Swords with Souls: Unexpected B24

Unexpected

(Swords with Souls)

By Dan Watt

Cover by Darren Joy

Fantasy Fiction

(Adult content)

Sir Oliver rides his destrier mare, Alberta, along the dirt road through the farmland at the back of his fiefdom. He makes sure to go slow enough to wave at the farmers in the field. Most of them are family. His parents had no love of the city, nor did his brothers. Alberta automatically slowed as they neared the edge of the Dark Forest. He needed to warn the women in the hidden valley of the possible war coming. A short distance in, he dismounts and pats Alberta’s shoulder. He tosses the reins over her neck. If there was trouble, she knew to flee and let one of his brothers know. Even though it was early, the thick canopy of the forest cast a dark shadow over everything below. He listens and watches intently. Beside an ancient oak he hoots like an owl. Two hoots come back in reply. He hoots again. A barely visible figure with a cocked crossbow steps into view.

“Oliver, nephew of Crimthann,” he says and waits.

“I remember you, come,” a female voice tells him.

He has exceptional sight but her face is too shadowed for him to make out and he hasn’t been here for at least three or more years. As he steps closer, he notices she is wearing a dark green gambeson and leggings. Her boots and belt are both brown. From her wrists to almost her elbow she has boiled leather tied on; the same as he does. He wonders if she also has the crisscrossing leather straps, he wears under his shirt. Hanging from her belt is a hunting knife. It’s in a poor position to draw. He would have to correct her and the others on that.

Half an hour passes before he sees light shining ahead and hears water running. The scent of pine and skunkweed fades as they come into an open area. Down a sloping hill is the valley.

“Wait here,” the archer says and he watches as she hurries down the hill.

He gazes over the valley. Thatch roofed houses made of clay, straw, and stone are spread sparsely on the sides of the valley’s hills. Women are working in patches of potato, barley, and other grains and vegetables. Surrounding the patches are fruit and nut trees. He can make out hazelnut, chestnut, and almond trees interspersed with plum, apple, pear, and cherry.  The Chestnut and cherry are set in the middle of the smaller trees. Along the hilltops of the valley are oak, sugar maple, and walnuts. Towards the centre of the valley, where the greatest amount of sunlight reaches, are patches of raspberry, blueberry, and grapes. It will be years before the valley produces a lucrative amount of food. Most of it will have to be sold outside of the kingdom in the form of wines and other forms of liquor. Otherwise, a very greedy king might enquire where these supplies come from. At the far end of the valley, he can see a ridge of mountains.

He sees the archer retuning and turns his gaze to her. 

“Endellion will see you,” she tells him.

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BARD: Bearer of the Gemstone (Arriving July 26)

Paper Back Arriving July 26, 2024

BARD: Bearer of the Gemstone

Cover by Fantasy-Art-Z.com

e-book available now

After Bran gets accepted to the same Bard campus his father once went to his father tells him of the wonders of  becoming a Bard and how it will allow him to travel anywhere in the world. Bran argues that he would rather help his father with blacksmithing. But his father tells him he has to go, and because it’s harvest time, he must go alone. His father also warns him that things are much more dangerous now. Before he leaves, his mother tells him that someday he must return the gemstone necklace he always wears. A necklace given to him by a girl he saved two years before.

Soon Bran will learn just how dangerous things have become as he travels towards the Bard campus, and that the gemstone is much more than just a symbol of its owner’s gratitude.

BARD: Bearer of the Gemstone will take you on a journey of discovery, blacksmithing, and music. You’ll walk and run with Bran as he meets lurking dangers and learns of a constant threat from afar.

EXCERPT

His sight becomes blurry. Images fade in-and-out. Things grow extraordinarily large. Everything becomes unclear and black speckles dance in front of his eyes. He stands up and staggers outside into Cranny’s Forest.

