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That’s enough of the fine print…here we go!
On the far side of the ring, we have WritingwithBourbon who represents the Alt History Fantasy genre.
Dull light from swaying kerosene lamps passed over the dead firing squad. Alexei and his family stared at the crows plucking the eyes out of the Bolshevik soldiers.
“Thank God,” Alexei whispered. He wiped away the splattered blood on his hands and face, then patted himself down, looking for cuts and bruises. “Thank God! The blood’s not mine.”
“We must go!” His fatherurged. Their first step from the wall and the murder of crows stopped feasting. “Go!” His father hissed. At their second step, black wings swarmed them, cawed them back against the wall. Hands pushed Alexei back and forth, rattling his head. His mother kept him behind her, half wrapped in her skirts.
“Anything?” She demanded over her shoulder, eyes wide. He patted himself down again.
“Nothing.” Alexei lied, swallowing the blood from his bitten tongue.
Howling winter winds blew out of the basement’s shadows. Alexei’s family huddledand shivered.
“Leaving before giving thanks. I should not expect better from Romanovs.” A raspy voice scorned, then cackled. The crows added their cawing chorus. Alexei shut his eyes and covered his ears.
“Show yourself and we will know whom to thank!” His father shouted over the din.
Stone tapped against concrete. Alexei opened his eyes to watch the darkness. Old stories echoed in his memories as the sound came closer. A pestle held by gnarled hands enteredthe light first.
“And what will the Czar who abdicated offer me?” Eyes, bluer than Siberian ice, gleamed at the light’s edge. When they passedover him, Alexeicouldn’t help the warmth rushing down his leg.
“We can pay-”One moment his father was standing tall, and then he was on his knees gasping for air. One rush of wind and Alexei stared open-mouthed into the fishhook grin of Baba Yaga. The child eater of legend tightened her knobbled hand on his father’s throat.
“Keep your bloodstained gold. I want Russia’s future.” Her eyes found Alexei again. His mother pushed him back. She spat pious prayers wishing damnation would fall on the witch’s head.
“Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.” Baba Yaga spatin answer. “You all live because of me. I claim him as mine.” She stabbed the pestle’s stonetip at his mother’s gut. Metallic echoes from the gold and gems sewn into his mother’s gown filled the basement. She doubled over, heaving. Alexei tore away from his sisters and grabbed the wrist killing his father.
“Please let him live, I’ll go with you.”
The fishhook grin never changed, but her eyes softened for a second. She leaned in close to his father’s red face.
“Be grateful your son is braver than you.” She shoved his fatherback into his mother. His family huddled and fussed over each other. Everything in Alexei wanted to run back to them. Five fingers wrapped around his shoulder, strangled that urge.
“Come princeling, and together we will mold a nation of magic the world has never seen.”
Leave your votes and critiques in the comments below. Again, be respectful of your remarks and try to point out positives as well as detractions.
Before we sign off, I wanted to address the issue a few readers are having with not being able to post comments, or having those comments show up as UNKNOWN even though they have a Google Account. There are several things at play here. First, if you are using the Safari or Chrome browsers they have a known problem with Blogger and you have two choices. Switch to Firefox as a browser (I've never had a problem using it), or change the setting on Safari as illustrated below.
Go to Blogger dashboard.
SETTINGS
USER SETTINGS
Set User Profile = Blogger (instead of Google +)
Save
Hopefully, that will resolve everyone's issues and let the votes/comments reach our contestants.
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