Excerpt: To Dance in Liradon
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Connell was waiting for her when she arrived. He took her hand without speaking and led her into the forest. Once they were safely inside the trees’ protection, Connell removed something from the heavy cloth sack he wore around his waist tied with a silken cord. It was a harp, the most beautiful instrument Brigid had ever seen. The tuning pegs looked to be made of gold and the strings of pure silver. When Connell touched them with his fingers, the music made her want to weep and sleep and laugh, all at the same time. She reached out to touch it, but Connell snatched her hand away.
“Forgive me, my love, but I cannot let you have it. As pretty as it is, it would burn your delicate fingers.â€
“Why should it burn me and not you?†She thought it would be worth the risk to run her hands along the deep U of the harp’s neck.
“‘Tis no ordinary harp. It will only endure the touch of its owner.â€
“How did you come to have it?â€
Connell brushed his fingers gently across the strings. “It was given to me as a gift.â€
“By whom?†Brigid asked, bewildered. There was no one in the village save for the lord himself who could afford such an instrument.
Connell leaned towards her. “‘Tis a secret.â€
“If I am to be your wife, there must be no secrets between us.â€
Connell seized Brigid’s hands and pulled her towards him. “I am not myself,†he whispered in her ear.
Cover Blurb for To Dance in Liradon
Seventeen-year old Brigid O’Flynn is an outcast. A chance encounter with the Faerie Queen left her tainted in the eyes of the villagers, who blame the Faerie for the village’s missing women and children. Desperate to win the village’s acceptance Brigid agrees to marry her childhood friend: Serious, hardworking, Connell Mackenna. But when Connell disappears before their wedding Brigid’s hopes are shattered. Blamed for her fiancé’s death, Brigid fears she will suffer the same fate as the other village outcasts, the mysterious Willow Women. Lured into Liradon by their inhuman lovers, and cast out weak and broken, the Willow Women spend their lives searching for the way back into Faerie. When Connell suddenly reappears Brigid is overjoyed, but everything is not as it seems. Consumed by his desire for beauty and celebration, Connell abandons his responsibilities, and Brigid soon finds herself drawn into a passionate, dangerous world of two.
When Brigid discovers the truth behind Connell’s transformation she’s forced to choose between two men and two worlds. Brigid’s struggle leads her into glittering, ruthless Liradon where she must rescue her true love from a terrible sacrifice or lose him forever.
Bio of Adrienne Clarke
A writer of fantasy, literary fiction, YA and NA, Adrienne’s short stories have appeared in a number of publications including, The Storyteller, New Plains Review, and in the e-zines A Fly in Amber, The Devilfish Review, and Rose Red Review. Her short story, Falling was awarded second place in the 2008 Alice Munro short fiction contest. To Dance in Liradon is her first published novel. An avid reader of fairy tales and other magical stories, a thread of the mysterious or unexpected runs through all of her work.
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