cedar_grove | (no subject)

Forbidden
Word count to date: 126,000
Chapter: 13
Sequel to: Follows on from The Mummy but precedes The Mummy Returns

An ancient custom forces Ardeth aside from the woman he cannot admit he loves and brings him to accept a union with a dreamer who has saved his life. Will that custom prove to be the death of them all?

This is a story that came out of the challenge to explain how Ardeth and Loch Nah knew each other before The Mummy Returns. I'm actually surprised I've persevered with this as long as I have because, I have to say, I've never disliked a character of my own creation more than I dislike Melleha - not even the most heinous of the bad guys I've ever written. Everything about her grates on my last nerve, and I find it highly surprising that Ardeth hasn't just locked her in a coal cellar or something. Still the story has its saving graces... Lamis is a wonderful woman, as is 'Tumbleweed' - Ardeth's cousin, who's in a spot of trouble at the moment. The evil in this story, the Farhaseed, are mortal and very human in making... and the fact that Ardeth's little sister is embroiled right in the heart of darkness as it were, does give me something to keep me sane after all of Melleha's wining. Adham and the other bad guys, such as 'Whisper' for example are also interesting and meaty to write. So maybe they're what's kept me writing after all.

The separate storyline of what is happening in the world of the Carnahan family too, has darkness and light in equal measures, and I'm sure it will be particularly explosive once everything all catches and tangles up with itself.