Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2016 00:59:33 -0600
From: Michael Offutt <kavrik@hotmail.com>
Subject: Chapter 26-The Orb of Winter-Gay Science Fiction

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				   *****

			    Chapter Twenty-Six

   "The skin of a Nykoran is sometimes covered in small scales called
`anbiari.' They can be blue, green, black, purple, pink, or gray in
color. Their teeth are no longer humanoid in resemblance. Rather, they are
sharp and scissor-like and quite deft at cutting raw meat from
bone. Furthermore, the Nykorans have an extra digit on their hands which
serves as a second opposable thumb," Paulina said, turning the page in the
heavy tome, The Races of Wynwrayth.
   This particular volume was the result of an extensive collaboration
between two churches: Eilustriel (the goddess of beauty) and Chagidiel (the
god of sexual appetite and cannibalism). The whole was bound and
distributed through the Guild of Bards and Sages.
   "Alexi," Paul said, "are you paying attention?"
   Alexi lifted his head from the papyrus scroll on which he kept a running
list of things he wanted for his dwelling in the ruins. He sighed, thinking
that he'd promised Ziggy water from the Well of Zanda and would have to go
back soon. The shadow drake still hadn't clarified why it needed the water
but insisted that it just did and that all would become clear in time.
   "Alexi?" Paul asked one more time.
   "What is it?" Alexi responded, turning his head to stare at his
friend. This is when Alexi noticed that there was something different about
Paul. In fact, he looked rather pretty in his maroon petticoat, and his
hair had been styled so that it fell in mahogany waves about his throat. It
was at this time that he noticed that Paul's Adam's apple had virtually
disappeared and that his chest looked genuinely fuller and
rounder. "Milbar's beard," Alexi swore, "are you taking the drugs for
transition? Did you have the surgery?"
   Paul's faced blanched, and he looked around the room but they were still
alone in this corner of the school's library. "Shhh," Paul
whispered. "Don't say that so loud. I've been taking the drugs for weeks
now, and I had the surgery for breasts almost a month ago. It's taken that
long to heal, not that you noticed. Rowena's right. Our only chance for a
good life is to accept we're different. I'm transitioning, and so should
you."
   "Rowena wants to be a woman. She makes excuses for it. You don't," Alexi
said.
   "How do you know what I want?" Paul asked. "I want to be comfortable and
taken care of. Life's hard for boys like you and me, but it's impossible in
a place as awful as Zanda City."
   Alexi couldn't argue with any of this. Day by day he felt he didn't
belong but as graduation loomed his anxiety about both his sexuality and
the consequences that awaited him for expressing it grew.
   "You're still a boy then?" Alexi asked. He wasn't sure if he wanted to
hear the answer. It didn't make him uncomfortable to think that a boy could
become a girl or vice-versa through the Flesh-Crafting guild of
Chagidiel. No, the Flesh Crafters of Chagidiel had an incredible reputation
with the ability to remove or add sexual organs. Some aristocrats with very
particular tastes had extra orifices installed in their bodies so that they
could have sexual pleasure in just about any particular spot they
desired. And the idea of rich "aristocrats" paying for this kind of thing
was not coincidental. The Flesh Crafters of Chagidiel charged a lot of
money for what they did, because a lot of it relied upon organs stolen from
slaves they purchased in the market. But their work was indisputable, and
oftentimes the Flesh Crafters did their very best to procure items that
physically matched the host's skin tone. He'd seen some that did not, and
those botched jobs usually received some kind of discount, even though
there was an entire black market for sex slaves with strikingly different
colored penises, tits, and other body parts. No...what bothered Alexi was
the fact that a friend of his could elect to have this kind of work done,
not because he wanted it, but because society demanded it for him to be
happy.
   "The drugs have made it small," Paul replied, "but I still have it. I
could stop taking the drugs, and I could have the implants removed. But I'm
not going to, Alexi. You'll have to face the fact that very soon I'm going
to be a real girl."
   Alexi nodded and then walked over to his friend and gave him a hug. "I'm
sorry. I'll try to be supportive. As of this moment, I'll make sure to
always call you Paulina."
