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The Sorceress and her Lovers – Excerpt

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The Sorceress and her LoversSaba and Eamon looked at one another. Then the sound of an explosion outside rattled the ceiling. Saba ran to the door and shoved, but it didn’t budge. It wasn’t locked, but the latch wouldn’t work. Pressing his face to the glass he saw the two wizards striding out into the street. Winton was casting a spell, while Cameron pulled a crumpled paper from his pocket. He said something and the paper bloomed into flame and then disappeared. Though no magic expert, Saba knew it was some kind of stored spell. He had seen them before, produced by the Result Mechanism. Because of his limited viewpoint and an inconveniently placed tree, he couldn’t see at whom this magical firepower was aimed. And then he did.

Walking down the slope from the print shop was a teen-age boy that Saba didn’t recognize, in a sharp grey suit and bowler hat. Taking her place beside him was Zurfina the Magnificent. No, it wasn’t Zurfina. It was Senta, though she looked so much like her mother, dressed all in black leather. And she was carrying the baby.

Glancing quickly around, Saba picked up a metal display shelf and flung it at the large front window, which shattered. Climbing over stacks of displayed shop goods, he jumped outside, knocking down more glass in the process.

“Stay here and take care of the kids!” he called back to Eamon, before rushing away.

The police inspector didn’t run out into the street. He knew enough about magic to know that he stood no chance against anyone wielding that kind of power. Instead he hugged the edge of the shops, keeping parked steam carriages and shrubbery between him and the magic users as much as possible. As he did so, he kept his eye turned toward them.

Colorful bolts of energy shot back and forth between the two uniformed wizards and the boy, evidently a wizard himself. One of the energy bolts was deflected away and set fire to the front of the millinery shop. Another caused a steam carriage to explode. Saba saw Senta wave her hand, and he expected something amazing. But nothing seemed to happen. The look on her face told him that she was as surprised as he was.

The world turned bright blue monochrome as a bolt of lightning shot from Winton’s fingertips, hitting the Drache Girl in the upper body. She was sent flying and the baby fell unceremoniously onto the street, letting out a loud wail. Saba jumped to his feet and ran toward the little girl. He had gone no more than ten steps when his legs were kicked out from beneath him. He tumbled down over the grass, over the sidewalk, and into the gutter.

He looked up to see his assailant race past him. Saba didn’t so much recognize him as knew instinctively who he was. It was Baxter, the man who he had met in the men’s shop: the one who had been carrying this same baby in his arms. Diving across the pavement, he scooped up the little girl, rolled and came to his feet, cradling her in one arm while aiming a pistol at the two police wizards. He fired off six rounds, not stopping until he reached cover behind a car. Either he missed his target or the wizards had a shield up to protect them. Saba watched in fascination as the man cradled the child to him, kissing her on the head, all the while emptying his pistol of the spent cartridges.

The police inspector’s attention was jerked back to the present. Senta was back on her feet. Hissing epithets, she swept her hand around her head and then aimed it toward the two wizards. So many things happened at once that it was almost impossible to see and understand them. A gigantic tyrannosaurus appeared in a black cloud of smoke near Wizard Cameron. In a smaller cloud of smoke, a growling wolf appeared near the sorceress. A blast of energy hit the young wizard near her, knocking him down. A huge spectral hand appeared above Wizard Winton and mashed him flat to the ground.

His eyes drawn to the tyrannosaurus, Saba saw Cameron blast it with a bolt of lightning. The beast fell over onto its back, kicked the air several times, and then rolled back to its feet. Its tail overturned the car behind which Baxter was hiding. Not bothering with the kneeling man holding the baby, the predator stalked away toward the southwest. Looking to his right, Saba saw that the wolf that had threatened Senta was already dead—frozen into a block of ice. A massive fireball, twenty feet in diameter, rolled from Cameron towards the sorceress. She waved her hand and it was deflected away, hitting a large pine tree across the street and setting it afire. Saba glanced back at Cameron just in time to see that Baxter had moved up parallel with him. Baby still in his arms, he aimed his pistol toward the wizard’s head and fired. Cameron’s brains sprayed out across the street. He stood still for a few seconds, and then toppled over onto the pavement.

Jumping to his feet, Saba ran toward Senta. She looked pale and weak and before he could reach her, she dropped to her knees. He was almost next to her when she yelled, “Stop!” It took a second before he realized that she wasn’t yelling at him. He looked over his shoulder to see Baxter a few feet behind, aiming the pistol at him.

