{"id":12328,"date":"2012-03-19T06:30:53","date_gmt":"2012-03-18T17:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=12328"},"modified":"2012-03-17T19:54:57","modified_gmt":"2012-03-17T06:54:57","slug":"9-days-counting-down-to-the-gathering-of-the-lost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2012\/03\/19\/9-days-counting-down-to-the-gathering-of-the-lost\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Days — & Counting Down To “The Gathering of the Lost”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

US cover<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

UK\/AUS\/NZ cover<\/p><\/div>\n

Yes indeed, not many sleeps left now—so on we go to an extract from Summer’s End, <\/strong>the fifth and final part of The Gathering of the Lost<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

..<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/h1>\n

.<\/span><\/h1>\n

.<\/span><\/h1>\n

.<\/span><\/h1>\n

<\/h1>\n

from The Gathering of the Lost<\/strong><\/em><\/h1>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

(c)\u00a0 Helen Lowe<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Chapter 53,<\/strong> The Solitary Tower<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n

.<\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n

” … The second dream she found more problematic, because the figure in darkness did remind her of the shadow cloak and she had been thinking about Nherenor before she slept. The vision could simply have been a manifestation of that\u2014but it could also be a warning. Malian checked her back trail with greater care as she rode on and extended her seeker\u2019s sense, as unobtrusively as possible, over the terrain ahead. Once or twice she thought she caught the echo of a horse\u2019s hooves behind them, but although she lay in wait each time and continued to seek out vantage points with a wide view of the surrounding country, she saw no other rider.<\/p>\n

Gradually, the high hills gave way to more rolling country, with villages clustered around crossroads and fords. Flocks of sheep still predominated, but Malian began to see geese grazing beside streams, and groves of olives and nut trees by farmhouses. Inns became more frequent, some little more than a village alehouse, while larger settlements boasted a secure stable and rooms for hire. Wherever possible she would stop: to water her horse and drink a mug of ale in the heat of the day, or to eat an evening meal and sleep afterward in the stable hayloft, avoiding the stiflingly hot attic rooms that were all an itinerant scribe could afford. At every halt, whether short or long, she would listen to the conversations around her, alert for any indication that there was more to this community than any other sleepy country village.<\/p>\n

The local language was yet another dialect of that spoken in Emer and on the River, although the accent was broad and she began to encounter unknown words. She was careful never to ask questions beyond directions to the nearest shrine of Serrut\u2014or Serru, as they said it here, dropping the final consonant altogether. Instead she listened for any difference that rose naturally to the surface of local conversations. But the talk, Malian found, whether in Hayfield, or Oakwhistle, or Forge Crossing, was always the same. People discussed the weather and harvest prospects, and gave consideration, whether serious or idle, to the qualities of horses, dogs, and prize rams. Their outlook matched the Ormondian hill farmer\u2019s view of the world: \u201cAs far away as Ishnapur,\u201d they would say, giving it the same sound as \u2018beyond the rim of the world.\u2019<\/em> And they had never heard of the Derai Wall.<\/p>\n

…”<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

So what is Malian doing, so far from the Wall of Night? You’ll have your chance to find out very soon—in just eight days time!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes indeed, not many sleeps left now—so on we go to an extract from Summer’s End, the fifth and final part of The Gathering of the Lost. .. . . . . from The Gathering of the Lost . (c)\u00a0 Helen Lowe   Chapter 53, The Solitary Tower . ” … The second dream she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-my-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12328"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12364,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12328\/revisions\/12364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}