Character blogs

If you enjoyed reading Circle of Fire and would like to know what happened next, some of the characters from the first book have written blog entries on this page. The story will continue in the second book, The Master of Tornhill.

2. Women, Children and the Frailest of Old Men

My name is Maud Boderry and I am the first lady of Castle Baryk. I say that with all due modesty as the title is only a temporary one. Since the queen - I suppose I should call her the Dowager Queen now - took herself into exile, I have been the senior lady at court. Of course we do not have much of a court any more. Our young King has gone to war and with him has gone the largest army I have ever seen. It is not vast by historical standards and I am told the Nostarian Army is ten times the size, but when I watched them leave I could see men and horses to the very horizon. Somewhere there was my dear husband Robert. One man amongst many but the one that matters most to me.

There is a skeleton garrison to guard us but now we are a castle of women, children and the frailest of old men. Where, only a few short weeks ago, the castle mount rang with the sounds of men training, the armoury was alive with the banking of metal on metal and the great fires raged in the foundry, now only one blacksmith, too old for the war, sees to the needs of our few horses. The children shout and play on the grass but their voices have an empty ring. To me anyway who has never been blessed with children.

Down in the kitchens - where I do feel I should make the occasional visit - Mistress Zira is owed a good rest. I do not know how she coped with the extra work. In those  last few weeks when the army was complete and camped out in the surrounding fields, she had over three thousand mouths to feed. The kitchens here could not cope with that of course so we set up cooking fires around the encampment and the army cooks had to do the best they could. You can imagine how much food three thousand soldiers can consume. Even within the castle our numbers had swollen dramatically.

Now, as in the rest of the castle, everything is quiet and small simple meals are all the rest of us require.

I feel it is my responsibility to ensure that everything runs smoothly in Queen Sybil's absence. It would not do to have standards drop. Our young King does not like to stand on ceremony which in a way is refreshing, but already he has started to make the most unsuitable friends. I have nothing against this woman Matilda. She is a friendly girl who shows me a proper amount of respect but she is treated as nobility and afforded the greatest favours when she is merely the mistress of a minor nobleman. A now dead nobleman at that. As for the child well, I am supposed to call her his natural daughter.  I think we all know what that means. Not that the castle is not overflowing with the late King's natural children.

King Rowan's young friend Tam was once an urchin begging on the streets of some inconsequential small town. Even Lady Catherine is in truth the daughter of a miller. I cannot help wondering what her Majesty would make of all this.

Still, when all is said and done, The King is the King and his wishes must be obeyed. I suppose that at my age it is difficult to accept change. I must do my best to embrace this new way of thinking.

There was one good piece of news today. Well hopeful at any rate. I had noticed that Lady Catherine was looking unwell again recently and was concerned for her. By now her health should have been improving. I mentioned it to Matilda and she advised me that a child is on the way.

I know that for very complicated reasons, they needed, and of course wanted a child as soon as possible but I agree with Matilda that it is too soon. The poor girl almost died in that awful place and she is too weak to carry a child. Nevertheless she is delighted and we will take the greatest care of her. Lord Trayer knows nothing of this of course. He has gone to war.  That is the way of things I'm afraid. Let us hope all three of them survive.

I am writing this in my bedchamber which also seems empty without Robert. He is not a small man, my husband. I should not let him consume quite so much food but he does love to eat and it makes me happy to see him so content. We never expected that he would have to go to war again. Several adjustments had to be made to his armour.

Poor Robert. He was a fearsome warrior in his youth. You should have seen him. Ours was an arranged marriage as so many were in those days.  I knew that he was a soldier and I was petrified that he would be rough even cruel and that he would be covered in scars and hideous. I do not know why I thought that. Anyway the truth is I fell in love with him instantly. He was handsome and strong and although he does bear some scars they merely add to his beauty. It would have been nice to have borne children but we have been very happy together.   

I already miss him dreadfully and I think he will be feeling the same. Robert has come to enjoy his home comforts. Although he did not hesitate to follow his King to war I fear he will find life most uncongenial.

I cannot worry about that. I can only pray that he returns safely. I think perhaps I should stop writing now. There is work to be done and I cannot dwell too much on this. I do not suppose that anything exciting will happen here but if it does I will write again.

Lady Maud was a character from my novel Circle of Fire . If you would like to read more about the characters in this blog, the book is available in paperback and kindle editions. Just click on the link. 

1. A Silver Coin and a Promise of Glory

My name is Jemon and I am a soldier in the army of King Rowan of Subia. I shake my head in disbelief at the words but truly, that is what I am.

I had never imagined myself as anything but a farm labourer, working alongside my father and two brothers for my master, Walter Mazing the Sentorman at Lattinride. I'll not say anything about Lord Walter. My family work there still. Let us just say that though the pain of missing my Ma and Pa and my brothers and sisters is always with me, I am happier here than I have ever been.

This all came about, as you probably know, because the King's brother, Prince Jared, passed through our village not six moons ago. We were working on the East Field and when the Prince's party came into view we all had stopped to look. He was a large man. Handsome, my ma would have said and when he got off his horse and came over towards us I believe we was all looking at him. You can't really look anywhere else when Prince Jared is talking to you. He has that effect on everyone, men and women alike. Anyway he called over to me. Only me, mind. Singled me out he did.
'You look strong and healthy' he said. 'and there is something in your eyes that tells me you would make an exceptional soldier.’

