By the time she heard Dapplegrim returning, the birds had settled down into a low murmur of peeps and whistles and lulling coos. He approached slowly, his hooves hitting the soft turf as muffled thumps, turn by turn. Caewen looked up, blinked, smiled. It was the sort of deep, genuine smile that wells up like…
Category: Writing
Fair Upon the Tor #97 (updates Mondays, most of the time anyway)
“Anyway. Besides,” Fafmuir continued, “It has been found, but it cannot be used for it is incomplete. One of the Winter King’s client lords has hold of it for now, though only at the Winter King’s sufferance. His name is Athairdrost, and he is a Princeling of Sorthe. Notably, all the four Princelings of Sorthe…
Fair Upon the Tor #96 (a bit late again…)
She fished around in her purse, brushing aside the baubles and bits of jewellery that always seemed to get in the way on top. Finding a silver coin, she placed it on the gold saucer and stepped back. The dragon stepped over the line of stones, and it seemed that a shiver went through him,…
Fair Upon the Tor #95 (re-numbered… I skipped #94, but it was just a numbering error)
At last he spoke, purring his words. “I will wait until the moot is done then. It is only a matter of hours. When the moot is done, you will not be protected, little heartbeat.” She shook her head at him. “I doubt that very much, Aslaug, most wonderful of dragons. You have come this…
Fair Upon the Tor # 94 (updates Mondays)
Immediately, her face and skin felt seared, hot and dry all over. The sweat that prickled her flesh evaporated into a crust of salt as soon as it touched the air. Caewen wondered if it was possible to blister and burn just from the radiant heat coming off the creature that had landed not more…
Fair Upon the Tor #93 (a bit late this week…)
Once they were past the two low hills with their masses of relics and oblations, Dapplegrim came to full halt. “It is close,” he said. Another long draw of air through his nostrils. “It descends. Hurm. It wheels down upon us.” Caewen looked up, but she could see nothing against the inky clouds and few…
Fair Upon the Tor #92 (updates Mondays)
“Shouldn’t we come with you?” asked Keri. But Caewen shook her head. “What point would there be in that? One person, or three or a hundred will not make any difference, surely. Not against a dragon.” “Perhaps not.” Though even as Keri conceded the point, she still had a look in her eyes that made…
Fair Upon the Tor #91 (updates Mondays)
A short time later, the two of them, Caewen and Sgeirr, were pushing through the crowd together. Behind them came a small band of Sgeirr’s retainers, some in armour, hands listlessly on their swords, a couple in drab robes, a few more in the rough linens of work-a-day serfs. Caewen was conspicuous among them as…
Fair Upon the Tor #90 (updates Mondays)
With a wide, friendly smile, Caewen plonked herself down on the seat right next to Sgeirr. “Hello!” she said cheerily. Sgeirr looked as if she had just seen a dog get up on its hind legs and perform a jig while reciting a line of poetry. She blinked a few times, apparently lost for words,…
Fair Upon the Tor #89 (updates Mondays)
Soon enough, they started to pass small knots of people talking together, then a few more, and then suddenly they were deep in a crowd. All around them people were eating and drinking. Conversation and half-halting songs lilted and drifted. Caewen almost wanted to scream at them all, run, run for your lives, but she…