   "You can still call me Paul in private company. I-I'm not fully
transitioned yet and don't quite feel comfortable in the head about it
unless I'm in the `act' you know? It's going to take some time before I
schedule that final surgery."
   "Did it hurt?" Alexi asked.
   "I was out for most of it," Paul admitted. "And the guild is rather
chilly and the walls, floor, and ceiling of the place look like rusted
iron. I saw a lot of strange things in there, Alexi. There were these huge
glass vats filled with body parts, and I swear I heard screams echoing down
windowless corridors. I saw men and women strapped to metal gurneys with
black leather belts and my doctor introduced himself to me wearing a white
apron stained in blood. He'd modified his mouth so that he had no
lips...just this huge red grin full of teeth. But I'm happy with what they
gave me, and the bruising's all gone. There's only a scar along the
bottom. The doctor told me it was an incision line, necessary for the
procedure. And my tits are filled with nerve endings, Alexi. I feel
everything, even the wind blowing past them. Sometimes it makes me so hard,
I can't stand it."
   "There shouldn't have been a scar at all," Alexi said. "There's a simple
spell for that. You cast it as you're dressing a wound."
   Paul frowned. "Maybe they didn't know it."
   Alexi sat down on a cushion with a floral-patterned on it and gave
Paul's hand a reassuring squeeze. "I don't want to bring this up, but in
case you regret taking this path, I've figured out where I'm going after
graduation. If you want, you can live there too. I think I know you well
enough that I can say this decision came from fear. It's fear that you'll
have to return to your bigoted parents if you don't find a way to survive
here in Zanda. A lot of it's fear that people will resent you for your
gift, and that they'll never accept the fact that you're attracted to
men. A lot of it's fear that you'll bring shame to your family if the
secret that you're a transvestite is disclosed to neighbors and people who
knew you as a boy. And a lot of happiness in this god-forsaken country
depends on finding a boy willing to marry you, because it's a patriarchy
despite the fact that the predominant religion is ruled by a woman. Maybe
because she's also a demon changes her from a sympathetic character to a
power-hungry despot. So our choices are slim. One choice we do have is to
escape the border to ply our trade as a necromancer abroad. But that costs
money, and after our families spent all the tuition to send us here to just
get an education, they likely aren't going to have the resources to smuggle
us out of Zanda. And then there's the fact that we might not ever see them
again, and there's no colleges of necromancy in any other land so we'll
never improve our abilities. But if we did escape we'd probably make some
kind of living abroad, but you know as well as I that the necromancy gift
in boys is usually sub-par to that possessed by girls."
   Paul nodded and looked at the cover of his book. "Daphne is so much more
adept than I at certain things. Did you know she can bring a squirrel back
from the dead? She's working on creating fire stones now, but thus far has
failed."
   "Paul," Alexi said, "I controlled an undead ogre."  Paul's chocolate
eyes narrowed and he pursed his red lips for a moment and then pulled his
hand back from Alexi. "You're serious?"
   Alexi nodded and then told Paul all about his laboratory, his run-in
with the horde of zombies, and even about the shadow drake, Ziggy, and his
adventure at the Well of Zanda last night. Paul listened to everything with
wide eyes.
   When Alexi finished, Paul was quivering with excitement. "Now I see why
you're distracted from our final exams. I was quizzing you about Nykoran
terminology, and you've been putting together a whole secret lab, and
you've been controlling dead ogres, and even taken a trip through the
ethereal plane? What the hell is that, exactly?"
   "It's how we—Ziggy, myself, and Dudley the ogre—stole the things
we needed from the washroom. It turns out that the shadow drake can open a
path into this other dimension that's invisible to those living here, but
we can see through the curtain into this dimension...only everything looks
indistinct and foggy," Alexi said. "You should see the place. I've got a
mattress now from a store we robbed using Ziggy's trick. And I've stolen
oodles of books from the restricted section of this library...tomes that
will take me years to read."
   "How many?" Paul asked.
   "Probably a couple hundred. The restricted section is stacked full of
books that go on for aisle after aisle. They won't be missed, trust me,"
Alexi said. "And I've set up a washroom. The place used to be a really nice
wing of some palace. It's run down but nothing that my ogre and some undead
slaves I've yoked for just such a purpose haven't been able to fix."
