Because there’s a new Argaea book coming out, I thought I’d go back and look at the old original ones. Here’s an excerpt from Volle, the first novel I had published.
I tend to divide my work into groups based on how pleased I am with the writing, and broadly speaking there are maybe three groups within my published work. Volle, being my first novel, necessarily falls into the first group, which I’d characterize as “competent but mildly painful to look back on.” This is, I want to point out, my perspective completely based on my own journey as a writer. As I often say, the reader’s experience of a book is only half shaped by the text; the rest the reader brings themself. So while I may judge Volle against the other books I’ve written, having had well over a decade to stew over its flaws, this doesn’t mean that people who love that book (I still get letters about it!) are wrong or have poor taste. It means that the book spoke to them, connected on some level, and that’s really cool. There’s a reason it’s my first published book—I have earlier books whose writing style I would characterize as “ambitious but not quite there yet.”
In the below excerpt, things I like in it are Tish’s characterization, the history lesson, and the general flow of the dialogue. Things I would do better now would be to try to anchor the scene better in its setting (try to count how many times I remind you even whether the characters are outdoors or indoors; it’s not many) and give the scene a little more urgency (one of the flaws of the book as I see it is that the first act meanders around worldbuilding for quite a while).
But anyway, here it is!
Volle is a fox sent by the country of Ferrenis to impersonate a noble in the court of the country of Tephos to spy on them and find out their war plans. Lord Tistunish is a wolf who is his contact in the palace.
Volle scarcely had time to realize that he hadn’t eaten lunch before Lord Tistunish had knocked on his door and let himself in.
“Afternoon, Volle!” Volle had stood when the wolf walked in, and now received a forceful pat on the back as Tistunish grasped his paw. The wolf looked around. “So they put you here, did they? Isn’t that interesting. At least, I think…it’s been so long.”
“What?”
“I’ll see if I’m right and then tell you later. Hope you had a good evening after the show. I know I did.” He winked broadly.
“I had a fine evening, yes.” Volle waved the wolf to a seat, a little puzzled but willing to let it go. “I met Lord Ikling and he took me out for a…drink.”
“Hmm.” The wolf’s brow furrowed. “Ikling. He’s harmless enough, but a bit frivolous. Not exactly the best companion.”
Volle suppressed a twinge of irritation. “He seems nice enough, and we hit it off rather well.”
“Well, that’s fine, that’s fine. Just don’t model your behavior on his. His father was well-respected, you know. Served as the Minister of Agriculture for years. Young Ikling never picked up on that sense of duty.”
“How did his father die?” Volle asked quietly.
There was a lengthy pause. “Bandits. He was returning home to Vellenland when the carriage was attacked by brigands. He tried to fight them and they killed him.”
“Oh. Poor Helfer.”
Tistunish grunted. “It’s a dangerous world. But let’s not dwell on that. I came by to invite you to dinner in a week’s time. Tika has a vixen she would like you to meet.”
“Oh.” Volle shifted in his seat. “About that, Lord Tistunish—”
“I told you, boy, call me Tish.”
“Tish, then. You see, I, uh…don’t like females.”
“Don’t like them? What’s wrong with them?” Tish seemed half-angry, half-amused.
“No, no, I mean…I prefer males.”
The wolf shrugged. “I rather figured that, given you’ve taken to Ikling. So what?”
“Well, it seems to have a rather direct bearing on whether I should be introduced to vixens.”
“Listen, boy, you’re not going to father any future Vintons in some other boy’s ass, are you?” He coughed. “Sorry. But you have a duty to your people to keep your name and blood alive, and for that, unless the laws of nature have recently changed, you need a vixen. And one of good breeding. As for what you prefer…” He shrugged again, but his expression was one of resignation. “You can’t always have what you want. You have a duty to your people, and to your country. That’s the life of a noble.”
“Regardless…” Volle began, but Tish cut him off.
“Oh, don’t get that stubborn set to your muzzle, boy. You don’t have to stop screwing around with boys. In fact, I suspect that once you have a cub or two, your wife will be glad to be—”
“Wife?!” Volle yelped.
“Well, you can’t have a cub without a wife? Yes, yes, I know you can, but not a legitimate one.”
“Look,” Volle said, “I appreciate this, but it’s all a bit too much. I’ve only been here for two days and already you have me married with cubs and…why so much interest in my life?”
Tish grinned widely. “Blame Tika. She loves to meddle, and I suppose it just rubs off on me. Volle, nobody’s going to force you to get married tomorrow. There’s courtship and engagement periods, though I suspect you won’t be too interested in the courtship. But one of the duties of a lord is the continuation of his line, and as that’s a pleasurable duty, usually, we thought we’d bring that up first. You saw what happened to Vinton without a lord.”
