The Stolen Scroll

A NOVELLA PREQUEL TO THE SCEPTER AND TOWER TRILOGYWhen a druid disguised as a visiting scholar steals an ancient document holding the millennium’s-old secrets of the Tower of Dochás, young Machar is sent on a mission across the sea to find the thief and bring it back. What’s at stake? Only the key to ending the Dark Age that’s creeping across the Celtic world called Erde.A STOLEN SCROLL BEARING THE SECRETS OF THE AGES.Long has the secret society of Capulum scholars waited to understand the mysterious markings inside the Tower of Dochás, a structure so old its purpose was feared lost to the ages. Newly discovered documents hint that when the lost Scepter of Elyon sat in the Tower, hope, light, and prosperity shone on all the peoples of Erde.Beneath the tumbled ruins of a forgotten temple, two scrolls appear. The first introduces the second. But as scholars work to understand the first, a druid masquerading as one of their own steals the second scroll and spirits it across the sea to distant Fjernshavn.Now a great darkness is coming, spreading from the east, and the scholars discover that the lost scroll may tell them the location of the lost Scepter whose theft so long ago began the current Dark Age.MACHAR MAC MOAN, THE CLOAKED RIDER.Young Machar mac Moan, the Cloaked Rider, has spent the last year riding across Ériu on missions for the Capulum. He’s weary, ready to sleep in his own bed with his dog at his side. But on his first night home, an anonymous rider knifes a cryptic message to his door: “Meet me at the Boar’s Head this very night. I will wait in the darkest corner. Come armed and prepared for a long journey.” Once again, the Capulum calls.Thus begins a journey across the sea to Fjernshavn at the end of a cold fjord. Even before he lands, a druid cabal is planning his death. It’s a city where shapeshifters roam the night, where ordinary citizens disappear almost nightly, and where, it’s rumored, the druid cabal keeps a monster in a pit, a creature with an insatiable hunger.Machar’s only help: A kindly cheese merchant and a beautiful serving wench, who’s attracted to Machar and who unwittingly puts herself in danger.At stake is the future of the world. And if Machar can’t find the thief and bring back the stolen scroll . . .The darkness wins.