Posts with the custom taxonomy term Druids

The Stolen Scroll by Mark E. Fisher

No Comments on The Stolen Scroll by Mark E. Fisher

Goodreads ~ Purchase ~ Sample

Medieval – Fictitious Kingdom

When a druid steals an ancient document holding the millennium’s-old secrets of the Tower of Dochás, young Machar is sent on a mission across the sea to find the thief and bring it back. What’s at stake? Only the key to ending the Dark Age that’s creeping across the Celtic world called Erde.

A Stolen Scroll Bearing the Secrets of the Ages.

Long has the secret society of Capulum scholars waited to understand the mysterious markings inside the Tower of Dochás, a structure so old its purpose was feared lost to the ages. Newly discovered documents hint that when the lost Scepter of Elyon sat in the Tower, hope, light, and prosperity shone on all the peoples of Erde.

Beneath the tumbled ruins of a forgotten temple, two scrolls appear. The first introduces the second. But as scholars work to understand the first, a druid masquerading as one of their own steals the second scroll and spirits it across the sea to distant Fjernshavn.

Now a great darkness is coming, spreading from the east, and the scholars discover that the lost scroll may tell them the location of the lost Scepter whose theft so long ago began the current Dark Age.

Machar mac Moan, the Cloaked Rider.

Young Machar mac Moan, the Cloaked Rider, has spent the last year riding across Ériu on missions for the Capulum. He’s weary, ready to sleep in his own bed with his dog at his side. But on his first night home, an anonymous rider knifes a cryptic message to his door: “Meet me at the Boar’s Head this very night. I will wait in the darkest corner. Come armed and prepared for a long journey.” Once again, the Capulum calls.

Thus begins a journey across the sea to Fjernshavn at the end of a cold fjord. Even before he lands, a druid cabal is planning his death. It’s a city where shapeshifters roam the night, where ordinary citizens disappear almost nightly, and where, it’s rumored, the druid cabal keeps a monster in a pit, a creature with an insatiable hunger.

Machar’s only help: A kindly cheese merchant and a beautiful serving wench, who’s attracted to Machar and who unwittingly puts herself in danger.

At stake is the future of the world. And if Machar can’t find the thief and bring back the stolen scroll . . .

Return to the Tower by Mark Fisher

No Comments on Return to the Tower by Mark Fisher

Goodreads ~ Purchase ~ Sample

Medieval – Fictitious Kingdom

A THOUSAND LEAGUES FROM HOME

What’s left of the Company must now follow Tristan from their hidden camp in the druids’ dark realm, cross a thousand leagues of enemy-occupied lands filled with ancient horrors, and return Elyon’s great gifts to the Tower of Dochás in Ériu.

ANCIENT HORRORS AND THE BUTCHER OF BURGUNDIA

Only by returning the Scepter and Augury to the Tower can Tristan defeat the Deamhan Lord and end the darkness threatening to engulf the world. Before him lie an ancient horror released by the arch druid, the fatal enchantments of the red tent, a Cthyllin ice giant, and the arch druid’s ruthless ally—Gundovald, the Butcher of Burgundia.

A RACE TO THE TOWER

But the arch druid Faolukan has built a great fleet in Fjernshavn, and it’s a race to return home before enemy ships disembark their foul hordes on Ériu’s distant shores and destroy the Tower. Faolukan and Gundovald serve a Deamhan Lord who wants not to conquer, but to burn, destroy, and crush that fair country under the boots of his bespelled soldiers and shapeshifters.

If Faolukan destroys the Tower before Tristan arrives with the Scepter—all is lost.

And the darkness wins.

Into the Druid’s Lair by Mark Fisher

No Comments on Into the Druid’s Lair by Mark Fisher

Goodreads ~ Purchase ~ Sample

Medieval – Fictitious Kingdom

A SECONDGREAT QUEST, EVEN MORE DANGEROUS THAN THE FIRST.

With the Scepter in his possession, Tristan, still posing as Prince Neil, leads the Company across a continent rife with magical entrapments, enemy armies, and ancient barriers. His goal—to seek Elyon’s second great gift that will lift the darkness from the Celtic world of Erde.

After their battle with the arch druid Faolukan, the Company seeks respite in the high mountain refuge of Ard Cúl Dín. But when priests translate the scroll that Tristan also brought back from Schwarzburg’s subterranean maze, they discover a secret lost for millennia—the nature and location of Elyon’s second legacy to the world, another artifact Tristan’s people failed to keep safe.

Coveting the incredible power of Elyon’s first gift, the priests seize the Scepter. Days later, as trebuchets pound the high walls, Faolukan’s armies swarm the slopes below the city. With the city’s fall imminent, one priest steals the Scepter and flees into the mountains.

