The Path of Swords by Martin Swinford

Author:Martin Swinford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Fantasy Series, Epic Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, Young Adult, Celtic, Free Fantasy Books
Publisher: Gable Press
Published: 2017-05-11T00:00:00+00:00

Nine – The Standing Stone

“When you follow the path of swords there is no telling where it will lead. Do not be surprised if it leads you to other tribes, other countries, even other worlds...”

THE PATH LED DOWNHILL. In the distance they could see the landscape changing, the hills and moors of their journey softening into a gentle undulation. They could see that the path was heading into a valley; the small trickle of water where they had filled their flasks was one of a number of tributaries that seemed eager to join together, splashing over rocks and carving out earth banks as if practising for more serious erosion that would take place later. Viewed from the moor the valley looked like the indentation of a branch pushed into soft dough, the hard edges of the fledgling valleys rounded off by a covering of light green ferns. The going was easy as they walked single file along the narrow path and for the most part they avoided talk and concentrated solely on the task of reducing the miles between them and their destination. “This is companionship,” thought Luan as they walked and he considered that he was lucky to fall in with Mack and Bridie, even though he really knew very little about them. This prompted a question and Luan caught up with Mack to ask it.

"Why did you act so shocked when Bridie told you what tribe she was from?"

Mack stopped and turned around for long enough to give Luan a warning glance.

"Maybe you should ask her," he said.

Luan hesitated, balancing the possibility of upsetting someone against his overwhelming curiosity. It wasn't long before he gave in and Mack shrugged as Luan pushed past him and ran to catch up with Bridie. The track had widened slightly and he was able walk next to her, occasionally ducking under branches and pushing away ferns as they made their way into the small valley.

"Tell me something about your tribe," he said.

"What do you want to know?" Bridie replied.

"Why is it called the Bani-Tivar? What does it mean?" Bridie stopped and turned to look at him.

“Don’t you know?”

Luan shrugged and shook his head.

“You might prefer not to know,” she warned.

“Really?” Luan smiled. “You’re going to have to tell me now.”

“Well don’t say I didn’t warn you!” Bridie smiled and they continued down the path.

"The lands of my people lie far to the north," she began. "We live on the shore of the great sea where the mountains meet the waves. We have no towns as such but live in settlements scattered along the inlets that the sea has cut into the land. In each one stands the hall of an Alfihar, a warleader and around the hall are the houses of his men. We are people of the sea and the Alfihar's pride is his ship, crewed by his war band, free men who have sworn to serve him. The ships serve in three ways. Mostly they’re just used for fishing, which is a bit dull even when hunting seals and other creatures of the deep.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.