So I promised to begin "Barrenhollow Blues" around today, and I intend to live up to that. Right now, I'm just going to post it here in text form, although I'm working on another solution, sort of a mini blog that will keep track and archive everything, but I won't have that in place until next week, I think. All I ask in return from giving you a free piece of fantasy fiction to read each week is that you comment. Doesn't have to be a huge comment (although certainly huge comments are indeed welcome), but a comment of some kind. I'd like (if I might be so presumptuous) to see at least one comment every week, just so I know that someone is indeed reading this and I'm not performing the equivalent of literary masturbation. You can make suggestions about the direction the story is going. You can make comments about the characters, be they positive or negative. You can make comments on my writing abilities (or lack thereof) ... you can say whatever you like, as long as you say something...

And with that, let us begin... Barrenhollow Blues:

“Barrenhollow Blues”
A serial novel in progress
By Cliff Hicks

Prologue

Concorde and I had been riding hard since dawn. The horses were tired, but there was no time to waste, and I don’t particularly like stopping until I’m home and safe in Barrenhollow. It wasn’t as though there were marshals directly behind us, but I can’t say the possibility of them behind close wasn’t weighing heavily in my mind.

We were thieves, after all…

A storm had begun to rise behind us, the thunder rolling across our backs like a marshal’s rank breath. It was almost as if we were fleeing from the weather as well as the authorities. By now, our theft had surely been discovered back in Fellowdeep, but we had at least a day’s worth of riding ahead of the law, and they surely didn’t know where we were headed. They didn’t know who we were or even what we looked like. That, my friend, is careful planning.

The horses were panting as we hit the desert plains that led up to Barrenhollow, the long flat expanse of dust and dirt before the jutting protrusion that was the Empire’s Middle Finger. Barrenhollow used to be a military fortress for the Empire, back when we were still at war with the Northern Provinces. It continues to be an outpost for Empirical troops even to this day, but it’s become much more of a trade center than anything else.

Barrenhollow was called the Empire’s Middle Finger because of its unique geographical design. Between the Derth mountain range to the south and the Grath mountain range to the north, there laid an expanse some hundred miles between them, a valley of sorts, called The Flatlands. It wasn’t owned by either the Empire or the Provinces, because, truth be told, no one wanted it. The Flatlands flooded during heavy rains and the mud washed away beneath your feet in an instant. During the winters, there wasn’t any snow, but the cold winds blew ill through every fool who dared step foot in the Flatland Valley. Which brings us to Barrenhollow.

In the center of the Flatlands, directly halfway between the Empire and the Provinces, right in the center between the Derth mountains and the Grath mountains, laid Barrenhollow. The city itself was built on a plateau of rock that juts up close to a mile in the center of the valley. It was odd, to be looking at miles and miles of nothing then to suddenly spot this towering fortress city jutting out from the earth.

The city itself was oddly shaped. There were high walls surrounding it like a ring, and the drainage system that let water run off was really quite impressive. During the heavy rains, Barrenhollow became its own major waterfall spectacle.

We were about five miles from the base of Barrenhollow when Concorde needed a break. She slowly brought her horse down from a gallop to a canter and then to a stop. “Barrett, I’m sorry, but I need a moment’s rest,” she said as she slowly slid off the horse. “We’ve been going nonstop since daybreak and I’m still getting accustomed to this whole ‘fleeing for home’ thing.”

“It’s alright, Concorde, don’t worry about it,” I replied as I hopped off my horse with a lot more natural fluidity. “Considering you couldn’t even ride a horse when we met two years ago, I’m rather pleased to see you coming along as a rider.”

“Do you think they have any clue who we are yet?” she asked me, clearly referring to the authorities in Fellowdeep, the high-class aristocratic town from which we’d just left.

“Of course not, Cordy,” I responded quietly. “All they know about us is our calling cards.”

She giggled at that. Concorde stood a good half-foot taller than I, with long flowing chestnut hair that she had pulled back into a ponytail. Despite the fact that she had only continued to grow into her beauty, there were times where she was still nothing more than a giggling young girl. “I still can’t believe I let you talk me into that.”

“Well, we needed some kind of thing we could leave so that we would get a reputation.”

“Still!” she laughed at me. “A copper coin and a pair of brass balls? Don’t you think maybe we’re going a bit too far?”

I grinned back at her. “Not at all. They can’t be traced and it’s a way that we can build up reputations without names. The last thing you or I want is for someone to come looking for us. That’s why we use fences and intermediates. I’d rather that our clients have no idea who or what we are.”

“I suppose,” she sighed. She was still getting accustomed to the actual fact that she was a thief, even though she was quite good at the trade itself.

