: : timeless design through memorable stories, graphics, photographs and decor

By Paul Edward Lessard

When the final twist in the saga of an embattled Ryadzyyn Princedom leaves the royal family dead at the hands of revolutionaries, Anastasiia Penelope Ryyadzynna, heir to the throne, and Tygran Tynytzyyn, the Consort’s spiritual advisor, both escape rebel bullets.

But when their respective attempts at a new life in exile on the faraway island of Sooty Tern reach fruition they unwittingly forge the destinies of Billy Cursive, Reed Huvvy and Gwendolen Silhouette.
And when Billy and Gwen, years later, dart from the cozy confines of their mid-winter refuge above the Spotted Crane Pub, it isn’t Tygran Tynytzyyn who watches them from the Inn as they go hand and hand over the island bridges to part at Wyrkum’s edge, Billy running over Clem and Gwen over Claw, meeting again at the pitch before disappearing around the tunnel, beneath the icy, snow-covered relic of the Hartlemann Outpost sign. Tygran, plied with excellent brandy and the seductions of Kitty Maas, wallows hung-over and quite off his usual razor-sharp watch.
It was Henry Huvvy’s heart that sped at the sight. Was it for this Tynytzyyn had driven her away? That she might return in rags into the arms of goddamn Billy Cursive? But even as the familiar inkling of betrayal tugs at his breast (I’ve been an absolute fool), his mind still not able to wholly digest its enormity, he remains sure of the basic wisdom that old man Tynytzyyn has always espoused. That the future of the island and this girl are inextricable.

Perhaps, he thinks, there is just one thing about which the secret Sunday visitor, now poisoning like a cancer his very halls, has been mistaken. Indeed, Henry surmises with a grand smile, one thing only, and something so easily adjusted, so easily arranged.

*

“Come on, Huvvy,” Billy says, butting out his cigarette and putting up his ‘dukes’ like they do in the pictures. He looks ridiculous. “Fight like a man.”
“I would love to, old boy,” Reed says, rubbing his jaw and attempting to stand. “Only I’m a pacifist.”

You can purchase the book online from Smashwords in multiple eBook formats at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/248070.

eBook formatting by Shelley Glasow Schadowsky.