Seven Into the Bleak (4 page)
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Thank you for reading
Seven Into the Bleak
.
I hope you've enjoyed what you've read. Please let me know what you think at [email protected], my
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Also, if you enjoyed this story, please consider reviewing
Seven Into the Bleak
at one of these fine websites:
Looking for more? Check out my other fantasy shorts
Assassin
and
Sword of Kings
(an excerpt follows).
I also write crime fiction, mystery, and horror: an anthology of short crime stories,
one bad twelve
, is available in all digital formats and print. My literary horror novella,
Finding Emma
, is available in most digital formats. And keep an eye out for my medium-boiled detective series featuring retired DC Homicide detective Marty Singer, available now in the novel
A Reason to Live
.
Links for all are listed below.
By the Author
Crime Fiction
{short story collections}
Three Shorts | Three the Hard Way | Three on a Match | Three of a Kind
one bad twelve
{novels}
A Reason to Live
Blueblood
Signs (Autumn 2012)
Fantasy
{short stories}
Sword of Kings | Assassin | Seven Into the Bleak
Horror
{novella}
Finding Emma
HAD YOU BEEN a courtier or a guard or a supplicant that day at the first court of the Harvest in the Kingdom of Mercia, with a sharp eye and a clear view, and had you been watching the young King Andreas Thad as he moved to end the assembly by lifting the sword of his ancestors from its black iron rack and placing it across his knees to signal that the justice dealt that day had the strength and power of the throne behind it...
You would've been witness to history.
. . .
The burnt gold of autumn was rolling across the land and plaintiffs filled the King's Hall, eager to make good on claims before the snows of a harsh winter buried villages and crimes alike. King Andreas, in the second year of his reign, dispensed justice from his throne while his sword, the symbol of his right to rule, lay in its rack within arm's reach. His brother Jon--named to the office of King's Sword, his most trusted advisor for life--stood to his left. Three steps lower on the dais stooped the aged Chancellor Tallus, councilor to Andreas's father and grandfather before him. A crowd filled the hall with a steady buzz which had, in turns, swelled and faded as the audience dragged on.
When the God's Bell finally tolled three times to signal the end of court, Andreas gratefully stood to draw his blade and lay it across his knees. The court had lasted for hours and the entire hall was drowsy and bored, as was its young and impatient monarch. Andreas was a man of action, not thought, and he'd already been through more courts, audiences, and balls in his young reign than he could stand. Each interminable function seemed to require the ceremonial flourishing of the king's sword, so it was with near boredom that he reached over, put his hand on the hilt of the weapon, and pulled.
He gasped as he nearly dropped it.
"Andreas?" Jon asked, taking a half-step towards his brother.
"Don't," Andreas said, gritting his teeth as he tried to lift the sword. A King of Mercia could not be seen receiving aid in his own court, but the surprise had made him clumsy. The sword clashed against the iron rack like a scullery's pots being dropped. The buzz of the hall took on an edge as the crowd watched the King's discomfort; heads turned to watch what was normally an unremarkable part of the court ritual turn into a struggle. Tallus turned to look over his shoulder at his liege, his sleepy eyes widening.
The blade was a deadweight. It took both hands and all of Andreas's strength to lift it, stagger to his throne, and place the bared blade on his thighs. It required the rest of his composure to dismiss the assembly calmly. Tallus, sensing a crisis to be avoided, herded the crowd along, waving impatiently at the guards to chase the stragglers craning their heads to see what had left their liege shaking with effort. The court melted away, glancing back at the King's pale face and sweat-slicked brow as they left.
"Andreas," Jon said once they were alone. "What's wrong?"
Andreas said nothing, instead running his hands over the sword that was his birthright. The blade, wider than a big man's palm, was corroded and pitted; the day before it had been as brilliant and sharp as a barber's razor. Andreas had been able to see his reflection in it--a young king in his prime looking back from the mirror-like steel. Now he saw nothing but a pocked and frowning monarch late in years and he was frightened. He tried lifting the sword again, swinging it as he had a thousand times, but even with his veins standing out in his neck and his arms straining with the effort, the blade rose no more than a foot off the floor. He let the point sink to the ground, panting and staring at it as a sick realization washed over him.
The sword was dying.
. . .
For seven centuries, the rightful kings of Mercia had wielded the Sword of Kings--a bright, clean blade as tall as a man--as though it were no heavier than a broom handle. None knew why this was so; it simply was. A king could pick up the sword and balance it on a finger; a pretender would find it difficult to lift even the rose-carved pommel from the ground. It was well known that the princes that were in line to inherit the throne, the kingdom, and the sword practiced all manner of martial skills as was required of any warrior, but when it came to swordplay, they alone trained to fight with wands of elm wood. To exercise in any other way would be a foolish disadvantage when the day came to pick up the King's sword.
In the age when the Mercian kings first came into their power and were called upon to take the field to defend their claim, the sword gave them the might to rule, for when the warrior kings of old captained their armies wielding six feet of steel as though it were a shepherd's staff, few could withstand them. It had never had a name, for any fool knew that to name a thing was to limit it, and the kings of Mercia suffered no bounds to their power. It was simply the King's sword.
Half a millennia had passed since a Mercian king had led the charge and the sword was the King's weapon still, but it had become more powerful as a symbol, the evidence of the Mercian kings' divine right to sit upon the throne. With that change came danger, for a broken weapon could be replaced, but a broken symbol meant the end of a kingdom.
. . .
Sword of Kings
is available on
Amazon
and will soon be available through all major ereaders via Smashwords.
Assassin
For almost twenty years, war has raged between the mountain kingdom of Thrace and the sea-faring land of Andal, exhausting both nations. Prince Lowan, the educated and debonair second son of the King of Thrace, has arrived to make peace with his father's enemies. But the price Andal requires for peace is high--too high--and Lowan knows there are many ways to influence a nation at war.
Assassin
is an original fantasy short story of 4,200 word, or about 17 paperback pages. It includes a Story Notes section, outlining the background and thought process behind the writing as well as an excerpt from Matthew Iden's fantasy short story
Sword of Kings
.
Assassin
is available on
Amazon
and will soon be available through all major ereaders via Smashwords.
Finding Emma
No one likes Jack. His wife is gone and his neighbors avoid him. He's a recluse and a creep and that's just the way he wants it.
But when ten-year old Emma goes missing in the nearby woods, the eyes of his neighbors turn on him in fear and accusation, escalating as the days pass. The answers they--and the reader--get, however, are the last that anyone would suspect...
Finding Emma
is a novella of literary horror totalling 17,500 words or about 70 paperback pages.
Available on
Amazon
and
Kobo
; coming to all digital ereaders soon.
one bad twelve
A group of Mafia wiseguys sweat it out as they wait to hear who's snitched on them in "Up a Rung"; a disturbed woman loses more than her mind in "Possession"; and a postman's larcenous streak gets him in a terrible mess just a few days before Christmas in "Special Delivery."
There are just a few of the thirteen tales that had to be bribed, shoved, and bullied into
one bad twelve
. Read them, buy them, or ignore them...just don't turn your back on them.
one bad twelve
is available on
Amazon
,
Barnes & Noble
,
Kobo
, and
Smashwords
as well as other fine online retailers. The stories are also available in four micro-anthologies:
Three Shorts, Three the Hard Way, Three on a Match
, and
Three of a Kind
, available on all ereaders. Please check
matthew-iden.com
for links and excerpts.