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Fantasy Friday! A Dream & The Forge Pt. 2

Hello everyone! Today’s, post is the second of two shared from The Bow of Destiny. This part involves the excerpt at a forge. Enjoy!

The blacksmith’s hammer rang distantly through the clamor of conversation.

Ralda touched his arm.

Athson stirred and realized the giant had spoken to him. “What?”

“We go Auguron morning?” The giant crooked two fingers and motioned them over his fist.

Athson recognized the signal as meaning tomorrow. The following gestures stumped him. “Yeah.”

“Eat. We go food.”

“Get food for our trip? Yes.”

The giant waited until Athson finished his meal. Then the two of them gathered supplies and put the cost on Safforn’s supply tab. A gracious offer for Ralda. They returned to the barracks and stowed their goods.

They planned an early start, so they readied themselves for sleep soon after packing. Sleep eluded Athson, but he soon heard Ralda’s steady breathing. They had to find Gweld. A lump rose from his chest into his throat.

More than Gweld’s safety nagged Athson. He rolled over and examined his pack in the darkness again. Why did the inheritance follow him? It was worse than Spark. The unanswered question sat in his pack, unknown to anyone else but him. Could it be real? He doubted it. He had burned it, and it appeared again.

Athson rummaged in his pack. He pulled out the inheritance and stared at it. His life had lurched out of control since the Withling pushed this package on him. Discarding it did him no good.

Ralda stirred and rolled in his sleep.

Athson slipped out of the barracks, the inheritance in his hand. He crossed the yard to the smithy. Heat lingered from the coals along with the smells of ash and worked metal. Athson stared at the remaining glow.

He squeezed the inheritance.

Burying the inheritance had failed – so had fire. If only this heat could sear it and other memories from his mind.

Clang! The hammer rang from his earlier dream. Athson glimpses his father’s sword, the stag’s ten-tined rack etched on the guards flashed red in flames. He groaned. Depenburgh’s fires flamed like a forge. The weapon gleams with angry crimson on one edge and soft blue on the other but silver along the length of the blade.

Athson’s arm shook and he squeezed the package. The inheritance and his past were linked. This truth tracked him like a troll. The day his father taught him to use a bow proved it.

They finish and collect their gear. His father stops and takes a knee, staring intently at Athson. “There’s something you must know, son.”

“What, father?”

“I can’t tell you everything but you are old enough to know some of it.”

Athson stands attentive, waiting.

“Our family comes from far away, the land of Hart. We were one of the great houses that fell into evil under Rok’s sway, under Magdronu. Withlings helped an ancestor break this hold. Since then we’ve been hiding ourselves and an item the old dragon and his wizard, Corgren, want.”

Athson swallows and nods.

His father ruffles his hair. “I’m telling you since you’re old enough to learn the bow. But you must swear not to reveal any of this to anyone – ever. Trust no one beyond our family with this.”

Athson’s voice is hoarse in answer. “I swear, father. I won’t tell anyone.”

“I swear I haven’t told anyone – and I won’t.” Athson’s jaw clenched and he squeezed the inheritance. It opened old wounds and left new ones, but it also answered old questions. The bow was what his father guarded.

Athson gazed at winking stars. “I need my father’s – my sword so I can keep these secrets safe, or they will kill me. I need – no, not that…” He whirled and walked away from the smithy but stopped. “If only I could pry that sword away from Sarneth.”

Thanks for stopping by to read today.

I’ve got an ongoing sale for The Bow of Destiny for the next several days. You can find it at one of the buy links below.

Also, I’ll get the following tidbits posted soon on the News page but I’ll make an appearance on 8/13 in RRBC’s Back to School Blog Tour. Then I’ll be on The Lost Bow Blog Tour from 8/14-20. I’ll post more news about these as it becomes available.

And one final tidbit – for those who might have seen it on my Twitter feed, I’ve been contacted by a teacher about including The Bow of Destiny in her curriculum. I don’t know much at this time other than it’s being considered. If it is, I’ll share more information ASAP. It’s interesting news at this point and another great reason to write!

To find out more about The Bow of Destiny, click over to one of these online retailers:

About the Author

P. H. Solomon lives in the greater Birmingham, AL area where he strongly dislikes yard work and sanding the deck rail. However, he performs these duties to maintain a nice home for his loved ones as well as the family’s German Shepherds. In his spare time, P. H. rides herd as a Computer Whisperer on large computers called servers (harmonica not required). Additionally, he enjoys reading, running, most sports and fantasy football. Having a degree in Anthropology, he also has a wide array of more “serious” interests in addition to working regularly to hone his writing. The Bow of Destiny is his first novel-length title with more soon to come.

