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THE ELF GUARDIAN
Clan Elves of the Bitterroot (Book IV)
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The Earth energies that support the Clan Elves of the Bitterroot have gone awry for unknown reasons. A paranormal investigator, looking for a story to save her career, is told a fantastic tale by the disobedient young elf prince Elliun. Max, the prince's albino elf bodyguard, must find a way to fix the mess. Can Max get humans, mages, and elves working together in time to save the land before the energies spin out of control? Or is this the end of the elven world in the Bitterroot Mountains?
THE ELF GUARDIAN [©2013] Clan Elves of the Bitterroot (Book IV) by Lyndi Alexander | Urban Fantasy (PG) 184 pages / 58,000 words | Available in ebook and print from the DFP Books label of Dragonfly Publishing
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PAPERBACK [EAN 978-1-936381-51-7 | ISBN 1-936381-51-6] 6x9 library trim (184 pages) | Average Price: $12.99
HARDBACK [EAN 978-1-936381-50-0 | ISBN 1-936381-50-8] 6x9 casebound (184 pages) | Average Price: $21.99
EBOOK [EAN 978-1-936381-52-4 | ISBN 1-936381-52-4] EPUB and Kindle (58,000 words) | Average Price: $4.99
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READ AN EXCERPT
CHAPTER 2:
AS dusk approached, Max scrambled from one of the long fir branches to another, twelve feet off the ground, nearly invisible to anyone below.
Particularly any human.
Abandoned by his parents in the chaos following the murder of their previous queen, Max had hidden from the world since he was three years old. In elf years, of course. He had been all of four feet high then, his white hair, pale blue eyes, and pale skin making him unique, an oddity even in the Bitterroot elf clan known as the Lelan.
Max kept track of the part-elf, part-human male who scampered through the undergrowth, examining everything he could get his hands on. Unlike Max, that particular Younger would never have to worry about being left behind by his parents. Elliun, the young prince of their clan, was the son of elf queen Jelani Marsh and her consort Astan Hawk. Already, once, they had gone through the fire for Elliun.
They had fought for Max, too. The Circle, the elder females who advised the queen, argued against Max watching over and mentoring the young prince. They claimed Max was too strange, too immature to be trusted.
But Jelani's human friends, Lane and Crispy, advised her otherwise.
Although born only three years ago, Elliun was already the size of a seven or eight year old human boy. With a quartz rock in his hand, he looked up and immediately spied Max lurking in the shadows.
I didn't fool him at all.
"Will this sing for me?" Elliun waved the egg sized rock at Max.
Frustrated, Max jumped off the limb, letting his ability carry him lightly to the ground. From the time he was young, he had been able to fly, or more accurately, glide through the air. The Circle of elders said it was something in his bones, a gift from his odd heritage. Against the objections of the Circle, Psilea had trained and mentored Max.
If the Circle had their way, he would have been tossed on the mountainside to die.
Max examined the stone in the boy's hand. Though considered a young adult in elven terms, Elliun and Max were nearly the same height. For this reason, it helped them get along well. It was obvious that Elliun thought of Max as another child.
"What do you think? Will it sing for you?" he asked.
Elliun's lips curved into a smile. "If I want it to."
"Let's see. Make it sing."
Put on the spot, Elliun hesitated a moment before he turned his attention to the rock. Max hid his grin of triumph. Elliun had thought Max would do the work for him. Not the proper role of a teacher, now, was it?
Elliun stared at the rock, holding it flat on the palm of his hand. His face contorted with his effort, and, after many heartbeats, he finally frowned. "I can't."
"I disagree. You have the ability, Elliun, handed down from your mother. You have her resonance with all natural things. You can do this."
The boy sighed, setting aside his frustration to concentrate once again on the rock.
"Sense how the lines are drawn inside the crystal, in structured order, top to bottom, equidistant, one from the other." Max studied his pupil, reading the mental exertion he applied to the stone, even if he could not read Elliun's thoughts. If he worked at it hard enough, Elliun would sense the —
"Yes!"
They simultaneously felt the small jolt of energy pass through the crystal, at the moment when Elliun's mind connected with the invisible lattice within.
It was a beginner's lesson, merely to find the configuration and understand it. As Elliun's gifts developed, he would no doubt learn to alter that structure, as Jelani could, to improve the health of the land around them.
"Well done!" Max wrapped an arm around Elliun's shoulders and gave them a squeeze.
His face flushed, Elliun grinned and pocketed the stone. "I'm going to take it back to the tree house. I'll show my mother."
"Good idea."
The wind picked up with the coming of night, cool against Max's exposed cheeks. The fir branches overhead whispered the suggestion to return to the safety of the clan before darkness fell.
"Come on, Elliun. Let's head home. We've counted the elk herd on the western slope, climbed halfway up Goat Peak, and now you've made a rock sing. That's a good day's accomplishment for a nian of your age."
Elliun's shoulders suddenly stiffened, and at first, Max thought he would balk. But that did not seem to be his concern at all.
"My father's home," he gasped. "With Da!"
The sudden fervor in Elliun's voice kicked Max's heart into high gear. For several weeks, the clan had waited for Astan and his father, the mage Daven Talvi to return. While most summers seasons the Bitterroot clan would gather to recharge and exchange its energy at the side of Donoma, the energy vortex. But this year something was different. Something felt ominous...
[Copyright ©2023 Lyndi Alexander | No unauthorized reproduction or distribution]
READ REVIEWS
"In THE ELF GUARDIAN (Book 4 of the Clan Elves of the Bitterroot series by Lyndi Alexander), the maturation of the continuing characters is evident, especially in little Max, the smallish (even for an elf) albino. He grows, not in physical size, but in courage, wisdom, and heart, as he strives bravely to be a true guardian to the young prince Elliun, who though only three in human years is already the size of a human seven or eight year old and taller than Max. Elliun leads Max a merry chase, disappearing constantly to explore forbidden areas, when he knows he shouldn't. Enter Chiara DeLuna, Paranormal Expert and media star of her own struggling cable TV show. She needs a hit to keep her show, and is willing to do anything to get it, even if it puts the lives of the elves in terrible danger. She is a sensitive, and knows that there is a vortex of energy in Montana, but doesn't know that the elves need the vortex as a source of strength and life, and that they need it to function as it should as they gather each year to recharge. Chiara and the elves all sense that something is amiss with the vortex, but seek to learn the cause for very different reasons. Read to find out what happens when the paths of Chiara and the elves cross as they all approach the vortex. This book is really exciting, the best of the series so far! I highly recommend it!" ~ reviewed by Dr. Jane Nixon White [FIVE STARS]
"In THE ELF GUARDIAN, Lyndi Alexander did a fabulous job of wrapping up the series! Her writing skills are evident in all of her books. Well done!" ~ reviewed by Pamela Cummins at Smashwords [FIVE STARS]
SERIES
The Elf Queen (1) • The Elf Child (2) • The Elf Mage (3) • The Elf Guardian (4) • Tales of the Clan Elves (5) • Read about the series and watch a video