   Paul swallowed nervously. "Can I see it?"
   Alexi nodded. "I'll come and get you at ten o'clock tonight. I've got
some medical supplies I want to pick up down in Slippery Squib. You
know...a doctor's bag and such. I want to start delving into real
necromancy, and I'm going to need scalpels, bandages, and all the
implements Professor Goering has in his operating room here at the
academy. I want to make a war ghul, Paul. I want to do it all by myself and
not with a team of lesser necromancers. Ziggy's mad at me for not bringing
back the water I promised him from the Well of Zanda, so he's refused to
help me steal any more things until I fulfill my word. So I'm just going by
myself."
   "He's mad at you even though you almost died?" Paul asked.
   "Yes," Alexi replied. "He thought the encounter with Hunter was
interesting, but it was no excuse to drop the vial."
   "From your description, this Hunter sounded very sexy," Paul said with a
grin. "I wish I could have seen him."
   "I wish the light was better. Gods, I don't even know if he's a man, but
the lines of his armor sure indicated that he was. Milbar's beard, Paul,
I'd never felt such strength nor seen such dexterity. His armor looked
poured on; his physique unearthly. While he held me, I ran my fingers down
the front of his cuirass and there were so many bumps it felt like a
washboard. But I've no idea what he actually looks like. Just thinking
about those strong fingers grabbing me makes my dick hard," Alexi said.
   "Was he hotter than a Timeron knight?" Paul asked.
   "Think of the hottest knight you've seen and set that memory to ashes,"
Alexi said. "That's how hot he was. All I could do was stare. I'm so glad
it was raining because I might have drooled. He was so tall, Paul, and he
had these broad shoulders that I could just imagine acting as foot
rests. His bubble butt was rock hard and perfect, and his thighs had a
finger's width of gap."
   This made Paul giggle. "Foot rests. Now that's funny."
   "One can dream, right?" Alexi asked.
   "So that term," Paul said, "the one you heard the other day while we
watched the death knight talk to the headmaster."
   "Golden galactorrhea?" Alexi asked, eyes still dreamily thinking of his
savior at the Well.
   "That's the one. I know what it means, and it's in this book that you
should be studying along with me."
   "What does it mean?" Alexi asked, clearly intrigued.
   "The short answer is that it happens to a man going through
transition—someone like me—that has sex with another man whose body
can produce royal jelly. It's extremely rare and there's a lot of specific
sexual things that have to happen for the condition to set in," Paul said.
   "What kind of specific things?" Alexi asked.
   "Off the top of my head, the swallowing of lots of semen, the
consumption of sweat, and the absorption of royal jelly-infused cum by the
intestine. It also involves a powerful necromantic spell that grows a
temporary uterus in the upper intestine. But the thing is, the spell's been
lost to time. The only thing that's known is that an actual egg needs to be
harvested from a living woman. Growing the uterus takes a few hours and
then the man that's transitioning gets impregnated by the other man whose
balls can produce royal jelly. A fetus gestates but dies because the uterus
isn't real. It's flushed out the colon along with the uterus in a kind of
bloody mess. The side effect of this pregnancy is that the transitioning
man's nipples start producing milk for the aborted fetus. It's this milk
that's called golden galactorrhea, and it has many useful magical
properties. Some are quite powerful."
   "That's a lot to take in," Alexi said. "No wonder Kahket is offering so
much money for just a little bit. If we could get our hands on some, we'd
be set for life. A half million gold pieces would allow us to live in any
country in the world like kings."
   "Or queens," Paul said with a sheepish smile. "I haven't decided yet,
but I'm glad you told me about your plans. It seems doable and it makes me
realize I've a lot more to think about. Life isn't easy for those of us
stuck in the precarious position of pretending we're something that we're
not."
   "Hey, after I show you my place tonight, will you go over those notes
you've made in your book for the exam on racial traits?" Alexi asked, as he
gathered up his belongings in a school satchel.
   Paul nodded. "I'll be ready at ten. Don't forget. I'll leave the door
unlocked to my dormitory and wait for you in the common room."
