In 2012 "Suburban Heat: Rise Of An Empire" was completed as a 740 page Epic (First Book). With 12 Chapters, as well as an Additional Exclusive Chapter of "The Petticoat Maid", the novel was considered "too large".
In the Summer of 2016, breaking this huge novel down into two seperate novels of under 400 pages each, the titles were made unique: House Of Swan and Master To Lord. This is an excerpt from "Master To Lord", where we find the Protaginist Xander O'Neill in Palermo, Italy...
Piazza Vigliena – The Four Corner’s – Present Day
With beads of sweat falling from his forehead down into his eyes Xander tried to wipe away the liquid sweat, only to rub the salty residue deeper into his already blurry vision that cascaded into shimmers of unfocused light spears and spectral misfit shapes. The thinning passageway was beginning to close in, and the uneasy feeling came over him that he would not make it to the end pushed to the very forefront of his mind.
‘Master Xander O’Neill,’ a voice of a man called out to him. ‘Are you ready to accept your place on the road to the light?’
The voice echoed in the stillness, its dialect recognised as that of fluent Italian, though the recognition of its sound so very familiar to Xander. Was this Micheli, or Giuseppi, even? The heat was playing with his mind – maybe – to a point that he was starting to go delirious with only a thought that he was hearing a man’s voice known to him.
‘Are you ready to accept your place on the road to the light, Master Xander O’Neill?’
Suddenly stopping where he was, Xander looked around him to see where the voice was coming from, but no matter how hard he tried to find the source he could not see any trace of anyone.
‘Whose there? Who are you?’ Xander demanded.
‘Walk…Walk and become a part of the light, Master Xander O’Neill, and tell me, are you ready to accept your place on the road to the light?’ The voice was now insistent on his reply.
‘Yes, I accept my place on the road to the light.’ Xander finally answered weakly as he continued his way forward toward the end of the passage.
‘Do you accept the light into your heart? Do you accept the light of God to guide you and inspire you to all levels of good? Do you accept your place within The Sanctum of The Order?’
Stopping for a moment he bowed his head. ‘I accept.’
Falling to the ground Xander began finding it hard to stand. Weakly he raised his head and looked forward where he saw that the door at the end of the passageway had opened, and there in front of him stood a tall man in a darkened robe, his head lowered to the floor as though waiting for Xander to reach him.
‘Who…Who are you?’ Xander asked the robed figure.
‘Before you step through this door fratello Xander della casa di cigno, do you reject the lies and the corruptions of Satan, and accept the true faith of God into your soul?’
Xander suddenly realized what this was that he was being subjected to, but could this be true? Brother of The House of Swan was this what Madame Agrusa was speaking of on his arrival to San Martino delle Scale? Was he to be a part of The Sanctum of The Order, to take over from his Aunt Mel and bring all of the Houses together?
‘I accept the true faith of God into my soul and I reject the lies and corruptions of Satan.’
With this said the robed man raised his head and pushed back the hood to reveal himself to the shock of Xander, who, seeing that the man before him was not only someone he knew, but someone who had been reported to have being killed a long time ago.
‘Salvatore!’ Xander gasped almost breathlessly.
‘Mio figlio welcome home.’ Salvatore welcomed him with outstretched arms.
The heat of the passageway and the anxiety that Xander had been feeling became overwhelming, so much so, that as Salvatore made his way up to Xander, he watched as the young man fell forward to the floor unconscious. Immediately rushing over, Salvatore picked him up effortlessly in his wide arms and carried Xander to the door, where after knocking three times the door was finally opened for them.
On the other side of the door a brightly lit room with six other cloaked figures stood in an almost perfect circle around an insignia that was encrusted with all manners gold leafed pressings, jewels and set into the floor. Upon this insignia Xander’s unconscious body was laid down carefully by Salvatore, before he took a step back and waited.
‘Who speaks for this Brother of the Order?’ One of the other cloaked figures spoke out demandingly.
‘I do,’ Salvatore Agrusa replied.
Taking from under the dark robe a golden chalice that had the very same insignia as on the floor inscribed on it, the figure passed it around the circle of others until it reached Salvatore. Holding it up in the air he closed his eyes.
‘We offer this sacred blood of Jesus Christ to our Brother, Xander O’Neill, so that he is given life of rebirth and, the light of wisdom to fill his soul.’ Salvatore chanted before kneeling down and lifting the young man’s head up to help him drink the contents of the chalice. ‘Accept the blood of Jesus Christ, my son and accept the life and wisdom, my Brother.’
