Helen B. Henderson's Blog, page 9

2024 F : Fire

 

Considering the dragons that fly in the world of Tear Stone Collectors, fire is nothing special. It might be the orange that turns men into human firecrows or the blue that heals wounds and cures disease. In the last post, C : Convocation, the excerpt covered the first part of the welcoming ceremony. In this one, you get to witness the creating of the convocation fire from Fire and Redemption.

There was no time to breathe. Everyone’s attention shifted to the center of the stage for the next part of the opening ceremony—Brial’s lighting of the communal fire. Karst swore she glided across the space, dipping her torch into each of the individual clan fires. Each addition made the flame she carried brighter and added a different hue. What began as a twirling column of yellow sparks soon turned into a coruscating swirl of orange and red, yellow and gold. After several heartbeats, he noticed a change. Sparks continued to rise into the night sky and although the outer rings of fire remained the same, the heart of the pyre turned a brilliant blue.

Her torch held high she moved to a spot midway between Telyn and the first girl to climb the steps. “As our torches merge into a single flame, so do the wagons become a single caravan during convocation.” The burning brand she inserted into the heart of the fire caused the larger bonfire to cast an ethereal dance of light on the building. It looked like the statues’ eyes glowed from some inner spirit.

~till next time, Helen

 

Buy the Tear Stone Collectors at Amazon and elsewhere.

Fire and Amulet - Paperback and Ebook 

Fire and Redemption Available At These Sites (If you favorite site isn't listed, check back. More are being added.)

 

If you're following other blogs in the challenge, here's the master list of the other participants.


 

2024 E: Ellspeth

 

In a change of pace from the Tear Stone Collectors, this post features Lady Ellspeth of the House of Cszabo, captain of Sea Falcon and Windmaster. A more complete profile of Ellspeth is part of the Meet The Character series. To see what she looks like, she graced the cover of Windmaster.  

To give some more insight into the lady, a snippit from From Windmaster Golem of the recognition ceremony on the Isle of Mages. 

Ellspeth offered an incantation that although soft carried to the crowd. A whoosh and fire appeared in the heart of the pile of wood laid out in the heart of what used to be a large grindstone. She stepped up to the fire ring. “Fire, earth, and magic be divided on the stone. So too will be blade, hilt, and token until selected by their chosen one.” With a nod to her former apprentices, Ellspeth, Barris and Nobyn placed their blades on the millstone separating it into three segments. Dal and Ellspeth moved to stand on one side of the fire, while the two men separated to opposite corners to form a human triangle.

And a more intimate moment from later in the ceremony when her daughters, Elendl and Denai, hear the summons of magic. This snippit follows their claiming of blade, hilt, and token.

Elendl and Denai’s shift to stand before their parents pulled him from his thoughts. Elendl kneeled before her father, offering the blade, hilt, and stone. Denai mirrored the actions to her mother.Although neither Ellspeth nor Dal allowed the pleasure they felt an uncontrolled rein, Brodie sensed their happiness join the rest of the good wishes rising from the bonfire. Hilt slid into the blade, and their token of magic, whether the shell or stone, clicked into its setting. Their hands on their daughters’ heads, both Ellspeth and Dal moved their lips in silent blessing.

The warmth of a benison filled Brodie. Confusion soared in his mind. How could I feel it? I am not a mage.

For the full recognition ceremony and the toll it took on Brodie, friend to the mages, but not one of them, read Windmaster Legend.

 ~till next time, Helen

 

 

Find the Windmaster Novels at Amazon and these additional sites.

 

 

If you're following other blogs in the challenge, here's the master list of the other participants.


 

2024 D: Destiny

 

One's destiny can take many forms. In this snippit from Fire and Redemption, Brial contemplates different paths her destiny could take.

The flat plain overlooking the ocean on one side and the convocation valley on the other offered more than a beautiful view. To Brial it meant too strong an invitation for reflection. Her gaze scanned the ring of mountains and the valley floor below where, in a few days, she would find her destiny. The sheer drops into the blue-green rolls of waves on the water side offered only one kind of escape. Just not one she was willing to take at the moment. The lure of a future with Karst was too strong.

“If the council turns Karst and my petition down, I can always use the widows’ leap,” she muttered. Still, she did not move back from the ledge or take her eyes off the roiling water where legends said heartbroken souls had found their ultimate peace.

The scuff of leather on stone announced someone was approaching from the camp. Still, Brial didn’t turn.

To see which destiny she chooses or which chooses her, read Fire and Redemption.

~till next time, Helen

 

 

Fire and Redemption Available At These Sites (If you favorite site isn't listed, check back. More are being added.)

  

 

 

 

 

 

If you're following other blogs in the challenge, here's the master list of the other participants


 

2024 C: Convocation #mfrwhooks

 

In the last post, B : Building, you were introduced to the site of the convocation. In this one, you get to witness part of the convocation welcoming ceremony. What makes it even more special for Karst is the participants: Brial and the young Telyn who was making her first ever presentation.