“Seemed to get on pretty well,” Volle said, but the number of improvements the town had wanted came back to him now. They’d done a lot themselves, but that meant that either they’d paid their taxes and seen nothing for it, or that they hadn’t paid and were now in a lot of financial trouble.
“No representation here leaves them vulnerable. If the neighboring lord decided to walk over and take possession, nobody would come to their aid.”
“Who is my neighbor?”
“Hm.” Tish scratched his muzzle. “You know, I don’t know that. I’ll look it up. In any case, Volle, you will attend dinners and meet my wife’s vixen friends. If for no other reason than that it will make my wife happy.”
Volle grinned slyly. “You seemed to do a good job of keeping her happy.”
Tish laughed. “Ah, but I’m old and can’t keep her as happy as I used to, at least in that way. So I have to find other ways to do it.”
Volle chuckled back. “You’re not that old,” he said politely, and Tish waved a paw. “You said you had other friends to introduce me to?”
The wolf nodded. “And some things to talk to you about. We meet on fairly short notice, because we’re not sure of the popularity of our position and it wouldn’t do to have someone listening.”
“Is there…any urgency?” Volle wasn’t sure how to ask the question. He’d been told not to lean too much on Tistunish, but the wolf hadn’t mentioned anything about an imminent plot against Ferrenis.
“There is always urgency, in that preparation now saves action later. But I don’t believe there is any need for action within the next two weeks.”
“All right.” Volle rested his muzzle in his paw. Either Tish was unaware of the plot, or it wasn’t as imminent as he’d been led to believe. Or it didn’t exist.
“There’s not much action we can take anyway,” Tish said. “We can only suggest and advise. But perhaps I should start with a history lesson.” He leaned back in his chair. “How much do you know of Tephos’s history?”
“Not much,” Volle replied, which was true. “I’ve heard of Bucher, of course. And wasn’t Gerreld king before him?”
“He was. But that was before my time. I knew King Bucher somewhat—I was just a cub at the time and my father was Lord Tistunish. I didn’t quite understand what was going on at the time. Not many did, I think.
“King Bucher started the Reys Wars. Oh, some of the younger lords here will have you think the Ferrenians started it, but that isn’t true. Bucher managed the whole thing, and managed it well. And after that, he sent the army to the west and annexed the entire country of Delford. When he tried to go still further west, the army was too spread out. They were beaten at Firalitz and at Gerdan, and then the Delford people, meek herbivores that they mostly are, rose up and massacred most of the remainder of the army in one bloody day and night.
“The campaigns were glorious and brutal, both in success and in failure. Not everyone agreed with him. The Gaiavox here in Divalia was jailed for trying to criticize him from the Church, and another Gaiavox was installed who was a supporter. Bucher built a new prison, excavating a park and building four floors of dank, horrible cells where the people who opposed him were kept, and often died.
“He expelled all the foreign embassies.” Volle knew that; it was why his knowledge of Tephos’ recent history was incomplete. “The luckier ambassadors were sent home, sometimes with all their appendages intact. The rest…” He waved out the window with a paw. “Prison. Why did the people put up with it? Jailing an official of the church? Imprisoning those who disagreed?”
Tish smiled without humor. “The church was weaker then, but it’s not so different now. Do you think anyone would stand up outside of Council and criticize the king in public? This is what I’m getting at. But about Bucher—you don’t remember your father, do you?” Volle shook his head. “It may be difficult for you to understand this, then. Imagine that you knew your father growing up. Imagine that he was a great fox, maybe a fierce warrior in battle, or a brilliant politician or tactician. You admire him and want to be like him, and yet he beats you, sometimes brutally. You tell yourself that it is because you aren’t worthy of him, that you deserve the beatings, and that you should try to be better so that all the things he does for you will be worthwhile. That is how Tephos felt about Bucher. Some still do.
“But after the army was massacred, he had fewer soldiers to maintain order. He withdrew them all into the palace and tried to rule from there, never leaving. Word of the massacre filtered slowly into the country, and the people began to adore and fear him less. And love turns so easily to hate, Volle.” The wolf sighed wearily.
“What happened?”
“They stormed the palace and killed him. Hung his body on the gate. Some say he was still alive when they strung him up, but after the stones were thrown and the people’s claws were bared…there was not much left. The guards saved some remains, and he is buried in the chapel as befits one who was king, even if he was a brutal one.
“And that, by the way, in case you were wondering, is why there aren’t more foxes in the peerage here.”
“What did Bucher have against foxes?”
Tish shook his head gently. “Nothing, Volle. He was a fox. A red fox, like you. And when the mob stormed the palace, anything with a red coat was torn to pieces.”
