Daylight was fading, ushered out by stormclouds. I softened my footsteps as best I could, easing up to Aidan in muddy boots. Pine needles crackled softly underfoot. He knelt at the side of the fire, staring into the flames, oblivious to what was going on under his nose. There was little wind in our pine […]
Storm clouds choked the light well before sunset, more cold, bitter rain cutting easily through the open canopy above. I was warmer, at least, a ripped scarlet tabard and stolen Church cloak between oilcloth and chain. No more fumbling about in the forest. We sat on a stump at the edge of a grove of […]
Mariead cradled the Teague firearm like an infant, the long neck of it braced in the crook of her elbow, the hilt of it in her hand. Her eyes were wide, glazed off into the hillside. Thin fingers hovered over the mechanism, old cuts black and silver on her skin. Grannine stood at her […]
For three hundred years after the Fall, the Church had kept its foot on our neck. Hunted us. They drove us from the towns, into the wilds, and burnt our Holds wherever they found them. They taught that we were heretical to the Church of Saint Kendrick, traitors to the one right and holy way […]
In actual fact, people are not so often willing to charge into violent confrontation. They hesitate around the edges and wait for someone to slip. There’s always a first man to break. I’d seen enough to know the signs; the wild animal eyes, the shift of weight, the tensing in his shoulders. I spotted those […]
Aidan and I stood just below the road, at the edge of the trees on the downhill side of the slope, looking up as Church scarlet massed on the ridgeline. Our druids hid back among the undergrowth on the far side of the bog at the bottom of the slope, Mariead and Eris among […]
The afternoon wasn’t proving to be any less gloomy than the morning. At least I had company. “Sure you caught all that, lass? There was a lot to remember.” I couldn’t keep the grin off my face. Hard to remember that there wasn’t a need to. We were the head of the column of […]
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