   Alexi left for his own room, which was in the girl's dormitory across
from the lecture halls devoted to healing. Necromancy as a discipline was
an umbrella study that covered a variety of topics that had one common
thread. A lot of it had to do with the reanimation of dead things,
controlling those things once they were reanimated, and destroying things
by reducing them to their ultimate natural state. But the common thread was
always life. So in a way, necromancy was the study of life and to fully
appreciate this, the girls were required to become doctors and surgeons in
their own right. This also afforded many who did not possess strong innate
talent for necromancy another path to follow as doctors and surgeons were
always in need.
   Alexi set down his books and exam papers on his makeshift desk. Then he
grabbed a map of Slippery Squib he'd pilfered from the library
archives. Choosing his path carefully, he put the map away, grabbed a cloak
and headed for the school gate.
   Because a Timeron knight by the name of Skellhaundar Romax had killed
the rampaging Abaddon demon a few days ago, there were no guards at the
gate to the school and girls were free to come and go as they pleased once
more. When he reached the bottom of the hill on which the sprawling academy
grounds rested, Alexi hailed a carriage and gave the driver directions.
   "I need to go to the Apothecary's Guild in Slippery Squib. It's between
the Guild of the Five Fishes and Omar's Imports," Alexi said, handing the
driver a single silver coin.
   The pudgy driver put it away and said, "It's late, miss. Slippery Squib
is dangerous without a man at your side to protect such a dainty thing as
yourself. The last sun's only got about an hour left is all. Are you sure
you want to go there alone?"
   "I am," Alexi replied. Then he climbed into the carriage; soon the creak
of the wheels gave him comfort that they were well on their way.
   A half hour later, Alexi arrived at the outside of the Apothecary's
Guild. By then, the skies had darkened prematurely with more winter
storms. The clouds looked angrier than normal, and roiling purple clouds
flashed with distant lightning that grew closer and louder by the
minute. Thunder pealed from the sides of buildings and almost spooked the
horses. Alexi gave the driver another silver coin and said, "Please wait
for me, sir. I shan't be long."
   The man looked afraid, glancing at the long shadows which choked the
narrow street. Plenty of people were out and about, but they looked a
swarthy and hungry crowd, many sporting smocks stained from working the
butcher houses, the tannery, or the anvils. Others watched the approaching
storm with passing interest, tossing the leftovers from evening meals to
wild dogs that roamed the alleys. A gang of hirsute men at the end of the
street harassed some tired-looking prostitutes gathered under a lamp
post. Even from here, Alexi could smell their perfume.
   Alexi regarded the outside of the Apothecary's Guild with wonder. It
stood three stories, and it looked dilapidated. The boards had been
whitewashed a number of times, but none of it recent. One of the windows
was completely covered in hard water stains and old spider webs. The sign
hung directly over the entry, gold letters on red and the image of a mortar
and pestle prominent in black paint.
   Next to this building on the left, the caravanserai called "Omar's
Imports" stood open to the public. A single portal large enough to permit
heavily-laden beasts stood greeting the street. Alexi could see the place
was crowded with stalls, bays, niches, and chambers accommodating merchants
and their servants, animals, and merchandise (which was for
sale). Everywhere men and women wandered. Some examined swords, others
spices, and yet more took to fingering baubles and trinkets of blown glass
imported from around the world. He heard a hundred different accents and
languages pouring forth from that door, and the entirety of it intrigued
him.
   However, he had business to attend to so he went into the Apothecary's
Guild and spent an hour gathering up all the things he wanted. Alexi spent
the last of his money here, and happily gave it to the man behind the
counter while grasping his "doctor's bag." By the time he finished, it was
snowing in the streets, and Alexi exited only to find that his driver had
abandoned him. He thought about going back inside the Apothecary's Guild
and asking them to send for another carriage, but they locked for the
night. At Omar's Imports next door, all the stalls had been shuttered, and
the merchants were gone for the night.
   "Fuck," Alexi said under his breath, feeling afraid and vulnerable.
   It was then that he heard voices coming from inside the
caravanserai. They sounded heated, and soon the ring of steel on steel
sounded from within.
   Alexi just had to see what was going on.
