The Bridge 1526

The bridge remembers what the island would rather forget.

In 1506, Paganton Island is torn from the mainland by storm, sea and earthquake. Thousands survive upon the severed land, scattered among remote farms, mountain settlements and fishing villages. To restore the road home, six elders begin building a bridge across the three-mile channel.

Then six women are accused of witchcraft.

Condemned above the unfinished span, they speak a curse that will haunt the island for centuries:

Every hundred years, one man must be given to the bridge—or death, disease and famine will come for them all.

Generations pass. The island prospers, decays and rebuilds, but the old superstitions never disappear. White threads are tied beneath sleeves. Children are warned not to answer knocks beneath the floor. Travellers who attempt to leave cross the bridge—only to arrive back where they began.

And beneath the Old Stone, the Order keeps the Book of Shadows.

Its pages can alter memory, command obedience and erase the truth. Tyrants rise through its power. Families vanish from its records. The sacrifice continues, hidden beneath ceremony and law, while the bridge preserves the names of those the Book has tried to make the island forget.

Now another reckoning is drawing near.

The surviving bloodlines are being called home. The Book is opening by itself. The water beneath the bridge has begun to move against the tide.

And somewhere below the ancient piles, six women are waiting to be remembered.

THE BRIDGE — 1526 is an atmospheric gothic folk-horror novel of witchcraft, tyranny, buried history and inherited guilt. It is the first instalment in a haunting trilogy, followed by SIX BENEATH THE BRIDGE and concluding with THE HUNDREDTH TIDE.