Shieldmaiden Book One

Shieldmaiden Book One: Quest for the Jewel is now available at Bella Books!

Shieldmaiden Book One: Quest for the Jewel is a YA Fantasy set among the highlands of ancient Scotland during the beginnings of the Norse invasion. Bound by traditions older than anyone can remember, Waiting Lady and Shieldmaiden Bryn of the Brae must decide whether to follow the path of her Druid ancestors or deny her heritage and follow her heart. What begins for Bryn as a leisurely summer trip to the North with the realm’s princess Thalynder, the captain of the king’s guard Arryn and Meydra the dragon companion of the princess, soon becomes an urgent quest to find the one thing that will unite all the realms of Scotland. To bring together the Picts of the North, the Clanns of the West, and the Kingdoms of the South will take nothing less than a legend. The future of a nation rides on the back of a dragon and in the heart of one young woman.

 

Shieldmaiden Book One: Quest for the Jewel available now at Bella Books!

 

 

WIP ~ Shieldmaiden

An excerpt of a work in progress.  From Shieldmaiden, a f/f fantasy.

Bryn did not go directly to the others.  She walked through the stand of trees and back out to the open ground, where she waited for Meydra to join her.  Meydra descended silently, then stood in front of Bryn.  Her scales shimmered in the moonlight.

“What keeps you awake little sister?” Meydra asked, her voice soft and low.

“The sound of my own heart beat,” Bryn replied.  “It has been lonely for so long.  All these years, I held Thalynder in my heart believing it was she that stilled the wild beating.  I know now that was not the case.  It was you that stilled my wild heart, you that calmed my distress, and you that sang me to sleep.  This is truth.”

“That is not what is keeping you awake,” Meydra said.

“No,” Bryn said, and then took a step toward Meydra.  “I question my reasons now for bringing Thalynder on this journey, for it has grown too dangerous.”

Meydra bowed her head, and Bryn placed her forehead between Meydra’s eyes.  She reached out and placed a hand on each side of Meydra’s cheek.  They stood that way, dragon to human, alone in the moonlight, for many long minutes.

Keeping watch over the Standing Stones of Stenness, a lone dragon felt his heart glow with a peaceful warmth.  He began to sing, and the song lifted into the air and made its way south toward the heather moors of the island of Hoy.  His song was heard by Coeur de Fer, Prince Malcolm’s fire breather, and he opened his heart to hear the soft melody as it spoke to him of the now lost pleasures of flying without purpose.  He glanced out across the open plain and saw Caraid look down from her perch on a high hill in the North, her gaze fixed on the little stand of trees where the dragon riders slept. Her voice soon joined that of the distant dragon, and together they filled the night with a soothing melody; a dragon song of peace that filled their hearts with joy.

In the moonlight, the figures of Meydra and Bryn let the song wash over them as they stood obscured by their own light ~ one that rivaled the moon herself.