   Carefully, he crept around the corner, making certain to keep as close
to the stone wall as possible. When he found a suitable hiding place from
which to observe, he took it. There a hundred feet beyond a stack of crates
stood two giants. They both had onyx black skin and powerful frames. Alexi
had seen the male warrior before riding at the head of a column of Nykoran
soldiers and wearing resplendent ring mail. The other was a woman, and she
too wore knee-high leather boots pulled on tight over blue steel plate
armor, forged in a ring pattern. Not quite as tall as the man, they both
towered over Mr. Hunter who stood right between them with one foot against
a pine coffin. Alexi knew how tall Hunter was, and yet the man that saved
him last night only came to chest height on the woman.
   "Milbar's beard," Alexi swore, shaking his head in a double take.
   Hunter stood with twin wrist blades of cibrian metal gleaming in the
snowstorm. In his other hand, he held a powerful runeblade that glowed red
in the dark.
   "This ends here, Cirumoghel," Hunter warned through his helmet. "You
can't have Eph."
   Who's Eph? Alexi thought. Is he in the pine box?
   The death giant warrior tightened his grip about the huge soul-reaping
cadel. As if on cue, his ghostly shawl started moaning and Alexi saw
mouths, eyes and faces materialize in the mist clinging to his massive
shoulders. Beyond this fight, Alexi saw other humans looking on. But just
like Alexi, they gave these three at least a fifty-foot berth.
   "You should have fled the country, small one! Now when you die, no one
will mourn your life," Cirumoghel said. "Kahket gets what she wants. And
right now, she wants the Valion knight in that box."
   "Then come and get him, if you can," Hunter taunted.
   To everyone's surprise, the female death giant attacked first. She ran
at Hunter who interrupted the downward swing of the soul-stealing cadel
full-on with the edge of his magical sword, but the force of her stroke
drove him to his knees which produced a loud "crack" as he hit the stone
floor of the caravanserai.
   Sparks flew from Hunter's cibrian blade like fireworks on Silverspring
night. A warrior unused to battle might have backed off, but this death
giantess wanted to kill her victim without mercy. She hacked at Hunter with
swings so fast she might have been hitting at flies with a willow
switch. But the cadel was no mere stick, and blow after blow sang against
Hunter's blade like the blacksmith's hammer rings over an anvil of glowing
steel.
   Hunter fell back and caught his weight on his left palm where he spread
his fingers to provide him with greater balance. With speed that could only
come from years of executing such maneuvers, Hunter lifted his body and
kicked the giantess's feet out from under her. He performed the maneuver
perfectly, but her sheer size and strength didn't make it easy and Alexi
saw the strain on Hunter's back muscles (even through his armor!). Only
then did she topple and fall.
   The blow was so loud Alexi thought a lightning bolt had struck a
building next to him. Ridiculous, Alexi thought. That strike from Hunter
could have shattered the femur of an elephant.
   Then the snow started to whorl in a huge vortex and a great emerald
dragon swooped down from the sky, its mouth open and cackling. "And to
think, I once feared this pathetic thing," the dragon taunted. "Now it
shall feel the sting of my breath!"
   Hunter rolled to his feet and translocated, but this time to the diving
dragon. Hunter appeared out of the sky and behead the huge beast with one
swing of his sword. The dragon crashed into the ground, its tail whipping
through a dozen stalls as it rolled to a stop. The head of the great
emerald beast fell onto the pine coffin, shattering it open so that Alexi
could see the body of an unconscious knight inside. It still laughed and
showered the clearing with blood that steamed as it struck the snow. Then
the dragon's eyes grew dark.
   Hunter landed in a crouch and Cirumoghel was on top of him almost
immediately.
   Hunter tucked and rolled and swung again at the giantess. He looked to
try and finish her at the neck but grasping hands from her floating cape
ripped at his skin-tight armor and threw him into a block of
stone. Launching himself off it, Hunter landed on the balls of his feet
(more graceful than any cat) and crouched in a defensive stance. One more
time he avoided Cirumoghel with a teleport. Yet when he reappeared again
more ghostly claws grabbed him just short of the giantess's neck. This
time, however, she leapt to her feet and hurled him into the cobblestone
street with a simple gesture of her hand. Hunter screamed in pain, and the
giantess snatched her cadel from off the ground.
