Beautiful Butterfly

Hengist Journey #11

Finally, we get to hear Rory’s side of the story. Although the second Hengist book is called “Rory,” Archer hogged the mic on that book. Being a serene, patient sort, she hung on, knowing she’d get to play the leading lady in three whole books. Chrysalis scurries from twelve-year-old Rory’s first meeting with Archer, through her teenage years where she crushes on him, to her first year at uni. Along the way, her gifts come in, starting with aura-reading. Under Archer’s patient tuition they develop into something far more powerful.

I will admit to this one being a bit of a travelogue of some of my favourite places, from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, to half a dozen sites in Wales, all of which have a special meaning for me. Rory visits each one, discovering, as I did, the magic of each place.

In Edinburgh, she is badly affected by the accumulation of fear from thousands of thrill-seekers on the ghost tour, leading to a convalescence in a magical Welsh pine forest.

In Portmeirion, she meets Geoff, who then turns up in King Arthur's Labyrinth, a craft centre, and even halfway up a mountain. Her training sessions with Archer, in a cave behind a waterfall and atop a wind-swept castle ruin, lead to discovey of a shared past. They also highten her ability to tap into the aura of a place, revealing stored memories. So cool.

Wales: Streams, Mountains, Caves, Waterfalls and Castles