Bronwyn Ironcraft suffers the fate of the middle child. She’s stuck between being barked at by her older brother, and annoyed incessantly by her younger one. She works hard trying to have her voice heard not only at home but in the village as well. She’s a member of a burgeoning village council where she tries to bring their small village out from the stone age and joining the ranks of the more advance city states like Tryonas, their sister city to the south. In the span of 18 years she’s spearheaded many initiatives of development and research, but in a society where yearning for knowledge is akin to sin, no one is interested in funding blasphemy.
Bronwyn combats her frustration with any weapon she can find. She’s had an overwhelming urge to protect herself from a young age and finds solace in the quiet of practice, and the discipline of upkeep. But the bite of a blade into a practice dummy, or the release of fletching guided smoothly by bowstring do nothing to assuage her scarred subconscious. Bronwyn and her two brothers share a past filled with pain and violence. It is a past she remembers only through recurring nightmares. Rest is never fully achieved and her constant drive to learn more, to be heard, and to edge a blade, all of that does nothing to stop the demon visions.
Bronwyn wakes from a vivid nightmare before a great tournament begins. She and her elder brother Everitt must work together to win a prize promised by King Rygeer. The pair must battle not only their bitter rivalry but the scores of others who have come from their village as well as neighbouring city states to compete. They need the prize to fund resources for a search to find their brother Bishop, but Bronwyn has also promised it to the queen in the hope that her royal influence can help Bronwyn advance her political career.
The king himself holds back deadly details behind this seemingly recreational tournament. At the heart of the events his guards have been instructed to apprehend an evil wizard who is sure to be disguised among the ranks of contestants. As Bronwyn and Everitt venture into the white expanse of the mountain range surrounding Greytusk Castle they will have to learn to work together not only between themselves but with other villagers as well. Bronwyn has the confidence of youth when it comes to her future, but you can’t resist the forces that forged you, and Bronwyn is about to realize the nightmares of her past hint at her horrific fate.
Learn more today at 3 pm when Second Saturday Stories runs the next instalment of the Caulderwilde Chronicles. Catch up with the story by reading previous chapters below
