Eric Guindon Writes

As I come closer to finishing the first draft of Heartseeker, I thought it would be nice to give you guys somewhat chronological excerpts that follow one another and start at the beginning (at least as I see it at this time in the draft). So with that, I give you the first chapter!

Sha had never been so scared as she was now, hiding in the cramped space below the floorboards. Above her, strangers entered her home, the home of her family—threatening strangers, strangers who scared her mother.
But Mother’s never scared, Sha argued with herself.
Yet these men and women had frightened her enough that she sent Sha into the hollow she now occupied, a place usually filled with illegal goods her family stored for later resale, once enough time had passed for them to be fenced without drawing attention. The girl had argued she was old enough to stand with the family, to fight if needed, that she was only a year younger than Nof, but Mother had listened to none of it.
Sha’s uncle had scarcely enough time to finish replacing the last plank before the strangers came into the room, pushing past her cousin Nof, who was doing his best to delay them.
“But you do not have an appointment,” she heard her cousin protest.
A man’s laughter followed, accompanied by the metallic rasp of a blade drawn. The sound terrified Sha; the intruders meant business—deadly business.
“Is this appointment enough, boy?” the same man said.
“You draw steel in my home?” This was Sha’s mother.
A new voice. A woman. “Forgive my brother. He is ill-mannered.”
“My manners are fine,” the man said. “It is my patience that is lacking. Where is our coin, Kezzan?” As he spoke, the stranger took steps across the salon, coming much closer to Sha’s mother. The girl imagined him pointing his sword at her mother and struggled not to yelp or cry out at the thought.
A moment passed, and then another without any words being said.
“There is no need for that, Arten, Willa, Dez,” said Sha’s mother at last, naming her lieutenants. “We do not need more weapons drawn, do we, Gallanna?”
“No. Of course not.” This was the sister of the stranger with the sword. “Sunden, sheathe your blade.”
“No. I don’t think I will,” The man said, the one the other intruder—Gallanna?—had called Sunden. He stepped closer to Sha’s mother, and the girl feared her heart would burst. “Odara Kezzan, you and your family have been in Fount for a year, and you have yet to pay your obligations to your betters. Now the time has come and your payments are due. Pay with coin, or you will pay with blood.” The man punctuated this with a stomp of his foot, which was almost directly above Sha’s head. She did cry out then, but no one heard her over the commotion the man’s words had caused. Weapons had been drawn on both sides.
“Try it, Upsal!” challenged Nof. “We do not owe you anything!”
Insults and jeers were called from both sides for a minute, but then everyone felt silent.
“What my nephew means to say,” Sha’s mother injected into the silence she had no doubt helped create, “Is that an agreement between our two families has not been reached. What payment can there be when terms have yet to be accepted by both sides?”
“Enough!” Sunden cried, shifting forward again only to be blocked by Kezzan men and women stepping between him and their matriarch. “You cannot keep this charade up. You are subordinate to our family and owe tithe! A third share of your profits is ours.”
Kezzans immediately spoke up in defiance of this assertion, but they quieted before finishing their sentences.
Sha’s mother spoke, “But we do not accept that you are a ruling established family here in Fount, Sunden Upsal. Our position is that we are co-equal families owing each other no shares of profits.”
“How can you claim that!” the man demanded.
“It seems obvious to me that the Upsals do not dominate Fount, Sunden. Can you dispute the existence of the Silent Men, the Red Batons, the Velvet Gloves, and the Roofers?”
“Assassins, thugs, and thieves!” Sunden answered.
“Exactly.”
“These are not Agaran families,” said the woman, Gallanna. “You are newly come here, but we are an established family already operating in the city. You owe us tithe, and you owe us loyalty!”
“Upsals have been here for generations, and you have not gained a stranglehold on crime within the city!” Sha’s mother screamed, heating up. “You are no dominant family to mine; you are amateurs!”
Below the floor, the girl could not tell who struck the first blow, but she heard it, and it was followed by many more. Fighting ensued, and she could not do anything about it; she could not even know who was winning or who was dying.
“No. No. No,” Sha whimpered, hugging herself.
When the sounds of battle abated, she put her hands over her ears. She did not want to hear the voices of those who had survived. If her family had won, they would soon pry open the boards hiding her, and if not, she did not want to face that possibility.
But when a few minutes passed without anyone coming to get her, the suspense grew too much for Sha, and she took her hands from her ears, hoping to hear voices she recognized.
