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    Shepherd of Tigers: A Rucksack Universe Story: Rucksack Universe
    Shepherd of Tigers: A Rucksack Universe Story: Rucksack Universe
    Shepherd of Tigers: A Rucksack Universe Story: Rucksack Universe
    Ebook74 pages50 minutes

    Shepherd of Tigers: A Rucksack Universe Story: Rucksack Universe

    By Anthony St. Clair

    ()

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    About this ebook

    The truth sleeps

     

    Aednat had nothing but her family, until The Blast took them and everything Aednet knew of home in Ireland. Aednat finds herself in France, with people who seem more like myths, in a rich world unlike anywhere she ever dreamed of belonging.

     

    Yet in caves in Ireland, strange images from the past tell the tale of a present unfolding in fire.

     

    Aednat and her companions make their way to find answers to the questions burning the world. But if she wakes a sleeping truth, she may also awaken betrayal and great harm.

     

    The Rucksack Universe series combines alternate history, speculative fiction, myth, adventure, globetrotting, and intrigue—all with well-poured pints of beer. Library Journal says Anthony St. Clair's storytelling has "universe building reminiscent of Terry Pratchett," and readers say they love the Rucksack Universe's unique combination of "quirk, wit, travel, and magic."

     

    Praise for Anthony St. Clair and the Rucksack Universe

     

    "Left me completely gobsmacked. Great concept, fun characters, and beautiful writing… High-stakes story, told with wit and compassion." – Nth Degree

     

    "Brings the reader into the story and holds them there with every sight, smell, sound, and feeling…. St. Clair is now one of my favorite authors and I truly cannot wait to read more." – Online Book Club

     

    "Fans of travel, fantasy, and beer will circle around this story… with universe building reminiscent of Terry Pratchett, St. Clair's tale will make readers reconsider fate." – Kristi Chadwick, Library Journal's Self-Published Ebook Awards

     

    What Readers Say

     

    "Cheeky and sophisticated."

     

    "Pulls you in fast and keeps you on the edge of your seat."

     

    "A page turner for sure."

     

    "Fascinating new universe."

     

    "Modern fantasy writing with very real characters and situations."

     

    "Anthony seamlessly combines quirk, wit, travel, and magic."

     

    "Grabs your attention and doesn't let go."

     

    "Entertaining fantasy full of twists and turns."

     

    "Beautiful prose."

     

    "Delightful and artful adventure into an intriguing world."

     

    "Sharp writing and dialogue."

     

    "A variety of amazing characters that have been masterfully brought to literary life."

     

    "Beautiful prose, smart humor and a slanted take on reality."

     

    "Anticipation of what's to happen next kept me turning the pages."

     

    "A delightful read, especially for those who love to travel—even if only in their armchairs."

     

    "Intriguing, magical underbelly!"

     

    "Easy to slip into the myths of the situations and places."

     

    "An amazing sense of the epic."

     

    "Goes down smooth and leaves the reader poised for another round."

     

    "Armchair Travel!"

     

    "The story telling is exquisite and makes it hard to put the book down."

     

    "This is not Douglas or Pratchett, this is St. Clair!"

     

    "An abundance of love, light, and wonder."

     

    "Left me wanting more!"

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRucksack Press
    Release dateNov 19, 2020
    ISBN9781940119496
    Shepherd of Tigers: A Rucksack Universe Story: Rucksack Universe
    Author

    Anthony St. Clair

    Anthony St. Clair creates compelling fiction and non-fiction for a curious world full of everyday discoveries, endeavors, and surprises. He is the author of the ongoing Rucksack Universe series; covers craft beer, food, business, and more for various publications; and is a copywriter and content manager for select clients. When not at his desk or in his kitchen in Oregon, Anthony is on an adventure with his wife, son, and daughter.

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      Book preview

      Shepherd of Tigers - Anthony St. Clair

      Shepherd of Tigers

      Shepherd of Tigers

      A Rucksack Universe Story

      Anthony St. Clair

      Rucksack Press

      Contents

      1. Paintings in the Dark

      2. The Cruel Dream

      3. A Lonely Mystery

      4. The Price of Having Everything

      5. Too Poor to Afford Dirty

      6. All the World and All the Ages

      7. What the Burned Man Carried

      8. Three Paths

      9. The Truth That Waited

      10. Bench of Stone

      11. The Face She Knew

      12. The Sound in the Cave

      13. Crossroads

      Thank You for Reading

      Become a Wanderer

      Also by Anthony St. Clair

      Acknowledgments

      Special Features

      Sneak Peek

      About the Author

      Fascinating paintings have defaced cave walls all over the world. Children paint on walls too, but it doesn’t mean we should pay any attention beyond scrubbing the mess clean.

      —Guru Deep, Travels Through the Third Eye

      1

      Paintings in the Dark

      In the flickering firelight of a deep cave, hands reached from the shadows toward the torchlit beige walls. Some wielded orange or red. Some wielded black or brown. The hands moved, blur-fast and eons-slow, into shadow, out of shadow, again and again.

      At last the painters finished their labors and stared long at the cave walls. Many of the painters sang songs, or smiled in triumph, satisfied about tales told as best they could tell them.

      A man in orange, like the rising sun. Surrounded by tigers. Before them, great evils, the old demons of the world, defied—or fled.

      Now, once more, the man. His face brown and head bald. Wearing red. Riding on the back of a tiger, a golden sun behind them, as if man and tiger were flying down from the sky. Before the two of them the demons ran, but they never got far. In other scenes the man sometimes wore orange. Sometimes red. Much further along the wall, he wore black, and the other things painted with him—strange structures and people in odd clothes—nothing like anything the painters were familiar with, but these odd scenes were part of the story too. If it was part of the story, then it must find life in paint and color.

      Wherever the man went, tigers went with him. Sometimes many. Sometimes one. Sometimes the tigers followed. Sometimes man and tiger walked side by side. Sometimes the man rode a tiger down from the clouds to the world crying out below.

      The painters made their way from one end of the cave to the other. At the final scenes, the singing stopped. The smiles faded.

      The painters who had worked on those final scenes looked to one another. Finding no insights, they glanced back at the wall. They did not make up the story. They just told what they saw.

      The painters all sighed. Took in the truth. So far away, but so clear before them. Then they left the cave and did not return, leaving the scenes to time and darkness and all the thousands of years to come.

      2

      The Cruel Dream

      When the ship docked, Aednat hoped that maybe, just maybe, even a small scrap of good news might be waiting for them. She wrapped her umber fingers around the lighter brown wood. A calm sea breeze ruffled her hair, but instead of being salt-scented the breeze still smelled of ash. Ash and char. As if the very wind had been singed by the explosion.

      In the week that Aednat and BS Trotter had been sailing on the ship that had saved their lives, wherever the ship docked the two women had gathered every bit of news they could gather, from ports all along the coasts of Ireland and England, and Aednat longed to hop off and feel the docks of Calais, France, under her booted feet. They were as likely to find any good news, though, as a toddler sifting beach sand was likely to find a diamond. Galway had completely burned, killing tens of thousands. The mile-wide blasts of flame had scorched everything they touched. Dublin had barely been spared, but BS Trotter was still getting reports that the explosion had been so powerful it had carved a channel across the Irish Sea, knocking aside rocks and creating a chasm, a wound in

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