Scralig is not her name, it’s a curse. 

It’s what the people of Vinevik call her. Her golden eye is the cause. It’s what makes the old women curl their fingers against its evil and turn their faces away. She has one blue eye. It binds her to her father, and to the fair-haired folk of Vinevik. But her black hair and golden eye bind her to her grandmother, Tasha, and other, distant kin.

Once, by her blue eye, Scralig swore she saw two ravens laughing before they few off to whisper into Odin's ear. Once, through her golden eye, she saw a thunder man land in the upper pasture. Black smoke rolled off his wings and nets of lightning flickered along his arms. 

That was when she was small. Perhaps it was just Grandmother Tasha’s stories that put the visions in her head. Now Scralig is older and she knows better than to trust in visions. Besides, in her small village, a girl with strange looks has other things to worry about.

The day of her grandmother’s death a a village boy taunts her while she walks along the cemetery road. A hot rage stirs in her heart, and her golden eye warms with a fury that threatens to overwhelm her will. At the graveside, three strangers appear, claiming to be from the world of Tasha’s stories. If what these strangers say is true, a larger evil exists that makes the petty bigotry and gossip of her little town pale by comparison. 

Scralig must decide what she believes to be true about the world and her place in it. On her choice rests nothing less than the survival of all nations and the very structure of existence itself.

CS Peterson is currently seeking representation (formerly represented by Martha Millard - now retired - at Sterling Lord Literistic)