Chapter Four of The Seven Spell book three of The Seven Spell Saga
I was awake at seven but after
checking the time on my cell I turned over and closed my eyes again, I just
felt so tired.
Despite my best efforts I could not
go back to sleep. My mind just kept churning around the whole problem of the
times that the time travel portal might actually open. I wanted most of all to
find out what was going on so that it would be of some help to Tristan. I
looked at the time; almost eight and I suddenly decided to go down there and
threw back my duvet, diving out of bed. I would test the portal now, if it
opened every seven hours it was due to open at nine, by my calculations.
I was thinking of calling Oliver as
I cleaned my teeth and then I decided I would go on my own. Dressed in jeans
and a shirt, I grabbed a couple of apples and a peach from the fruit dish, I
had nothing else to test the portal with at my disposal so fruit would have to
do. I figured it would do as well as anything and actually might be less
conspicuous since it was natural. I got a plastic bag out of the re-cycle tub
in the utility room to carry them and left the house.
It did not take long to get to the
waterfall. I was on a mission, and at the poolside I got out my cell phone to
check the time, five minutes to go. I bet to myself that they would be the
longest five minutes I had ever encountered as I positioned myself close but
not too close to the thick reedy pad that seemed to act as the portal.
I would throw in the apple at
exactly nine, a peach at seven seconds, and the last apple at seven minutes,
calculating that if it all worked then four this afternoon would be the next
slot to test. Let’s get this sorted out I thought as I looked at my phone for
the countdown to nine o’clock. At exactly nine I threw in the apple, and for a
split second I thought it was not working, and then it disappeared. I
accidentally let go of the peach too and it disappeared.
I was thinking well I still have
this apple for the seven-minute slot and I got the apple ready to throw, when I
heard a cry, not a loud cry but with a definite note of surprise. I turned
around and unbelievably on the pad of reeds, well actually taking a step from
the reeds was a young man.
I very nearly swore, because what
the hell, as Oliver would say. The guy was dressed in a dark blue tunic over
some kind of dark hose and he had ankle boots on, well that’s what I am calling
them. He had a belt around the tunic that was patterned in blue and red. Over
his shoulder, he had a fabric bag and in his hands, he held the apple and the
peach. He was quite good looking, his hair was sort of a light brown, and was
cut quite short for a guy from the eleven hundreds. I took this in whilst he
stepped towards me, he seemed surprised and a little wary but not terrified. I
figured he didn’t know what had happened to him. I still had my cell in my hand
and as he spoke, I called Tristan. If Tristan had his voicemail on, I was going
to be in trouble.
The young guy was a couple of steps
in front of me; he was speaking that Norman French stuff although it sounded slightly
different from the way Tristan spoke. He looked at the phone in my hand against
my ear and then looked me up and down; his eyes were the same pretty, blue grey
as Will Radford’s eyes. This guy was not a fearful groom from the Dearing
castle. He must be higher up on the social ladder I thought. I smiled at him
because a smile is universal right.
He looked at me suspiciously, as I
heard Tristan answer his phone and in a rush I said, “Tristan I am at the pool,
I was testing the portal, and someone has come through it, a young man. Wait
no, no sign of a weapon, he’s speaking your language, well tell me something to
say to him; sorry what repeat it, word-by-word Tristan, Tchi qu’est vote naom?”
Looking at
the young guy I said this, and I hoped it had come out right but seriously, it
was so hard to say, so I waited for him to reply.
He smiled
even though I had to say the words a couple of times, and then he replied.
“Mon naom
est Corbett, tchi qu’est vote naom?”
Yikes, I
knew he had told me his name and if I was not mistaken, he had asked mine. I
tried to emulate the ‘mon naom est’ part but it sounded a bad rendition and
added Chloe. He seemed to get it and repeated Chloe. Tristan was still on the
phone and almost yelling what’s happening, the stress of the whole thing made
me giggle and the young guy smiled, and offered me the apple. I very nearly
fell about laughing at that but managed to talk to Tristan, “Tell me how to say
come with me”, I asked him.
“No”,
Tristan said. “I am already on my way, I will be there very soon, stay there,
be careful”.
“Wait
Tristan which way are you coming, drive to my place take the top path and the
bank”.
“I am,
Chloe, I’ll be there soon”.
I put my
phone in my pocket and stood looking at the newest addition from the eleven
hundreds. He was still happy, and he again offered me the apple, so I showed
him the one I had not had time to throw, and he smiled and bit into the other
one so I just held mine. He chewed then he spoke again, naturally I couldn’t
understand and I just smiled at him again. At this rate, he would think he had
happened upon the village idiot. Why didn’t he realize the landscape had
changed, maybe he was the village idiot. At just that moment, he did realize
his surroundings were different and I could see the change in his emotions on
his face. I held my free hand out to him because he started to look afraid.
Looking at him as kindly as I could, I kept my hand held out, maybe he would
get the picture, and I could get him up the bank to the top path. He didn’t get
the picture. He stepped back and I said his name to him and smiled. I tried a
little bow, just to seem courteous and non-threatening and then I pointed up
the bank and held out my hand again. This was hard going, I was going to have
to learn some of this Norman French I thought, and then he took my hand and put
it on his arm, and stepped towards the bank where I had pointed. He must have
thought I needed help to get up the path. It was harder to get up the bank with
my hand on this guy’s arm than it was on a wet day with two hands free, but I
kept going grabbing at a bit of fern here and there to help myself up.
Suddenly
who should be crashing down the bank in front of us but Tristan. This new time
traveller to his credit stepped in front of me as if to shield me and said
something like arête or arrow as well as other words to the person who suddenly
became visible to him as Tristan.
Tristan
was smiling and talking to the young man; they clasped arms for a second and
then Tristan was leading the way up the bank and I still had to receive the
dubious help from Corbett as we followed.
At the top
path I heaved a sigh of relief.
“Tristan
stop now and tell me what’s going on, do you know this guy as well?”
A review from Amazon reader
5 stars
Another fantastic addition to the series.
So much going on in this book that it’s hard to
know where to start, and what not to put to avoid a spoiler. If you’ve read the
first two in the series, then you’ll adore this addition – and I would
recommend you read them in order.
All the magic, romance and mystery, this time with
the addition of some gentle comedy.
As the portal becomes a little wayward, Chloe,
Oliver and Tristan struggle to cope with an influx of visitors from Norman
times. How to either integrate them into the 21st century,
or get them back without causing a time paradox, poses a unique challenge for
the three friends, and the erratic nature of the portal only adds to the
headache.
And as if that wasn’t enough to cope with,
Tristan’s relatives become difficult, throwing money problems and legal issues
into the equation – which when you’re 800 years old with no believable
documentation to support your claim can be somewhat awkward.
And of course the romance is as sizzling as ever. I
enjoyed seeing Chloe start to lose a little of her innocence, and the gentle
way the author shows her realising the effect she might be having on the two
boys. She’s much more sweet and innocent than I was at that age (or maybe I was
just a teenage wild child).
So it’s straight on to Book 4 for me. Can’t wait to
see what happens next.
Buy the book
Catch up with the author on twitter
and facebook
Very much awaited post. Thanks for this stuff.
ReplyDeleteSample
Hi there Jaylene,
DeleteThank you for your comment. I hope to put up a couple more sample sundays from the books, especailly the third book, The Seven Spell because it is the pivotal book and different from the others. It's where turning points come and it's got a little humor in it too. Please feel free to comment here and on the facebook page I really like to hear people's opinions. :-) Tessa