The Accidental Muse

By Amy Rose Davis

A girl with no memory, a grieving widower, and a sweet-natured boy with strange power live a quiet life in their sheltered Keep until the night a traveling musician arrives at the door. The power of the musician's harp threatens to destroy their family unless one of them can stop it. A tale of gods, muses, mysterious spirits, and the power of love.

This is a stand-alone short story of approximately 25 pages.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amy Rose Davis
• Release date: Apr 20, 2012
• ISBN: 9780983226468

Amy Rose Davis

Amy is a freelance copywriter and independent author of epic fantasy. In her spare time, she's probably knitting, lifting weights, running, or complaining about some new ache she got from one of those activities. "Unquickened," Book Three of The Taurin Chronicles, will be available November 22, 2022.

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The Accidental Muse

Amy Rose Davis

Published by Amy Rose Davis at Smashwords.com

Copyright Amy Rose Davis

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

This short story originally appeared in Twelve Worlds: An anthology of science fiction and fantasy short stories for charity, compiled by Derek J. Canyon. © 2011

Callie’s feet ached against the smooth rocks, but she made no attempt to move. She stood with her skirts tied up around her knees and her dark face lifted to the sky. The stream bubbled around and through her legs, the ache of the cool mountain water traveling halfway up her calves. Somewhere, a sparrow trilled a mating call, giving melody to the rhythm of the water. From the crest of the hill, the sounds of everyday life in the Keep drifted down to her brook. Spring. My favorite.

She thought it every season. There was a rhythm and song to each one. In summer, the breeze from the shore kept time, and the brook dwindled to a quiet harmonic accompaniment to the melody of children laughing on the hill. In autumn, the threshing gave rhythm to the songs the men and women sang as they harvested and hunted and prepared for winter. And in winter, the rain on thatch gave melody to the random rhythm of a fire in the hearth until it changed to snow and brought the quiet hush of rest to the Keep.

But now, it was spring. When Callie stepped from the brook and sat on the grass, she sensed life around