NAME: Meredith Mansfield
MENTOR: Marieke Nijkamp
TITLE: FIRE AND EARTH
GENRE: YA Fantasy
WORD COUNT: 75K
PITCH: Though raised as a fearless, faceless warrior, Casora couldn’t stop her homeland’s invasion. Bullied, hapless princeling Tiaran can’t escape his political doom. When they join forces on the battlefield they’ll rock the foundations of kingdoms.
Casora restrained the impulse to get up and pace across the floor of the command tent. She couldn’t show emotion, not even frustration, in front of her troops, but the continued silence from home was troubling. She reached up to rub the little scar above her right eyebrow.
She glanced up at the mountains visible through the open tent flap. The snow crept lower every day and so did her hopes of a recall order to let the troop over-winter at home. Casora dreaded the prospect of a winter stuck in camp with a troop made up entirely of homesick teenagers–every one of them carrying the potential of the berserker curse. Time to start planning a lot of training exercises.
“Riders coming!” The shout came from the lookout to the east, toward home. After a pause, the lookout added, “Two of them.”
Only two riders? She’d sent three out.
Casora walked to the front of the tent and cursed under her breath. They were her scouts all right, but whatever orders they brought had better be end-of-the-world urgent. There was no other excuse for abusing the horses like that. Then she realized that Varana’s braid was redder than it should be–blood red. Casora took off running. So did others from all parts of the camp. Varana fell off the winded mare just as Casora reached her.
“Report,” she said, but more quietly than her usual command voice.
“Stumbled into a scouting party just inside the pass. Ambushed.”
1 Comment
Pam van Hylckama Vlieg · January 24, 2013 at 12:01 pm
I’d love to see the first six chapters, query, and synopsis sent to querypamvhv@gmail.com
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