To Wade, he said, 'I think you will find we are a fair court. To the charge of trespass, Wade of Aquitaine, who knows no one, pleads innocent.'

The count gave a small shrug and lifted his quill to make a long, looping notation. You claim to know no one in Swabia and you carry no letter.'Įgidio drew a strenuous breath for his part. 'You stand accused of trespass on the land of Olich the Dyer. Gerardus' eyes widened with anger when Wade did not respond. Wade thought furiously for something appropriate to say. Then both judges lapsed into expectant silence. His eyes pulled shut in a slow blink as though he were going to sleep. The old Bishop, in identical robes, nodded almost imperceptibly. He said, 'Wade of Aquitaine, I am Count Gerardus of Ravenna. The younger of the two wore robes and sported the well-trimmed goatee and longish hair of a nobleman. Wade's guards hauled him into the chamber, laden in heavy chains, shoeless on the wet stone, to stand before the scabini. When a trip to the acupuncturist opens an unused portal in his synesthete's brain, a plea from the past draws him to a time when he must save the remaining shreds of history to preserve his own.Ĭonstanz, Swabia, Holy Roman Empire under Charlemagne, 813 A.D. Suffering of crossed senses where scents can conjure objects and sights can call up tastes, he wants nothing but the ordinary life of an insurance underwriter. If Byzantium falls 600 years too soon, nothing of western civilization will survive to spark the Renaissance.

Defeated Longobards scheme to bring it down from within. The science fantasy Wade Of Aquitaine Series tells the story of a young man and a young woman separated by 1,200 years, each coping with the rarest of conditions and abilities.Īt a critical juncture in the Dark Ages, with Vikings to the north and Aghlabid pirates to the south, a small flicker of the Roman Empire has been nurtured as an island of high civilization.

Wade of Aquitaine by Ben Parris