   Hunter whirled with his magical sword firmly grasped in the palm of his
hand. The giantess caught him by the wrist and slammed his hand into her
knee. As loud as the blow sounded, Hunter didn't release the blade. Then
Hunter dropped into a strange martial arts stance that reminded Alexi of
water. Hunter repositioned himself using only his feet and his torso, which
also served to loosen the grip the giantess had on his wrist, if only for a
second. She grunted, trying to maintain the hold, but Hunter managed to
break it in the next instant. Then he followed through across her middle
with the edge of the magical sword, and cut her through both armor and
flesh clean to the rib bone. He finished off her right arm by leaving it a
bloody stump.
   The giantess fell in a shower of blood.
   "Scream bitch!" Hunter yelled as he stood his full height over her prone
body. His sword rained crimson in thick rivers that cascaded from the
fuller and made the snow sticky.
   He swung at her neck, but she rolled away from him, grabbed her arm, and
reattached it to the stump.
   "Fuck me..." he cursed.
   More souls burned inside her cape, and she rolled backward. The giantess
came to her feet even as her armor re-knit itself over newly formed onyx
skin.
   Hunter teleported again and pierced her through the back and drove his
sword through her until it came forth in a spout between her massive
tits. Black blood fountained from her mouth and she dropped onto her knees,
placing her neck at Hunter's shoulders. She laughed and tried hitting
Hunter with her massive elbows. But the lithe assassin gritted his teeth
and cut her in half with the runesword. He kicked her legs forward and
punched her torso to the side as blood showered the ground.
   Cirumoghel laughed and Alexi stared in horror.
   The giantess's soul cape reached out and grabbed a hold of her legs and
pulled the pieces of her together.
   "Bloody fucking shit fuck cock damn!" Hunter screamed in anger. Then he
kicked at the snow.
   Cirumoghel grabbed Hunter about the throat with one hand and lifted him
into the air. Then he made a fist and punched Hunter in the ribs so hard it
knocked him thirty feet into the second story wall of a four-story
complex. Alexi half expected Hunter to teleport. When that didn't happen,
he knew the giant had caused some serious damage. Hunter fell to the
ground, sword clattering. Then Cirumoghel was on top of him, hammering him
with kicks and punches. He threw Hunter into a granite column, and even
from where Alexi crouched, he heard the snap of bones.
   "You don't look so great now," Cirumoghel uttered with absolute
contempt.
   He grabbed Hunter's leg and tossed him next to the Valion knight's
unconscious body. He pressed his huge foot on Hunter's throat. Nearly as
wide as the assassin's head, Hunter fought back by using both hands to push
up with all his strength just to keep the giant from cutting off his
windpipe.
   "Do you realize how fortunate you are?" Cirumoghel asked. At his back,
the female giantess had reassembled herself and was just now getting to her
feet. "I've led armies that have crushed nations under their heels. A
thousand slaves have licked my boots clean. And yet, you seem so
unappreciative of my greatness." Cirumoghel turned his boot so that the
side of it forced Hunter's head to the left. This way he could use his heel
to dig into the assassin's neck. The sole of Cirumoghel's boot flaked mud
and snow all over Hunter's helmet.
   Why doesn't he teleport? Alexi thought. His power must have limits, like
if he's restrained by something.
   "Fuck you!" Hunter grunted painfully.
   "We haven't been introduced," the giantess said. "I'm Mara Kano. Now,
how many of the knight's friends are here in Zanda City?"
   "I'll...never...tell...you," Hunter said with much difficulty.
   She grabbed Hunter's gauntleted hand, and he tried to form a fist to
resist her but the giantess possessed untold strength. "I asked only one
question," she said. "For that reason, I take only one finger." She easily
pried Hunter's hand open in a matter of seconds. Then she bent his middle
finger back at the knuckle. A second later, there was an audible snap as
she broke it in half.
   Hunter cried out, and Cirumoghel motioned for her to let him go and
obediently she dropped his arm.
