Tuesday Tales: Writing Hardly

Welcome to Tuesday Tales, a weekly blog featuring diverse authors posting excerpts from their works in progress based on word and picture prompts. I’m pleased you stopped by today. This week’s word prompt is hardly. My snippet is from a medieval romance featuring a knight and a lady caught in times of turmoil and war. I’m excited to work in my favorite reading genre. Enjoy the other authors of Tuesday Tales.

Reese set about examining the ruins, rummaging through pottery shards and broken arms and heads of the statues. The hodge podge aspect of the site puzzled him. He had seen strange things during his travels, including dark places known as the devil’s playground. This was one of those, and it reeked of evil. “Dankness thrives here in the open air as much as it did in the Saracen cell where I was chained. The smell of blood is in the stones. Once it is up the snoot, tis fearful to expel.”

Father Michael nodded, grimacing. “Some sort of sacrifice has taken place, animal or…” The final word went unspoken.

“It appears to be an old temple of some sort. There is an altar stone. But why do the representations cover an aeon of beliefs and times, pagan and Christian?”

“It is not a Christian temple.”

“And yet this statue appears to be a saint. Take note if you will of the cross imprinted on his chest.”

Father Michael studied the cross and then bent to peer down at the statue’s base. He lowered his torch to illuminate the remnants of engraved words, worn by time. “By faith, tis a likeness of Saint Alban, the martyr of Holywell Hill.”

“Holywell is to the south. Why would Alban be honored so far north?”

“Tis somewhat unusual but hardly unheard of. After all, he was the first Christian worshipper of our land to be executed by the Romans.”

“Do you notice, Father, how all these many items are in disarray, and yet somehow appear…arranged?”

His companion gazed around, studying the tableau. “Now that you have brought it to light, yes, I see that the saint’s scourge lies close to the three-headed dog, and the talons of the hideous gargoyle are placed at the base of the saint.” His face took on an expression of horror. “I like this not. We have seen enough, my son. Let us depart to more congenial surroundings.”

“I want to ascertain how…” He broke off, as a creaking noise came from the interior of the center altar. Slowly the circular stone began to turn. Reese yanked his companion by the robe, pulling him behind a large statue of a beast with a lion’s head, goat’s feet, and serpent’s tail. They crouched behind it just as the altar was lifted from beneath.

I hope you enjoyed the snippet based on the word prompt hardly. Thanks for stopping by. Return to Tuesday Tales.

Cheers & Happy Reading!

Flossie Benton Rogers, Conjuring the Magic in Romance

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