A Little Taste of The Narrative

In honour of two weeks to go until the release on Amazon of my third Plot Bandits novel, The Narrative, I thought I would offer up a little taste of what is to come by presenting an extract from the book itself! I hope it whets the appetite a bit. :)

*****

Shoulders had never heard a pair of horses scream before. He hadn’t been aware that they could. He could also have lived with­out finding that out.

Somewhere nearby, he could hear Flirt yelling, his bouncing head catching glimpses of her flattened out and clinging with an alarming amount of desperation to the seat of the cart she had so abruptly set into motion. He could hear the angry and, thankfully, fading roars of the chasing Barbarians. He could hear the pound­ing of hooves, the screeching of cartwheels that were reaching the limits of their endurance, the clatter and rattle and tumble of the sacks and barrels loaded in the cart’s rear that vanished with an occasional dusty crash, presumably as they were flung into the road. He could feel his body, fingernails clinging to the edge of the seat as he was bounced around amongst the groceries, battered and bruised by tumbling supplies, the sack containing his head clasped desperately against the wagon seat in one hand. But most of all, he could feel the giant, beefy hand that had just closed with great intent around his right leg.

Oh bollocks. They had a Barbarian passenger.

Shoulders instinctively kicked out and felt his foot contact something fleshy that gave a painful grunt as the blow struck home. But the hand still grasped and so he kicked and kicked and kicked again, giving a wild yell as his body was hurled madly from side to side and battered with loose vegetables, but the hand clung on and he needed to hit, he needed something to hit him with, he needed…

He needed a third bloody hand or he’d either have to let go of the cart or his head. Unless…

Oh boy, this was going to sting. But what else was he supposed to do?

Teeth gritted and eyes firmly closed, Shoulders swung the sack containing his helmeted head like a mace.

Oof!

The world spun dizzyingly as he struggled to keep his grip on the cart, on the sack, but the hand, the beefy hand was flung away with a yell and the loud thud and groan of someone large hitting a road surface at speed. Yes! He’d done it!

“Good one!” Flirt’s voice, Flirt’s hands grabbing his shoul­ders, trying to haul him forward as his head danced and bounced in dazed hurly-burly at the end of a loosely flailing arm. Shoul­ders tried to focus on the voice, the hands, as the world swam, tried to haul his head-bearing hand forwards, but everything was so hazy, everything was so wild…

There was a smell of smoke. He could hear a rumble of distant voices through the haze, could hear less dramatic hooves; but suddenly another horse was screaming, he saw a rearing shape, a desperate rider, and Flirt was yelling and grabbing him as the whole cart gave a violent lurch sideways to avoid them. The rumble of the dusty road was gone as the cart, already toss­ing madly, went insane over rougher ground and there were cries of alarm, a jerk as white canvas ripped and slapped across his body, wooden pegs battering him as the remains of some tent was sent flying and there were glimpses through the rip in the sack of figures in silver mail diving out of the way and this was not good, he knew it wasn’t good and…

“Oh Gods, tree!”

Yep. Definitely not a good sentence.

“Jump!”

And not a good word. Shoulders felt Flirt grab his body, thrusting it violently sideways. His hand, already loose around the sack, flung in an arc and suddenly his head was spinning, flying, hurtling away into the air over the sounds of splintering wood, crashing, bursting barrels, and bolting horses. He felt his body hit the ground with a bruising thud, felt Flirt’s hands grasp­ing him, hauling him up, scurrying him away; but he was more concerned with the dizzying flight his head was taking, arching, arching up and, with a rush of air, tumbling, tumbling down…

And then…

Bang.

*****

There you go. :)

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