Xander nodded his acceptance as with a smile, Salvatore turned to the others before giving a silent nod. Leaving Salvatore to tend to Xander they left the room. A couple of minutes passed before Xander regained consciousness to see Micheli, Giuseppi and Angila come walking into the room to greet him. Realizing that he was no longer in the long thin passageway he glanced around quickly to see where the cloaked figure, Salvatore, was. But he was not there, not in the room where the others were now standing over him asking if he was alright.
‘Where did he go?’ Xander cried anxiously.
‘Who, Xander, who are you looking for?’ Madame Agrusa enquired puzzled and concerned.
‘My Father…Where is he, where did he go?’
Having both Micheli and Giuseppi lift Xander to his feet, Madame Agrusa led them all out of the room to a large dark oak door that would lead them back onto the streets outside Piazza Vigliena. The way was a lot less busy than the main entrance with very little crowds to raise concern of Xander’s state in which looked worse than what it really was, though the dehydration which had caught Xander inside that thin passageway was as real and as daunting as any fear could have been.
‘Don’t worry little brother, you’ll be alright.’ Micheli reassured him.
After a few minutes in the fresh air Xander was able to walk by himself at the side of Micheli and Madame Agrusa, who in turn glanced back and forth at him with both a look of sympathy and that of guilt.
‘We will take him to il caffè di Palermo, he can get something there that will help him…I think we can all be doing with something to calm our nerves!’
By the time the four of them arrived at the Café, they found to their surprise sat down at a table was Margareta, sipping at a cup of black coffee while staring out of the window. Upon seeing her Mother and then Xander being helped by her two brothers, she called to the waiter and asked him to assist them bringing the young man inside out of the heat.
‘He is not used to this hot weather,’ Margareta cried using her hands to fan a cooler draught over Xanders’ face in the hope that it helped him.
Rushing away the waiter brought back a large jug of cold water and a glass that he filled to the top before handing it to the almost unconscious young man, telling him to sip at the water and not to gulp it down. Then with a rising smile he excused himself to tend to the other customers.
‘I saw my Father,’ Xander whispered.
‘It’s the heat, Xander, sometimes the effects make you see things that aren’t really there…!’
‘Bullshit, Mother!’ Margareta barked loudly. ‘I saw him too.’
Putting on a face that clearly showed that she was not happy with her daughter’s outburst, Madame Agrusa demanded that Giuseppi escort his sister out of the Café and give her time to calm down. With an immediate comeback from Margareta, however, she shrugged her shoulders and pushed her brother’s attempts of taking a hold of her away before shouting the one thing that stopped Giuseppi, and which had her Mother slapping her hard across the face.
‘Mio Padre è tuo Padre, Maestro Xander,’ she yelped while seeing her Mother swipe her hand through the air and suddenly make contact with her cheek. The action was swift and just as painful.
Knowing that they had all attracted unwanted attention, Micheli took a hold of his Mother by the arm and guided her to a nearby empty table that was also by the Café window before turning to his sister with a raised poised hand. Her daughter was poised in a very deadly move, if only to defend her honor by initiating an attack on her own Mother.
‘Margareta, please, for the love of god!’
Managing to calm the inner anger of the pain from her face, Margareta threw both her hands up in the air while looking down at Xander sitting helpless at the table sipping at the glass of water. At that very moment she became emotional, tearful and confused to the fact which hit her so hard that she too had to find a seat next to him and her Mother. The morning had been eventful; Xander’s initiation, her sudden change in behavior and the incident in which only Master Xander and herself had come to witness – the sighting of Salvatore Agrusa.
‘Why didn’t you tell us the truth?’ Margareta whispered calmly.
Madame Agrusa knew that the question was directed at her and her alone, though Giuseppi took it upon himself to answer from his point of helping take Xander to Piazza Vigliena along with Micheli.
‘It is the custom of our families to guide those of our friends…’
Placing a gentle hand onto Giuseppi’s shoulder Madame Agrusa gave a warm smile. ‘It’s okay, what your sister is asking is not why we took Master Xander to the initiation, but…Well, there is something that both you and your brother Micheli should know.’
Intrigued by the sudden interruption that had the smile fall from Madame Agrusa’s face, Micheli was taken over with concern that what he and his brother were about to hear was not only important, but was also serious enough for their Mother to keep from them. Even so, standing before her would not help the news to be taken any better and so, they both pulled up a chair each and sat down.
‘It pains me very deeply to say this, though all three of you are old enough now to know the truth. My husband…Your Father, Salvatore, didn’t die in America, I lied to protect you all, to protect this family and not have to go through the scandals brought from those wishing to discredit him. Salvatore is alive and he is here in Palermo, as Margareta has said…’
‘He told me not to hate you for the deception Mother and for the love of my Father, I granted that wish,’ Margareta interrupted.