“Are you all right?” Saba asked, reaching out and holding her shoulder.

“See to Peter.” She pointed at the young man.

In two steps, Saba was by the boy’s side. He was unconscious but it was obvious he was breathing. The shoulder of his suit had a smoldering hole in it. The skin beneath was badly burnt. He quickly looked over the rest of his body, but found no other obvious injuries.

“He’ll be all right. How’s the baby?” He suddenly realized that the child hadn’t made a sound since she had been picked up.

“She’s fine,” said Baxter, still aiming the gun in Saba’s general direction.

“Put that away,” ordered the police inspector.

Looking around he saw Eamon and the children climbing out of the broken pfennig store window. Then from around the corner ran Wizard Bell and four constables, each of whom was carrying a rifle.

“Uuthanum bashtai,” growled Senta.

Saba turned to find her pointing her finger toward Bell. Looking back, he saw the wizard raise his hands as if he had a gun pointed at him.

“There’s a tyrannosaurus gone that way,” Saba shouted to the constables, pointing. “Get on after him.”

The four men took off in the direction he had indicated. They would have no problem following the trail. Saba looked at Bell. The wizard opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He shrugged.

“He won’t be able to say anything for a few hours,” said Senta, struggling with Baxter’s aid to her feet. “I’m not taking any more chances with your wizards.”

“Uuthanum eetarri,” she said, extinguishing the flames on the front of the millinery shop and in the pine tree across the street.

The Sorceress and her Lovers – Excerpt

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The Sorceress and her LoversThe sorceress ordered the dragon into the adjoining room, which was little more than a closet really. Even though they had the largest suite on the S.S. Windlass, which was the largest Brech dirigible—quite a bit bigger than the Frühlingshuhn—it was still only a collection of three very small rooms. Then she sat down with the baby and attempted to give her a bottle. She did take it, but fussed when her mother tried to burp her, until she was given over to Baxter, who completed the job and had her asleep inside of five minutes.

“Now where were we?” he asked, unbuttoning his shirt.

“I hate to spoil the mood,” she said, “but there is a man spying on us outside that door.”

“What kind of man?”

“A wizard.”

“A government wizard or a freelancer who’s out to get you?”

“Does it matter?” she asked.

“It does to me. King and country and all still means something to me.”

“Very well,” she sighed. “Uuthanum.” She waved a finger toward the door. “He’s from the Ministry of War.”

“All right.” Baxter went into the third room of the suite, the tiny parlor, and then out the door from there to the hall. Senta could hear a brief tussle in the hallway outside. Then Baxter entered through the bedroom door from the corridor. In his right fist he carried a man in pin stripes by the scruff of the neck. The man was clutching at his throat and fighting for breath.

“I doubt he’ll say any magic words for a minute or two. I don’t suppose he’ll be able to answer any questions either.”

“Oh, I don’t want to interrogate him. I just want him to go away.” She raised her hands above her head. “Rezesic edios uuthanum illiam vor.”

The man in the pin stripes disappeared with a pop.

“Where did he go?” asked Baxter, looking at his right hand.

“Away.”

“I was holding him.”

“Don’t worry. I don’t miss.”

“Did he make it back to Greater Brechalon?”

“Probably. If not, then somewhere between here and there.”

“We’re a hundred miles out to sea.”

“Then he picked an extremely poor time to spy at my door,” said Senta.

The Sorceress and her Lovers – Excerpt

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The Sorceress and her LoversThere were twelve broad steps leading up to an ancient grey door. Upon reaching it, Senta rested for a moment before knocking. Switching her bag momentarily to her other hand and resting the baby on her hip, she reached up into the air above her and picked one of the sparkling magic jewels that orbited her head. Like the magic residue on the building, they were something that only she could see. After crushing it between her fingers, she returned her handbag to her right hand and hefted little Senta a bit higher on her hip.

“You’re too heavy to carry around,” she told the baby. “Perhaps we should have brought the pram with us.”

The door opened with a groan, revealing a man in a worn tweed jacket. He had a heavy grey beard, bushy grey eyebrows, and a monocle in his right eye. About five feet seven, he looked up into Senta’s grey eyes.

“I’m looking for Peter Sallow,” she said with a smile.

“Did I ask who you were looking for?” he said in a wheezy voice. “I don’t care who you’re looking for. Go away.”

“Get out of the way, old man. I’ll find him myself.”

