As they approached, Caewen leaned forward, and said at a whisper in Dapple’s ear. “Stop. Stay here.” She swung herself down then, landing lightly on the grey and moor-damp turf. She left them, and crossed the last few hundred paces on her own. Wetness oozed in her footsteps, welling up from the soaked ground. It…
Back posting
It’s been awhile since I last posted any story updates. It’s just the usual explanation. I took a break, intending it to be just a week or so, and then preschool bugs ran rampant through the house. I think we had something like four weeks in which at least one person in the house was…
Pausing a moment
I’m nearing the final chapters of A Charm for the Nameless Child. I’m going to take a moment to pause, do a bit of revising and then continue. I’m finding that posting this book is involving quite a bit of editing and rewriting. In some places I’ve had to rewrite (or write) whole passages and…
A Charm for the Nameless Child #116
They rode together on Dapplegrim’s back, the boy behind and Caewen in the front, with Fleat gliding along beside them. Every hour or so, he would circle back, sailing out of sight, only to return some time later. After the third or fourth of his sorties back, he returned with as dark a look in…
A Charm for the Nameless Child #115
He saw the hard expression of her face, the cold angry look in her eyes. She was staring fixedly at Athairdrost, and there was perhaps even a gleam of enjoyment in her eyes. He shifted uncomfortably, without saying anything. Eventually, it was Dapplegrim who interrupted her. “Caewen.” She looked at him. “The knights aren’t going…
A Charm for the Nameless Child #114
She looked at him, then back at the circle. Then she looked at him again, searchingly. Her eyes seemed to settle on something. Her expression changed from wrinkled-up thought to a clear smile. “I have it.” She carefully pulled a single hair from her head, between finger and thumb, and laid it inside the circle….
A Charm for the Nameless Child #113
She looked at him narrowly and then waved a hand at one of the nearby paupers of the court–a hunched and much put-upon looking man-servant, bent-backed with rheumy old eyes and skin splotched by liver spots. His lips were wet and loose, and his hair thin and grey. “Make that man rich enough to buy…
A Charm for the Nameless Child #112
They stood quietly and eyed each other for a time in silence as their respective allies took themselves off to safer distances. The young woman spoke up when the herald started to move off. “No. We need some closer witnesses.” She suggested that a few meagre servants–the wine-bearer and herald, court fool, the peasants and…
A Charm for the Nameless Child #111
A black silhouette had appeared at the foot of the hill. It seemed to have simply manifested out of the air. Or perhaps it had stepped out of a shadow cast by one of the larger stones? It was difficult to make out any detail, but Athairdrost could not break the court if there was…
A Charm for the Nameless Child #110
The Blade Henge ran in two rows of sharp rocks along the ridge of a steep and narrow hill. The hilltop was deeply grassed, wind-torn and lonely. The stones themselves were so dark a grey as to be almost black, and they were knife-like in shape, thin and angular–like flakes of obsidian chipped out by…