In a land of tyranny and rumour, a desperate elf flees death and destruction. Can she find sanctuary with strangers? Can ordinary folk dare defy the might of the Order of Witch-Hunters in a land where their word is law, and death theirs to command? What price is courage in such a land?
A fantasy adventure, in a dark land where truth is relative and freedom is bought by blood.
A Tales of Erana novella.
Genre: FICTION / Fantasy / Dark FantasyThe trees were low-slung and the brambles high, many-thorned and vicious. Roots ambushed unfamiliar feet; there was barely a trail here, at least for the Witch-Hunter soldiery as they marched through the close-set trees. Branches tugged at arms and legs, catching in the armour and packs; more than one man had a bloody scratch or bruise and not one among them like this place one bit. This was not their terrain, but they would make it theirs, so they proclaimed. The Shimmering Forest had other ideas. Trails abounded for those creatures who could find them, and those creatures who respected the ancient woodland and the ancient ways, but the Order of Witch-Hunters were not among them – the writ of the Order, the Martial Law they enforced, ran from the Silver Sea to the Jagged Peaks, and all of Erana, so they decreed. Parts of Erana thought differently – the shadows, the lost and abandoned places, the forgotten or ignored. What the Order could not subjugate, it ignored or used for its own purposes.
A strange greenish half-light permeated, so thick was the canopy, and the men peered uneasily into the flickering shadows. Strange, sinister. It was an eerie -not-quite-darkness, shifting around them. “Quit your grumbling, ain’t you ever seen trees before?” An officer snapped, sneering at the unease.
“Not trees like these. These watches you,” a voice piped up from the edge of the column of men.
“Who was that? You great big girl! Trees don’t have eyes, damned fools the lot of you. Get moving, and the next little flower who complains is on privy-cleaning for a month.” The squad commander glowered at the trees around him and motioned his squad onwards.
