Part of Series
“Imagine you had a prophecy you’re the advent of the Promised One, the Right Guide and the Champion of Light. You’d believe that, right? And if you didn’t, you’d love to meet people who do.” Temujin has an awkward time with the prophecy about him and he’s happy to remain unknown. However, war and politics rudely intrude. Toqtoa, a shaman and a king from the Great North Forest, has watched the Mongols sink into squalor and he takes his opportunity to step onto the grass highway. “History doesn’t happen in the forest. It happens on the steppe.” This king with his spirits has history in his sights, while Temujin thinks of nothing but his stolen wife Borte. Is history run by fate and royal spirits? By history-makers like Toqtoa, or by accident? Borte, in captivity, cannot see her half-child husband a rival to this warlock king. Nor wishes to.
Author
Bryn Hammond lives in a coastal town in Australia, where she likes to write while walking in the sea. She grew up on ancient and medieval epics, the Arthur cycle original and modern, nineteenth-century novelists, particularly Russian and French, and out-of-fashion poets, namely Algernon Swinburne. Always a writer – to the neglect of other paths in life that might have been more sensible – she found the perfect story in The Secret History of the Mongols, a thirteenth-century prose and verse account of Chinggis Khan. Her Amgalant series is a version and interpretation of this original. Voices from the Twelfth-Century Steppe is her craft essay, a case study of creative engagement with a primary source. Other work in The Knot Wound Round Your Finger (Bell Press), Ergot., Queer Weird West Tales (LIBRAtiger), New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine.