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Fantasy Friday! A Dream & The Forge Pt. 1

Hello everyone! Today’s, post is the first of two that I’ll share from The Bow of Destiny. This part involves a dream that leads up to tomorrow’s excerpt at a forge. Enjoy!

He rolled over on the bed and saw his pack. The inheritance, Eagle’s Aerie, and the visions. Everything had gone wrong after meeting the Withling in spite of his attempts at avoiding their trouble.

Athson yawned. His father’s sword. The elves found it broken on the Funnel when they found him while searching for survivors. He blinked and then closed his eyes.

The broken sword pieces gleam before him.

“Run, Athson, run!” His father’s worried shout and Corgren’s mockery echo as he whirls in darkness. Athson runs as brambles and tree limbs catch at his arms and legs. He stops at his father’s broken blade. He runs and halts at the pieces shining in the darkness.

“A curse broke it.” Enlath repeats the same words, fading into whispers each time.

Then the pieces slide together and fade into the gloom.

Athson hears the rhythmic clatter of a blacksmith’s hammer. Bursts of light shatter the darkness with each hammer blow.

“Blessing on this edge,” a voice says, “judgment on the other.”

The hammer rings on the steel and sparks fly.

Athson sat up in bed. A hammer rang from the smithy across the yard. Dusk drifted with the dust in the air and caressed the walls. Ralda was gone. The elven blacksmith worked with hammer and tongs at a horseshoe. Athson watched the sparks in the smithy. Those words – blessing on one and judgment on the other. No, it was just a dream. He shook his head.

I’ll post the next part tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by to read today.

I’ve got an ongoing sale for The Bow of Destiny for the next several days. You can find it at one of the buy links below.

To find out more about The Bow of Destiny, click over to one of these online retailers:

About the Author

Sign-up to receive my free ebooks today.

Fantasy Friday! The Origin of The Bow of Hart

The Bow of Hart is a main element of The Bow of Hart Saga and book two, An Arrow Against the Wind. But, what is this bow and why is it so important?

The Bow of Hart is mentioned in The Bow of Destiny as a family relic inherited by Athson. Without spoiling all the details in any of the books, the quest is centered around finding the bow. The bow is prophesied as a weapon to be used against Magdronu the dragon yet it has never been seen, nor is Athson even certain it exists.

Here’s the full extent of the prophesy regarding the Bow of Hart:

The false one begets betrayers, but he shall not have his way.
The Hidden Dragon may usurp kingdoms with deceits, but his ways shall not last, and he will not ascend.
A bow shall be made in defense.
To break the binding curses.
His prey shall be snatched from his fangs.
The bow shall be hidden from Hart.
The eagle will guide the heir.
The bow shall be found at need.
And the arrow shall Eloch prepare.

Athson is aware of the prophesy and has some information about it as revealed in The Bow of Destiny. Yet, he mainly only knows about the bow from a mysterious will he received under dubious circumstances – at least to his addled understanding:

To whom the eagle and the Withling give this bundle of my will, greetings and long life.
Having seen into the future, I have prepared the way for you as I have been commanded. You, who read this parchment, are my heir, and thus may bear my signet and lordly insignia as your own.
The bowstring belongs to a Bow, specially made of my care. None but you, not even I, its maker, is able draw it, let alone string it. Seek out the Bow. The Withlings look after the one to whom I gave it. You are destined to do the deed. Beware of the servants of evil; they have hounded me for the sake and possession of the bow since their doom is tied to it. Follow Eloch’s prophecy as you can and be of good courage.
May Eloch go with you,
Thayer of Hart

Thus the question remains, who is Thayer and what part did he play in the Bow of Hart as its original owner. I hope to share more about this in the coming months with some additional prequel stories so I don’t want to give anything away other than to confirm that Thayer had a hand in the making of the bow. It was by his efforts that the prophesied bow was created and, when he was threatened, he found a way to make sure it stayed out of Magdronu’s clutches. So, after many generations, the bow became Athson’s to own and the burden for him to take up – wanted or not.

But conflict around his family’s history and that between Hart and Rok swirl and twist like an arrow in flight out of the past and into Athson’s present. The Bow of Hart is the one thing upon which An Arrow Against the Wind turns as Magdronu seeks to gain possession of the bow. However, he cannot simply take the bow because he never owned it. The power surrounding it prevents him from taking what is not his own. But, Athson can give it away and it is around this point that all of the dragon’s efforts are centered, Athson being the target. Magdronu will stop at nothing and Athson may not be able to keep the dragon from the relic.

To find out more about the Bow of Hart and the prophesy, have a look at the series online beginning with any of the pages for the books in the series: The Bow of Destiny, An Arrow Against the Wind or The White Arrow.