Madame Swan
(Swords with Souls)
Cover by Darren Joy
Dark Fantasy Fiction
(Adult content)
Her father, a cobbler died when she was around nine and her younger brother barely six. Their mother was tall and attractive. Soon after, a man started coming round. At first, he seemed nice. A burly man with a thick crop of brown hair and thick black eyebrows. He was a tanner by trade. Their mother married him soon after. Almost the next day he made sure their mother knew that her brats were to keep quiet and more-or-less be invisible. By law, he took over the house, land, and their mother.
When she reached twelve, town folks said she was the spitting image of her mother. Her brother also had long eyelashes, and when their stepfather decided to visit her when he thought their mother was asleep, she worried he would do the same to her brother. She didn’t put up a fuss to keep him from turning his attention to her brother. Shortly afterwards, the first wave of the pox came over the land. It took her brother and her mother. The next day her stepfather decided that he would share her with other men for a price. After a week she stole his money and ran. He did give her one thing, a talent that was always sought after. It was the only thing she knew how to do in order to survive. How she lasted so long without getting a disease or pregnant is a miracle.
In time, she came across a caravan of people known as the Romani, with their colorful outfits and numerous skills. She tried to seduce one of the middle-aged men, named Damian. Phoebe was a beautiful name she had heard another girl called. In a sweet, sensuous voice she told him that was her name. He had held her back at arm lengths and began to weep. In his broken English he told her she reminded him of the daughters he had lost to the plague. He denied her touch but gave her something else. The understanding of money and more. For three years she helped sell clothing, shoes, and curved knives that these people either made or bartered for. Damian let her keep some money, which she stored in an inside pocket she had sewn herself, and the necklace his eldest daughter had once worn.
One of the ladies named Alifair taught her how to sew and the secrets of mixing herbs, including a contraceptive. Damian had just begun to teach her the art of knife fighting and the cross-bow when the caravan was attacked. He had her hide in a pile of clothing as he took out a small cross-bow. Later, she found his corpse between two of the wagons. He had been gutted by a spear. The caravan had fought off the attackers but there was hardly anyone left. Alifair was also lost to her. She saw the survivors hurry with their goods into a nearby woods. She took Damian’s curved warrior’s knife, shoulder satchel of coins, and a bag filled with salted fish before fleeing herself.
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