{"id":11406,"date":"2017-09-20T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=11406"},"modified":"2017-08-26T16:55:19","modified_gmt":"2017-08-26T21:55:19","slug":"the-sword-keeper-excerpt-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/the-sword-keeper-excerpt-7\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sword Keeper \u2014 excerpt 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cHey! Where do you think you\u2019re going?\u201d<\/p>\n

Nika stopped at the farmhouse gate and sheepishly turned to face his father. \u201cTo the tavern,\u201d he muttered, hoping that was an acceptable response.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy, boy? The tavern\u2019s closed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSopiko said she still needs me.\u201d <\/span>And Tamuna\u2019s been sick all day.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

His father jabbed the pitchfork into the ground and swore. \u201cThat damn woman had better be paying you for this. Have you had your supper yet?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, sir, I\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGood. Eat it there.\u201d He turned to the yard, where Nika\u2019s two older brothers had paused in their work. \u201cGiga! Lasha! What are you doing standing around? Get back to stacking those cornstalks!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, sir.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRemember: Who doesn\u2019t work, doesn\u2019t eat!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Nika took that as his cue to leave. He slipped out the gate and pulled it shut before dashing across the dusty lane and into the fallow field <\/span>on the other side<\/span>. The tall grass brushed against his legs, ticking his skin through the holes in his pants, but he kept running until he was well out of sight. Only then did he slow down enough to catch his breath.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tamuna was so sick that Sopiko had closed the tavern\u2014which she never, ever did. When he\u2019d arrived in the morning, the door had been locked. Only after knocking for several minutes had Sopiko finally opened it.<\/p>\n

\u201cCome back later,\u201d Sopiko had told him when he\u2019d come around back. \u201cTamuna\u2019s taken ill, and we\u2019ve closed down the tavern until she\u2019s better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s ill?\u201d Nika had asked, his stomach falling. \u201cWhat do you mean? Is she going to be all right? What happened?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know. We found her passed out on the floor in the private room, and she hasn\u2019t woken up since. Come back this evening; we may need you then.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Nika had wanted to ask more, but Sopiko had pressed a few coppers into his hand and sent him on his way home. His father had thrown the meager coin angrily against the wall, and probably would have beaten him, except that his mother had intervened. He was a harsh man, and Nika wasn\u2019t his favorite. Sometimes, Nika wondered if his father cared about him at all.<\/p>\n

Thoughts like these always made his heart heavy. But the cool autumn breeze and the splash of gold across the evening sky soon lightened his spirits. A rooster crowed somewhere in the distance, and the sound of cows mooing in the thicket made him smile. Old Giorgi\u2019s cow had just had a calf a few days ago, and he\u2019d been there to witness the birth. It was amazing how the little ones could walk almost from the moment they left the womb.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, when he wasn\u2019t busy, he liked to sit in the shade of a tree and watch the mother hens roam the yard with their broods. While the little chicks pecked and played, the mother hen stood watch, chasing away anyone who dared come too close. And in the evening, while the other chickens flew into the trees to roost, the mother hen would stay on the ground and gather all her chicks under her wings, protecting them throughout the night.<\/p>\n

Of course, there was always a straggler who didn\u2019t get to the food as fast, or couldn\u2019t keep up with the rest. Whenever he could, Nika would take the straggler aside and hand-feed it to make sure it grew up strong. Sometimes, it was enough to make a difference.<\/p>\n

The footpath turned into the wide lane that led from the village to the western mountains. He passed a few cows and a small clutch of geese, who moved to the other side of the dirt road as he walked past.<\/p>\n

In a lot of ways, his friend Tamuna was a straggler. Just as the mother hens knew the difference between their chicks and the ones that didn\u2019t truly belong to them, Sopiko clearly knew that Tamuna wasn\u2019t her true daughter. It showed in her stern demeanor and overly-critical eye. Of course, Tamuna never saw it that way. When she needed someone to talk to, though, he always tried to be there for her. He often stayed in the stables late into the night just to talk with her, after all her chores were done.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/div>

\r\n\tThe Sword Keeper<\/a>\r\n<\/h2>
$12.99<\/span><\/span>eBook:<\/span> $4.99<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>
\r\n\tAuthor:<\/span> Joe Vasicek<\/a><\/span>
\tSeries:<\/span> The Twelfth Sword Trilogy<\/a>, Book 1<\/span>
\tGenres:<\/span> Epic<\/a>, Fantasy<\/a><\/span>
\tTag:<\/span> 2017 Release<\/a><\/span>
<\/div>
\r\n\t

Tamuna Leladze always dreamed of adventure, but never expected to answer its call. That changes when a wandering knight arrives at her aunt's tavern. He is the keeper of a magic sword that vanished from the pages of history more than a thousand years ago. The sword has a mind and a memory, and it has chosen Tamuna for purpose far greater than she knows.<\/p>\n More info \u2192<\/a><\/div>

$1 off the ebook with coupon code: BUY DIRECT<\/a><\/div>
FREE ebook when you buy the audiobook direct!<\/a><\/div>
FREE ebook when you buy the paperback direct!<\/a><\/div>
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<\/div>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHey! Where do you think you\u2019re going?\u201d Nika stopped at the farmhouse gate and sheepishly turned to face his father. \u201cTo the tavern,\u201d he muttered, hoping that was an acceptable response. \u201cWhy, boy? The tavern\u2019s closed.\u201d \u201cSopiko said she still needs me.\u201d And Tamuna\u2019s been sick all day. His father jabbed the pitchfork into the… Continue reading The Sword Keeper \u2014 excerpt 7<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[650,932],"tags":[474],"class_list":["post-11406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sk","category-twelfth-sword-trilogy","tag-excerpts","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iXK-2XY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11406"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11426,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11406\/revisions\/11426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}