Welcome to the Weekend Writing Warriors blog hop, where each week contributing writers share 8-10+ sentences from their latest projects.

I’m currently sharing from the next standalone short story in my Heartsbane Saga series of fairy tales retold in a world of Vikings. “Ezichi the Beautiful” is a retelling of the Russian fairy tale Vasilisa the Beautiful, about a girl who gets help from the witch Baba Yaga to complete tasks set by her evil stepmother.

I’m skipping ahead just a little bit this weekend. Since last week, Ezichi has befriended the local street children, who help her with the never-ending chores the first wife, Yaba, has for her.

* * * * * * *

When Ezichi, or rather the street children, had finished the list of chores that Yaba had given her, she went into the kitchen to get a drink of water for her parched throat, but the water skin that normally hung on the wall was empty. She went into the courtyard, but the fountain that she often scooped water from was dry. Ezichi frowned; usually it burbled day and night, which meant the mechanism that fed it had broken at some point. She traced the path of the pipe from the fountain to the cistern at the edge of the house, but fortunately saw no sign of leaks. Fortunately, too, water glistened at the bottom of the cistern, although it was too far down for her to reach; unfortunately, the knob that controlled the flow of the water appeared to be missing.

She was muddling over how to fix this when Yaba’s shrill voice rang out from the house.

“Ezichi, get me a drink of water!”

Ezichi scowled. Somehow, she knew Yaba was behind this, but how stupid could the first wife be to cut off their water supply? How could the household survive under the hot desert sun without any water?

* * * * * * *

And the rest of that scene:

She stomped through the courtyard and back into the house, where Yaba and the other two wives were lounging in the women’s salon.

“What did you do to the fountain?” Ezichi demanded.

The second and third wives exchanged a look, and the third wife giggled.

Yaba simply raised an eyebrow. “There’s something wrong with the fountain?” she asked innocently.

“You damn well know there is.”

* * * * * * *

Post a link to your eight-ten sentence blog entry or join the fun at the Weekend Writing Warriors website.

* * * * * * *

Heartsbane Saga – fairy tales retold in a world of Vikings!

Book .5: “The Maiden in the Tower” – Carys has resigned herself to a life of servitude, locked away in a tower, until a chance encounter with a stranger leaves her daring to hope for more.

Book 1: Captive and the Cursed – When Nyah’s sister is kidnapped by barbarians, Nyah offers herself in her place. But she soon learns the barbarians aren’t what she expected, especially their cursed leader.

Book 1.5: “The Brave Little Thrall” – Fahim Al Rasheed has spent his life studying foreign cultures, but he never thought he’d actually have the chance to visit them. When his journey of a lifetime leaves him and a young barbarian king marooned in a hostile country, he’ll have to rely on more than book learning to make it back home alive.

Book 2: Sleeping Shaman – Nyah and her friends travel halfway across the world seeking a cure for a barbarian curse, only to discover that the man they’re seeking has gone missing. Nyah must navigate dangerous rivalries and conflicting cultures before time runs out

It’s been quite a busy week. I start a new job tomorrow, and I’ve been rushing around trying to wrap up those million little tasks that I put off until I ran out of time to wrap them up. That didn’t leave me much time to write this week, but my new job will be 3 12-hour shifts each week so hopefully I’ll be able to get back on track. Haha, who am I kidding – something else will come back.

Anyways.

For the next month or two, I’m moving on to the next standalone short story in my Heartsbane Saga series of fairy tales retold in a world of Vikings. “Ezichi the Beautiful” is a retelling of the Russian fairy tale Vasilisa the Beautiful, about a girl who gets help from the witch Baba Yaga to complete tasks set by her evil stepmother. It’ll be out in the next week or two.

This week’s snippet is from the beginning of the story. Ezichi’s husband is out of town, and the first wife, Yaba, isn’t too fond of her. Last week Ezichi snuck off and was deep in thought when someone interrupted her. We pick up right after that.

* * * * * * *

Ezichi nearly fell off the bench she was sitting on. A little girl, no older than seven or eight and dressed in a dirty, tattered tunic, perched beside her.

The girl giggled at Ezichi’s response, a sound that echoed around the empty courtyard.

“Why don’t I what?” Ezichi asked as she regained her composure.

“Whatever it was you were talking about.” The girl giggled again. “You talk to yourself an awful lot, lalla.”

