Vignar and the Halfpeak Murders

By Byron Gordon

Short Story
Recommended Ages: 17+

A pair of grisly murders rock the tranquility of the three villages on Halfpeak Mountain. The sheer bloodiness of the deaths indicates an animalistic rage, but Vignar Olafsson sees a different pattern. A veteran of the war that nearly annihilated his race, Vignar has seen killings like these in the past. Yet as he pursues the murderer, a deeper plot threatens to engulf him, and the mountain villagers, in a cataclysm of rage and death.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Byron Gordon
• Release date: Dec 7, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311496737

Byron Gordon

Byron Gordon grew up in the rural Eastern Shore of Maryland, USA. One of six children, he soon discovered his love of reading, ranging from the clever humor of P.G. Wodehouse to the epic fantasy of Tolkien to the fast paced science fiction of Timothy Zahn. Fed on this widely varied diet, his imagination blossomed and he began to write, desiring to create worlds and adventures of his own.After realizing the bleak financial prospects of an aspiring writer trying to break into the fiction realm, Byron enlisted in the United States Coast Guard. He spent an extra week in Coast Guard Boot Camp (Cape May, NJ) for writing during the breaks between classes. After Boot Camp he traveled to California for training in radio communications. Following the completion of his training, he spent three years on a Coast Guard Cutter, interdicting and repatriating illegal migrants. He currently is still on active duty and plans search and rescue efforts on the east coast of the USA.Despite the intense, and often hectic, schedule that military life entails, Byron has continued to write in his free time. While writing a complete novel still proves elusive, he has composed multiple short stories and a small amount of poetry. In the spring of 2011, he started publishing his writings electronically and now has a fair number of short stories and poetry available online in a variety of formats.

Book preview

Vignar

And the Halfpeak Murders

Byron Gordon

Copyright © 2014 Byron Gordon

All Rights Reserved

Cover Art by Peter Hartnett

Smashwords Edition

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Other Books:

The Vignar Saga

Vignar and the Halfpeak Murders

Vignar and the Viking Gold

Vignar and the Witch's Revenge

Vignar and the Jarl of Urdurheim

Vignar and the Dwarvish Doom

Vignar and the Undead King

Vignar and the Elvish Seer

Vignar's Vengeance

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Vignar and the Halfpeak Murders

My lord. Vignar stood before the Thane, still dusty from the road. Ill news from River Run. Their healer was slain not two nights past.

Thane Hafvar frowned and tapped his fingers on the arm of his great chair. Ill news indeed. First The Meadows, now River Run. How did they find the old woman?

Hung on the wall of her hut, my lord, Vignar said. And the walls about her marked with runes and symbols painted in her own blood.

Did you see it yourself? asked the Thane.

Aye, Vignar said. He tried not to remember. A warrior himself, death was no stranger, but the slaughter of a woman dedicated to a life of healing turned his stomach.

And? The Thane prompted him.

It reminded me of some things I saw during The Terror, Vignar said. Elven mage hunters tended to leave their victims like that.

The grey haired woman standing at the Thane's shoulder stirred and spoke for the first time. "But Freya was not a mage. In my experience