I hope the wizard will get well.
Ugh. Spiders. Your characters do care for each other’s welfare.
Compelling character interaction and world building you have going here!
His sense of guilt and responsibility comes through loud and clear.