“Do I?” Ezichi tried to remember if this was something she’d always done, or if it was something that had developed since she’d married Kwaku. Growing up, she and her brother had had their own secret language, but here, however, she had no one to share anything with.

* * * * * * *

And the rest of that scene:

As if Yaba could read her mind too, the first wife’s shrill voice rang out. “Ezichi, you worthless girl, where are you hiding? Supper won’t cook itself!”

Ezichi sighed and went to do as Yaba requested.

The next day, she again stole away to the back courtyard when Yaba wasn’t looking. The first wife had kept her busy all day, this time scrubbing the mosaic floors throughout their house, and it seemed like no matter how hard Ezichi tried, she couldn’t get the grout clean enough for Yaba’s satisfaction.

Ezichi sat on the bench again, shaded by a large tree that hung over the compound wall into the alley on the other side. Or what she assumed was an alley; she hadn’t left the compound since she’d married, six months ago. She had just started eating a snack of dried dates she’d snuck from the kitchen when the tree branches rustled and the little girl dropped down beside her. That at least solved one mystery.

She was even grubbier than the day before, if that was possible. Ezichi didn’t know anything of her life, but her heart went out to her nonetheless. “Would you like some dates?” she asked.

The girl snatched them out of her hand and shoved them all into her mouth before Ezichi could even finish speaking, then wordlessly scampered up the tree, over the wall, and out of sight.

* * * * * * *

Post a link to your eight-ten sentence blog entry or join the fun at the Weekend Writing Warriors website.

* * * * * * *

Heartsbane Saga – fairy tales retold in a world of Vikings!

Book .5: “The Maiden in the Tower” – Carys has resigned herself to a life of servitude, locked away in a tower, until a chance encounter with a stranger leaves her daring to hope for more.

Book 1: Captive and the Cursed – When Nyah’s sister is kidnapped by barbarians, Nyah offers herself in her place. But she soon learns the barbarians aren’t what she expected, especially their cursed leader.

Book 1.5: “The Brave Little Thrall” – Fahim Al Rasheed has spent his life studying foreign cultures, but he never thought he’d actually have the chance to visit them. When his journey of a lifetime leaves him and a young barbarian king marooned in a hostile country, he’ll have to rely on more than book learning to make it back home alive.

Book 2: Sleeping Shaman – Nyah and her friends travel halfway across the world seeking a cure for a barbarian curse, only to discover that the man they’re seeking has gone missing. Nyah must navigate dangerous rivalries and conflicting cultures before time runs out

For the next month or two, I’m moving on to the next standalone short story in my Heartsbane Saga series of fairy tales retold in a world of Vikings. “Ezichi the Beautiful” is a retelling of the Russian fairy tale Vasilisa the Beautiful, about a girl who gets help from the witch Baba Yaga to complete tasks set by her evil stepmother. It’ll be out in the next week or two.

This week’s snippet is from the beginning of the story. Ezichi is the sister of one of the main characters, and she was supposed to be killed off but my beta readers liked her too much so I’m sticking her in this side story. This part continues from last week.

* * * * * * *

Within a week, Kwaku had left his household for the distant city of Duguba. Ezichi was on her best behavior when it came to interacting with his other wives: doing all the chores Yaba assigned to her—which in her opinion seemed to be most of them, biting her tongue from saying what she really thought of them, and finally just avoiding them when she could. This last part proved difficult, however, as Kwaku, like most Aghlabidi men, encouraged his wives to stay confined to the home, and while the women’s quarters were big, they weren’t big enough for two large personalities like Ezichi and Yaba.

One particular afternoon, when she was trying to hide from Yaba’s shrill demands, Ezichi found herself thinking about her life before marrying Kwaku. She tried not to let herself do this too often; she wasn’t the type of person to wallow in self-pity. But she missed that life. Her father had given her the freedom to do whatever she wanted: visit the university libraries and the markets, choose and reject her own suitors, nearly everything her twin brother had been able to do. But by a twist of events she still didn’t fully understand, she’d woken one day to find herself hundreds or maybe thousands of leagues from home, with no way back. So when the marriage offer had come from Kwaku, she’d accepted it and resigned herself to make the best of her situation. But that didn’t mean she didn’t want to go home.

“So why don’t you?” asked a little voice beside her.