“Off to the Campus, alone,” he sings:

Off alone, to a place far from home
Where the Bards are
So, I can sing to the Earth
Of a love, I don’t understand

Her long brunette hair
The tiny freckles around her nose
Are burned into my memories
And her evergreen eyes
As luminous as a pond,
Under gathering fireflies


For a moment of bravery
When I saved her,
from two ghouls
She clasped a silver necklace,
around my neck

Her farewell kiss,
a bonding reminder
That when we are older,
I must return to her,
This gemstone necklace,
That always rests,
against my chest

EXCERPT

Gently, he lays his lute on his lap, and gazes around at his surroundings. To the east there are alternate clusters of apple and cherry trees. Beyond the clusters he can see a wall of pine and spruce. Behind that wall the Druids roam. Through the rustling leaves, and gentle wind, he can hear the faint whistle of the Druids playing their flutes.  
He places the strap of his lute over his shoulders, and lightly twangs the strings. He wants to synchronize his lute sounds with their flute whistles but they are too distant. Something inside, some hidden essence, makes him sing as he plays:
​​​​​​​

He ran beside the forest to find the place of his destiny
Everything seemed dark and overgrown
Alone, he ran,
Through the dense woods

No one knows what creatures he met,
Nor the men who captured him,
Nor the one who let him go

Who would believe the monsters
he saw,
Two-headed men,
With hatchets
Covered in blood—

Swords with Souls!: The Hunt B23

The Hunt

(Swords with Souls)

Cover by Darren Joy

Fantasy Fiction

(Adult content)

“Kill him if you do and return with his head so we can show the people what a traitor looks like,” the king replies, and once again waving his hand, “and all of his family. They are all deemed terrorists.”

With a flourish, and without replying, Sir Oisin departs. He has no intention of returning to the king with any heads.

As he’s leaving, he hears the king say to the other royal guards except Sir Olaf and the new guard. “Go to your fiefdoms and prepare your fighting men for possible war.”

It amazes him that most of these propers don’t know how to follow a scent or a track. Maybe it’s because they’re taught they’re more important than other living things. They forget they learned how to build from birds, bees, and wasps. How to dig from rabbits and so many more. How to fish and hunt from bears and wolves and others. How to swim from otters. But that was so far back in their history they probably no longer remember. The exception is the rangers. Unfortunately, they are loners instead of leaders. Sir Ganbold would go to his tiny castle first, to collect his family and he would be prepared for an attack. Every one of his children were trained for battle and to ride a horse. If the party sent hasn’t caught up to Sir Ganbold and successfully killed him; there might be a chance to save him and his family.

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Swords with Souls: The Hunt B22

The Hunt

(Swords with Souls)

Cover by Darren Joy

Fantasy Fiction

(Adult content)

Sir Oisin trots to the entrance of the castle’s great hall and leaps off Ronnin. He watches as his noble stead walks over to a nearby trough and takes a drink before he hurries into the great hall. Behind the king stand the other main royal guards. Sir Afamefuna, rigid as usual but also older looking; Sir Oliver, steadfast and at ease; Sir Olaf, who leaned over to whisper to the seated monarch; and a new guard, with a similar build to Sir Olaf. It didn’t surprise him that Sir Olaf was going to gradually replace the current royal guards with his own. The current royal guards were so busy with their own fiefdoms that it wouldn’t matter, accept in this case Sir Olaf would have greater access to the king’s ear.

“You’re here, Sir Oisin,” King Leopold chides.

“As soon as I heard, Your Highness,” he replies, and gives a sweeping bow. The king’s conniving stare is ever present but the rest of his face looks grey and worn.

“You missed it by a few hours,” the king says with a sweep of his hand. “My son’s hand has been boxed, his royal blood wiped up, and my wife insane with vengeance. A platoon has been sent to kill Sir Ganbold but he is shrewd.”

“I will find him, Your Highness,” he swears.

“We will have a battalion of the army ready when you return,” the King says in a dark tone as he glances behind him at Sir Olaf.

“That we will, Your Highness,” Sir Olaf replies with a snarl in his voice.

“A battalion, Your Highness?” Sir Oisin asks. This could be bad, that many troops would look to prove their strength by eating off the common people’s land and bedding daughters and possibly wives who may not share their desires.

“It would be better if Sir Ganbold does not make the sea and his homeland but we must be prepared if he does.”

“I will go now and find him, Your Highness.” Sir Oisin also sees potential in this. A divided army is easier to defeat.

