A Clockwork Fairytale: Prologue & Chapter One

This is the first installment of a YA/Adult fantasy romance set in a victorian-style fantasy world. I plan to post the first half of the book, chapter by chapter, one installment every few days. (Total wordcount of book 99,000) The book is available for purchase on Amazon, B&N, Smashwords & All Romance ebooks at $2.99. 

Cover copy:

Highlights!

A Victorian-style, historical fantasy world.

Magical Earth Jinns, Foul Jinns and Silver Serpents.

Clockwork devices powered by Jinns.

A lost princess and the handsome young spymaster who finds her.

First love, coming-of-age story.

Summary

Abandoned as a young child, plucky, seventeen-year-old Melba was raised like a boy to pick pockets and run messages in the poor outer circles of Royal Malverne Isle. But She longs to move up the criminal hierarchy and become a spy. When nineteen-year-old Turk, a spymaster and local folk hero, accepts her pledge to join his gang, she thinks the Great Earth Jinn has heard her prayer. With his exotic, dark southern looks and wealthy lifestyle in the inner circle, Turk fascinates her. Not only is he a famous spy, he also wields earth magic, and he teaches her to raise tiny, playful Jinns from flowers. But Turk is not who he seems. He follows the orders of a higher power and his master has secret plans for Melba, plans that make her a target of the evil Royal Victualler's foul magic, plans that challenge Melba and Turk's beliefs about life and duty, plans that tear them apart, just as they discover what it means to fall in love.

Suitable for adults and teenagers.

A Clockwork Fairytale

By

Helen Scott Taylor

Copyright © 2011 by Helen Taylor

Cover design © Helen Taylor

The right of Helen Taylor to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

 This is a work of fiction. All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Copyright owner.

Prologue

Silver-veined marble columns flanked the portal to the temple of the Silver Jinn. The woman mounted the three steps to the entrance, treading lightly in satin slippers. Silver bracelets on her wrists and ankles jangled while a rare breeze tugged at the pink and turquoise silk sheathing her body.

She sighed with relief as she entered the relative cool of the marble temple and escaped the searing heat of the midday sun. Neat rows of embroidered kneelers filled the space, ready for the devout at dusk prayers. Her eyes rose to the magnificent silver pillar at the far end of the central aisle. Four times as thick as her body, the gleaming column soared high into the domed roof of the temple.

When her toes met the raised ridge of floor tiles that marked the place where devotees must wait, she crouched dutifully. Ticking and whirring sounds broke the still heat of the afternoon as the embossed design on the pillar started to move. Viewing the column from one side, it was not immediately clear what was represented by the intricate pattern that covered the silver. But as the woman watched, the column opened out before her into a huge silver serpent. First the Jinn’s head emerged from the metal, the millions of tiny joints and plates of silver unfolding in a miracle of engineering, the lethal spiked crest on its neck rising like a row of blades. The whirring of spinning cogs reached a crescendo that vibrated through the floor into her feet as the Silver Jinn’s head dipped to the ground and its thick sinuous body followed. Millions upon millions of minute silver scales tinkled across the marble floor as the serpent slid along the aisle toward her.