Return of the Rúadh Chalice

IN PROGRESS – now that Dragon Moon has been published, I have more time to write the next book in the series – RETURN OF THE RÚADH CHALICE!

Here’s a sneak peak at the first part of the Prologue:

Prologue

Bronwyn felt strangely calm as she trailed the stag through the pre-dawn mist of Mohrvale’s lanes. The village vanished behind her as the stag moved swiftly into the dark and shadowy forest, glancing back, urging her onward. Her grandmother’s words echoed in her mind. You are the one of prophecy.

The strip of forest on the far side of Mohrvale clung to rocky cliffs that dropped thousands of feet into the ocean, marking Bronwyn’s village as the most remote village in Smaragaid, the most isolated, most northern kingdom in all the land of Askoren. The people of Mohrvale almost never entered this particular forest due to the danger of the cliffs. Bronwyn herself had been here once, alone as a curious child, and vowed never to return when she slipped on moist rocks and almost fell to her death. But now, this was the forest into which she followed the stag.

She gripped her cloak to her neck. Her intuition whispered that this magnificent creature knew something – a secret that he wanted her to learn.

There was no path where they trod, but their direction was generally upward, toward the peak known as Tower of the Prince. Bronwyn knew that if it were day, she would be able to occasionally see through the trees the ancient crumbling tower at the peak’s summit. But now, she couldn’t see any farther ahead than the stag’s broken antler bobbing just ahead of her. There was a faint hum, a tingling in the air, growing vaguely louder, stronger as they walked. The darkness thickened unnaturally, muffling sounds and distorting shapes.

A small glade emerged in front of them, no larger than her mother’s herb garden. The stag stopped, stepping aside to allow Bronwyn to come beside him. A stone pillar, twice the height of a man, arose from the mist. The faint hum she had been hearing pulsed from its runes.

“What is this?” she asked as she drew closer to it, reaching out.

A thought, not her own, brushed her mind: The rune stone of your forefathers.

There’s more to the Prologue – and much more to the story!

Join my mailing list to keep up with my writing progress on RETURN OF THE RÚADH CHALICE!