Traverse space, time, and alternate dimensions
through England’s six fictional universes.
About Secrets and Stones
The Secrets and Stones Universe asks the question, what if there was more to myth and legend than we think? When we read or hear the legends of any particular place or culture, we automatically discount tales of fantastic creatures or feats of magic because such things are not real and never were. Or so we believe.
What if these stories were at least partially true and merely exaggerated? What if there were Fae and sphinx and chimera and others before something happened to drive them into hiding or extinction?
The stories in this universe currently center around 1st Century Ulster under the reign of King Conchobar MacNessa and just after his death.
A Bard’s Daughter
“You said you found her behind a tree?” Shea asked, looking down at the child.
She was a small thing, scrawny to tell the truth of it, and no older than perhaps five. Her clothes were too small and threadbare, and the soles were nearly worn clean off her shoes. Painful-looking circles lay under her eyes, and her long, dark hair was bound back in a rough braid.
Daithi nodded. “She was curled into the side of a bard, leaned against them, dead,” he answered. “Half frozen herself.”
“Some power or other was looking after her, that’s for certain, this time of year,” Shea agreed. She gestured toward a bundle in Daithi’s hand. “And that?”
“Instruments the bard had when we buried him,” Daithi answered. “They’re her’s by rights.”
Surprised, Shea looked away from the girl, now trembling under the pile of the few blankets she had, to consider the half-grown lad in front of her. Reaching out, she took the bundle from Daithi and set it beside the bed. Shea settled her cloak over the child as well. Then she crossed the few steps to stand in front of Daithi.
“You’re a good boy,” she said, patting his cheek. The way his face went red and he started sputtering at the praise made her smile. “There’s plenty who would have taken the bard’s instruments and left her there to die with her Da.”
“I couldn’t do that,” Daithi protested with a shake of his head. “She’d have haunted me for sure.”