Morning all and welcome to the Fifteen Minute Novel. Here I take the start of a story idea and work on it for fifteen minutes a day. I started with an old writing prompt that interested me, cleaned it up a bit to fit the basic outline of the story I want to write and then set aside fifteen minutes each week day to see it grow. Each morning’s writing starts with the last sentence of the day before. And so now we have the story of Kasca…
Day 10: It wasn’t stone-built like some of the larger ones, making do with a fire-hardened wooden palisade but it was a defended village with a watchtower and a guard.
It wasn’t stone-built like some of the larger ones, making do with a fire-hardened wooden palisade, but it was a defended village with a watchtower and a guard. A light was kept burning in the watchtower all night and at dusk the gates were closed. To gain entry into the village after dark one had to hail the guard for passage or wait outside for the gates to be opened in the morning.
While the land dipped as it came out of the woods and crossed the field, the village itself was placed on a small rise so it could survey the landscape around it. At this time of night, the gates would be closed and the watchtower lit.
She could see no light. Kasca squinted and realized there was an oddness to the palisade. It took her a moment due to the darkness and the distance, but then she realized she could see the shapes of buildings through the gate.
‘The gate is open.’
Kasca blinked. Her plan had been to use darkness to cross the fields and to circle around to the other side of the village where the gate the farmers used was located. She would then slip in when they opened the gate. At this time of year there should be a line of farm wagons waiting at the gate. Many would have arrived after the gates closed with the intention of spending the night outside the village walls.
In the morning when the gates opened, they would go in and set up their market stalls. Once their carts were empty they would stock up on anything they needed and head home again. Kasca planned to mix with them to enter the village and then mix with them to leave. She would then circle back towards the woods and the mine for her return trip to the north.
Now standing at the edge of the woods, she wondered what to do. ‘No lights on the tower or in the town that I can see,’ she thought. ‘And I should see at least one candle.’
There was nothing. Deciding she would be too exposed if she searched in the daylight, Kasca decided to investigate now. She moved quickly out of the woods, racing over the open ground, her hear pounding wildly until she reached the shadows of the palisaded walls.
Closer she could see that the gate was indeed open. Looking through, Kasca could see no movement in town. There were no lights burning in any windows. No animals moving about. Not even a cat slinking through the shadows. Nothing moved.
Leery of simply walking through the gate, Kasca skirted the village as she planned originally, finding herself at the market gate. It too was open. There were no carts waiting, no farmers making cold camp for the night. The road was empty and the gates were open.
Kasca took a deep breath. While she hated doing any form of magic when not safely secluded, she decided tonight might be an exception. She pulled a thread of magic and expanded it over herself like throwing a sheet of blue light over herself. The glow pulsed and then faded but she could still feel the magic around her. It would shield her from view of anyone watching and it would offer her some protection, deflecting anything thrown or shot in her direction as well as prevent contamination.
She would leave nothing of herself here, nor would she take anything with her.
Ten til Midnight 