Meredith Mansfield, Author

I’ve been doing so many other things today–laundry, a bit of house painting, and the first round of revisions on BEYOND THE PROPHECY

that I almost forgot to blog. In my defense, I’m at one of the most fun parts of the story, where two young characters are starting to feel the first urges of something more than friendship–and still don’t quite know what to do with that. To cap it off, one of them is about to go away for a while. Here’s a snippet:

“You are coming back aren’t you?” Kiara asked.

“Nothing could keep me away. This is my real home.”

“How . . . how long will it be?”

“I don’t know. Two years. Maybe three. I’ll study hard and try to make it back as soon as I can.” He looked down and back up. “Will you . . .” He stopped and shook his head. “It’s not fair to ask you to wait for me.”

“I’ll wait.”

Theklan smiled. “I . . . I made something for you. It’s not a courting gift. I’m not even allowed to offer a courting gift until after the manhood test. More . . . more maybe something to remember me by?”

Kiara smiled. “I’ll keep it for you.” The traditional reply to an accepted courtship gift. She looked around. “What is it?”

Theklan laughed. “It’s not here. I hid it in my bedroll. It’s a bridle with a pattern of lions and eagles worked on it.” Unaccountably, he blushed. “That’s what I wanted the berries for . . . that day. To make a dye to bring out the pattern.”

“Pity we lost them all.”

His eyes blazed as he looked into hers. “No. Vatar’s bringing a purple dye from Caere. That’ll be better. It’ll last longer and . . . the other would have been pinkish. That’s not really the right color for you. You’re more . . . vivid than that.”

Kiara sucked in a breath. Then she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his, just briefly. A promise for another time. In two or three years. When they were both ready. It would seem like a long time, but maybe it was better this way.

Unfortunately, all is not going to run smoothly for these two. Not for a while at least. But it’s still fun writing this.