First Pages: The Buried Blade
When the grass in one of her uncle's fields starts
to die, Amanda tries to work out why, but her uncle only sees stones, where she
sees fragments of pottery. In a war as old as time, will Amanda convince her
uncle of the truth, and remain unscathed, or will she fall under the control of
an old and subtle power?
The Buried Blade is available from Smashwords and Kindle and will soon be available from Kobo, iTunes and Nook.
First Page Excerpt: The Buried Blade
The
sword sang in the darkness. It sang through the rubble that buried it. It sang
through the bones of skeletal fingers that had wrapped themselves around it.
The
song could not be heard through the muffling shroud of earth covering the sword
although it echoed throughout the ancient citadel that was imprisoned with it.
The song seeped through the earth for an age, pushing upwards and infecting the
soil as it went. It was inevitable that, where the song forged the way, the
ghosts would follow.
Nature
tried to sound a warning but its guardians were gone, driven out or sleeping or
unaware of their powers—and the responsibility that went with them.
Animals
fled the mounded earth beneath the grassy field. At least, they fled it where
they could. The wild ones forsook it with the freedom that only they possessed,
while those of domesticity's prison could only show their reluctance for the
field, before their masters forced them into it.
* * *
“Durned
beast!” Willis Harran cried, bringing his willow switch down upon the milk
cow's rump.
She
was the last of the herd to be forced through the gate and, though she had been
the easiest of them all, Willis was ready to send her to the knackery. He waved
his switch at her once more as his niece closed the gate behind her.
“Don't
know what's got into them,” he muttered, as he climbed the fence beside the
field. “They've been right skittish of late.”
Amanda
looked at her uncle. The cattle weren't the only ones who'd been skittish about
the field. She'd watched the rabbits forsake their warren, and the morning fox
skirt cautiously around the fence instead of cutting straight across the field
as he usually did.
Even
the birds had stopped hunting for worms within its bounds. Amanda said nothing
of this to Willis. He wouldn't have believed her. He might even have laughed.
She
followed his broad no-nonsense back towards the small house that served him and
her aunt as home, the smell of breakfast driving the field's strangeness from
her mind.
The
sword's song kept upwards until the cattle began to lose their milk, and
Willis's threats of both knackery and willow switch were no longer incentive
enough to goad them through the gate.
The field's grass began to fade. Willis moved
the cattle to another field and watched their milk improve. Amanda, interested
by this unseasonal change, began collecting soil samples to...
END EXCERPT
If you would like to read more, The Buried Blade is available from Smashwords and Kindle and will soon be available from Kobo, iTunes and Nook.
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