The man raised both hands dramatically. “Uuthanum!”

“How very disappointing,” said Senta. “I wasted one of my best protective spells and all you had was four syllables. Uuthanum pestor uusteros jonai.”

The bearded man gave a squeak and then he seemed to turn inside out. A long tail shot out behind him as his neck stretched up and his head grew thinner, his eyes becoming wider, his mouth and nose forming into a parrot-like beak. He bent over at the waist. His clothes turned to feathers. In three seconds he had completely transformed into one of the strange Birmisian birds—a conchoraptor. Before she had left Port Dechantagne, Senta had seen a group of the six-foot long beasts eating pinecones at the edge of her garden. The creature gave a squawk and raced off down the steps and up the street. The sorceress could hear the shrieks of startled Brech citizens as she bent down to pick up the monocle, which was the only thing that remained where the man had been.

Stepping inside, she closed the door behind her and walked down a long hallway to a study. The walls were covered with bookcases, filled with books, making the room smell of moldy paper, old glue, and leather. A cast iron stove made it uncomfortably warm. In the corner, hunched over a small writing desk was a young man of eighteen. It had been six years since she had seen him, but Senta recognized him.

“Hello Peter.”

He looked up, squinting. “You!”

“Well spotted,” said Senta, plopping the baby in a plush but dusty armchair. “What are you working so hard on over there?”

“I’m copying Master Hollingberry’s mathematics text.”

“Is he the old fool with the monocle?” she asked, casually flipping the eyeglass toward him like a coin. He caught it and nodded, as he stared at it in his hand. “I’m not very impressed.”

“I’m still an apprentice. I can’t advance without a teacher,” said the young man with a frown. “Master Hollingberry isn’t… wasn’t?” He looked up at her.

“He’s still alive.”

“He isn’t the great wizard that Master Bassington was, but I needed someone. I was all on my own.”

The Two Dragons – Excerpt

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The Two DragonsA third and a fourth lizzie stepped up onto the platform to be smashed by the stone of Hissussisthiss. The lizardmen in the audience seemed to be enjoying themselves—talking, slapping each other on the shoulder, and bouncing up and down in their seats.

“I think I pieced it together,” said Bratihn. “I’ve been listening to these brutes behind us. The citizens vote on who they want to be down there, and the top five hundred vote-getters are sacrificed. It’s their chance to get rid of their rivals and the neighbors they don’t get along with.”

“Kafira,” muttered Brown. Senta thought that he might be imagining how many of his neighbors would vote for him.

Suddenly her attention was pulled back to the sacrificial boulder. A young female lizardman had just stepped into the place of honor. Senta immediately recognized her as Szim, the lizzie who had served as her tour guide the day before. The giant rock trembled for just a moment. Senta snatched one of the floating glamours from around her head, activating the spell stored within it. She stretched out her right hand just as the boulder began to fall. It stopped in the air a foot above the lizzie’s head.

“Oomph,” Senta grunted. It felt as though three hundred pounds had been dropped on her shoulders. She could hear pandemonium erupt around her as lizardmen all over the arena began hissing and gesturing wildly. She could hear her companions as well.

“What the hell are you doing?” growled Staff.

“You’re going to get us killed,” said Brown.

“Form a cordon,” Bratihn called to the other former soldiers.

The reptilian witch doctor went running across the arena’s open area. He brandished his lizard fetish and cast his own spell, trying to force the rock down. Senta felt sweat break out all over her body. It wasn’t because of this new spell though. It was because of the great weight of the draconic rock, which was far heavier than her telekinesis spell was normally empowered to lift. Compared to the simple physics of gravity, the witch doctor’s spell was a veritable pebble.

When he saw that pushing the rock wasn’t going to work, the lizardman turned toward her waving his lizard lollipop. Two tiny shooting stars sprayed from his talisman. With her free hand, Senta grabbed another glamour, throwing a shield spell around her and her companions. The energy darts ricocheted off into the sky.

“Uuthanum uastus carakathum nit!” she shouted. The witch doctor was engulfed in a pond of mud where a moment before there had only been stone.

“Leave the lizzie!” shouted Staff. “We’ve got to get the hell out of here!”

“Do I tell you how to drive a boat,” said Senta, but her voice was quavering, and her body was starting to shake.

Then she heard the shouting of the Freedonian commander. “Halten sie sie auf!”