AN IMPOSSIBLE JOURNEY INTO THE DRUID’S LAIR

As enemy armies close in, Caitir, Tristan’s newly betrothed, Ewan, his squire, and Machar, the Cloaked Rider, join him to again retrieve the Scepter before they can undertake the second journey. For only when both of Elyon’s bequests to the world are secure in Ewhain Macha’s Tower will light and hope return to Ériu.

Blocking their way is an army of shapeshifters and soldiers mesmerized by the Deamhan Lord’s spells. Somewhere beyond the distant Sfarsit Mountains lies their goal—in Cathair Duvh, a foul city on the slopes of volcanic Drochcarn; in dread Drochtar, a bleak land where Faolukan, the arch druid, reigns with magic and terror. In that realm, all serve the Deamhan Lord, a spirit of darkness whose presence strips even the bravest warrior of all courage and hope.

Thus begins the second great quest, a journey even more difficult than the first.

Quest for the Scepter by Mark Fisher

No Comments on Quest for the Scepter by Mark Fisher

Goodreads ~ Purchase ~ Sample

Medieval – Fictitious Kingdom

A STOLEN SCEPTER, A WORLD IN PERIL

When the arch druid Faolukan stole the Scepter of Elyon, he plunged the medieval Celtic world called Erde into a Dark Age. But the prince who was prophesied to steal it back has been killed, and now nothing can stop the coming darkness.

ONLY ONE CAN BRING IT BACK

Orphaned Tristan slaves at his uncle’s forge and longs to erase the dishonor his wastrel father and harlot mother bequeathed him. When a squire discovers that Tristan is the prince’s exact double, the fate of Erde weighs heavily upon him. Reluctantly, Tristan agrees to masquerade as the savior prince, lead a chosen Company of nobles, and seek the Scepter across the sea.

Before riding from his forest village, Tristan tells his life-long friend Caitir she must stay behind. But this intrepid lass has other ideas. She stows aboard the departing ship.

AHEAD — A DANGEROUS TREK

Cryptic texts hint that the Scepter lies hidden beyond the Fell Bogs, haunt of mesmerizing marsh spirits. It’s even more distant than the oppressive dark forest of the Waldreich, reign of misshapen wolves and the treacherous, treetop-dwelling Naz. Into such dangers, Tristan’s Company must follow a trail of ancient clues.

ONE LAD AGAINST A POWERFUL SORCERER

In service to the Deamhan Lord, Faolukan pledges to stop the group with all the magic, sorcery, and monsters at his command, including Tristan’s worst fear—a dark, subterranean cavern where stalks the creature of shadows, the barghest whose name is Thrag.

But how can a mere blacksmith’s nephew and a cooper’s daughter ever hope to defeat the most powerful sorcerer the world has ever known? How can anyone stop the coming darkness?

The Medallion by Mark E. Fisher

No Comments on The Medallion by Mark E. Fisher

medallionGoodreads ~ Purchase ~ Sample

486 – Gaul/Ireland

Everyone knows Ty’s sister fell off the cliffs and drowned. But something—is it a feeling?—gnaws at him, driving him to search for her in barbarian Gaul. When Ty and his father visit the Ulster king in ancient, Celtic Ireland, Ty and his new friend, Prince Cairell, flee for the coast at midnight. Ty is attracted to Cairell’s mysterious sister, Sorca, who refuses to remain behind. Cairell’s brother pursues, planning to kill them all to secure his inheritance to the throne.

After Ty’s father, Taran, returns home, the druids plan sacrifices to the old gods. Too old to help, Taran knows only Ty can bring the clan back to the truth. But years pass. And where is Ty?

Ahead, the armies of Clovis, king of the Franks, drive the Romans from Gaul. How, amidst such chaos, can Ty learn the truth about his sister or win the heart of Sorca?

Patrick: Son of Ireland by Stephen Lawhead

No Comments on Patrick: Son of Ireland by Stephen Lawhead

Goodreads ~ Purchase ~ Sample

300s – Ireland/Italy

Slave, soldier, lover, hero, saint,—his life mirrored the cataclysmic world into which he was born. His memory will outlast the ages.

Born of a noble Welsh family, he is violently torn from his home by Irish raiders at age sixteen and sold as a slave to a brutal wilderness king. Rescued by the king’s druids from almost certain death, he learns the arts of healing and song, and the mystical ways of a secretive order whose teachings tantalize with hints at a deeper wisdom. Yet young Succat Morgannwg cannot rest until he sheds the strangling yoke of slavery and returns to his homeland across the sea. He pursues his dream of freedom through horrific war and shattering tragedy—through great love and greater loss—from a dying, decimated Wales to the bloody battlefields of Gaul to the fading majesty of Rome. And in the twilight of a once-supreme empire, he is transformed yet again by divine hand and a passionate vision of “truth against the world,” accepting the name that will one day become legend . . . Patricius!