TRICKY GROUND, Book 3 of my Under Carico's Moons Series, launches on April 18, 2023. Here's a glimpse.
Seth Reilly looked back over his shoulder. To check on the two pack horses, he told himself. But he half-expected to see hawk-beaked, feather-crested, snake-tailed hunters coming after them, coming to stop them. He didn’t quite believe that Prime, the leader of the Kelok Gra’a Tral, would stand by the decision to send them back to their own people as messengers. She had only agreed when the head Kelok male had pushed her into it.
He turned his face ahead. They were free. No point in worrying over what ifs. The swinging walk of his roan horse carried him nearer and nearer the rising sweep of the hills, chartreuse with nutgrass flush from Carico’s summer rains. Lee Vawn-Cory rode beside him on her harlequin-faced gelding. She smiled, and he grinned back. They were going home.
All they had to do was deliver what amounted to a diplomatic pouch from the hidden colony of previously unknown aliens to the Planetary Administrative Officer of Carico before the planned satellite survey discovered them. And get to the PAO without giving away the secret villages first. And make sure the meeting proposed by the contents of the pouch actually happened. Then they could go back to their own lives. With luck.
“If we don’t hurry, we’re going to get wet.” Lee brought him back to the moment. A rumble of thunder reinforced her.
“Looks like a good spot up ahead,” he said. They were nearly across the flats to the hills where they wouldn’t be the highest thing in sight. He urged his gelding into a trot. The pack horses picked up their pace to stay with him.