Two Days Late So Far…
(Swords with Souls)
Fantasy Fiction
By Dan Watt
(Author of BARD: Bearer of the Gemstone)
(Author of the Plagueborn series)
– Adult content –
The next day, while Lord Ysbail was away visiting the king, Dodder was found splayed on the ground below the fourth story window of the tower. His body twisted and broken and his too close together eyes staring lifelessly.
Lord Ibris stepped up beside him, to stare at the mangled remains of his nephew. ‘I’m sorry I never got a weapon maker here, but I know of one, take this with you to him. He’s in the village Quacken.’ Lord Ibris then slipped him a note. ‘Three days from now, when Lord Ysbail returns from meeting the king, gather all the girls and the boys too young to join the army. When you see a fire engulfing the tower take them north. I have found a place amongst the faie of the Blackforest for them to go. I cannot go with you. There is trouble in the north with one of the chiefdoms that refuses to give fealty to the king. The king wants me to help lead an attack. Now listen closely, when you head out on your own you must dye your hair, and change your name.’
Three days later, during supper a boy hands him a note from Lord Ysbail. As he walks towards the tower, he sees Asghari and some of the older women pouring water on the flower beds and hedges that surround the tower. He walks up stone steps to the double oak doors and uses the non-descript knocker. The right door opens and tall, burly guard looks down at his note. ‘No weapons beyond this point,’ the guard says. He pulls his belt with his knife and sword off. ‘Up the stairs to the fourth floor.’
The place smells of incense from numerous strategically placed candles. He starts to climb the curving staircase. At each floor there is a slit window with no pane, allowing a cold draft in. Whatever the Lord wants, it will be bad.
The first book of the BARD series
Wearing the gemstone necklace given to him by a mysterious girl he saved, Bran embarks on a journey to the Bard campus his father once went to. However, he’s never traveled beyond his home. All he knows about the outside world is from sketches in school books. And what he has learned from the mutilated Residences, who escaped from the Emperor’s land across the sea.
If he survives the journey to the Bard campus, he’ll learn why his father was so adamant that he become a Bard. And as a Bard, he can search for her, the Owner of the Gemstone.
Caedar Writing & Artwork 