#SixSunday – Circle of the Butterfly #5

Last week, Briar was spooked off his horse in a burning village. Shannen, one of his guardians, has some special powers like those of the Oracles. The “comet” Briar saw was part of her effort to put the forest fire out. I’m skipping ahead a bit. Briar has found the home of the local blacksmith. It was untouched by the fire, so he enters. Inside, he finds something that chills him more than days of death and destruction.

As Briar compared drawing in his hands to the others littered about the house, each step forward became harder, and each breath mattered less. The weight of the paper grew heavier in his hands. The little girl had scribbled the same mark on each scrap, over and over, as if calling out her curse by name.

It occurred to the prince almost as an afterthought that Sister Iriel’s plea for help had not been a vain demand on his father. All the ash on Briar’s hands, the blood, the memory, the smell…it was all for a Tay Child and–

“Oh Gods, they found her,” Briar barely whispered.

Please check out the other talented writers participating in this week’s Six Sentence Sunday. These are some of my favorites: Sarah Ballance, Krystal Wade, Monica Enderle Pierce, Siobhan Muir, Sarah W., Pippa Jay, Kelly Seguin, and Steven Montano.