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Swords with Souls: Before You Go B21

Before You Go

(Swords with Souls)

Cover by Darren Joy

Fantasy Fiction

(Adult content)

As the memories flow through her thoughts, she prepares for the trip in her room. Then she hears her grandmother call, “Lara,” from the main room.

In the main room she sees that her grandmother’s hands are shaking and tears are pouring down her wrinkled cheeks. In her one hand is a tiny piece of quartz with iron in it, and in her other hand a tiny bag.

“Come,” she hears her sister say to her nephew. Once they leave, she takes the quartz and places it inside the bag. She turns back to her grandfather and nicks his wrist to gather blood in a vial. Then she waits. He chokes out more blood before his chest raises and as he is about to breathe out one last time, she covers his mouth with the bag. 

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Swords with Souls: Before You Go B20

Before You Go

(Swords with Souls)

Cover by Darren Joy

Fantasy Fiction

(Adult content)

Days pass as Lara focuses on preparing her trip to the Sword Maker. The merchant and carnival owner Haashir and his giant bodyguard Jedreck await her half a day’s ride away. The carnival owner is the only one who is allowed to bring a giant, a dwarf, and other oddities into the city. The king allows it because it demonstrates to the proper people how unlike these others are.

After the first carnival giant had died from a disorder that caused him to keep growing fewer people came to see the carnival. A year later, when Haashir met her grandparents at one of the king’s markets within the castle walls, Hasshir asked her grandfather if he wanted a job. After talking it over with their son, who years later would be her and Gwen’s father, her grandfather agreed. Her grandparents would travel with the carnival while their son took care of the homestead.  Her grandfather wore a wig and fake eyebrows made from bear hair her grandmother had collected from the bark of a tree a bear had used as a rubbing post. With makeup her grandmother made her grandfather look intimidating. Her grandparents didn’t need money so Haashir collected books for them. After three years her grandparents were ready to go home.

Word must have gotten around the carnival needed a new giant.  Shortly after her grandfather retired, Jedreck showed up and volunteered for the position. Jedreck was called The Warlord Giant. The king agreed to this name because he believed it reminded the people why giants must stay in their own land.

Lara remembers seeing Jedreck standing in an open space chopping wood with no one else around. His bronze skin glistened in the light rain. His long black hair blowing in the wind and slapping against his chiseled shoulder muscles and bulging chest. She was in awe. He was nothing like the giants she had seen before. They were usually thin and gangly. Jedreck looked like the perfect proper human. But that all disappeared when some proper humans walked by him.

She thought they were toddlers at first. She had told this story when the ranger Crimthann had stopped by on his travels to share news. She recalls how Crimthann had taken a swallow out of his pewter mug, wiped away the suds, and said in a very ominous tone, “There are giants I see now when I go with the collectors to drop off giants and collect propers that are much taller and stand with a confidence in their eyes that I rarely see. The same with the dwarves. Some of the new breed look like walking boulders. Their chins are held high and they are not afraid to look at the collector’s in the eyes. I don’t know if it’s from inbreeding, dwarves mating with dwarves only, or giants mating with giants only, or if they are mating with people we know nothing about.

‘It could be your fault,’ her grandfather had joked. ‘You warned them to keep their proper children hidden when the collector’s come.’

‘I did,” the ranger admitted. ‘After taking the first few sons and daughters from the dwarves and giants, and seeing the anguish in their parent’s eyes, I did warn them.’

Lara had heard so much lament in the ranger’s choked voice. She recalls her grandmother taking his hand and squeezing it. ‘Luckily, I did the job alone then,’ the ranger continued. ‘The quarter moon ears are another story. They shot warning arrows when I went to collect any propers. But I was able to tell them about the quarter moon babies left for the river to swallow. That was when the old king lived. He wasn’t as controlling or conniving as his son. A lot of what I could say and do in the past isn’t possible now.’   