Feldt moved to the center of the immense terrace and raised his hands. A low rumble rolled across the crowd and an anticipatory silence fell over the crowd. “Welcome to the convocation of the clans.” The caravan’s leader boomed from one end of the gathering to the other. “A time to renew old relationships and make new friends. A time for dancing and marriages, greetings and farewells, and planning for the future.” He waved to the set of steps at one side of the stage and then to the other.

Eight girls ranging in age from having seen twenty cold seasons to just showing the first signs of womanhood were escorted to the edge of the stage. Telyn and Brial stood on the bottom step on the side closest to him.

A single note from a horn silenced the crowd. Like everyone else, he held his breath. It felt like a communal prayer of hope for the girls’ successful evening.

A young woman halfway through her second decade climbed the steps on the far side of the entrance, then marched with an elegant step to the first of the statues and the stone bowl at its feet. Turning, she faced the sea of watching faces. “From the heights to the sand. Clan Llanrug is in attendance.” A dip of her torch and a flame exploded into existence within the heart of the bowl. She moved to the larger stone circle and laid her torch in a slot on the raised edge so that the sparks fell into the dark pit.

Three heartbeats later, a blond woman whose hair sparkled in the torchlight climbed the opposite side of steps and repeated the process of announcing her clan, calling out their battle cry, and starting a fire at the feet of one of the statues before placing her torch on the wall. Shadows from the firepits danced along the building’s façade. Younger and older girls, some dark-haired, others blond, presented their fires. Soon only one bowl remained dark.

Telyn climbed the last step and entered the light. A deep breath and she lifted her torch so that the shadows danced on the statue behind her. Her voice carried to the crowd. “Iron to hand, iron to the road. Clan Vreis is in attendance.”

~till next time, Helen

 

 

Fire and Redemption Available At These Sites (If you favorite site isn't listed, check back. More are being added.)

 

 

 

If you're following other blogs in the challenge, here's the master list of the other participants

Since it's Wednesday, this post is doing double duty. The rest of the Book Hooks hop is at http://mfrwbookhooks.blogspot.com

2024 B : Building

 

Food, shelter, and air are mainstays for life. Shelter can be a cave created by nature or a monumental structure built by man. To show the disparity, two excerpts from Fire and Redemption. the first is a cave where Medraut in human form takes shelter in from bad weather.

Three steps later Medraut entered a black maw. The narrow slit opened into a small chamber, then the horse walked into a larger room where the storm didn’t reach. “Finally,” he whispered. His first attempt to dismount ended with him hanging onto the saddle. The horse skittered away dragging Medraut with it.

“Stop, you flea-eaten nag.” A push of magic and the animal planted its hooves. It didn’t move an inch, even as it quivered in fear.

A push and Medraut staggered to the stone bench against one wall.

“Master?”

“I am fine, Gault. Is this all there is?”

“No.” The other man pointed into the darkness at the end of the chamber. “There is a large room back there set up as a stable. It will serve the stags and the horses. Someone even left a few bales of straw to use as bedding.” He scooped up a handful of dry pine needles out of a pile and he let them trickle between his fingers. “These will nicely serve as kindling if I can find wood.”

“Well, go find some,” Medraut snarled. “I am cold and hungry.” He pulled the blanket out of his pack and wrapped it around his shoulders. “And take care of my horse. It isn’t much but it is better than those antlered beasts the others ride.”

The second building was carved by the hands of man. Presenting the convocation valley and the grand structure that was the meeting place for the gathering of the clans as seen by Medraut where he sits in dragon form on a hidden ledge.

An immense valley, one that would take several days to fly across, hung between mountain peaks. Water plunged over the stone walls in magnificent falls that created shimmering rainbows.

But it was the far wall that drew the eye. Not because any sparkling water dampened the rocks. A massive structure cut into the black rock dominated the vista. More than the sheer size of the structure gave the impression of timelessness, so did the detail of the façade of what appeared as a row of columns. His quick calculation of the time to create the building said it was built by some ancient tribe over the eons. Dragon vision added millennia when it revealed the columns lining the portico entrance were colossal statues of armed warriors.

~till next time, Helen

 

 

Fire and Redemption Available At These Sites (If you favorite site isn't listed, check back. More are being added.)

 

 

If you're following other blogs in the challenge, here's the master list of the other participants

 

2024 A : Ancestry

 

Starting off the challenge is A is for Ancestry. When creating characters, they have to have some backstory, a part of which is their ancestry. Who their parents are, their kin, and the land of the ancestors all comprise part of a character. Here is a few lines describing the ancestry of Brial of Clan Vreis.

Brial's family tree as revealed in the Tear Stone Collectors is simple. Her parents died when she was younger and she was raised by her grandather, Feldt, head of Clan Vreis. The healer Betrys is Feldt's sister making her Brial's great-aunt.

But there is another aspect to Brial's ancestry, not of blood but that of magic. She inherited her powers from her mother. But the line goes even deeper and can be traced through Betrys and her teacher, and her teacher, on back through the ages.