I tell you, I didn't quite know what to say. I've never passed more than two words with a real Lord. I must have told him my name though because he went on.

‘How would you like to be a soldier, Jemon?  I am looking for men to join a special regiment? They will all be hand-picked men like yourself.’

I really couldn't hardly speak with shock. I suppose I mumbled something stupid because he thought I'd said no. He gave a sort of shrug as if he was truly disappointed though I don't know how he could have been. I'm not special, I'm just your ordinary country lad.

‘Well, if you decide that it is what you want,' he said looking me straight in the eye, 'tell your master that Prince Jared asked for you personally. Tell him that I will pay him well for you because I think you are worth it. Then come to Castle Baryk and give your name to the sergeant of the watch.’

Then, would you believe it, he tossed a coin at me. A real silver coin. I never had seen one before.

‘Here is something for your time,’ he said.

Then of course I didn't know what to say. I didn't feel like no ordinary lad I can tell you. I felt that special. Now of course, I realise that's why he said it. Every soldier here would give his life for the Commander - that's what we call him now -  and for his brother the King. They know how to speak to a man. Not like Lord Walter who... I said I wouldn't speak of him so I won't.

Anyway, the Prince had ridden fair a mile away before I got my speech back.  Galet, that's my friend, he laughed at me. 'I can see why he chose you. Soldiers don't need to be saying much. They just need to be big hairy oafs like you.'

I'm not really much of a talker, anyone will tell you that and I'm tall compared with most of the others. I'm strong I suppose but then we all are. All the lads round here have to be. It's heavy work in them fields.

I just laughed at the time and went back to work and when I got home, well, I didn't know quite what to tell them. I didn't know my own mind yet.

Pa and my older brother Ross had been working on the other side of the farm. Word travels fast in our village, but it hadn't reached them yet. They were talking about the thing that all the workers talk about at the moment.

The Scorge as you may know was a terrible disease. It swept through the country like the spring winds. There ain't no-one hereabouts that didn't lose someone. Two of my sisters died and my oldest sister's husband and poor old Galet's pa.

The result is that there ain't enough men to work the farms now. Two of our fields have lain fallow this year.

'Lord Walter's demanding we work double the area this year,' Pa shook his head. 'Don't know when we'll get enough time to work our own land.'

Ma had made a rabbit stew which is rare enough. Francis in the village gets the rabbits. We don't ask where he gets them. And he always lets my ma have some on account of her being the local midwife and seeing to all his children. I wasn't going to waste the good eating on no chatter, so I just listened.

 'But that's just it,' Ross was saying. 'His Lordship don't own us. Time was when a man could consider himself lucky to have work, but now there ain't enough workers to go round. It's the best opportunity we've ever had. If he wants us to work double, he can pay us double.'

'He's never going to agree to that.' You could see that Pa was shocked at such talk.

'Then we take our labour to someone who will.' Ross waved his bread at Pa who was about to reply when the door flew open and Hal my younger brother came in.

'Is it true?' he shouted at me all breathless and excited. 'Is it true that a prince gave you a silver coin to join the army?'

I had to explain then and my stew got all cold.

Ross turned to me his eyes alight. 'Good for you Brother. When are you leaving?'

'I dunno.' I said. 'I dunno if I am going.'

Ma was horrified. 'Of course he's not going.  What nonsense. He's not going off to war and get himself killed.'

'There ain't gonna be a war.' Pa was talking to her but he was looking at me. 'The King is dead in case you hadn't noticed. No-one's going to fight for that boy of his.'

Ross looked at him as if he was completely stupid. 'What are we supposed to do? Wait for them Nostarians to invade and just let them?'

Of course we all know now that the young King has more than proved himself. Got himself enrolled in The Circle of Fire. Stood tall while they branded him. I know cos I was there at the castle and I saw it all. Every boy in the land wants to fight for him now. But at the time we knew nothing about that. The arguments went on all day and in the end my Pa said maybe I should go. See a bit of the land outside our village and never mind whether Lord Walter lets me go or not. Like Ross said. He don't own us.

Needless to say, that's what I did, and here I am. I'd like to say that I had adventures on the way but the three days of my journey were largely uneventful. The weather was good and I slept along the road. It felt good to be out there in the wide world seeing places I never seen before. I took that silver coin with me but I didn't use it. Ma packed me enough food to feed the entire army. I reckon the rest of the family were on bread and water for the next week.

When I finally got here to the Castle I asked for the Sergeant of the Watch like the prince said. He shook his head and laughed and called out. 'Hey Master Cator, I've got another one for you.

Seems I wasn't the only new recruit. We'd all got a silver coin and a promise of glory.

'You all think you're special.' Master Cator yelled at us on that first morning. 'Well maybe you will be, but you ain't special yet. That's my job. To make something of you.'

I think I like Master Cator. He was tough on us. Made us work hard, but I don't mind that. It beats working in Lord Walter's fields. And you should have been there on the plain below the Castle mount as the whole army was mustered and we set off down South. It was like the very air itself was full with pride. We're going to show that Nostarian King a thing or two.

I'll try and write again soon. I'll let you know how it's going. Wish us luck.

Jemon first appeared in my novel Circle of Fire and is the first character to write a guest blog.