Footsteps were all she heard, though, not those of many, just of one. At a leisurely pace the footfalls came closer to the girl’s hiding place until, at last, they stood directly over her and stopped there.
Mother? she pleaded with the gods in silent supplication. Please be Mother.
The floorboards above Sha creaked for a moment, then came a knock.
“Hello in there. Want to come out for a chat? I brought you a gift.”
The voice was not one the girl recognized, neither a Kezzan cousin, uncle, aunt, nor any of the Upsals she had heard speak before. The male voice spoke Source with a strange accent she was unfamiliar with, not native Founter, and definitely not Agaran. The tone was condescending, but what puzzled her most was how the man had known where she was.
Did he say he had a gift for me?
Sha doubted her understanding of the man’s oddly spoken words. She feared she was losing her mind. She decided to stay where she was, keep silent, and wait out the man. She reasoned that he would assume the hiding place was empty if she did not respond.
How does he even know the hiding place is here?
But the stranger above did not go away. Through the floorboards, Sha heard him make an overly dramatic sigh, then came sounds of prying.
I will spring at him! I will not be taken! Sha decided. She rolled in the confined space and positioned herself to jump up the moment enough planks had been removed to give her a clear path. She drew the stiletto knife sheathed at her thigh, readying herself to fight. She was a Kezzan, and she would do her family proud.
But when the first board was removed, Sha saw her first glimpse of the man, which gave her pause. The man had pale skin, like northerners from Apnir or Ustra, but what struck her were the man’s hair and eyes, which were unlike any she’d ever seen before. His hair, what could be seen of it below his black wide-brimmed hat, was long and straight and looked to have been made from the finest silver wire, almost like a wig made by a silversmith. His eyes were no less strange; each of his irises looked like gemstones set within the whites, the left a sapphire, the right a ruby. He smiled and posed for Sha’s examination, stopping his prying of the boards.
Sha blinked and stared, her weapon falling from her nerveless hands.
It cannot be.
Frantically, she sought confirmation.
With a long black coat and hat, he could be any man until you get close.
The man before her wore the night like a jacket.
But if you meet his eyes, you will never be the same. Ruby drives you mad with passion; Sapphire robs you of reason.
She swallowed hard.
But you won’t mind, they say, because riding with Morvru takes your mind away.
She closed her hands hard, digging her nails into her palms until she bled, willing herself to wake up.
No! She told herself. This is a myth, legend!
Stopping his preening, the stranger bent down again and pulled away another board, freeing Sha from the hiding place. He extended a hand to help her out of the hole, and the girl saw that each of his fingernails was a different colour.
She did not take the hand, instead recoiling from it.
“Come now, don’t be boring, girl,” he admonished.
The girl looked away from the hand, from the man’s face. She looked anywhere but at him. That is when Sha saw the blood, the still hands and chests, and the vacant eyes in the faces of people she loved. The dead were everywhere in the room. Much too many of them her family.
We lost.
She had not seen her mother yet, and Sha turned from the scene rather than risk that sight. Her eyes, avoiding all else, met the eyes of the stranger.
“That’s better,” he crooned to her.
Sha welcomed the sensations flooding into her. They did not drive out her anger at the Upsals or her loss and devastation; they added to them. She burst out laughing and crying at the same time.
“See. Better now, no?” the man asked as he pulled Sha out from the hiding place in the floor.
“I will drink Sunden Upsal’s blood and piss poison for his sister to drink.“ Sha found herself declaring and meaning it. “I will kill them all and dance on their graves until my legs cannot stand anymore; then, I will dance on my hands.”
“That’s nice, dear,” said the silver-haired man.
“This is a great gift you have given me,” Sha said, meaning it. Free from reason, from sorrow, all that was left within her was anger and revenge for what was done to her family.
“Oh, that’s not the gift I meant,” Morvru said. He produced from thin air a strangely shaped set of antlers. They spanned nearly a yard and formed a curved stick with prongs adorning only the two ends. At the centre of the odd curve was a bare, smooth area perfect for holding the thing, which was where Morvru held it. “This is for you.” He handed the contraption to Sha, who handled it gingerly.
“What is it?” she asked uncertainly. It looked like a bow of sorts, but without a string to force the curve. The material, antler, had no bend or give.
“That is Heartseeker.”
“Is it a bow?” she asked.
“Of sorts. A bow fit for a goddess.”
“Why are you giving it to me?” Sha asked.
Morvru flashed the girl a brilliant smile and said, “Because I thought it would be interesting.”