Hear Ye! Hear Ye!
A dragon writes a
cryptic message with its ember breath in the evening sky...
Lady Rhiannon watches
from the turret wall with an ache in her blood. She's the only person who can
decipher the message as the sole keeper of the Dragon Tome. When an old enemy
threatens the castle, her father charges his knight with escorting her to a
safe haven—the same knight Rhiannon had a crush on as a girl. But she must now
convince him to change his plans, for she has her own sacred charge to
fulfill...
So begins a journey
to hidden ruins where magic slumbers in the stones and love lies in the heart,
waiting to awaken. As Rhiannon and the knight face seemingly insurmountable
odds, only the dragon knows if they can fulfill their destiny...
The Dragon's Message is available now on
Enjoy an exclusive excerpt:
When
Rhiannon was small and had just learned to read, her mother brought her into
the hall one day when her father was on campaign, and led her to the large
table upon which a great map of their lands lay. She instructed Rhiannon to read the words of
the landmarks: castle, road, mountain, forest, village. The young girl touched words inscribed over a
place where trees met craggy peaks.
“What does that say, my love?” her mother prompted.
“Here be dragons,” Rhiannon answered,
glancing up at her mother.
Her mother nodded, smiling. She knelt down in front of Rhiannon so they
were at the same height. The lady’s
hazel eyes sparkled as she whispered, “I have a secret to share. But I can only share it with a little girl
with red and gold hair,” she pulled playfully on Rhiannon’s braid,” who knows
how to read.” Rhiannon giggled. “Are you a little girl such as this?”
Rhiannon nodded eagerly, and her mother laughed. She stood up and gestured at a tapestry on
the wall. “Come, child, the dragon
guards our treasure.”
Hand in hand they walked to the tapestry of
the sleeping dragon. “Your great-great
grandmother wove this tapestry when she was an old woman. It took her a long time to complete, with her
hands gnarled so, like the twisted oak by the drawbridge.” The dragon was curled up in front of a
turret, with stone dolmens in a semi-circle behind it, interspersed with trees
and a mountain peak in the background and bright blue sky above. The dragon’s scales were crimson and woven
through with glittering gold thread, and its curved horns and talons were
gold. As they paused in front of the
large tapestry, Rhiannon looked closely at the eyes of the dragon; she thought
perhaps she could see a slit of gold, as if the dragon were only pretending to
be asleep.
Rhiannon’s mother stood on tiptoe and moved
part of the tapestry to the side, revealing a slit in the stone wall. With her free hand she reached in and drew
out a large leather-bound tome. She
motioned her daughter to come sit with her on one of the benches that lined the
walls. “Look and listen well, my daughter,”
she said, and ran her fingers along the smooth cover, “this book is our special
treasure, and it contains many secrets within its pages. I am going to teach you how to read them.” She opened the book as Rhiannon snuggled
closer to her, her mother’s loose red-gold hair falling over the girl’s shoulder
and brushing the crinkly parchment pages of the book which she turned until she
came to the picture of a girl.
“The first secret is a story…”
Huzzah! Praise for The Dragon's Message:
"It is a beautifully imagined tale, perfect for curling up under the covers with for an hour or so and falling under the dragon's spell." ~Christine
"Fitzgerald's writing style is poetic and rife with compelling descriptions of medievalesque life that make her novella a true cut above the usual fantasy fare." ~Angel Wing Buyer
"It is romantic, inspiring, and quite the surprise at its satisfying end." ~Augusta McCrae
Enter the world of the Dragon Tome and discover its secrets!
*"The Dragon's Message" was originally published in Mystic Signals Magazine Issue 19 August 2013*
