The Thirteenth Scroll
Chapter One
Deep in the heart of the Great Forest, twenty-seven-year-old
Lysandra knelt in her garden, feeling the warmth of the spring sun
upon her shoulders. At that moment she felt wrapped in peace. But it
was a peace that had come hard-earned. Time had taught that such
moments were to be cherished but never trusted; security was more
delicate than a butterfly's wing-and even more easily destroyed.
She had been in this cottage for almost nine years now. It was a
place she had come across by accident, an old hermit's home standing
alone and abandoned deep in the forest. She had at once sensed an
affinity for the place; her own heart had felt just as empty as this
house, just as overrun by brambles and weeds as its garden.
For the first few days of her blindness, Lysandra had stayed in her
family home. Although the villagers were kind in their pity of her,
she could not stand the silence of the house that had once been
filled with her mother's singing and her father's hearty laughter.
And there was Ultan's death, the death of her love, of her future.
Without him, her heart felt as empty and bare as ... read full excerpt from: The Thirteenth Scroll ebook
