Weekend Writing Warriors – it’s not wrong

Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly blog hop where participants post eight to ten sentences of their writing. You can find out more about it by clicking on the image.

I’m sharing the opening scene from Wrath of Empire, a prequel to my first novel, Ghosts of Innocence. Crown Prince Julian and his bodyguard, Chalwen, are talking about the late Empress Florence, who they’ve just interred. Chalwen is worried that with Florence gone, Julian would have to compete with his uncle Ivan for the throne if anything happened to his father.

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“I know Father's sad.” Julian screwed his face. “I honestly can't tell what Mother's thinking. Josie and Flossie can't stop bawling their eyes out, of course.”

Of course, Chalwen thought. Of all Paul's children they'd had the closest relationship with their sweetly tyrannical grandmother.

Empress Florence had continued a long line of brutal oppression with imaginative savagery, only softening in her later years with the births of twins Josephine and young Florence, two years Julian's junior. Something had changed her then, ending in her declaring Paul her successor rather than the elder Ivan.

Could a last minute change of heart really make up for decades of iron rule?

That’s nine sentences. The scene continues ...

From the corners of her eyes, Chalwen noted the six members of Julian’s escort falling in around them as they entered the shadowed avenue leading back to the residence. Steel-grey clouds chased the last few rays of sun, and a damp chill seeped through the gardens from the ocean beyond the clifftop wall.

“To answer your question, no, it's not wrong.”

 

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That’s the end of the scene. Of course, the question Chalwen refers to is the opening line where Julian asks “Is it wrong of me not to feel sad?”

Happy Christmas folks!