I is for Ingornok

        (My A to Z Challenge theme this year is Characters from My Own Books.  For each letter I’ll share an excerpt from my writing that centers on one character.  I hope you enjoy meeting them!)

         Breakfast was much the same as the meal of the night before.  Ingornok’s speech was full of little jabs at his guest, implying that Nulif was weak and womanly, inexperienced and naïve, and altogether an unworthy champion for a beautiful woman.  The fact that Nulif felt some of these criticisms to be true did not make them any less irritating, and he spent the time struggling to hold his tongue and keep his temper in check.  As for Svarnil, she received her host’s flattery with a gentle smile, listened gravely to his accounts of his own prowess, and asked him earnestly about his sorcery.

         “I am chiefly an alchemist,” he explained.  “My sorcery derives from my mastery of the power of potions.  There is little that cannot be controlled if one is steeped, as I am, in knowledge of the meanings and properties of the essences of earth.  Powers of life and death, control of the mind and the heart, illusions and transmutations are all mine in alchemy.  Hazliorged became Master of the Region, and I, too, shall show the people of the Region what it is to rule.”

         “You plan to rule the Region, then?” asked Svarnil.

         Ingornok’s loud laughter filled the hall.  “Perhaps I shall, bard.  But it will be nothing to you, if you feed yourself to a dragon.  Just remember, you would make a pretty noblewoman, and there is no shame in recognizing the limits of your power.”

         “True,” Svarnil murmured, “It is a wise man who understands that.”

         But Ingornok continued, “You’ll see.  When you behold your first dragon you will know fear.  If it is not by then already too late, you are welcome to return to the Castle of Ingornok.”  He threw out his arms expansively, beaming around his hall, and adding, “There would be no shame in admitting that it is only an exceptional few who can deal with dragons and live.”

        Ingornok from A Threatening of Dragons, fifth book in a high fantasy series for middle school-or-so through adult (excerpt
from Chapter 4: Journey to Drakesvot).  More information here, or “Look inside” at Amazon.

[Picture: created in World of Warcraft character creator.]

A-Z Challenge, all posts for the letter I