She’s the One Who Doesn’t Say Much
(Book Four of the War Stories of the Seven Troublesome Sisters)
by S.R. Cronin
GENRE: Historical Fantasy
BLURB:
Do you know what your problem is?
Olivine knows hers. This quiet thirteenth-century artist has been hiding a secret as she travels to K'ba to meet her friends. Others assume she's fallen in love with another artist, but it's much worse than that. For on the way to K'ba is the dirt poor nichna of Scrud, a place scorned by other Ilarians. And in Scrud is the one man who understands her.
However, Bohdan recognizes the dangers posed by an impending Mongol invasion. When he learns of Olivine's unusual visual powers, he convinces her to pick up her bow and start practicing.
She does, though she's more concerned with moving to K'ba where she can paint all day and see Bohdan whenever she wants. If only her sister hadn't decided Olivine and her fellow long eyes held one key to defending the realm.
Then, as if life wasn't complicated enough, Olivine learns the artist community she yearns to be part of has developed a different take on the invasion. They're sure the only way to survive is to capitulate completely to the Mongols’ demands. Artists who feel otherwise are no longer welcome.
Where does her future lie? The invasion is coming soon and Olivine doesn't have much time to decide.
Excerpt:
The small group of oomrushers made up Ryalgar’s closest friends in the Velka. I liked them all, especially Joli, her best friend. Once these women learned of my skills as a long eye they wanted to include me in their plans. From what I understood, they worried the Svadlu couldn’t defend our realm, and they wanted to provide additional options for Ilari’s defense.
The idea of the Svadlu being insufficient scared me. The idea that the likes of me and Ryalgar could be our last hope for safety horrified me. Nonetheless, I agreed to participate in a bizarre test involving archery before I left the forest. They wanted me to stand at one end of the clearing and shoot arrows as hard as I could. Half the time, Ryalgar would try to oomrush the arrows further, and we’d see if she made a difference. I was told it would be just our little group, so no need to feel self-conscious. Ryalgar only wanted to know if her idea of pushing my arrows had merit.
It took us a while to get set up. By the time I nocked my first arrow, several dozen Velka had come outside to watch. Great. When I noticed how large the crowd had grown, my hands started shaking. Unlike my crowd-loving twin, I froze up when I tried to do things in front of a lot of others.
I pushed the butt of my left hand hard against the grip of my bow, forcing it into stillness. I took my right hand, curled the uppermost knuckles of the middle three fingers, and hooked them around the string. The familiar pose calmed me.
You’re all alone. Look straight ahead. No one is here.
I aimed into the distance and made a steady shot. The crowd made no sound. I picked up another arrow and did it again.
After I nocked the third arrow, I let it fly exactly as the first two. It took off with no noticeable difference, but where the other arrows began to slow and drop to the earth, this one did not. It flew as if it had developed an eerie mind of its own, moving until it was so far into the trees I didn’t see it fall.
I couldn’t ignore the hooting and cheering that followed.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Sherrie Cronin is the author of a collection of six speculative fiction novels known as 46. Ascending and is now in the process of publishing a historical fantasy series called The War Stories of the Seven Troublesome Sisters. A quick look at the synopses of her books makes it obvious she is fascinated by people achieving the astonishing by developing abilities they barely knew they had.
She’s made a lot of stops along the way to writing these novels. She’s lived in seven cities, visited forty-six countries, and worked as a waitress, technical writer, and geophysicist. Now she answers a hot-line. Along the way, she’s lost several cats but acquired a husband who still loves her and three kids who’ve grown up just fine, both despite how odd she is.
All her life she has wanted to either tell these kinds of stories or be Chief Science Officer on the Starship Enterprise. She now lives and writes in the mountains of Western North Carolina, where she admits to occasionally checking her phone for a message from Captain Picard, just in case.
Author Social Media Links:
Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Instagram ~ Goodreads
Amazon BookBub ~ Author Blog ~ Book Series Blog
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3 comments:
Great excerpt and cover.
This sounds like a really good read.
Thanks so much for hosting my book!
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