It's Sunday, and I'm participating in Six Sentence Sunday, again. The sample below is from Part 2 of The Bones of the Earth, "Tests."
This excerpt is from Chapter 12, and takes place in ancient Dacia, north of the Roman Empire — a land long reputed to be haunted.
"One day as they crept through thick brush toward the road, Photius stopped dead in his tracks, his hand out to stop Javor. He held his finger over his lips and pointed with his other hand. Peering between the branches and leaves, they saw something their minds could not accept: a young woman, a girl, really, naked, tied spread-eagle to two rough logs cut and lashed together in an x-shape, then propped in the middle of the road. She was thin with long, light-brown hair that cascaded over her shoulders. They could see her ribs under her small breasts. Javor thought she was probably the same age as he was, perhaps a little older."
You can check out some other fine samples of upcoming and published work at http://www.sixsunday.com/.
What do you think of this, or any other samples? Leave a comment below.
Mmmm... Intriguing. What caught me was the "something their minds could not accept". Why? Are women rare in their time, or is it the implied violence that shocks them? I'd definitely read on to find out :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
The problem is that Javor has never seen anyone crucified before, and neither has he seen a woman so cruelly treated - although, he has been exposed to much violence before. The tableau is just hard to accept.
ReplyDeleteWell that's quite a disturbing sight for them to see. Interesting snippet. :)
ReplyDeleteWOW.
ReplyDelete