Tuesday Teaser - Marked

Here's another snippet from the rough draft of Marked. It's rough and I don't know how much of it will make the final cut. But here it is.

Sorcha walked through the night to her cave. “You seem to be settling in,” Colwyn said, emerging from the shadows.

Sorcha stopped and turned to face him. A cold breeze blew through the valley, sending shivers up her spine. Or was it the look of Colwyn’s face in the moonlight that chilled her. “I’ve only been here a day,” she said. “I’m not sure I’ve been here long enough to know if I’m settling in or not.”

“You’ve already chosen a profession,” Colwyn said. “Something most of those who came in with you haven’t even attempted yet.”

“Manus and Dermot made it sound like I had to make my decision right away,” Sorcha said.

“You could have taken time to figure out what you wanted to do,” Colwyn said.

“I’m happy with my decision,” Sorcha said.

“I hope you don’t come to dislike your decision. Once you’ve made that choice you aren’t able to change it,” Colwyn said.

“Did you really think I didn’t notice you were trying to force me to fall behind?” Sorcha asked, hands on her hips. “I talked to the others. Now you’re trying to tell me I don’t know my own mind. Do you have any respect for people, or do you make these decisions based on some need to feel superior to everyone else?”

“I respect those who have earned it,” Colwyn said.

“And what would I have to do to earn it?” Sorcha asked. “Never mind. Don’t bother answering me. I don’t think I want to know.” She turned and stalked off back to her cave.

She stumbled in through her door, muttering some words her aunt would have taken a broom to her to hear coming out of her mouth. She still hadn’t remembered to ask the others about how she was supposed to light her lamps. She stripped out of her clothes and curled up on her bed. She closed her eyes and tried to go to sleep.

Her hair was tangling in the wind as she flew through the air. A strong arm held her in place as the horse beneath her surged and ran. “Faster papa, faster,” she cried.

“If we go any faster we’ll be flying,” her father said.

She giggled. “Make the horse fly, papa.”

“Only magic could make him fly, little dreamer,” her father said. “Let’s go back to mama now.”

“No. More riding,” she said.

“It’s almost time for lunch,” her father said. “We need to go back.”

“All right,” she said. The horse slowed as it turned but picked up speed again. She laughed and clung to her father’s arm.

Sorcha woke up with tears running down her cheeks. She wiped them off with the back of her hand. It was obvious she’d been loved, but by who? Her dreams had died out over the cycles, only coming once in a great while. Now, two days in the valley, and she’d had two dreams. The first one was a common dream, one she’d had many times especially when she was a young child. But the second, that one was new.

“Is it that goddess Lord Mikhael spoke of?” Sorcha wondered aloud. She shook her head. She didn’t believe in the gods, though her aunt and uncle would be shocked to hear her say it. She felt privately that the gods had long since abandoned the world. In her village alone, there had been two men who’d beaten their wives to death, a mother who murdered her own children because she thought they were demons, and more brawls and theft than her uncle had felt comfortable with. That was why he only went into town once a lunar, and why he’d started taking Paskal with him when he went in instead of going by himself.

Tuesday Teaser - Marked

I know it's rough, but here's a bit from the novel that dominated my thoughts for two months while I wrote the first draft. An excerpt near the beginning of Marked.

They reached the village a candlemark later. “Evan, good morning.” One of the villagers waved to Evan. “Who did you bring in today?”

“My son in law Paskal and my niece Sorcha,” Evan said.

“The girl with the lame leg?” the villager asked.

“It’s not entirely lame,” Evan said. “She has use of it. She’s been cooped up on the freehold for the last several lunari and wanted a break from it.”

“Well, keep her close. There are some strangers in town and I don’t like the looks of them,” the villager said.

“Strangers?” Evan asked.

“Imperial soldiers with gray cloaks,” the villager said. “There’s only two of them now but they said that there’ll be more coming soon. They’re looking for those possessed by demons. They’re supposed to be hunting for people with some strange mark on them. Something like a spider web I think they said.”

“Thanks for the warning,” Evan said. He looked over his shoulder. “Sorcha, don’t leave the cart. Don’t talk to the soldiers unless they approach you. Play dumb.”

“Yes Uncle Evan,” Sorcha said. She shrugged her shoulders, feeling her shirt brush against the strange birthmark that reminded her of a twisted spider web.

“Evan, what’s wrong?” Paskal asked.

“We get our supplies and we get back to the farm,” Evan said. “We don’t linger today.”

“Yes Evan,” Paskal said.

They hurried through their errands, speaking only with those who stopped them. Everyone in the village seemed on edge and no one was gossiping as openly as they usually did. Sorcha saw the two soldiers her uncle’s friend mentioned swaggering through the streets.

“You there. We haven’t seen you in town before this,” one of the soldiers said, accosting Evan as he loaded sacks of grain into the back of the cart. “Why is that?”

“I own a freehold a few miles out of the village,” Evan said. “I only come in once a lunar to get supplies and to trade.”

“Well then you won’t know this. We’re here hunting for demons. We’ll be checking your freehold when the rest of our company gets here in a lunar,” the man said. “I hope for your sake you aren’t sheltering one of the demons when we come out there. If you are, your whole family will die.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Evan said.

Once they were out of town, Evan started swearing. “Uncle Evan,” Sorcha began.

“Hush Sorcha,” Evan said.

“What’s wrong?” Paskal asked.

“Don’t worry about it,” Evan said. “Paskal, don’t talk about this conversation to anyone on the farm. I’ll tell Noemi but this isn’t anything to worry the others with.”

“If that’s what you want, Evan,” Paskal said.

“Now be silent. I need to think about this,” Evan said.

The ride back to the farm was quiet. Sorcha’s thoughts ran in circles. She was a threat to her family. The birthmark marked her as demon possessed to these men and she would be killed for it. She couldn’t let her family die to protect her but she couldn’t see any way for her to escape.

They reached the freehold. Paskal and Evan started unloading the cart. Sorcha slowly climbed out and went to the house. “Sorcha, good timing. Can you bring the laundry in?”

“Yes Aunt Noemi,” Sorcha said. She automatically grabbed the basket and headed out to the lines without thinking about it. Her mind was still on the encounter in the village.

“Stop thinking about it,” Evan said as he passed her. “We’ll take care of it.” Sorcha nodded but her mind continued to churn.

“I’m taking the cart back to Olaf,” Evan said. “Anyone want to come with me?”

“I’ll go,” Eduard said.

“Is your work done?” Evan asked.

“Yes it is,” Eduard said.

“He’s done, father,” Catriona said.

“Then go ahead and climb on,” Evan said. “Noemi, when I get back we need to talk.”

“All right, Evan,” Noemi said. Evan clucked at the horses and headed out to return the cart.