‘Thank you, Margareta, that is very kind of you,’ Madame Agrusa smiled.
‘But what I did not grant was the deception of Master Xander, who he himself only found out today who his real Father was, and that his and our Father are of the very same. How could you Mother?’
Unable to find the right words in which to explain, Madame Agrusa broke down weeping. By her side, Micheli and Giuseppi bowed their heads with nothing to say at the shocking news that would now bring a great change in their relationship and friendship with Xander, and most notably, with their Mother who had withheld truths that they should have been told a long time ago. As for Xander, the overall shock had him fall much further into the dark abyss of his emotions, guilt and regret.
‘Things were a lot different seventeen years ago…’
‘Oh please, don’t start trying to build your fucking ethical bridges now Mother. All that you had to do was tell us the truth, that way we would not be having this argument today.’
‘And you really believe that it would have been that simple, Margareta? You have no idea what your Father and I had to sacrifice, do you? For you, you’re Brothers and the House which we live in.’
Under the circumstances it was quite clear, that no matter what Madame Agrusa said, Margareta would not accept it, and why would she, her Mother had lied to her before?
‘You should forgive your Mother!’ Xander gasped exhausted.
Turning to him Margareta gave a cold look that showed the full extent of her anger. ‘Really, is that what you are going to do, is it?’
Attempting to rise from his chair but failing by clambering back down Margareta rushed to him with concern.
‘Be still, Xander, you’re still weak from the heat of the passage…!’ Margareta hushed herself with a guilty look falling about her face, and this was obviously something that Xander picked up on straight away.
‘What passage would that be Margareta?’ He asked.
Now on the spot and feeling the eyes of everyone on her, Margareta tried desperately to change the subject. First with the concerned speech of both her brothers marching him off like they did and then with the fruitless searching of all Palermo to find the four of them before returning back to the Café. This however was nothing short of wasted words that fell upon deaf ears as to find out what exactly she meant by “The Passage”, the one that obviously Xander had been subjected to during his initiation.
‘Fine,’ she conceded, ‘I found out where you were and made my way there. At first, I thought that maybe I had gone to the wrong address, but then I saw the others in their robes. Entering the building through a side door I came to the small open windows that looked down on you in the passage…And that’s when I saw my Father helping you out into the room behind him.’
The detailed description satisfied Xander’s curiosity, while for Madame Agrusa, the story was not as welcomed as it could have been; Angila knew that throughout the history of The Sanctum of The Order, no woman had ever been allowed – in many cases by law – to attend, or to look upon the secret ceremony as it was being performed. Strict guidelines and rules forbade that of a woman to even know the locations of such ceremonies that pursued the “Road to Manhood” of so many young men around the world.
‘You do know what you have done…’
‘I know what I saw was my Father, who according to you and your Cronies should be dead and buried in a country that we have never had the choice of visiting. What I can also say with all honesty is that from the mouth of the horse, Xander is my brother and you’re just an old lying slut who knows how to lie and keep secrets from her own children. Have I left anything out?’
Allowing Margareta to get her anger off of her chest, Madame Agrusa asked Xander if he was well enough to travel, for which he nodded and put down the glass of water back onto the table.
‘Micheli, if you would be so good as to phone Henry and tell him to come and pick us up, we will put all of this behind us until we get home. There is no need airing our business in front of total strangers like this, would you not agree, Xander?’
Nodding his head and not saying a word, Xander looked at Margareta, noticing that she was in many ways angry, not just at her Mother, but also at him, too. His thoughts alone were of how to apologize to her, while at the same time the countless questions that he was wanting to ask were causing him to get a very painful headache that screamed out to be soothed by painkillers.
‘As we have all calmed down a little, it would be worth knowing that Master Xander has been given the invitation of Lord Desmond Cordell of Milan, Giuseppi’s dear Uncle, so with a little luck we should be hearing from him tomorrow.’ Angila smiled waving to the waiter and ordering a bottle of sparkling water to take away with her.
As this came as a complete surprise to everyone around the table, not to mention Giuseppi himself, it was Xander who first demanded to know what was going on and why he was being invited elsewhere around the world at such short notice. Of course, this was something that Angila tried to put off for their family chat upon arriving back home at San Martino delle Scale.
‘But Uncle Desmond cannot be trusted, Mother, you said yourself…’
‘I was obviously mistaken and besides, you caught me at a bad time when asking about where his loyalties were. Personally, I think it would be good if Master Xander was to go spend a few weeks with your uncle in Milan, Giuseppi, and maybe you could join him, you know, get him settled in and familiar with the surroundings.’ She exclaimed in poor manner that begged the question of what the real reason for the sudden change in heart was about.
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