Volle looked down at his tail, numbly trying to imagine the horror of the scene. Tish let him absorb that before continuing. “They wanted to follow the Panbestian circle in choosing the next ruler, but Bucher had been cunning. One of the things he did was jail and kill all the bears of noble descent, so there were none to succeed him. He planned to break the circle and install his son after him.”
“What happened?”
Tish shrugged. “They broke the circle anyway, the ones who unseated him. They had no choice. Lord Fardew, the one who held the title then, was a noble wolf—the current one is just a wolf—and rather than skip the Ursina and select a Herbivoran, they decided that Bucher had been an aberration, and a true Canida king was needed to erase his memory. A lot of paw-waving, but it satisfied people. So he took the throne, became King Halloran, and did his best to mend the kingdom while still keeping it safe from attack by Delford and Ferrenis. He did as well as could be expected, though there were always those who expected more. And seven years ago, he stepped down when King Barris was of age, and the circle was repaired. So they say.”
Volle absorbed this. “What happened to King Halloran?”
“He retired to his estate in Reys and lives there still. Fardew is a landless peerage, so it doesn’t pass hereditarily as the landholder peerages do. As is the custom, King Barris installed many of his friends into the landless peerages. Fardew was one, but I don’t think they are as close as they once were. But that is not entirely relevant. This also I want you to understand.” He leaned forward. “Under each house, as you know, the kingdom moves with the traits of the king. The Herbivora excel at defense; the Mustela at attack. The Canida bring unity and harmony; the Felida bring individual glory, but also discord. The Rodenta destroy and rebuild; the Ursina maintain the status quo.”
“It doesn’t sound like King Bucher was much for unity.”
“Unity, my lad, is neither good nor bad, but it can be achieved by good or bad means. Bucher’s method was harmful in the long run, but in the short run he gathered a mightier army than this kingdom has ever seen. Halloran’s method was different: he sought to include everyone in the kingdom, thinking that exclusion would perpetuate the wound inflicted by Bucher’s reign. And perhaps he was right; still there are those who argued that all of Bucher’s surviving lieutenants should be put to death, or at least imprisoned.”
“They weren’t?”
Tish shook his head. “Indeed not, though most of them have died of natural causes by now. Three of them had children who now sit in the peerage. Ikinna, Whassel, and Ryshko are all the children of nobles who were part of Bucher’s reign. And this brings me around once again to the point of your presence here.”
Volle sat up straighter and perked his ears forward. Tish rested his muzzle on his paws. “The Ursina, as I said, are known for times of peace and maintaining the status quo in the kingdom. Any changes that take place are slow and plodding. However, they also have a good deal of momentum, and once an Ursin king is pushed in or decides upon a direction, it is very difficult to change the course. Over the last three years, I have become aware that within the palace, there is a faction that is trying to nudge Tephos into a war with Ferrenis, under the pretext that the land taken from us after Bucher’s fall is ours by right. Their real motive, I believe, is to attempt to restore to Tephos the glory attained under Bucher. But they ignore the blood and bones on which that glory was built.” He shook his head slowly. “I am too old and too well-known to do more than recruit a defense against them. My leanings are well known and the ones I suspect do not trust me with any of their plans or confidences. I have been watching the younger Lords and hoping there would be one in whom I could place my trust. Can you bear that burden?” He looked up at Volle, and the joking and laughter that Volle was used to seeing in his eyes were gone. In their place was an earnest pleading, which only partially concealed his worry. His ears were partly back, and his tail lay limp at his side.
Volle nodded. “My Lord, I would be honored.”
He didn’t know if the title was appropriate, but it seemed so, given the seriousness of the moment. Tish sighed, and leaned back with a smile. “Thank you. It is nothing we need act upon quickly, but I believe there will be a chance to act within the next year. Keep your ears open, and gain the confidence of the Lords I mentioned, if you can.”
“I will try my best.”
“And I will help you where I can. One last thing, Volle. Lest you think Bucher was an aberration and war now is unlikely, consider this: Nothing symbolizes Bucher’s reign more than the prison he built. And though his reliefs and statues have been removed from it, the prison still stands, and is still used. The ones who tore him down and reviled his name still kept his gold, and still use his prison. Remember that.”
Volle wasn’t quite sure what to make of that, but he nodded. “I will.”
I have read Volle over 2 dozen times, as well as the other Argea books, in fact, I wore the cover off Pendant of Fortune and had to order a new copy. I get lost in the books and think I'm part of that world. I hope you keep on with the Volle series(is there another book coming out, "Return to Divalia"? I sure do hope so. thanks so much for your books and keep on writing.