This’ll be the last post from Captive and the Cursed, the first book in my Heartsbane series, since my second short story, “The Brave Little Thrall,” will be out later this week and I’ll be moving on to snippets from it instead.
Last week, we learned that Nyah’s sister had been kidnapped by barbarians. When her village council didn’t move quickly enough to get her back, Nyah took matters into her own hands and charged off to the barbarian camp to get her back. She demanded to speak with their leader, and a very polite man named Domhnall led her to the leader’s tent, where she’s now confronting a man covered in a horrible, painful-looking rash.
* * * * * * *
The disfigured man glared at me. “Go back to your village, girl.”
“I will as soon as you give me my sister back.”
The man shifted his glare to Domhnall. “What is she talking about?”
“I am talking about the girl your barbarians captured yesterday.”
“Domhnall?”
“I’d guess she’s the sister of the girl we rescued.”
“You dinnae rescue her,” I spat at them.
“Oh,” the hideous man asked, “then what happened?”
* * * * * * *
And here’s the rest of that scene:
Swallowing down my revulsion to the disfigured man’s appearance, as well as my fear, I strode over to his table and glanced down at the maps and papers scattered on the table. Father had many of his own maps from his travels, and I’d studied them often, so I was familiar with the geography of Llogeria. “Let me recap for you. You sailed across the northern sea in your long ships, looking for easy treasure.” I traced his path on the map while I spoke. “As you make your way to our capital, you’re gathering men to you, with promises of treasure and slaves. And if they won’t willingly join you, you take them captive, like you did with my sister and her companion. Aye, I know what happened, because Dar escaped and told me everything.” I shook my head in disgust. “It’s horrible enough what you’re doing here, but you barbarians have been invading our shores for centuries. What’s worse is when my fellow countrymen put their own greed over Llogeria. This man, for example.”
I turned my ire to Domhnall. “What did he bribe you with? Gold? No, I can tell you’re a lordling so you dinnae need wealth. A title, perhaps, and land of your own. Maybe he’ll let you rule at his side when you overthrow our king? Well, you won’t overthrow him. You should know our king is raising his own army to fight back against these hordes, and—”
“Aye, we know,” the disfigured man interrupted. “What does this have to do with your sister again?”
* * * * * * *
This is obviously not the reaction she was expecting!
Captive and the Cursed is available now at Amazon, or you can read more of the characters’ exploits in the prequel short story, “The Maiden in the Tower,” for just $.99. Then post a link to your eight-ten sentence blog entry or join the fun at the Weekend Writing Warriors website.
It’s been a crazy week! We started off getting one of those things that can only happen in 2020, like murder hornets and Tiger King – a hurricane in the Midwest. My power was knocked out for about 50 hours due to the 90mph derecho winds that swept through, and while my house was okay, there’s a ton of damage in the area that’s still getting cleaned up. The widespread power outage (about 125,000 people, or roughly half in my city) affected businesses and services too, leaving me to conclude that there just is no new normal anymore and never will be again.