One of the wizards, she thought it was Hoff, cast a spell to force the rock down. She took no more notice of it than she had of the witch doctor’s first spell. Neither of them was a match for her. Then Tourbell threw a simple electricity spell at her, a far less potent version of the lightning spell with which she had killed the flock of achillobators. It bounced off of her magical shield. The third wizard, evidently the most powerful of the three, tried the more direct approach. He tried to overpower her mind with a domination spell. Senta grunted as a blinding pain shot through her skull. The dragon stone dropped about six inches, before she caught it again.

“Uuthanum uluchaiia uluthiuth,” she said, sending a ball of flame shooting from the fingers of her left hand. It grew to a size of ten feet in diameter in the short distance between the Brechs and the Freedonians, and burst upon the wizard, igniting him and two non-magical Freedonians. Half a dozen other humans as well as a dozen lizzies who were nearby had small patches of hair, clothing, and skin catch fire.

Senta could see Bratihn in the right corner of her eye brandishing a pistol at someone. The party had not brought their rifles, but he must have kept the handgun concealed. When a lizzie approached too close, he shot it in the face. Other sporadic gunfire echoed around her. She could feel the stone slipping. Her will was not enough to hold it up forever.

“Rezesic edios uuthanum erros paj,” she said, casting the same type of telekinesis spell she was using to hold up the boulder, instead to yank Szim out from under it. The lizzie went flying down onto the floor of the arena. The rock shaped like Hissussisthiss slammed down onto the platform, smashing through it, destroying the copper mechanism below. Then it rolled over on its side into the large puddle of mud now dominating the stadium floor, squashing the witch doctor beneath it.

The Young Sorceress – Excerpt

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The Young SorceressWissinger waited for almost two hours, but when she stepped out of the doorway, he immediately knew that he had made a mistake. This wasn’t Zurfina—at least it wasn’t the Zurfina he knew. This was a mere girl, and yet she looked like the woman that had twice visited the writer in the ghetto and once more on the S.S. Waif des Vaterlands. And that similarity went beyond the bizarre leather clothing. If she wasn’t Zurfina, she had to be associated with her somehow—her daughter maybe, or her sister.

The girl was accompanied by three men and a boy, who surrounded her like a cordon as she walked through the street. She carried a bulging carpetbag in her hand and Wissinger was bothered that none of her male companions offered to carry it for her. The five of them stepped out onto what passed for a main thoroughfare in St. Ulixes, and Wissinger followed along right behind them.

No sooner had they turned the corner, than there were several loud cracks of rifle fire. Two of the men with the Zurfina girl were shot, the older man though the chest and the younger man wearing a fez, right through the head, spraying both the girl and the boy with blood and brains. Before the two bodies had even fallen, bolts of magical energy shot from down the street at the remainder of the party. More rifle fire followed.

“On the roof!” shouted Wissinger involuntarily when he spotted half a dozen men with rifles on the roof across the street.

The girl raised her hand and a massive ball of flame shot from her toward the riflemen. The entire building on which they were perched exploded. She gave Wissinger a quick glance before turning her attention to the attack coming from down the street.

Human beings and trogs alike fled the area, some diving into open doorways, others simply running for their lives. Walking down the center of the street were three men. Wissinger felt a little thrill of fear as he realized that Von Grieg was one of them. The others were the two Reine Zauberei that he had seen at the train station. They waved their hands and bolts of energy shot from their fingertips. The girl waved her hand and the bright blue balls of magic ricocheted away, crashing into buildings and starting more fires. She waved again and thick black smoke rose from the ground which, added to the smoke from the fires, quickly engulfed the entire street.

“Come here,” she called, and it took Wissinger a few seconds to realize that she was talking to him.

He ran over before the smoke made it completely impossible to see.

“Help them get him off the street.” She pointed to the man who had been shot through the chest, and the writer saw that he was still breathing and awake.

Wissinger took one arm and the boy took the other. They dragged him away as the remaining man fired off his own magical missiles through the smoke in what could only have been the most general direction toward his enemies.

“Come on, Geert!” called the boy. “If we can get him back to the lodge, we have healing draughts for him.”

The young man pushed Wissinger aside and took his place with the wounded man.

“We’ve got him,” he said to the girl. “You need to get out of here.”

“Right,” she replied. “You have fire wards, I trust?”

“Yes,” he said, now thirty feet down the alley. “Good luck.”

The girl grabbed Wissinger by the shoulder. Even though he was several inches taller than her, it seemed as though he was looking up at her. “You stay with me.”