   The huge death giant reached into a pouch and then pulled out some
unusual black shackles. Alexi realized in the next moment that they were
made from Abyssal stone. No! he screamed in his mind.
   "Bind him in those," Cirumoghel said. "Kahket will want to question
him."
   "My lord," Mara Kano said, "He can escape any bond. He's a Black Dragon
Assassin...they're the best killers in the world."
   Alexi blinked trying to think if he'd ever even heard of the words:
Black Dragon Assassin. Up until now, he hadn't.
   "The best?" Cirumoghel asked. He laughed again. "If he's the best then
it shall be easy to destroy Tethyr's church when the time comes. And for
your information, Mara, nothing can escape those shackles."
   Mara Kano nodded and then fastened the collar around Hunter's neck. Then
she shackled his feet and hands and threaded them with a chain. While she
did so, she put her knee on Hunter's chest and dug the toe of her boot into
the assassin's groin. The entire time, Hunter screamed; Alexi had never
heard anything so blood-curdling. Despite his incredible armor, smoke
curled upward from Hunter's neck, wrists, and ankles.
   He was literally being burned alive.
   "Please," he begged, "this hurts. Please, take it off."
   "It won't kill you through that armor," Mara Kano said. "For a Black
Dragon Assassin, you're a pitiful weakling. I thought you could withstand
pain."
   From over Alexi's left shoulder came the clomp of multiple hooves;
shortly after a contingent of Timeron knights rode into the plaza. Alexi
counted seven; all of them mounted on huge nightmares: black warhorses with
big cloven hooves and eyes of pure fire. In place of manes and tails were
thick plumes of ebony smoke. At their head rode the infamous general,
Skellhaundar Romax and at his side a diminutive priestess with long black
hair, light blue skin, and yellow eyes. She wore the robes and vestments of
the Queen of Demons and small golden horns sprouted from her forehead.
   Skellhaundar took a look at the death giants and dismounted. "I'll say
this once. Turn over your prisoners to me, and I'll spare your lives."
   The death giants looked at each other and tightened the grips they had
on their soul-reaping cadels.
   "We take orders only from the Dreaded Irtemara. If you want these men,
you'll have to come through me," Cirumoghel said, his soul cape stretching
out behind him and his weapon ever at the ready.
   "Skadeshai!" the cleric said, raising her hand. At her command, the
giant's soul cloaks filled with red lightning and tore themselves apart. A
second later, the spirits that the Nevrenachtur lords had so painstaking
harvested over the years drifted into the ether and vanished beyond the
veil of the snowy night.
   "Do you really want to fight me here?" Skellhaundar asked. "I do hope
that you say yes."
   Alexi shook his head, looking at Hunter who rolled around on the ground
in pain. I've got to do something. He saved my life.
   Alexi stoked that ball of necromancy that resided deep within his gut,
and it responded to his call with more urgency and power than he had ever
felt. He directed the full force of all that necromancy at Hunter's bonds
of Abyssal stone. The manacles vibrated for a moment, but no one
noticed. Alexi tried again, hurling even more power at the bonds...he
extended so much from within that he literally felt his own life ebbing
with the effort.
   Milbar's beard...please...I've got to break them.
   Fine filaments appeared in all of the manacles. These in turn became
cracks. When Hunter saw this he struggled with all his strength and broke
free of the collar. In an instant he snapped the manacles and kicked
himself free of the chains that held him.
   "He's getting away," Cirumoghel said to Mara Kano, who whirled on
Hunter. But she was too late.
   The dexterous assassin had already gotten to his feet (albeit weakly)
and retrieved his magical runesword. Then he vanished into the night. When
Alexi saw Hunter didn't reappear, he grabbed his doctor's bag and fled the
caravanserai on foot as fast as his heels could carry him.

				   *****

The complete novel is now available to read at
http://slckismet.blogspot.com/p/discussion-board-for.html under the label
"The Orb of Winter" if you care to read ahead.

Are there any artists out there willing to draw some pics for my story? If
so, please email me. There is an "Orb of Winter" map now in both the NEWS
section of my website and in the FORUMS of my website.

If you go to my website directly from this posting, you will want to begin
with "CHAPTER NINETEEN."