With so many different types of devices and so many different operating systems and reader software options out there, it's hard to find any format that will work for absolutely anyone. This should come pretty close! This is the html version of Renegade, which you should be able to read on any browser. No active content, no ads, no scripting, just html (with a css file for the formatting, which is standard these days). You can read it chapter by chapter, using the navigation at the top and bottom, or load the whole thing at once, your choice. (Quick tip: web browsers typically have a zoom function that you can access in various ways: usually there's a menu option somewhere, but there are also some standard keyboard commands, and it may be possible to hold the CTRL key and use your mouse wheel. Sorry Mac folks, I don't know the equivalent. You can use this to adjust the font size to whatever's comfortable for you to read at.)
Plus, it's free. If you like it enough to leave me a tip and can afford to, thank you. Even more valuable to me is feedback: drop me an email and tell me you read it (I promise never to share your address with anyone, and I do reply), or leave me a review at the place of your choice. I have other work completed and in progress; if offering them to read online directly is successful, I'll continue to do so. They're also available in other ways via their respective pages at Prysmcat Books, and one option is always a free pdf.
Telling your friends would be great. The best possible advertising, after all, is word of mouth. I write because I love doing it, but it's always wonderful to have people visit the worlds I create. Writing for my own amusement is a lot less work than editing and polishing it to share with others, after all.
Want to save this for off-line reading? Go for it. It's set up so links will work locally. If you save the full version, remember to save it complete so you get the css file. If you want the chapter-by-chapter version, here's a zip file, right click and "Save Target As..." or "Save Link As..." or whatever your system's version is, then you can extract it (can I make this any easier?).
But please don't post it elsewhere online, or claim it's yours, or make money from it, or otherwise abuse it. Seriously. I'm taking a chance by putting this online in a format this simple. If you think it's good enough to share, then direct people here. Someone acting badly is only going to make me a lot less inclined in the future to make my work as accessible as possible, spoiling things for everyone. This is NOT public domain content simply because it's online. I spent hundreds of hours creating it, and many thousands before that learning the skills to do so. Please don't make me regret this.
I hope you enjoy reading!
A fantasy novel about fear and trust and hope
Ten years ago, at the College where sorcerers and telepaths and lifewitches learn about their gifts: boy meets girl, girl discovers her own frightening abilities, boy loses girl when she runs away from the authorities who would condemn her for those abilities.
Ever since, Kisea has been in hiding as a renegade, with a new name, never staying anywhere long, never letting anyone find out too much about her. The uncommon telepathic gift that earns her blessings when she heals minds would, if anyone knew its full nature, evoke only fear and horror: controllers are, after all, monsters from a fireside tale.
The one person Kisea has ever trusted completely, during the interval between a childhood of inherited shame and an adulthood of paranoia, is the one person who knows what she is and the one person who would recognize her immediately – and he’s under an Oath to return any renegade to the College by any means necessary.
Ever since, Matt has been watching for her, and looking for a way to help. She’s still alive, at least; knowing what to watch for, the rumours and traces of an ever-moving half-siren mindhealer of extraordinary strength are unmistakable. Now in a position of considerable authority and responsibility, he believes he knows a way – if he can only find her and persuade her to listen to him.
She’s the last person he expects to trip over when his highborn cousin Kallima is kidnapped, but when the situation turns out to be far more complicated than it appeared, that unlikely chance could make all the difference for everyone involved.
Note: siren sexual nature is misunderstood by many in Caalden, and as a result they are frequently the targets of abuse. While there is little explicit description in Renegade, please keep this in mind if this is an issue for you.