Welcome to another week of the Sassy Saturday Blog Hop. Except, it's technically no longer a blog hop. Jasmine Walts, the founder, decided to discontinue it last month (December 2015) due to lack of participation and her own lack of time to promote it. However, I like the idea of it so I'm going to continue with my own excerpts.
The purpose of the blog hop used to be showcasing excerpts from our novels about kick-butt heroines. Every Saturday is a new post. If you want read more about it, the link is here.
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“What do you
mean?” Nolien asked.
Tiza thrust it
at him as she would a smelly shoe. “It goes on and on about the kidnapping, but
nothing about me! I captured Dark Staff!” Basilard coughed. “ . . .With help.
Where's my credit!?”
Nolien
shrugged. “It can't be helped. The knights were shamed enough to admit that the
princess was taken under their watch. This is the only way for them to. .
.oww!”
Basilard
withdrew his hand. “You sound like a conspiracy theorist. Tiza, the truth of the
matter is that your exclusion is part of the compromise that brought you your
bonus.”
“Huh?”
“Instead of
'Tiza Spiral and Eric Watley captured Dark Staff,’ I offered to amend the event
to 'Dragon's Lair security consultants assisted the Royal Guard in their capture
of Dark Staff' in exchange for an additional consultant fee.”
The look in
Tiza's eyes was nothing short of betrayal. “What!? Why would you. . .oww!”
Basilard
withdrew his hand. “My way puts more gold in your pocket and more guild
advertising on the internet.” He showed her the screen on his scry. “The hits on
our website have skyrocketed since the paper came out.” Tiza grumbled, but said
nothing more.
“Mia, what do
you have for us today?”
The perky
receptionist reached into her desk drawer—Eric didn't think she actually kept
anything there—and pulled out a piece of paper. It was not a mission
bill, but a tissue. Now that he looked closer, she looked pale and tired. She
didn't greet them. She wasn't even smiling. She MUST be sick. She sneezed
and crumbled up the tissue.
“Bless
you,” Nolien said and Mia ripped the tissue in half, revealing the mission bill.
“Ta-da!” she
cried. Nolien stared in surprise, Tiza chuckled, and Eric clapped.
Basilard shook
his head in amusement. “Mia, where do you get these ideas?”
“I have a lot
of free time,”she said with a shrug. “You know, since I can't go on missions.”
“Why not?” Eric
asked. Basilard and Mia stared at him. “Long story?” They nodded.
“The Longhorn
item shop needs to be repainted,” Mia said. “The owner will fill you in.”
Tiza continued
grumbling the entire way, but by the time she had a brush and bucket in hand,
her mood improved. Nolien's steadily soured. It reached a peak when Eric
accidentally knocked over a bucket and it fell on the healer's head. No amount
of apologizing could make Nolien feel better about being covered in sticky white paint; Tiza's
laughter certainly didn't help. He shouted the words of a nasty-sounding spell;
when he paused, pushed his fists together at his chest, and took a deep breath.
Without looking up from his dirty book, Basilard waved his hand and all the
paint rose off Nolien and dropped back into Eric's bucket.
“Thank you,
Daylra,” Nolien said.
“Couldn't you
have done that to the shop?” Tiza asked.
Basilard
turned the page. “I don't think the owner wants a giant paint blob on his front
door.”
As calm and
poised as an acrobat on a highwire, Nolien insisted on switching places with
Eric. Much to Tiza's amusement, he was later pooped on by birds flying overhead.
Later still, he “accidentally” knocked a bucket of paint on her head.
By the mid
afternoon,Team Four somehow managed to get the item shop looking good as new.
Basilard accepted their fee and then the owner did something surprising: he
offered the novices a reward from his shop.
“You painted
my shop and gave me a show. I feel I've only paid you for the former.”
“We couldn't
possibly—”
Tiza elbowed
him. “Refuse your generous offer!” To Nolien, she whispered, “What are you
doing?! You don't turn down free stuff! It's insane!”
“But it isn't
polite.”
“Then don't
pick anything. Don't ruin it for the rest of us.”
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To learn more about Tiza and A Mage's Power, visit Tvtropes at http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/AMagesPower.______________________________
A Mage's Power, and the rest of the Journey to Chaos series, are available for purchase at
http://amzn.to/10NsG2i
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