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    The Book of Bone
    The Book of Bone
    The Book of Bone
    Ebook46 pages45 minutes

    The Book of Bone

    By Mary Catelli

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    About this ebook

    A novelette of curses and journeys.

    Avice's dreams of settling at Clearwater are dashed.  The lawsuit had ended, and the lands were made over to her, but a bone wizard lays a curse on the land, and blight begins to spread.  All will die before the curse as it spreads.

    Neither her family nor her king are willing to help.  She is left alone with only the knowledge that the mysterious Book of Bone may have the lore that she needs -- if only she can find it.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWizard's Wood Press
    Release dateNov 29, 2014
    ISBN9781942564003
    The Book of Bone
    Author

    Mary Catelli

    Mary Catelli is an avid reader of fantasy, science fiction, history, fairy tales, philosophy, folklore and a lot of other things. (Including the backs of cereal boxes.) Which, in due course, overflowed into writing fantasy (and some science fiction).

    Read more from Mary Catelli

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      Book preview

      The Book of Bone - Mary Catelli

      The Book of Bone

      Mary Catelli

      Published by Wizard's Wood Press, 2014.

      This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

      THE BOOK OF BONE

      First edition. November 29, 2014.

      Copyright © 2014 Mary Catelli.

      ISBN: 978-1942564003

      Written by Mary Catelli.

      Table of Contents

      Title Page

      Copyright Page

      The Book of Bone

      Also By Mary Catelli

      The Book of Bone

      Clearwater looked as if no one would go to law over it—certainly not for years.  Rain soaked the fields and filled up the ditches, with not even a breeze perturbing its fall, leaving every inch dull and dreary beneath leaden skies.

      Avice, ready to hug herself with glee, watched it from the window.  Even when the justice had decided the suit, she had not really believed that her father would settle Clearwater on her, whatever he had promised—but she had held the papers in her hands.  Despite raindrops smearing her view, she could not look away from her fields.

      Someone stood there.

      She blinked.  Whoever that was, she had not seen him walking over the field, though she might have missed such a dark shadow—she scowled.  Who would walk about in this drenching rain?  To stand in the mud?

      The figure swept the air with one arm.  Light flooded from his hand.  Her breath rushed out.  The man wore a wizard's robes and cast spells—on her lands.  What the devil's that?

      Really, Avice, said her father, from talking with his man of business behind her, the language—

      The wizard gestured again.  Avice ran, past her father, toward the door.  A chilled, damp gust greeted her, and she ran into the driving rain.

      Within strides, the cold water had soaked her.  Her skirts weighed like lead, and mud clung to her shoes, slowing her.  The wizard still gestured.  Chanted, too, perhaps; she could not hear in the rain.

      I will never reach him in time, Avice thought, but slogged on, her skirts slapping at her legs.  His hands did not stop.  She could even hear words, despite the drumming rain.

      The wizard, a lean, brown-haired man, looked at her as she neared him.  He flourished a bone-white staff at her.  You think the king's—justice ended the dispute!  This will show you otherwise!

      Avice lunged toward him and grabbed his bony arms.  For a moment, her fingers caught the cloth, but he twisted away.  She dug in her fingers, trying to keep her grip, but her foot slid on the mud.  The cloth and arm slipped free, and she fell, hard, to the ground.  She fought for breath.  Water seeped into her clothing, and staring blankly at him, she tried to struggle up.

      Silently, the wizard vanished.  From his hand, the staff fell to the earth.

      He had appeared out of nowhere, one thought said, with insane clarity.  She staggered to her feet.  Rain fell on her, sending rivulets through the mud on her skirts.

      The staff lay, startling white on mud and grass, and she stared at it for a long moment, seeing odd nubs and dips, before it slowly came her that it was not a staff, but a bone.  Feeling numb, she took it up.  It felt like any other bone—a leg bone, she thought, but it might be either man or beast.

      She plodded back toward the house.  Puddles spread to either side, and the ditch was half-full, with circles spreading from every heavy drop

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