Today's free sample from Merlin's Charge (a novel about Merlin !!! ) by me

That same evening, as the purple and gold of a languishing sunset cloaked most of the stars, Nimm wandered about the village square with a blank look in her eyes. “The dragons! Do you hear the dragons? I must find them! I must go to them. I must be where they are!”

“Mum.” Rafe took his mom’s arm. “Why do you look so lost? You’re home, now. You’re back. Just relax. Just sit somewhere. Stop it. You’re making me nervous!”

Nimm looked at her son oddly, and then quickly pulled the scarf off her head as if it was burning her. “Dragon roars. I hear them.” She put her hands to her ears.

“What?” Rafe asked.

Nimm nodded. “A great battle—a war!—a violent fight in the Realm of Dragons.”

“What do you mean?” Rafe asked.

“The veil between the worlds is parting and then closing. I don’t know what I’m seeing but I must go to it. I must find that place again.”

“Nay! You won’t go anywhere! You’re my mum! You’ll not be led off by a bell one night and then by a big roar, the next. You’re to stay with me! You have to!”

Nimm whispered, “I heard it but now it’s gone.”

Rafe took her hand. “What?”

She squeezed it. “Now I wonder if it was just a dream. But the blood was so delicious. Dragon blood. I don’t know how I’ll ever forget the glimpse of it—the taste of it—the sight of such a bounty of red.”

“Nay, it wasn’t real,” Rafe insisted. “You’re my mum and nothing more.”

“The dragons want me. I’m special. I’m destined for a life more than an earthly one! Earth floats on the dragon blood of old and I fear, I feel, I’m sinking deep into it.”

“What? Nay! Stop it Mum. Please!”

Nimm put her finger to her lips. “The very edges of this land are melting away. The edges fall in great thunderous avalanches. Middle earth is crumbling down into dragon’s blood. It’s melting from below. The mantle is thinning. Soon we’ll all swim in blood!”

“Stop it!”

“I’ve been kissed by the Goddess; I’ve been kissed by the dragons. I’ve been kissed!”

“Nay!”

“Kissed!”

Rafe stamped his foot. “You’re my mum and nothing more! And you must act normal or the men of the inquisition will see you and want to burn you!”