Medieval Love and Magic: Bird Talk by Mark Lord

[Mark Lord]

What do you do when the woman you love is also the deadly necromancer you have vowed to track down?

Bird Talk is a short story about Roger, a young priest living in a small medieval English town, who is trying to uncover what he believes are foul magical deeds. But instead he manages to implicate the women he desires in accusations of witchcraft. With only the town drunk to help him, Roger must untangle the mess he has created.

Bird Talk is a heady concoction of gritty medieval life, humour and magic.

Bird Talk: A Tale of Medieval Magic is available for Kindle for only $0.99 or £0.86. And also available from Smashwords, and is in Apple's iBooks and available for the Nook.

Here's a very brieft excerpt from the first part of this short story:

Roger followed Constable Will as he pushed his heavy frame through the weeds that choked the muddy alley. The constable turned to whisper to Roger, “The bird-catcher said he delivered to number twelve didn’t he?” An unpleasant smell of stale alcohol and spicy sausage wafted from the constable’s mouth to lay siege to Roger’s nostrils. He tried to ignore the foul smell of the man’s breath. He disliked being in the constable’s company, but any hardship today would be worthwhile if they caught a necromancer.

“Yes. I have been counting the houses, it’s the next one.”

The constable looked worried. “If it’s magic, a witch like, will she know we’re coming? What if we’re set on by devils?”

“I don’t think it works like that,” said Roger.

“It doesn’t?” The constable shrugged. “Well, a priest like you should know.”

Truthfully, Roger worried that he didn’t really know how any of it worked. The books he had read only told part of the story and left him with questions that he couldn’t find an answer to. During his informal studies he had grasped some basic principles, and for a moment he even thought about explaining that they were looking not for a witch but for a necromancer, one who summoned evil spirits, and that not all magic was witchcraft. But looking at the constable’s squat thick skull he decided he would be wasting his breath.



Bird Talk: A Tale of Medieval Magic is available for Kindle for only $0.99 or £0.86. And also available from Smashwords, and is in Apple's iBooks and available for the Nook.

[Mark Lord]

This title is now free on Amazon at
http://www.amazon.com/Bird-Talk-Medi...dp/B00492CKBC/