Of Deeds and Steeds: A Tale of the Highmage's Plight

Of Deeds and Steeds is My Free story of the Month

Of Deeds and Steeds is a backstory for some characters in the later books in my Highmage’s Plight Series. It is a prequel to the events beginning the Plight that leads to an archeologist finding himself transported into a world where magic defeated science—a world the Demonlord intends to destroy.

I originally wrote a version of this story as I was developing several characters: Mace and Quirrel, in particular. The Plight is truly an epic fantasy with many characters and is a story I started writing while in college. It was many years before the first book in the series was published and then I began publishing the other books in the series over the next five years.

As happens, I tailored that early version for a fantasy anthology call for a book that was never published and sort of lost track of the tale in my files. Last year, I stumbled on it and did a new version with my long time editor who made some important suggestions. That led to my expanding the scope of the tale a bit.

I’d originally offered Of Deeds and Steeds as a stretch goal in my recent Kickstarter, but didn’t hit that goal. So, I’m now offering it through Bookfunnel—and to you as a free story, which I hope if you’ve read any of the Plight, you’ll enjoy. And, if you haven’t, I’m hoping it may lead you to check out my other stories.

Of Deeds and Steeds and other free stories can be found in this month’s promo featuring it, Free Sci-Fi & Fantasy - December 2025. So, please check it out!

Oh, and if you’re looking for a great read for the holidays, check out Particular Passages: Closed for the Season, where you’ll find one of my stories, https://books2read.com/u/bzBxG2.

Dare 2 Believe,

D.H.