“Are you ready to finish the ride?” I asked and she nodded in response. We both mounted our horses and proceeded on to the base of Barrenhollow. At the bottom gate, two guards sat behind an armored barricade. It washed out every time it flooded, but they rebuilt the gate anyway.

“You residents here?” one of the guards asked us. We both nodded and tossed our papers to them, which the guards caught and started reading through. They nodded before tossing our papers back to us and parting the barricade for us to go through. “On y’go.”

To get up to Barrenhollow, you ride inside of the mountain itself, through all these winding caves and nooks. There’s a hollow half way up where a Wizard’s College resides. Almost a hundred years ago, the Wizards grew produce inside the Hollow, until the First Great War, when conflict between the Empire and the Provinces raged so far as to the Hollow (at the time, the city atop the plateau was called Wizard’s Nest) and during the battle, a few spells gone awry had stripped all the fertile ground from the inside of the Hollow. Since then, no food had been grown there and the Wizards considered the college a reminder of what happens when magick escapes the control of human hands.

Since then, the city has been called Barrenhollow.

As we rode up past the Hollow, Concorde turned to me with a big smile. “Ashe will be so pleased to hear that the job went well. And I’ll be glad to see Elie again. I know our job pays well, but would it be that hard to let them go with us?”

“Now, Cordy, you know we can’t afford anything that slows us down, so it’s best that they stay here, no matter how much you miss them,” I chastised. “Besides, you of all people should know that absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

“I know,” she sighed as we rode the horses up through the last of the tunnels and into the main city. “I’m going to go see them and I’ll meet up with you tomorrow, alright Barrett?”

“Alright Cordy, you tell your husband and daughter I said hello.”

“You’re more than welcome to come join us sometime you know,” she smiled as she pulled her horse’s reins, starting to turn him.

“I wouldn’t want to infringe on your private time, Concorde.”

“You wouldn’t be, but I know you like your time to yourself and away from me and my silly behavior,” she laughed with that impish smile showing through.

I offered her an evasive smile. “Well, I do enjoy hearing myself think from time to time. Before you go, the merchandise?” I held out a hand expectantly.

“Catch!” she cackled as she tossed the leather pouch over towards me before she whipped her horse around and goaded the horse to gallop on and away. The leather pouch, like most things in life, fell into my hand without me having to do much. I squirreled the bag away into my pocket, having felt what I expected to inside of it. I looked up to see if I could catch a glimpse of my beautiful young partner riding off, but she and her horse were already lost amongst the sea of street vendors and commoners that littered the streets.

In the fog of commerce and chaos, she was gone.

I spun my horse around and rode the other way, down away from the lower class housing that Concorde was headed to and made my way to the Merchant’s District. Despite my career as a liberator of objects needing to be lost, I had to keep up a respectful front of some kind, so I managed a trading company as well. Thus I was able to explain my lavish house in the Merchant’s District.

With precision, I unlocked the gate, rode my horse in, relocked the gate behind me and rode to the stables, where I led the horse into his corral, and moved into my small manor. I realize you may be thinking, if you live in such a well-furnished place, why steal for a living? I ask you, my friend, how do you think I got where I am?

After hanging up my swordbelt and shedding my cloak in the entry way, I moved into the den of my house. There was a plush velvet chair with my name on it that I immediately moved over to and slumped down into with a sigh, kicking off my leather boots, stretching out, at ease for the first time in days. I never feel comfortable during a job until I’m safe within the walls of my home, able to relax knowing that the job is done and we’ll be able to go out and look for work again.

In my lap, I pulled the pouch out and set it in my lap, staring at it for a long moment. I must’ve stared at the bag for at least an hour or two before I finally steeled up the nerve to pull the drawstring on the bag. I didn’t even open it yet, merely untie it and leave it resting in my lap.

Eventually, I somehow found the strength to open up the bag, slowly, cautiously, like there was some poisonous snake inside of it. As I pulled the leather down, the two brilliant blue sapphires peered back up at me – The Lady’s Eyes.

They were a rare treasure, a pair of matching stones that were gorgeous to the eyes. Of course, as with any relic, there were all sorts of rumors and legends about curses and owners who’d died under mysterious circumstances. I had dismissed them as nothing more than idle wives’ tales, naturally, but years later, looking back on the events, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from wondering if in fact maybe some of the stories had been true, that maybe the gems were cursed. It certainly would have explained the chain of events that followed, the story I relate to you now...

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Please, again, I beg of you, post someting on what you thought so far, friends, enemies, co-Touched ... I'm doing this so I can get feedback as I work.