Daily Dose | The First Five Hundred

Happy Halloween! NaNoWriMo begins tomorrow and as a special teaser, enjoy the first five hundred words of my Nano project: The Forgotten. The Forgotten is the sequel to Remembering Ashby and was teased in the free short Forget to Remember. Be sure to check those out and stay tuned to the Daily Dose and Twitter for more Nano updates! The Forgotten

She turned her head away from the sounds of death. Her sisters cried out to her
with long, horrid sounds of pain and anguish. Xandie closed her mind to it,
hardening her heart and putting one foot in front of the other. Blood spattered
her face and soaked through the long strands of golden blond hair that fell in
disarray around her shoulders.

Ahead, still mounted, the enemy gathered to make another fatal charge. They
would run them all through, slaughtering them once and for all. In the distance,
the horns of the clans signaled their approach, but they would be too late, even
at full gallop. Her breaths came in short, staccato bursts through the mouth,
refusing to inhale deeply through her nose less the smell of blood, bodies
gutted, urine and feces choke her.

"Ahhhhh!" The shriek from ahead alerted her that her bare few moments became
even fewer seconds. She closed her mind to the pain in her legs, arms, heart and
soul. She closed it all out. The mind overruled the body. The body would feel
nothing that the mind did not allow. She closed out the pain; she glared at the
mass of men thundering towards her fallen sisters. She heard the death blows of
horse hooves crushing tender flesh.

"A Thiarna, maith dom," she whispered to the morning wind. Her right hand lifted
and her eyes focused on the man in the lead and his horse. The power spread
from her midsection, unspooling from within like so many tentacles of darkness
released from their imprisonment. The man bore down on Xandie, filthy hair
streaming in the wind, the promise of her death in his eyes, his eyes which
locked with hers.

She pulsed with her will, her mind lashing out at his, deep sapphire eyes
glowing with incandescent light. His thoughts became her thoughts and then she
heard him scream as he threw himself from the horse, only to be trampled by his
own war animal. Her gaze turned to the beast and the black horse reared,
screaming a battle cry and lashing out with his hooves at horses and warriors
alike. The wave of bleak death broke, scrambling away from the horse and she
turned her mind to another.

The younger man, boy really shrieked in terror as her mind gutted his. He turned
his sword against his fellows. He struck a bloody swath down the back of his own
father and she left him screaming for his own death as her mind bent to another
and another.

"I am Alexandria of the Avalon, you have trespassed upon us." She spit, blood
flecking her lips with each word. "We came in mercy. We came in peace. We came
to mend that which was broken. You have shattered the peace. May your gods have
mercy on you, for I have none."

One man lunged forward, his broadsword gripped in two hands swinging. He
screamed for her death as her mind set his on fire. He fell to his knees in
front of her, sword landing with a thud and began to claw at his own eyes. One
by one, the band of Black Guard fell until a ring of death spiraled out from the
Sorceress.

The horn sounded from the south, closer and the thunder of hooves, of safety and
respite drummed behind her. She listened for it dully, watching the life leave
the eyes of a boy who could not be much older than her youngest brother. He
reached out a hand to her, fingers straining, a word whispering on his pain
twisted mouth.

"No," The sorceress answered him, eyes burning with cold fire. "I do not forgive."

---

A lifelong writer turned author, Heather Long's first book Remembering Ashby is available for purchase at Sapphire Blue Publishing. Coming soon is the urban fantasy: Prime Evil. The Daily Dose explores books, television, writing and more -- all topics that Heather enjoys.