Midwinter Ride with the Wild Hunt - by Katherine Roberts

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Wild Hunt by Peter Nicolai Arbo

However you celebrate this season, midwinter feels like a magical time. It's a turning point of the year, the shortest day and longest night, after which light returns to the world. To mark this solstice, the ancient festival of Yule is still celebrated in many places, particularly where days are shortest in the northern hemisphere. It is a time for the dead to rejoin the living, for supernatural forces to awaken, and it is the traditional time for the Wild Hunt to ride.

The Wild Hunt appears in many European folk tales. In Scandinavia, it is associated with Odin and the Norse legends. In Germany, it involves dragons and werewolves. Here in Britain, it features hounds, evil spirits, fairies and King Arthur... an irresistible combination for a fantasy author. In the first book of my Pendragon Legacy series, King Arthur's daughter Rhianna confronts the leader of the Wild Hunt, who in my version of the legend is Lord Avallach, fairy king of mystical Avalon.

Midwinter the fairy host did ride,
souls of men to their saddles tied,
when brave Rhianna challenged their lord
to a bloodless duel for the Sword.

Rhianna has spent her childhood hiding from her enemies in Avalon, but she has returned to Camelot in search of her mother Queen Guinevere and the four magical Lights that have the power to bring her father King Arthur back from the dead. When she meets the Wild Hunt, however, she has a difficult choice to make:

"Rhianna Pendragon, it's time for you to choose, " Lord Avallach said. "You can ride your fairy horse back to Avalon with us now, or you can choose to stay in the world of men with your own people. But be warned. If you stay, you might never see your father again."

A shiver went through her. "But surely my father will return to Camelot when he is reborn?" She rested her hand on Excalibur's white jewel. Just let him try lying to her.

The Avalonian lord tightened his lips. "The mists are thickening. The dark powers of Annwn grow stronger every day. Even the Hunt found the way difficult this year. No, my child. Arthur will remain with us for many years yet."

As Rhianna tried to think, they heard twigs snapping in the trees behind them and shrill voices in the distance. She thought she heard Cai calling her name. The Avalonian host rippled uneasily, and the bound souls twisted and screamed.

"Hurry!" said Lord Avallach. "Make your choice, or we might have to take your friends' souls with us when we ride."

Rhianna sat very straight in her saddle. She thought briefly of being back in Avalon, safe from her cousin Mordred and the dark magic of Annwn. Then she thought of the mother she had yet to meet, of Arianrhod and Cai and all the people back at Camelot relying on the Sword of Light to protect them, and of her father's voice saying 'Courage, daughter'. Even if she had been imagining his ghost, she couldn't abandon her new friends to Mordred's bloodbeards. 

"I'm staying!" she said. "I'm not afraid."

(extract from 'Sword of Light', Book 1 of the Pendragon Legacy by Katherine Roberts)

~*~

This winter, you are invited to join Rhianna and her friends at Camelot in the magical Pendragon Legacy series, perfect for young fantasy fans (age 9+).

Pendragon Legacy by Katherine Roberts

And since this is the season of gifts, here's a free ebook story too.

Horse of Mist (free ebook)

Comments

Umberto Tosi said…
Enjoyed your escerpt, Katherine! Your Arthurian tales sounds as exciting for grownups as I'm sure they are for young readers - they make midwinter's blood rush away those seasonally affected blues.
24 December 2023 at 06:49
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