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Swords with Souls: Before You Go B19

Before You Go

(Swords with Souls)

Cover by Darren Joy

Fantasy Fiction

(Adult content)

It hurts to see this giant of a man fading before her eyes. She remembers asking him when she was a child how he was allowed to live in Damp Wind. His long straw hair was tied back so his wide forehead glistened. He had grinned at her with his thin lips and strong jaw. ‘Well,’ he told her, ‘I was wise. When they measured me, I bent at my knees and shrugged my head into my shoulders.’ He demonstrated it to her. ‘If you stand tall with your chest out and knees nearly locked, you’ll look taller and more intimidating. If you lower your head, sink your chest, and bend your knees just a bit you’ll look smaller and meek.’ In the other room she had heard her grandmother chirp in, ‘If I had done the same, I would have been sent to the dwarves.’

“Lara, my time is almost up.” The lament in her grandfather’s voice hurts so much. “You must do to me what you did to the baron,” he continues.

“No grampa! I won’t!” She remembers the feel of the baron’s hot blood covering her hand and how quickly it became sticky.

“Stay until it’s time,” he pleads. “I have so much more I want to learn and so many stories to tell.”

She looks up at the curved wall at the back of the room. Shelves of lambskin and other skin covered books. “I will stay and hold your hand while you pass, before I go,” she assures him.

“I wish your father and mother could be here, but….”

She knows the story of how her and Gwen’s mother was seduced by their father. He had seen her swimming in a nearby pond and become enchanted. He had to have her. Without her grandmother’s knowledge, their father had made a love potion from one of the herbal books found down the stairs. There was no way of knowing it would actually work but he was so smitten that tried anyway. Day after day their father neglected his duties at home as he learned the daily routine of their mother. Sometimes she lived in a tree, other times she lived under water, perhaps within a cave that led to air. She always drank from a particular spring. One day he poured the entire contents of the potion into the water. For the next six years she was obsessed with him. He brought her mother home to her grandparents. Shocked, her grandparents did their best to pretend nothing was abnormal. Their mother had slits along her upper ribs. She also had pronounced webbed fingers and toes. Her long sinewy hair grew like roots. First, Lara was born then Gwen. When Gwen was two, the potion no longer had effect on their mother. Furious, their mother took their father deep into the woods. She used vines to tie him to a tall maple. Then she cut off some of her silken brown hair and forced it into his mouth. ‘Why do we look average?’ she had asked when she was a few years older. ‘At least on the outside you have your father’s heritage’ her grandmother had told her with a concerned smile.

“Remember what I taught you and Gwen about physics?” her grandfather rasps out.

“Yes Grandpa,” she replies.

“It allows you to do anything, if you live long enough. Books are the knowledge of what has already been learned. Gwen is making copies but you must memories them.”

She watches in horror as he coughs out a streak of dark blood.

“I want to live forever, Lara,” he says in a barely audible voice. “To continue learning and helping.”

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Swords with Souls: Before You Go… B18

Before You Go

(Swords with Souls)

Cover by Darren Joy

Fantasy Fiction

(Adult content)

In the centre of the court is a stone and mortar well with a sloped sod roof. The herbal house has its own cellar. People had asked her grandfather why the mushroom-shaped roofs. She remembers him looking down at the person with a great big grin and replying that it was as close to a dome shape as he could get.

She sees the side of her diminutive grandmother’s mouth twitch. The old woman’s aquamarine eyes shine with relief.

Aminah halts before the old woman and nudges her with a wet nostril.

“It is done Grandma Celima,” Lara says in a parched voice.

“Unsaddle Aminah then come inside to rest,” her grandmother says as she strokes Aminah’s cheek.

Inside the curved wall flicker with shadows made from numerous scented candles. She can just make out the ribbing that holds the roof in its convex shape. Her grandfather is sitting in his padded wicker chair with a quilt covering his thighs. His body shivers even though the fireplace is roaring. Beside the fireplace is her sister Gwen and her nephew Ganesha. Ganesha is playing with a toy in the shape of an animal she has never seen in real life. An elephant her grandparents called it.

“Grampa Stian,” she says before going onto her tiptoes to kiss his forehead. His skin is cool and thin against her lips.

“Lara,” you have returned he says in a raspy voice.

