Tuesday 28 July 2015

The Name of the Blade Blog Tour!



 Howdy, folks and welcome to another awesome blog tour!
Today we have extract 2 of Frail Human Heart!

Extract #2 from The Name of the Blade, Book Three,
Frail Human Heart
 
Exhaustion pulled my shoulders down into a weary slump. With a sigh, I turned and went back the way I’d come. The dim blue disc of the open man hole appeared overhead. There was a circle of heads silhouetted against the dusky night sky. My father. Hikaru, our friendly neighbourhood fox spirit. And Jack, my best friend – Rachel’s younger sister. They were all peering down anxiously at me.
“Well?” Jack asked. The word echoed around me, multiplying the single question into a hundred. I didn’t have any answers.
“Make some room. I’m coming out,” I called.
As they backed out of sight I reached over my shoulder and eased the katana into his saya – the lacquered wooden sheath – which rested against my back in its leather harness. As the blade entered the embrace of the saya, the prismatic white fire of the sword was slowly extinguished, plunging the storm drain into impenetrable shadow.
When the tsuba – the sword’s guard – clicked home against the mouth of the saya, I let go of the katana, flexing my fingers experimentally. Not very long ago the simple action of replacing the blade in his sheath would have taken almost impossible effort. It would have left me feeling shaken and bereft. The sword would have resisted all the way, beguiling me, tempting me, trying to convince me that I was only complete when I allowed him to wield me as if I was the weapon and he the fighter. I could hardly believe it was so easy now. It almost seemed like cheating – until I remembered the price I had paid for my free
will.
I clambered carelessly up the metal rungs set into the wall of the storm drain until I could catch the edge of the manhole with both hands, then swung myself up and out of the hole in a jerky, abrupt movement. Crouching on the pitted tarmac, I grabbed the manhole cover, which we had found already pulled away from the opening in the ground, and pushed it back into place with a heave and a twist.
 
 
Next Stop for Zoë is on...
 
 
 
 
If you haven’t already, pick up your copy of Zoë’s The Name of the Blade series at your local bookshop or online at Amazon, Book Depository, Waterstones.com and WHSmith. 
 


 
Zoë Marriott is the author of many critically acclaimed and beloved books, including The Swan Kingdom, which was long-listed for the Branford Boase award, and Shadows on the Moon, which won the prestigious Sasakawa Prize and was an American Junior Library Guild Selection. Zoë lives in Grimsby, Lincolnshire. Visit Zoë’s blog at thezoe-trope.blogspot.co.uk or her website at ZoeMarriott.com.Follow her on Twitter (@ZMarriott). 
 
A very massive thank you to Walker Books for letting me be a host for this tour.
 
Until next time, folks.
 
Keep smiling, keep reading and be happy!
 
 ~Katie~

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