Heirs of Māvarin
by Karen Funk Blocher


Heirs of Māvarin has occupied a fair-sized chunk of my brain since high school. It got me to the Clarion Writers Workshop, helped me find my husband, frustrated the heck out of me for years and years, and eventually taught me how to write an entire novel, polish it and make it good. For a long time, though, the book was called The Tengrim Sword [sic], and I kept rewriting the first seventy pages over and over.
Eventually, after years of putting the novel away and coming back to it, I learned enough about writing to complete a draft. Even then, I had a long way to go before Heirs of Māvarin, now a trilogy, was truly complete and ready to go. Here’s a sample scene from Book One: The Tengrem Sword
:

 


Sample Scene from
The Tengrem Sword

Chapter One:
The Tengrem

When the shouting started, Rani Fost dropped the belt he was tooling and slipped out the front door of the shop. Del was already in the stable yard next door, shading his eyes and staring in the direction of the river. He pointed. “There!”

Peaked-roofed houses and summer-clad trees blocked much of their view, but Rani spotted two riders, a man and a woman, barely keeping their seats as their horses neighed, reared and plunged in fear of the large, dark creature that pranced in the middle of the normally-peaceful street near the lumber yard. Other villagers milled around the creature at a safer distance.

Howling its defiance in the center of the commotion was the monster from Rani’s dreams, the one he had been desperate to see in his waking life for the past three days. At first glance the tengrem could have been another horse and human rider; but there was no saddle, no rider. Instead, the equine back extended into a furry torso, like a bear on its hind legs. Two elongated, hairy arms ended in pink-clawed, five-fingered hands. The dirty yellow horn in the forehead was slightly curved.

The tengrem tossed its head and again opened its wolf-like snout, revealing teeth so large that Rani could see them even at this distance. A moment later its mouth exhaled fire as a hunter ventured too close. The hunter’s horse neighed and shied as flame touched its legs.

Other horses reacted, creating a momentary opening in the rough circle of villagers. The tengrem bolted through it, quickly followed by the shouting hunters. By the time it reached the trees that covered the hills at the village’s northern edge, the tengrem was well ahead of its pursuers. The hunters plunged into the woods anyway.

Rani and Del watched for a few moments longer, but saw no more of the hunters or their quarry.



Continued

 

Introduction and Sample Scene from Mages of Māvarin

Back to the Welcome Page

 

Heirs of Māvarin, Mages of Māvarin, and all text on this web site copyright 2018 by Karen Funk Blocher.  Not to be republished or reprinted without permission from the author (and MuseItUp Publishing as applicable).