Tuesday Tales: From the Word STIR

As the song says, the heat is on. It’s actually been warm enough to plant my flower baskets and clean my gardens. Welcome to this week’s Tuesday Tales, the blog where a small group of authors share weekly posts from the works in progress with you. I’ve been working on Listen to the Stones for months now, and the story is slowly coming to a close. Today’s excerpt is from a letter Marina’s uncle left her with his lawyer. It doesn’t provide her with all the answers, but it’s a start. To understand the present and the future, one needs to know the past. Enjoy!

Marina, engrossed in her great-uncle’s letter, settled herself more comfortably against the pillows and read on.

Our ancestor, a man not without healing powers of his own, abilities he kept well hidden, recognized that Callum MacLeod wasn’t long for this world. He offered to keep him alive and help him escape so that he could die with dignity at home. In exchange, he asked for sanctuary and a piece of land he could call his own.

The MacLeod agreed and escaped what would’ve been a painful, indignant death. As his reward, Callum officially and legally granted Rupert Fraser the lands we know as the Fraser estate today, but with one condition. He and his descendants would assume the guardianship of the sacred stones on the edge of the property since Callum, having no sons of his own did not trust his daughters’ husbands.

His boon caused quite a stir, but Fraser kept his promise, and the MacLeod lived to a ripe old age. After his death, the daughters tried to overturn the land grant but failed. Without the power from the stones, what was left of the MacLeod clan gradually disappeared. The stones took back what they’d given them. Don’t allow it to happen to you. When you arrive, you’ll be weak, but the gods will know what you need and see to it that you get it. No matter what happens after that, you must feed with the stones regularly and protect them until the date arrives to free them.

When I became laird, I assumed that responsibility without realizing the cost of doing so. I was in pain, having lost a part of myself when my brother died and still reeling from the agony of losing Alice all those years ago. I failed in my duty to the stones. In my own way, I sought to keep them safe by keeping them secret, but it is no longer enough. The stones are in danger, and if anything damages them, the spirits encased in them will be destroyed, too, never given a chance to be reborn and live again. Your future and the future of the island itself will be destroyed. The time has come for the spirits to be released, and you are the one who has the power to do so. If you fail…

“Damn it, Raven. The ink is smudged. How am I supposed to know what to do?”

That’s it. Come back next week for more. Don’t forget to check out the other Tuesday Tales.