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Swords with Souls: Before You Go B17

Before You Go

(Swords with Souls)

Cover by Darren Joy

Fantasy Fiction

(Adult content)

“Lara, you did it,” her grandmother calls to her as Lara’s horse, Aminah, down the path towards a house constructed of straw and clay. The house is made up of three mushroom shaped abodes connected by external wooden halls and stone and mortar foundations. The entire area around the house was once a mammoth building built of clay and stone. Sections of wall still stand. The floor of the house is made up of broken mosaic flooring that her grandfather leveled and used clay to fill in the gaps and cracks. Her grandparents told her and her sister that large rocks used to dot the grounds.

Behind the house and not visible from where she sits a top Aminah, are two similarly shaped but smaller structures and what was once a ruined dome structure with a round hole for a skylight. The dome was built partially into the hill where her grandmother planted a variety of orchards. The herbal house and weaving house are parallel to each other, creating a court with the domed building in the centre.

Within the dome, originally covered in debris is a spiraling staircase. On the walls are shelves full of ancient books and scrolls. The stone stairs end at a swinging bridge whose ropes and wooden planks are too damaged to trust. Her grandparents believe a battle happened on the bridge.

Before he became ill her grandfather planned to fix the bridge and see where it led. It was task for her and her sister now. A natural heat from the chasm which the bridge is believed to cross protects the books and scrolls from rotting. Within the ruined section of the wall is an alcove in which an anvil as high as her waist sits. Deeper in are faded diagrams on sheep skin and mostly rusted tools. Her grandparents oiled the anvil and it now sits with a canvas tarp over it.

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Swords with Souls: Madame Swan B16

Madame Swan

(Swords with Souls)

Cover by Darren Joy

Fantasy Fiction

(Adult content)

After a few months Crimthann had returned to see how Endellion was doing. Once her filthy hair had been washed and the tangles straightened, she looked very pretty. Her long red hair made the green of her eyes shine like emeralds. But she couldn’t stay, her ears were pointed. That would be a death sentence if the wrong person found out. Infants with pointed ears were considered dangerous and were placed on reed rafts to be swallowed by the nearest river. Far in the past, all leaders had pointed ears. They were known for longevity and to be superior individuals with little patience for their inferior subjects. Nowadays, all but the most radicalized parents had any children with pointed ears sent to the dwarves or giants who took them to live with the quarter-moons in the far north. These days, she knew commoners tried to keep births secret until they knew the newborn’s appearance.

The hostel business could be fun and welcoming. There were happy occasions when a patron only wanted to see one girl and that girl shared that sentiment. Rarely, but occasionally they were married. She loved those weddings. But there were also devastating moments when a girl hated pleasing a man she did not love. Not often but there were times when a girl would be found dead by her own hands. After it happened twice, she invested, with the help of Sir Oliver, in farmland discovered by his uncle within an open valley deep in the Black Forest not far from his fiefdom. This is where Crimthann and two of the girls brought Endellion. Crimthann assured Endellion she could leave at any time. Now she’s the keeper of the valley. Some of the older women, no longer requested by patrons, also went to the farm. All the girls in the Black Forest Farm had to swear to secrecy. Unavoidably it would get out but maybe there would be a better king by then.

The agreement, was that girls could work there, without harassment, if they didn’t want to be a lady of the night. In the same valley they were also growing grapes. It was a good place and fairly safe from the king’s or anyone else’s knowledge. The Black Forest was known for wolves and bears, improper folk, and faie. No one saw the need to go there or had the desire to. It was considered worse than undesirable.

Her thoughts wander back to Sir Oisin as he gallantly sits atop his noble horse, Ronnin. Sir Oisin never comes to the brothel. But some of her girls lined up at the tavern he haunted to see what all the fuss was about. She inhales and leans back. She’s enjoyed the intimacy of being with so many different men. The play acting involved in foreplay and the gossip after sexual release made her feel full and useful. Someday she would have to pass the brothel onto someone else, and they could keep its current name or come up with their own. But for now, she still has urges that need to be satiated.

Thinking of Sir Oisin reminds her that Lady Elva had made a secretive appointment to learn the art of seduction. Lady Elva was worried her husband was losing interest in her because of an accident, when she was an infant, causing the tops of her ears to be ripped off. So, Madame Swan had ordered special scented oils to arouse the loins of men. She planned, after their meeting, on gifting the baroness a bottle of the oil. But with the death of the baroness’s husband, and what happened to Prince James, everything is unsure.   

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