(Click here for links to prior chapters.) I sit huddled in my bed, freezing even though the room is warm.  I can’t sleep without nightmares, the Sorcerer’s head rolling across cobblestones.  I don’t regret killing him, more of our men would have died if I hadn’t killed him, but the dreams won’t stop.  He is … Continue reading Spire: Chapter 30-part 1

(Click here for links to previous chapters.) One of  Taver’s couriers arrives, calling me back to the Lower Gate.  They are still battering our gate, but are attempting the walls now, also.   And so we end up right back where we started, on top of the walls.  I discover I can use the Sword to … Continue reading Spire: Chapter 29-part 2

(Click here for links to previous chapters.) “You shouldn’t be the one who always takes the risks.”  Mynar is being permitted to ‘protect’ the Keep.  Provided he and his guards don’t go beyond the inner wall.  Father and Mother are in her tower, surrounded by the full contingent of both of their guards, and my … Continue reading Spire: Chapter 29-part 1

(Click here for links to previous chapters.) “Two days until the full moon.”  I look out over the snow whitened city landscape from the tower window.  Mynar ignores me, ignores the Sword, ignores the shifting noises our guards make from the stairs below.  From our higher window I can see Jes on the inner wall, … Continue reading Spire: Chapter 28

(Click here for links to other chapters.) “Is the lot guarded.”  I interrupt father’s daydreams of a quick and easy solution. “A full company,” the Captain answers me. “Then we had better dig the rest of it up tomorrow, and see if there is anything else.” “You think there is more there?”  Alan looks excited. … Continue reading Spire: Chapter 27-part 2

(Click here for links to other chapters.) Kymr is stripped to the waist, setting on a stool, with a priest standing behind him holding a wet towel.  One of Sister Mays nurses stands beside the priest holding a basin of the blessed and sanctified water.  We have reached a deal with Kymr, and the farce … Continue reading Spire: Chapter 26

(Click here for links to other chapters.) We send Lars to rest—I don’t think he slept at all last night—and I decide to find Jes and wander around town a bit.  Jes is looking at the sky, as usual, but joins me anyway. “One of the Sorcerers, Blight, started packing, so he may be leaving … Continue reading Spire: Chapter 25-part 2

(Click here for links to other chapters.) I watch Mynar closely, this is the third elaborate trial since spring—counting the haranguing of Ambassador Aker as the first—and I am certain he’s very near an eye roll.  I don’t want to miss it.  But I am not so absorbed in Mynar watching that I am not … Continue reading Spire: Chapter 25-part 1

(Click here for links to other chapters.) Mother and father are busy deciding exactly how much to tell Lars.  (I get the impression they really don’t want to tell him I talk to the Sword.)  Mynar is working on his plan to use the assassin, and the Sorcerers are my problem. The sergeants and I … Continue reading Spire: Chapter 24