Wrath of Lions (86 page)

So we reworked a chapter, all to include Kayne and Lilah, because you know what? Kayne and Lilah are awesome and I wanted more of them. But now Rob had something to prove, so when I read
Chapter 12
, where they make their appearance and talk for the first time, I was grinning like an idiot.
There we go,
I was thinking.
There’s at least one solid appearance of the lions prior to book three
(where their role gets increased). I was thrilled, and I told Rob as much.

He, of course, did not mention to me his plans for
Chapter 31
. You’d think we wouldn’t keep such secrets from each other, but yeah, this is the stuff we do to keep sane during a project like this. So yes, I knew Laurel was going to go in, get captured and thrown into a dungeon. What I did
not
know was that the lions would be sitting there like kings on freaking thrones, with piles of gore all over the place like they just had a dang Sunday afternoon buffet. Nearly brought tears to my eyes, I was so happy. Horrified too, but you’ve got to be a little demented to do what Rob and I do, so happy as well. There were my lions, and I could only imagine the grin on Rob’s face as he wrote that chapter. I hope he muttered a few curses to me as he did it.

“Lions? He wants lions? Fine, I’ll give him lions.…”

Hopefully, he thinks it’s worth it, because for me, this has been phenomenal. I love throwing in references to my various books when I write, and
The Breaking World
is just overloaded with character names, places, the lions from the Paladins, Velixar from the Half-Orcs, the beginnings of the Trifect from the Shadowdance Series. With Rob’s help, my silly little world feels that much less silly, the corners of the world filled in, breathing, fully alive. You longtime readers should be catching glimpses of even more, the early hints of the Faceless or the glow on certain weapons, signifying the coming creation of the paladin orders. I hope they put a smile on your face, because they put one on mine.

The story’s entering the final stretch, and this is when Rob and I get to go nuts. Whatever limits we’ve been putting on ourselves, they’re gone now. This is the Gods’ War, and it’s full speed ahead.
Real quick, I want to thank Rob for suffering through all my rants and demands, with the patience of a saint; Sam, for not minding when we spend way too much time chatting on the phone, figuring this stuff out; Angela, for going through our story twice in herculean efforts to trim the word count down and get everything to make sense; and last, Michael, for landing us this opportunity in the first place. You all are amazing.

And, of course, thank you, dear reader, for sticking with us for nearly four hundred thousand words. I hope the time was well spent in our world, and come the next book, I pray you fall right back in as if you never left.

Robert

This one was fun.

I said in my note in
Dawn of Swords
that I’d never had a more pleasurable experience writing a book. Well, that pretty much doubled, if not tripled, with this tome you now hold in your hands. With the groundwork set, Dave and I were free to go many different places, explore tons of different avenues, to bring his world of Dezrel to an even greater sense of
realness
.

As Dave said above, although we do plot out these books and know where they’re going and the specifics involved, the intricacies bring a breadth of color to the story and are free flowing. They change, they warp…sometimes becoming bits of humor, sometimes going down that deep well where my past as a horror lover sometimes wallows. Rather than being a point of weakness, this is, in fact, an area of strength. It allows us to play to each of our strong points and bring you something that, quite frankly, I think is awesome. This free-flowing process led to Avila’s wonderfully bloody downfall; to Matthew’s unfortunate end; and, of course, to the macabre beauty of Kayne and Lilah. And also, because I am mostly responsible for writing the rough draft of each manuscript before Dave hacks it to pieces, I like putting little surprises in there
for Dave to discover and then call me saying, “No kidding, you did
that
? I should do something similar in my Warhammer 40K session. Awesome!”

(At least, that’s how I imagine him talking most of the time. I tend to zone out when he brings up his favorite hobbies.…)

So again, thank you, Dave, for giving me the chance to do this, as it has been a freaking blast working with you. And also thanks to Jess and my kids, who are absolutely everything to me. In truth, they are as much a part of the writing process as Dave is. Thanks also to Angela, the best damn editor in the world, and Michael Carr, the greatest agent. Heck, the whole 47North team is included in this! Yeah, everybody rocks!

But most of all, to reiterate Mr. Dalglish’s words, thank you to the readers. Without you, there would be no us, and frankly, I like us a lot. I hope you’ve enjoyed this book, and we’ll see you soon for
Blood of Gods
, which—and I can guarantee you this—will be one heck of a ride.

David Dalglish and Robert Duperre

September 21, 2013

A
BOUT THE
A
UTHORS

David Dalglish currently lives in rural Missouri with his wife, Samantha, and daughters Morgan and Katherine. He graduated from Missouri Southern State University in 2006 with a degree in Mathematics and currently spends his free time playing not nearly enough Warhammer 40K.

Gregory Duffey

Born on Cape Cod and raised in northern Connecticut, Robert Duperre is a writer whose main ambition is to create works that defy genre. He lives with his wife, the artist Jessica Torrant, his three wonderful children, and Leonardo, the super one-eyed Labrador.