The Student and the Slave

It’s good to have author Annie Douglas Lima on our blog today to share the good news of her latest release, The Student and the Slave. We appreciate her patience while our site was down. Those who hack small sites like this one, just for fun are pretty low in my opinion.

Let’s begin with an except from The Student and the Slave.

In this excerpt, the household manager lectures Steene for failing to show proper respect to his owner.

“As his slave, you cannot treat Raymond the way you did,” Winston said. “You will go upstairs, humbly apologize, and let him know that from now on you will follow every one of his orders immediately. And as soon as his hand feels better, you will give him the extra practice he requires of you.”

“I will do no such thing!” Steene could hear his voice rising.

“You will do it, or else you will regret it. And then you will have to do it anyway.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“That kind of attitude will not be tolerated in this household. The lash is seldom employed here — most people are smart enough not to need it — but if a whipping is what it will take to teach you respect and obedience, then that’s what we’ll do.”

“Do you really want to take me on?” Deliberately, Steene looked the man up and down. “I work out every day.” Well, not so much since the surgery, but that wasn’t the point. “How often do you work out? Never, I’m guessing.”

Winston’s face had turned bright red. “You will submit to your punishment if you know what’s good for you.”

“You’re just a slave like I am! What gives you the idea that you’re some sort of big boss?” Steene felt his hands clenching into fists. “You don’t own me, and I highly doubt you’re physically capable of following through on your threats. And if you try it, I don’t think I’m the one who’s going to regret the encounter. So I suggest you go find a better use for your time than threatening people who are only doing what they have a legal right to do!”

He was yelling now, but he couldn’t help it. This whole world was so impossibly unfair. Whose bright idea was it that humans could own each other, anyway? Who decided that putting metal around people’s necks turned them into property? And who came up with the rule that anyone who tried to right that particular injustice for someone else deserved to suffer it himself?

Without another word, Winston turned on his heel and swept out of the room. Feeling as though he had won a small victory against the system, at least, Steene strode back to the couch and plopped down on it.

Everyone else was still staring at him. “You shouldn’t have said all that,” said Nelson. “He’s right that you’re going to regret it.”

“Mind your own business.” Steene turned his attention back to the TV

Take a look at this exciting new young adult action and adventure novel, The Student and the Slave, now available for purchase! This is the third book in the Krillonian Chronicles, after The Collar and the Cavvarach and The Gladiator and the Guard.

The series is set in an alternate world that is very much like our own, with just a few major differences. One is that slavery is legal there. Slaves must wear metal collars that lock around their neck, making their enslaved status obvious to everyone. Another difference is the popularity of a martial art called cavvara shil. It is fought with a cavvarach (rhymes with “have a rack”), a weapon similar to a sword but with a steel hook protruding from partway down its top edge. Competitors can strike at each other with their feet as well as with the blades. You win in one of two ways: disarming your opponent (hooking or knocking their cavvarach out of their hands) or pinning their shoulders to the mat for five seconds.

First, a Little Information about Books 1 and 2:

Book 1: The Collar and the Cavvarach

Bensin, a teenage slave and martial artist, is desperate to see his little sister freed. But only victory in the Krillonian Empire’s most prestigious tournament will allow him to secretly arrange for Ellie’s escape. Dangerous people are closing in on her, however, and Bensin is running out of time. With his one hope fading quickly away, how can Bensin save Ellie from a life of slavery and abuse?

Click here to read chapter 1 of The Collar and the Cavvarach.
Click here to read about life in the Krillonian Empire, where the series is set.

Book 2: The Gladiator and the Guard

Bensin, a teenage slave and martial artist, is just one victory away from freedom. But after he is accused of a crime he didn’t commit, he is condemned to the violent life and early death of a gladiator. While his loved ones seek desperately for a way to rescue him, Bensin struggles to stay alive and forge an identity in an environment designed to strip it from him. When he infuriates the authorities with his choices, he knows he is running out of time. Can he stand against the cruelty of the arena system and seize his freedom before that system crushes him?

Click here to read about life in the arena where Bensin and other gladiators are forced to live and train.

And now, The Student and the Slave, with another awesome cover by the talented Jack Lin

Book 3: The Student and the Slave

Is this what freedom is supposed to be like? Desperate to provide for himself and his sister Ellie, Bensin searches fruitlessly for work like all the other former slaves in Tarnestra. He needs the money for an even more important purpose, though: to rescue Coach Steene, who sacrificed himself for Bensin’s freedom. When members of two rival street gangs express interest in Bensin’s martial arts skills, he realizes he may have a chance to save his father figure after all … at a cost.

Meanwhile, Steene struggles with his new life of slavery in far-away Neliria. Raymond, his young owner, seizes any opportunity to make his life miserable. But while Steene longs to escape and rejoin Bensin and Ellie, he starts to realize that Raymond needs him too. His choices will affect not only his own future, but that of everyone he cares about. Can he make the right ones … and live with the consequences?

Click here to order The Student and the Slave from Amazon for $2.99 a discounted price of just 99 cents through November 31st!

About the Author:

Annie Douglass Lima spent most of her childhood in Kenya and later graduated from Biola University in Southern California. She and her husband Floyd currently live in Taiwan, where she teaches fifth grade at Morrison Academy. She has been writing poetry, short stories, and novels since her childhood, and to date has published fifteen books (three YA action and adventure novels, four fantasies, a puppet script, six anthologies of her students’ poetry, and a Bible verse coloring and activity book). Besides writing, her hobbies include reading (especially fantasy and science fiction), scrapbooking, and international travel.

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