The door flung itself open and swirls of snow-glittering wind pushed into the cosy room, groping and feeling at the surfaces. They looked as if they were hands of darkness and ice, but as they crept closer to where Caewen and Cag-Mag sat, the old witch said simply, “No. Not here. Not in my house.”…
The King Who Sings in Winter #005
“He is ancient,” said Cag-Mag, “and if he had a name, it is forgotten. He was a mortal man once, and a sorcerer of great power. But do not conjure up in your mind’s eye some vision of an enchanter in silks and velvets: this was long, long ago. Think of a sorcerer robed all…
The King Who Sings in Winter #004
“Well? Are you going to stand about like last year’s scarecrow, or will you come in? Make a decision. Be quick about it.” Caewen half-expected the door to open on its own, but it did not. She looked over her shoulder. Three feral shapes lurked themselves into view. They were mere silhouettes of darkness, outlined…
The King Who Sings in Winter #003
She stopped and glanced around, working her lungs to catch some breath back. “What are you doing,” hissed Fetch. “Their hunting beasts will be running this path in moments. Whisper me another spell. There are banks here, with steep sides. Can we set a trap?” The track was somewhat sunken here, with earth cuttings on…
The King Who Sings in Winter #002
The sun had softened away westward and the last rays of day were setting the horizon to licks of flame along the under-edges of those heavy clouds that had blown in. It was prematurely dark on the trail now. In those places where trees were thicker, the air itself was a blackness, and all that…
The King Who Sings in Winter #001 (working title)
After a week of travel by foot, Caewen was growing suspicious of her shadow. Not the shadow gliding beside her, stretched against grassy slope or dirt-trod path. That shadow was as soft and reassuring as it ever had been, a fellow traveller, the two of them alone on the road. No, rather, she was increasingly…
A Charm for the Nameless Child #138
Farewells were said, and a hug was had between Keezer and Ode, and at that Caewen and Ode climbed up atop Dapplegrim, and he mustered his speed. They were soon passing whole trains of refugee wagons, and crowds of trudging, weary folks–if still at a distance. The canter continued until, at last, a great gaping…
A Charm for the Nameless Child #137
It was impossible to know exactly when they had slipped past the bulk of the northern armies. So carefully had they kept to the cover of dense woodlands, that it was something of a surprise to break into an open field and find that there were no coils of smoke from burning cottage, tower-house or…
A Charm for the Nameless Child #136
They soon left the mountains, and travelled stealthily among the scrub and treed slopes that ran along the south-reaching spine of the Shaelfells. They had to hide from passing columns of soldiers several times, and once spent the whole day sheltered in a thicket of leaves because of draig-riding knights sweeping low over the forest-tops….
A Charm for the Nameless Child #135
They left the she-boggart sitting by her fire, musing over her thoughts. As a last departing farewell, the old witch had told them how to find a secret path that twisted its way above the ivy-dens so that they would not need to trespass into her tribal lands again. “And if you ever return, permission…