By the time the ‘feast’ was done, he really did feel as if he had spent an hour working at a scorching oven, in a room full of steaming, boiling pots. Sweat was beading on his brow and trickling into the rims of his eyes, stinging. But the king and queen seemed satisfied. They leaned…
A Charm for the Nameless Child #15
He looked back the way they had come. Nothing stirred in that direction. With few other choices, he decided to keep walking into the ruined town. Assuming that he was simply separated from the others, he guessed that his best bet was to look for them at the great rock that stood at the heart…
A Charm for the Nameless Child #14
They rode through the morning without any trouble. Now and again, they crested small rises, and were able to see up the valley. Ahead, the narrow rift of the valley opened and filled with sunlight. They could see a place where the stream seemed to erupt out of the side of a wide, flat-topped prominence…
Update: life and bugs
I’ve been unwell lately, which has gotten in the way of my editing and posting. Nothing serious. It was just a flu, but it did knock me out for about a week. If it wasn’t the case that we are situated in a small town, off in a quiet corner of New Zealand, I would…
A Charm for the Nameless Child #13
Although it took the boy a long time to drift off, eventually exhaustion won. He found himself troubled by dreams of dead white hands reaching for him, and pale, puffy lips trying to kiss him on the forehead or the cheeks, like a mother’s kiss or an old aunt’s. The dreams turned into a confused,…
A Charm for the Nameless Child #12
Caewen was quick about setting camp. The boy helped collect firewood, draw water from the stream, and then watched the fire once it was lit. He stared into the changeful leap and dance of flames, gazed upwards as embers rose and spun. As Caewen settled into cooking something to eat, the boy felt something unfamiliar….
New cover for Old Dark Things
I put this together in about three hours. I’m fairly happy with the result, and may use it. It’s maybe not quite done yet, but getting there. Certainly better than the current cover for Old Dark Things, which is sort of terrible.
Faces in the Rocks
I thought some of you might enjoy this BBC Reel clip on looking for trolls in Iceland: https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p035nnyc/we-went-hunting-for-trolls-and-found-a-deeper-truth And, here, I’ve sketched some of the faces I spotted in the rocks at the end.
A Charm for the Nameless Child #11
They climbed down, then hid behind a gnarled scrub of old blackthorns. Dapplegrim got down on his haunches, as low as he could. He looked rather comically like a very big dog trying to hide against the ground. He shuffled forward a bit, and was just able to crawl beneath the clustered shadow of the…
A Charm for the Nameless Child #10
Dapplegrim’s ears twitched back. “How could it be worse?” She pushed herself up on one elbow. “It’s empty. There is no one guarding the throne in the mountains. The court is silent. The only noises are the creak of the chain and dead tree. And the whole of the dark valley where I last saw…