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Blurb:
Watching the sun rise on the midsummer solstice at Stonehenge, Jenny’s holiday takes a terrifying turn when a chance combination of time, location and ancient Druid magic sweeps her back to the year 1347.
The ancient Guardian of the Gate, who should have prevented this, intends to hide Jenny in the safety of her cave until the next time warp, but fate is against them. Jenny has to live in the squalid conditions of a peasant village but is soon on the run after exposing a fraudulent tax collector.
Hiding in the forest she saves a Lady from thieves and is taken to live in her castle but she is not much better off there after she uncovers the younger son’s murderous plot to depose the old Lord, his father. Matters are made worse by the greed of a powerful neighbour and the evil magician that controls him.
After many terrifying encounters, everything depends upon the final battle between the vast army of the Dark Lord of Blackraven Moor and the small force from Glenhaven Castle. Can Jenny’s ingenuity save the day? And more importantly, can it get her back to her own century?
Excerpt:
Jenny Cowan sensed danger. A shadowy figure edged towards her, just beyond her line of sight. She'd been warned about beggars and pickpockets overseas, so she slipped out of her sheltered spot and blended into the crowd, hoping to sneak back unseen in a few minutes.
As more spectators moved into the area, pushing forward to get a better view, she saw the shadowy figure jostled to one side. She quickly resumed her place behind the colossal stone.
Outside of her refuge the tension mounted quickly. Everybody was looking to the east where the horizon was alight with the first glow of dawn. Conversations became more excited as groups of modern Druids droned the words of an ancient mystical chant, giving the scene a strange aura of expectation.
What Jenny couldn't see from behind the vast monolith, however, was the hooded form frantically pushing through straggling groups of spectators, trying desperately to catch her attention. As the dark figure neared her hiding place, the atmosphere of the crowd reached its peak.
"There it is," an American accent told the world as the first rays of the mid-summer sun speared the eastern horizon and struck the ancient ruins.
"Noooooo!" the dark figure wailed and dove straight at Jenny.
The force of the tackle sent both of them flying, but in that fleeting second Jenny realised that something was very wrong. As she sprawled on the ground, the well tended turf of Stonehenge turned into mud. Rain pelted from what had been a cloudless sky.
As the storm swirled above them the chill of the dawn intensified. Lightning flashed. Thunder nearly drowned Jenny's frightened squeal, but not quite. A hand clamped over her mouth and a harsh voice told her to lie still and be very quiet.
"Do everything exactly as I tell you or we're both dead!"
The cold steel tone of the hooded woman's voice silenced her, but when Jenny lifted her head slightly and peered around she was astounded. The massive columns, weighing many tons each, were strewn about like matchsticks. The whole area looked different. Where was the car park, the kiosk, the road?
That's when Jenny noticed the other people.
At first she thought these were also survivors and that the crowd of visitors had been reduced to this small group of Druids dressed in tattered cloaks. Then she noticed that the dark figures had stopped chanting to the dull rhythm of their shuffling steps. They were cautiously approaching her side of the ruins. With a feeling of panic, Jenny realised that it was her voice that had attracted them. They were searching for an intruder and they looked deadly serious.
The old woman beckoned Jenny to join her among the broken pillars.
"You must be ready to run when lightning next strikes," she whispered.
Jenny was certainly not going to argue. She watched the approaching figures with mounting terror.
Time stood still.
"Come on, lightning," she said through clenched teeth, but nothing happened. Long seconds passed. The men closed in on her hiding place, shouting menacing orders in a language she didn't understand.
Suddenly a blinding flash lit the sky, followed by a crash of thunder that stopped her assailants advance. The cloaked forms threw themselves to the ground in fear of the elements.
"Now!" the old woman snapped.
A second burst of lightning followed on the heels of the first, smashing into the ruins. Jenny was paralysed by the fury of the storm, until she was grabbed roughly by the front of her cloak and dragged away from her hiding place. Stumbling behind her rescuer, she glanced back, fearful that their escape had been discovered. What she saw in that brief glance struck terror into her heart, but she was not allowed to stop.
"Keep going and keep down. We must make it to that clump of bushes before the men get to their feet again and see us."
Scrambling over the slippery ground, Jenny pushed her body to the limit. The world as she had known it no longer existed, but somehow she was still alive.
"Get in there. Quickly!"
She was thrust into a thicket of brambles. Ignoring the sharp thorns, the two fugitives crawled in the dirt to get as far out of sight as possible. When they were deep in the bushes they crouched together, listening for any sign of their pursuers.
Jenny started to tremble. She remembered her last glimpse of Stonehenge. In that flash of lightning she'd seen a dark liquid running from the slab above her head. It had splashed onto her. She looked down at her arms and saw that they were stained with blood.
"You saw what was on the altar stone?" the old woman whispered.
"Yes," Jenny answered in a quavering voice. "A human sacrifice."
About the author:
Richard Blackburn was brought up in England on the site of an ancient castle in West Derby, Lancashire - well, actually, on the site of the midden outside the battlements. So you could say he was raised on an old rubbish tip. The village of West Derby was also old, having been important when Liverpool was just a couple of fisherman's huts on the River Mersey. It had a court house built in the time of Elizabeth the First and stocks to punish the guilty. So history was all around in the author's youth.
Richard emigrated to Australia at the age of twenty. He worked at first as a bookkeeper on a cattle station to the north of the Simpson Dessert then moved to Darwin and worked as an internal auditor in the Health Department, travelling extensively around the Northern Territory. It was here he took up parachuting.
Finding the ‘Top End' lacking in challenge, he moved on to Papua New Guinea where he worked for thirteen years among the people, as a Patrol Officer and raising to the position of District Officer. This involved being a police officer, magistrate and senior Australian Government representative in his area. During this time Richard travelled extensively in Europe.
Since returning to Australia, Richard has gained an Associate Diploma in Management, an Advanced Diploma in Administration and a degree in Information Technology, and has worked for a number of Government Departments. He has completed two TAFE short courses in creative writing to make sure his creativity was not crushed completely by many years of writing in the public service. His interests outside work are now restricted to his family and scuba diving. He had to give up parachuting and long-distance running due to a back injury and now has to be content to leave the real excitement to characters in his stories.
