by T. O. Munro
Marcus shrugged. “I might be, for the right money.”
“I’m going east. I have some old associates to call on and there are a few long dormant investments that I wish to cash in. The road my niece and I will follow takes me away from the Petred Isle and I don’t mean to return.”
Marcus shrugged. “Me neither. I had my fill of it, and but for one thick bank of snow I reckon it’d have had its fill of me.” He rubbed his bad leg unconsciously. “I’d gladly travel with you, you and your niece and Bob.”
The stranger extended his good hand. “My name is Demus.” Demus gestured to his niece who swayed a little eyes half closed with exhaustion as she held Bob close. “And this is Persapha, she has had a long day and much excitement.”
Marcus dipped his head towards the girl and then Demus, before he took the latter’s hand in his. “My name is Marcus, Marcus Fenwell, your servant sir.”
Afterword
So, it is done. It is Tuesday 28th October 2014 in Belfast and the trilogy is complete, and edited.
I hope you have enjoyed it and kept with me through this extended final volume. Books, like babies, seem to get bigger with each gestation. Lady of the Helm was 130,000 words, Wrath of the Medusa was 160,000 words and the book you hold in your hands (or on your kindle) is just over 257,000 words long. So I guess we must be grateful that there are only three books in the series.
There are acknowledgments to be made: to Tess, my untiring and passionate beta-reader; to those first kind readers and reviewers of Lady of the Helm who saw beyond the impatient expediency of its self-published nature and championed the book to a wider audience, especially Brian and Fiachra and Mark and Geoff; to “Vezer” Agnes Mezsaros and Mark Lawrence for their thoughts, encouragement and the exposure they gave me on the internet.
When I set out I wanted to tell a story on an epic scale. I wanted a tale full of majesty and grandeur but peopled by credible people driven by simple human emotions. Like so many, I was of course inspired by The Lord of the Rings, but there were parts of that story where I had wanted something different to what Tolkein wrote. I wanted the villain to be more than just a dim shadowy shape of incomprehensible evil felt only through his influence on others. I wanted the great weapon to be something with more precisely defined and logical powers. I wanted more leading female characters, and I wanted a betrayal that would steal the reader’s breath away. There were other things I strove for too. I wanted a story line that would twist and turn in complex patterns so as to constantly surprise as well as entertain. I wanted an emotional connection that might dampen a reader’s eye from time to time. I wanted a line between the good and the bad that was less straight and more mutable. But above all else I wanted to tell a good story.
You the reader will know how well I have succeeded in those aims.
You may have noticed that I have left myself an opening to return to the world of the Salved, should time and a suitable storyline present itself. In the meantime, the interest and support of readers is a great encouragement. All feedback is gratefully received and the kindest thing you can do for an author whose work you like is to write a review of any length (20 words is enough) on amazon or goodreads
You can find me on
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Table of Contents
A Map of the Civilised Part of the Petred Isle
Prologue
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Epilogue
Afterword