Albyn and Layne run away to avoid an arranged bonding with a man Layne doesn’t love.
Heading for a new life on the Great Island, they are captured by the hostile Eagle Tribe and forced into slavery.
When their escape is thwarted, Albyn takes brutal revenge, and steals an artefact of great power, but how will he control the wrath of the spirit it holds?
Talisman of Fire is a prequel to The Apprentice Tattoo, so you can read either one first!
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The Apprentice Tattoo.
The Apprentice Tattoo is the first novel in the Guardians of the Circles series of books.
I’m fascinated by the people who built the great stone megaliths of Britain 4,500 years ago.
I’m often asked why I chose to write about this particular era of history, so here is the tale of how it came about.
D J Eastwood.
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Jane and I moved to the Western Isles in October 2005, and within a few days we’d made our first visit to the Callanish stone circle together.
There aren’t a lot of tourists about on the Isle of Lewis, once the summer is over, and we had the hilltop to ourselves for a short while. The stones looked dramatic, stark against a dark sky, threatening rain. We walked the length of the northern avenue, inspected the ring of stones and the central megalith. We walked along the ‘arms’ of the cross, pointing roughly east, south and west… then we retired to the cafe.
Warm and dry, with a latte and a piece of cake, I wondered about the people who built this monument. Who were they? We know so little about a society that could raise huge slabs of stone that have stood for 4500 years. What did they hope to achieve by building Callanish, and so many other sites throughout Britain?
Was the site for religious practice? Was it a calendar or a solar observatory? As I sat, mulling over who the Neolithic people were, I spotted a sculpture, standing against the wall, a man crouched over a scrying bowl, tattoos adorned his face, and a wren perched on his hand.
Who was he? The name of the sculpture was ‘The Messenger’ and that’s just what he was doing, seeing the images in his bowl of water and relaying them to his tribe.
That figure was made by sculptor/painter Simant Bostock from Great Bernera, who has since become a good friend.
The figure became Albyn, Spirit Messenger of the Hill Clan of the Tribe of the West. Guardian of the great stones of Classac, plant master, lore master and healer. Though he is not the main character of my novel, The Apprentice Tattoo, he is a major influence on Col and Talla, and features in his own novella, Talisman of Fire. (Free link above)
So the story began. A man, a place, and a point in history. The protagonists, Col, a sixteen year old orphan, and Talla, a freed slave the same age, soon followed. When the weather changes, and their clan’s crops begin to fail, someone must make a journey to find out the reason for the Spirits’ anger with the tribes of man.
The Apprentice Tattoo is the first in a series of linked novels and novellas available on Amazon now.
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The Apprentice Tattoo 