The Sixth Discipline is free in most eBook stores. The story. a far future, slow burn romance is set on the isolated colony world of Haven, where the human colonists inhabit three different environments: cities surrounded by small towns and farms, a vast forest inhabited by mystics, and mountain valleys from whence fierce hunters and warriors raid the other two groups.
Here's a snippet from Chapter Six, when things start to get really interesting.
Francesca stopped turning and pointed to a
distant, snow-capped peak in the middle of the range. “That looks like Mount
Fujiyama. We must be on Hayden land, which means we’re a good ways south of the
city.”
South of the city might mean closer to the
Sansoussy Forest. Ran-Del cleared a space in the dirt with his foot and handed
her a twig. “Show me.”
Francesca squatted down and drew a small
circle. “That’s Shangri-La.” Below the city, she sketched a large four-sided
shape, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, and drew a zigzag line across
the middle of it. “This is the Hayden estate, and the wiggly line is the
mountains behind us.” She added a dot near one end of the line of mountains.
“This mark is where Fujiama is.”
“Where on your map is the forest of the
Sansoussy?” Ran-Del asked, crouching down beside her.
She drew a large, amorphous, cloud-like shape
just slightly south and a good ways west of the city.
“There,” she said. “I’m not really sure where
your people live, but that’s the Sansoussy Forest. It’s prairie and rolling
hills up until then.”
Ran-Del studied the marks and then looked up
at the sun. “We’re north of your mountain, so we must be about here.” He laid a
small pebble in the top half of the squarish shape.
“I think so,” Francesca said. “But Hayden land
extends quite a ways. I can’t say for sure.”
“That answers where,” Ran-Del said, sitting
back on his heels. “But why would your father have put us here?”
“I’m not positive.” She ducked her head, and
Ran-Del sensed embarrassment. “But I have an idea. It’s related to the reason
Pop snatched you from the forest in the first place.”
He focused his psy sense for any hint that she
was lying. “What is the reason?”
Francesca seemed reluctant to answer directly.
“Did Pop tell you about what’s happening to Great Houses like Hayden?”
Ran-Del recalled Baron Hayden’s monologues and
nodded. “He said his house was in danger of being swallowed up by a bigger
house. He said that I could help him to stop it in some way, but he would never
say how.”
Francesca stared straight ahead as if she
found the distant mountains fascinating. “Well, the reason we’re vulnerable is because
right now the House of Hayden is just me and Pop; there’s no one else. Pop was
an only child, and so was I. I have no Hayden cousins, no siblings, and no
husband.” She paused and then blurted out, “Pop wants you to change that.”
Ran-Del frowned, still not understanding.
“What do you mean? How could I change that?”
Francesca frowned, plainly annoyed at having
to explain everything in explicit language. “Pop wants me to get married—to
you.”
Ran-Del suspected her first of lying, and then
of mocking him. His psy sense told him neither was the case. “Your father is
insane. You had nehiver seen me until three days ago, and I had never seen you.”
“He may have a crazy idea in his head, but
he’s quite sane.”
Ran-Del got to his feet and looked down at
her. “He has day bats nesting in his upper branches. He came into our forest
and shot me with a dart, as if he had been hunting his dinner. Are you telling
me that he was looking for a husband for you?”
“Yes.” Francesca shaded her eyes from the
morning sun as she looked up at him.
Ran-Del snorted with rampant disbelief and
looked away to scan the countryside. “No one would do that,” he said, looking
back at her. “He cares about you. Why would he find a stranger—a wild man your
people called me—to marry his only daughter?”
Francesca still crouched on the ground. She
sighed and hugged her knees. “This wasn’t a sudden aberration, this respect for
your people. Pop has always thought you lived a cleaner life.” She frowned as
if she thought her meaning wasn’t clear. “Not cleaner in the sense of hygiene,
but more honest—more honorable. When he realized that he’d need to arrange a
marriage for me, he got this idea that the thing to do was to find a Sansoussy
to marry me.”
“A Sansoussy?” Ran-Del
said. “Just any Sansoussy?”
“Not exactly.” Francesca stood up but turned
her eyes away as if she were reluctant to meet his gaze directly. “Pop didn’t
want anyone too old or too young—or already married. And he wanted a warrior
who had some psy sense, because that combination gave me the most protection.”
“So he went into the forest to acquire a
Sansoussy?” The more Ran-Del thought about it, the more it fit Stefan Hayden’s
words and actions. His anger rose when he realized how thoroughly the Baron had
planned to hijack his life. “And I was the first one whose caste bracelet had
the right beads, is that it?”
“Pretty much.”
Ran-Del crossed his arms over his chest. “What
made him think I’d marry you? He could have kept me locked in his house
forever, but he couldn’t have made me marry you.”
Francesca’s face turned a deep red, and she
radiated mortification. “I was supposed to seduce you. Pop said you’d feel
obligated to marry me if I did.”
Ran-Del had to clench his jaw for a second, to
control his anger. If it got any worse, he would need the First Discipline.
“You knew what your father wanted, and you agreed to it?”
Her face contorted in agitation. “No! I mean,
yes, I knew, but I never agreed to it. The day before yesterday I told him flat
out that I wouldn’t do anything to try to make you marry me. Then last night
Pop offered me a glass of wine, and after that it’s all a blank.”
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