Benediction
Denied
A
Labyrinth of Souls Novel
by
Elizabeth Engstrom
Genre:
Epic Fantasy
While hydrologist
Adam Swan is engaged in humanitarian efforts to bring water to a
small, isolated village in the Congo, he is kidnapped by rebel thugs
and thrown into a makeshift prison. He is left to die—or worse—if
his ransom is not paid. In a surprising series of events, Adam
escapes his brutal captors into an underground labyrinth where
reality and sanity no longer rule.
Armed with a limited
amount of magic which he does not understand, he survives by
employing it boldly, recklessly, desperate to return to the village
above, homesick for Minnesota and normal life with his wife and
daughters.
Tested to the
extreme limits of his endurance, Adam navigates the labyrinth with
only the company of his past behavior, the baffling magic, and the
seductive temptation to succumb to the mysterious and merciless gods
of the underworld. The consequences of his actions, past present, and
future, take him to the brink of death—and beyond.
A fun, fast,
thrilling ride by veteran author Elizabeth Engstrom, inspired
by Matthew Lowes’ Dungeon Solitaire: Labyrinth of Souls card
game.
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you buy the paperback, you will receive the ebook free!--
Adam Swan struggled up through dark, painful
layers of consciousness. Way in the back of his awareness, he knew that full
consciousness would mean full pain. He resisted, wishing desperately to sink
into blissful sleep, but he didn’t think his sleep had been all that blissful,
and he couldn’t find anything to cling to in order to help him get there.
His head pounded so hard it actually moved
with each heartbeat. He not only saw the red pulses behind his closed eyes, but
he heard each heart beat thundering through what surely must be a broken skull.
He brought his knees to his chest and cradled
his arms over his exploding head.
He was lying on his side. He tried to imagine
where he was, how he got there, but he had no room for anything but the
pounding, the thundering hammering in his head. There was a very real
possibility that the top of his head could blow off with the pressure of each
raging beat of his pulse.
He grabbed his head with both hands and
squeezed. The dirt beneath him moved, too.
Dirt floor.
What the hell?
He cracked an eye open, bringing with it
harsh, jagged waves of pain. Although there was very little light, he saw
walls.
At least he was alive.
Gritting his teeth against the pain, he moved
around to assess the damage. His arms worked. His hands worked. They didn’t
seem to be injured. He flexed his shoulders.
It was just his head.
He reached around with a tentative touch and
picked off crusty dried blood above his ear. Probing fingers found a lump the
size of a lemon.
Slowly, carefully testing, he moved his feet,
then his legs. One knee gave him some grief, but nothing like his head.
He squinted his eyes, then opened them just a
tiny bit, adjusted his glasses, and looked around.
A dark room. Dirt floor. Indistinct light
coming from above. He pushed on his temples, trying to arrest the pain, scooted
to a wall and pushed himself up to a sitting position, leaning against the
wall. Wooden wall.
He stopped moving and closed his eyes again,
seeing red and yellow starbursts of pain emanate from his cracked skull until
they seemed to fill the room. The pounding lessened when he was still, quiet,
not moving.
After a long moment, he carefully opened his
eyes again and looked around, gently moving his head, assessing any damage that
might have been done to his neck, trying desperately not to start the
shattering waves of pain that threatened to shoot his eyeballs right out of
their sockets.
Dirt floor. Small, square room. Door at one
end. Vent in the roof, the source of the light. Hot. Steamy. Jungle. Still in
the jungle. Still in Congo. Stench of urine. Bucket in the corner, perhaps the
source of the stench.
Small table next to the wall.
He closed his eyes and tried to relax. Tried
to remember.
I’ve always known I would be a writer. I wrote my
first book when I was eight years old, a science fiction story about telepathic
twins fighting invaders from Mars. I always knew that someday I would see my
name on the spine of a book (other than that one). I needed time to grow up, to
mature my thinking, and to discover what it is that I have to say. All authors
have a message of some sort, and when you love an author’s work, it means you
resonate with their message.
Benediction Denied is my fifteenth book. This was very fun story to write. Inspired
by Matthew Lowes’ brilliant Labyrinth of Souls solitaire card game and its
accompanying deck of beautifully illustrated Tarot cards, my character delved
into an underground world where nothing made sense. The labyrinth is not sane.
All he had for company were his limited survival skills and the drive to get
back to the surface and be with his wife and three daughters. Over the course
of this journey, he is forced to look at himself and the decisions he had made
over the years. This, of course, is the classic Hero’s Journey. The protagonist
is thrown into an uncomfortable situation and is changed by what he discovers
about himself.
Unlike most books, where it can take years for
the three essential elements to come together (interesting character,
interesting setting, interesting problem), this one came to me all in a blast
while I was taking the dog for a walk. I had to stop, pull out a pen and paper
and take notes as fast as I could before it faded away. This has only happened
one other time, when I wrote the outline for my book Candyland,
literally on the back of an envelope while also hosting a dinner party.
Usually, I work hard at crafting characters, designing settings, and working
problems so that they aren’t trite. But just because the essential elements
came to me in a flash doesn’t mean I didn’t work hard to make all those things
work into a good story. My ultimate goal in writing a book is to have it “read
like the wind.”
I am currently working on another Labyrinth of
Souls novel (very dark, very sexy, very fun) working title “Psyche
Surrendered.” Also in the works is a post-apocalyptic series, and I am
co-writing a space opera with a friend. Other than screenplays, this is my
first collaborative effort. So far, so good.
Elizabeth
Engstrom is the author of fourteen books and has over 250 short
stories, articles, and essays in print. She is a sought-after teacher
and keynote speaker at writing conferences, conventions, and seminars
around the world. She has a BA in Literature/Creative Writing, and
an MA in Applied
Theology, both from Marylhurst University. Her
most recent nonfiction book is How to Write a Sizzling Sex
Scene, and her most recent novel is Baggage Check, a thriller.
She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her fisherman-husband and
their dog where she is on the board of directors for Wordcrafters in
Eugene. She teaches the occasional writing class, puts her pen to use
for social justice, and is always working on her next book.
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