The story behind her gift still echoed in her mind. The book was the diary of the woman who taught Betrys, and the woman before her in what Betrys described as a long line of healers. Each bequeathed the book of their knowledge, research, and healing secrets to the next in line.

“But,” Betrys had explained, “old Iseldir had no kin. No one to give the book to, so she gave it to me to pass on to someone I felt could use it.” And when Brial had tried to give itback the other woman added, “I inherited my mother’s book, and when it is time, I will pass it along to Leri. So you see I don’t need this one.” She shrugged. “Maybe it can help you pass the time until you can get more formal training."

~till next time, Helen 

 

Buy the Tear Stone Collectors at Amazon and elsewhere.

Fire and Amulet - Paperback and Ebook 

Fire and Redemption Available At These Sites (If you favorite site isn't listed, check back. More are being added.)

 

If you're following other blogs in the challenge, here's the master list of the other participants.


 

2024 A to Z Connections

 

Thank you for visiting Journey to Worlds of Imagination during the 2024 A to Z in April Challenge. To make following along easier, or to catch up with a missed post, the link to each day's challenge follows. The master list of those taking part in the challenge is at https://tinyurl.com/w54yupwe.

Ancestry

On The Shore, Hatchling's Mate #wewriwa #SundaySnippit

 

  

​ 
Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the weekly hop for everyone who loves to write! Visit the other participants on the list and read, and comment on their 8sunday posts.

​Today's excerpt is from the fantasy romance Hatchling's Mate. To set, the scene, To set the scene, against all orders, Talann attempts to swim across a flooded river to save women and children stranded on a hill. (Crossing Halted).  His ribs are broken by debris. (A Question Answered)  Some help arrives (Unexpected Help), but it isn't enough. (Dive Deep) The crossing continues with unexpected help from dragonkind. (Crossing Continues)

After following the crossing for so long, it wouldn't be fair to you, the reader, not to tell you Talann's future ... at least for now.

And now the Sunday Snippet.

* * * *

Excerpt
 
Gathering strength, Talann pushed back the redness still clouding his consciousness. One by one, other sensations penetrated his awareness. An iron grip suspended him above the waves, high enough to breathe, although spray stung his eyes. Movement replaced the feeling of weightlessness. Mud sucked at his hands. Pebbles scraped his knuckles and snatched at his feet.Huffs of breath in his ear let Talann know the price of the effort being made to shift his not insubstantial frame up the bank. ...

Muirea laid Talann on the ground beneath a tree with the effortlessness of a woman placing a babe in a cradle.

* * * *

Although safe for now, it is not the end of Talann's experiences with the river. He is still trapped on a hill that is rapidly being flooded by the rising waters. Be sure to read Hatchling's Mate for the next chapters.

Buy Links: / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / More Sales Sites 
Visit the Dragshi's page for more on the Dragshi Chronicles.
​I hope you like the snippet I shared for Talann / Glynnes this week. Be sure to read the other Weekend Writing Warriors blogs and the #SnippetSunday authors for more great reads. 

~till next time, Helen

Out and About as Lyndi's Adventurous Friend

Out and about as Lyndi's Adventurous Friend. Sharing thoughts on endings. And as beginnings, an excerpt from Fire and Redemption. Find the guest post at  lyndialexander.wordpress.com/2024/03/25/characters-leave-authors-live-on/.

Hope you will stop by. 

Fire and Redemption available for PreOrder, full release April 1st.

~till next time, Helen

5Crossing Continues, Hatchling's Mate, #wewriwa

  

​ 
Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the weekly hop for everyone who loves to write! Visit the other participants on the list and read, and comment on their posts. And don't forget to visit the  Sunday Snippet group for their teasers.

​Today's excerpt is from the fantasy romance Hatchling's Mate. To set, the scene, To set the scene, against all orders, Talann attempts to swim across a flooded river to save women and children stranded on a hill. (Crossing Halted).  His ribs are broken by debris. (A Question Answered)  Some help arrives (Unexpected Help), but it isn't enough. (Dive Deep)

The crossing continues with unexpected help from dragonkind.

And now the Sunday Snippet.

* * * *

Excerpt
 
A glow, like that of thousands of fireflies enveloped his body. Confusion did not affect his eager grasp of the potential savior. No human, not even the dragshi had that kind of magic. The ancient ones, the true dragons, controlled such power, but they did not usually help un-bonded humans, only their own kind—and the dragshi.

Dragon-sent energy warmed—and healed—Talann’s body and soul. Could he be a dragshi after all? His pulse sped and frozen muscles thawed. Where before the surface appeared unreachable, within two heartbeats he breached into life-giving air.

Long gasps drew breath deep into his lungs. The burn lessened to be replaced by anger. He could not move. A wave washed over his head, then another.

* * * *

Buy Links: / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / More Sales Sites 
Visit the Dragshi's page for more on the Dragshi Chronicles.
​I hope you like the snippet I shared for Talann / Glynnes this week. Be sure to read the other Weekend Writing Warriors blogs and the #SnippetSunday authors for more great reads. 

~till next time, Helen