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    The Siege of Markethaven: A Tale of Old
    The Siege of Markethaven: A Tale of Old
    The Siege of Markethaven: A Tale of Old
    Ebook91 pages50 minutes

    The Siege of Markethaven: A Tale of Old

    By Andy Livingstone

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    About this ebook

    A savage horde musters before the crumbling walls of a complacent town. Despair spirals towards hell until the arrival of a young stranger sparks hope in the ordinary townsfolk. Heroism, tragedy and realism mingle in a homage to epic poems such as Beowulf, but written in a modern style as it attempts to bring this form of storytelling to those who 'don't do poetry' as well as to those who do.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAndy Livingstone
    Release dateDec 11, 2010
    ISBN9781458140890
    The Siege of Markethaven: A Tale of Old
    Author

    Andy Livingstone

    Born the son of a lawyer and a former primary school teacher on the first day of 1968 in Glasgow, Scotland, Andy has lived all his life in The Shire (or Lanarkshire, as it is really known). He is a press officer and former journalist who wrote news stories for 20 years despite a head full of fiction. He has written Hero Born and Hero Grown, the first two books in the Seeds of Destiny trilogy. The third book Hero Risen will publish in 2017.

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      Book preview

      The Siege of Markethaven - Andy Livingstone

      THE SIEGE OF MARKETHAVEN:

      A TALE OF OLD

      by

      Andy Livingstone

      SMASHWORDS EDITION

      * * * * *

      PUBLISHED BY

      Andy Livingstone on Smashwords

      Copyright 2010 Andy Livingstone

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      * * * * *

      The Siege of Markethaven:

      A Tale of Old

      Now gather around those who fear

      To miss a tale, among your forebears, told

      And retold, loved and much requested,

      For, where the deeds recounted in other legends brought together

      A crowd moderate in size,

      This tale would, e’en in its retelling and retelling,

      Bring, running, all around and there, in rapt silence,

      Would they sit, hanging on the teller’s words,

      Drowning his voice only to roar the lines most favoured

      And most, with childlike glee, anticipated.

      And now, by your leave and with apologies heartfelt

      For a poor recounting that would see the bards of old

      Hang their heads in shame and horror,

      Will I make my attempt at giving life once again to those names of yore,

      Making them flesh for a new generation and preserving their

      Immortality.

      If it is your will, I will begin.

      Our story is born in a time much as is our own

      With peace that, for many years, had reigned,

      Though an age of harmony brings with it, as well as bounty obvious to all,

      Weakness, with its roots in complacence,

      Opportunity for evil to gain foothold,

      Unopposed, un-noticed for none is watchful,

      Un-noticed until it is too late,

      The serpent has grown

      And the chance to stamp on the infant snake has passed.

      Fair Markethaven sat, suffused in prosperous fortune,

      Harbour deep and still, a favoured port for traders near and far,

      And more water on its inland aspect: three rivers, seeking the sea, join as one,

      Feeding bounteous fields, feeding mouths eager for refreshment clear and pure,

      Feeding the moat, deep and wide, draped around high city walls,

      And more, three trade routes converging at that spot, brought

      Merchants from all corners of the land

      Keen to fight battles with guileful words

      Keen to taste victory and count their spoils.

      A city of many markets,

      A city of many merchants,

      A city of riches and the sating of avaricious ambition

      Only for ambition to grow anew,

      But one where ambition turned docile eyes inward to opportunity,

      Not outward, where the hungry eyes and sharp teeth of the predator

      Were drawn to markets, and merchants, and riches,

      For such predators were of the past, and had not preyed

      On Markethaven in living memory,

      And words of war were only that:

      Words,

      Whispers on the wind.

      Yes, whispers heard of a savage host, but distant,

      Countless hills and valleys and plains away,

      Where the King, in his capital, would raise his mighty army

      And, glittering and noble, they would drive the host before them,

      Scattering them to the very winds that had borne news of their coming.

      A city far from danger,

      Ruled by a cycle of self-enrichment

      Measured not in happiness, but in gold,

      Though happiness did learn to sit alongside material gain,

      For peace and prosperity make fertile ground

      For the seeds of contentment to grow and flourish:

      Children playing and learning,

      Wives appreciated, husbands self-confident, couples close in heart,

      Ear and eye accustomed to merriment,

      Content

      And complacent.

      Complacency can be shattered.

      Complacency was shattered.

      The savage host,

      The savage host sure to have been destroyed by the King and his shining legions,

      The savage host consigned to alehouse talk,

      The savage host of distant parts:

      The savage host

      Filled the horizon.

      The dawn was like

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