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    The Traitor's Tale
    The Traitor's Tale
    The Traitor's Tale
    Ebook70 pages54 minutes

    The Traitor's Tale

    By Jonathan Moeller

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    About this ebook

    A thousand years ago, the sorceress Antenora betrayed Arthur Pendragon and the last Keeper of Avalon, but was cursed by dark magic for her folly.

    After a thousand years of regret and pain, Antenora is desperate to redeem herself...and her chance has come at last.

    But the Frostborn stand in her way, and even all of Antenora's magic might not be enough to overcome their terrible power...

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJonathan Moeller
    Release dateFeb 28, 2015
    ISBN9781311224064
    The Traitor's Tale
    Author

    Jonathan Moeller

    Standing over six feet tall, Jonathan Moeller has the piercing blue eyes of a Conan of Cimmeria, the bronze-colored hair of a Visigothic warrior-king, and the stern visage of a captain of men, none of which are useful in his career as a computer repairman, alas.He has written the "Demonsouled" trilogy of sword-and-sorcery novels, and continues to write the "Ghosts" sequence about assassin and spy Caina Amalas, the "$0.99 Beginner's Guide" series of computer books, and numerous other works.Visit his website at:http://www.jonathanmoeller.comVisit his technology blog at:http://www.jonathanmoeller.com/screed

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      Book preview

      The Traitor's Tale - Jonathan Moeller

      THE TRAITOR'S TALE

      Jonathan Moeller

      ***

      Description

      A thousand years ago, the sorceress Antenora betrayed Arthur Pendragon and the last Keeper of Avalon, but was cursed by dark magic for her folly.

      After a thousand years of regret and pain, Antenora is desperate to redeem herself...and her chance has come at last.

      But the Frostborn stand in her way, and even all of Antenora's magic might not be enough to overcome their terrible power...

      ***

      The Traitor's Tale

      Copyright 2015 by Jonathan Moeller.

      Smashwords Edition.

      Cover image copyright Federico Marsicano | Dreamstime.com & catiamadio | Dreamstime.com.

      Ebook edition published March 2015.

      All Rights Reserved.

      This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination, or, if real, used fictitiously. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written permission of the author or publisher, except where permitted by law.

      ***

      Chapter 1: The Curse

      I cannot remember my name, not after fifteen centuries, but I do know that I am a traitor.

      The human mind was never meant to contain so much time, and many of my memories have faded into nothingness. I cannot remember my childhood, nor the names and faces of my parents, nor the taste of food or the pleasure of the wind upon my face. All this has been lost to me.

      Yet I remember my betrayal well enough.

      I was the Keeper of Avalon’s apprentice, her student and her confidant. Yet when Mordred Pendragon rose in rebellion against the High King Arthur Pendragon, wielding dark magic as a lesser man might wield a sword, I was seduced to Mordred’s side. For I was a vain and foolish young woman, believing power to be my birthright, and Mordred’s flattering words spoke to the poison in my heart. I betrayed the High King and the Keeper, and became Mordred’s advisor and his lover.

      But he, too, betrayed me, stealing my power to fuel his own and leaving me to die. Mordred and Arthur slew each other upon the field of Camlann, and I was left cursed. I would never age, but I would never again known pleasure or pain, and my flesh grew pale and corpselike. My magic fled from me, and I was left with no power save that of the magic of fire.

      In desperation and regret, I fled to the Keeper’s side, but it was too late. Malahan Pendragon, the High King’s bastard grandson, rallied the remnants of Arthur’s realm to his side. The Keeper opened a gate of magic, a portal to another world, and Malahan and the survivors withdrew through the gate to a new world and escaped the pagan Saxons.

      And the gate closed, leaving me behind forever.

      For a time I despaired. But the curse the Keeper and Mordred’s treachery had left upon me ensured that I would never die, and eventually I moved past the despair. The Keeper had left Britannia and Earth, but I tried to take up her mantle, using my limited powers to fight dark magic as she had once done.

      I had a great deal of work to do. The history of Earth after the departure of the Keeper and the death of Arthur Pendragon was long and bloody, and tyrant after tyrant arose, many of them in league with the powers of darkness. I did what I could, trying to defend the mortals of Earth from dark magic. I also sought after magical secrets and ancient spells, trying to find how the Keeper had left Earth for a new world with Malahan Pendragon.

      How I might find her and beg her forgiveness for my crimes.

      For fifteen centuries I searched in vain. As the years piled on and became decades and then centuries, I forgot so much. I forgot entire centuries, learned languages and forgot them again. I even forgot my own name. Around the fourteenth century in Italia, I encountered a poet named Dante and heard him speak of heaven and hell and the realms beyond. After hearing his

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