* * * * * * *

Post a link to your eight-ten sentence blog entry or join the fun at the Weekend Writing Warriors website.

* * * * * * *

Heartsbane Saga – fairy tales retold in a world of Vikings!

Book .5: “The Maiden in the Tower” – Carys has resigned herself to a life of servitude, locked away in a tower, until a chance encounter with a stranger leaves her daring to hope for more.

Book 1: Captive and the Cursed – When Nyah’s sister is kidnapped by barbarians, Nyah offers herself in her place. But she soon learns the barbarians aren’t what she expected, especially their cursed leader.

Book 1.5: “The Brave Little Thrall” – Fahim Al Rasheed has spent his life studying foreign cultures, but he never thought he’d actually have the chance to visit them. When his journey of a lifetime leaves him and a young barbarian king marooned in a hostile country, he’ll have to rely on more than book learning to make it back home alive.

Book 2: Sleeping Shaman – Nyah and her friends travel halfway across the world seeking a cure for a barbarian curse, only to discover that the man they’re seeking has gone missing. Nyah must navigate dangerous rivalries and conflicting cultures before time runs out.

For the next month or two, I’m moving on to the next standalone short story in my Heartsbane Saga series of fairy tales retold in a world of Vikings. “Ezichi the Beautiful” is a retelling of the Russian fairy tale Vasilisa the Beautiful, about a girl who gets help from the witch Baba Yaga to complete tasks set by her evil stepmother.

This week’s snippet is from the beginning of the story. Ezichi is the sister of one of the main characters, and she was supposed to be killed off but my beta readers liked her too much so I’m sticking her in this side story.

* * * * * * *

“I will miss you, o jewel of my heart,” Kwaku said to his wife, Ezichi, as they lay in bed next to each other.

Ezichi was glad for the bedchamber’s darkness as she rolled her eyes. As far as husbands went, Kwaku wasn’t a bad man. He was always polite to her, never laid a hand on anyone in his house, and, more importantly, he’d taken her as a wife and not a concubine. But he was also dull, while prone to dramatic language, and he had a short attention span. Ezichi was sure she was his current favorite wife only because she was his newest, and she had no doubts that she would be set aside whenever he could afford the next one.

“Don’t you want to know why I will miss you?” Kwaku asked with a tinge of petulance in his voice.

“Are you going on a trip?” she asked him, knowing full well this was the case.

* * * * * * *

And the rest of this scene:

He traveled frequently, arranging trade deals to buy and sell gold and salt among the southern tribes, And she’d heard his first wife, Yaba, talking about it earlier today.

“As much as it pains me to leave your side, I must travel to Duguba. The monsoons will come while I’m gone, so it will be many moons before I return.”

“I will miss you too, pride of my soul.” She barely managed to keep a straight face at that endearment, but Kwaku didn’t seem to notice.

“I know that you are still adapting to my household.” He stroked her arm. If he noticed that she tensed at this reminder of her loss of freedom, he didn’t say anything. “Yaba will teach you everything you need to know. She’s a good woman. You would do well to learn from her.”

Not for the first time, and probably not for the last either, Ezichi wondered how a man as successful as Kwaku could be so blind as to what went on in his own home, and as to the true nature of his own wives.

* * * * * * *

Post a link to your eight-ten sentence blog entry or join the fun at the Weekend Writing Warriors website.

* * * * * * *

Heartsbane Saga – fairy tales retold in a world of Vikings!

Book .5: “The Maiden in the Tower” – Carys has resigned herself to a life of servitude, locked away in a tower, until a chance encounter with a stranger leaves her daring to hope for more.

Book 1: Captive and the Cursed – When Nyah’s sister is kidnapped by barbarians, Nyah offers herself in her place. But she soon learns the barbarians aren’t what she expected, especially their cursed leader.

Book 1.5: “The Brave Little Thrall” – Fahim Al Rasheed has spent his life studying foreign cultures, but he never thought he’d actually have the chance to visit them. When his journey of a lifetime leaves him and a young barbarian king marooned in a hostile country, he’ll have to rely on more than book learning to make it back home alive.

Book 2: Sleeping Shaman – Nyah and her friends travel halfway across the world seeking a cure for a barbarian curse, only to discover that the man they’re seeking has gone missing. Nyah must navigate dangerous rivalries and conflicting cultures before time runs out.