She took three steps back out into the street, stretched her hand out into the smoke filled air, and said “Uuthanum uluchaiia uluthiuth.” Another gigantic ball of fire shot down the street, but this time it ignited the thick black smoke. The buildings burned. The very air burned. It was as close to the Kafirite description of Hell as Wissinger ever wanted to see. He could hear people screaming close by and further up the street.

“Gott in Himmel!” he cried, as what had once been a man, but now was nothing but a torch ran past him. He hoped it was one of the Reine Zauberei. He wouldn’t have wished such a fate on anyone else.

“Come on then,” said the girl. She led him down the alley after the others, but turned down a different direction. “Who the hell are you, anyway?”

“Um, I… I’m a friend… of Zurfina.”

“Huh,” she said with a frown.

“Are you her daughter?”

“Kafira no,” she said. “I’m her apprentice, Senta.”

“I’ve never seen magic like that before.”

“Well, it was no Epic Pestilence, but it was all right.”

The Drache Girl – Excerpt

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The Drache Girl“I’ve been waiting quite a while for you, sorceress.” He smiled broadly, his thin-lipped mouth seeming abnormally wide across his heavy jaw line.

“I’m not a sorceress. I’m just a little girl and you should leave me alone.”

“Ah, I know that game.” He pulled the horn-rimmed spectacles from his upturned nose and wiped first his eyes and then the lenses with a handkerchief, replacing the glasses on his face and the handkerchief in his pocket. “You make three statements. One is true and the other two are lies. Then I have to guess which is true. Right? Then I will have to say, you are a little girl.”

Senta crossed her arms and rocked back onto the heels of her shoes.

“My turn,” said the wizard. “My name is Smedley Bassington. I was born in Natine, Mirsanna. I know nothing about magic.”

“That’s too easy,” said Senta. “Smedley.”

“You should say Mr. Bassington. After all, I am your elder. One mustn’t be rude.”

“Okay, this one is harder,” replied Senta. “I’m going to have to say, number two, you are my elder.”

Bassington took a step forward, and then another.

“Uuthanum,” said Senta, waving her hand.

“Uuthanum,” said Bassington, waving his hand in an almost identical motion.

It might have seemed as though the two were exchanging some kind of secret greeting. In actuality, Senta had cast an invisible protective barrier between them. Bassington had dispelled the magic, destroying the barrier.

“I’ve been looking forward to meeting you, the chosen apprentice of the most powerful sorceress in the world. That is, after I found out Zurfina was here. I had no idea where she had gotten to. Here I was, checking out that idiot and his machine, and instead I find the two of you.”

“I think that’s too many statements,” said Senta.

He stopped in the middle of the road about five feet away from her. A little wisp of wind whipped his short graying hair.

“Did she leave you here alone to take care of yourself? That’s just what she does, you know? She’s totally unreliable.”

“Are you allowed to use questions?” asked Senta, thinking to herself that this wizard did indeed seem to have her guardian pegged.

“Let’s not play that game,” said Bassington. “Let’s play something a little better suited to our unique abilities.”

He held out his hand, waist high, palm down and said. “Maiius Uuthanum nejor.”

Red smoke rose up from the ground just below his hand. It swirled and coalesced into a shape. The shape became a wolf. Its red eyes seemed to glow and the hair on its back and shoulders stood up as it bared its dripping fangs and snarled at Senta. She held out her own hand, palm pointed down.

“Maiius Uuthanum,” she said.

Green smoke rose from the ground below her hand, swirling around in a little cloud, finally billowing away to reveal a velociraptor with bright green and red feathers.

“A bird?” said Bassington, derisively.

The wolf lunged forward, snapping its teeth. The velociraptor clamped its long jaw shut on the wolf’s snout, and grasped its head in its front claws. The huge curved claw on the velociraptor’s hind foot slid down the canine’s belly, slicing it open and spilling steaming entrails out onto the gravel. A moment later, in a swirl of multihued smoke, both creatures disappeared again.

“Prestus Uuthanum,” said Bassington, placing his right palm on his chest, and casting a spell of protection on his own body.

“Uuthanum uusteros pestor,” said Senta, spreading her arms out wide. She seemed to split down the center as she stepped both right and left at the same time. Where there had been one twelve-year-old girl a moment ago, there were now four twelve year old girls who looked exactly the same.

The wizard waved his hand and said. “Ariana Uuthanum sembor.” All four Sentas found themselves stuck in a mass of giant, sticky spider webs.

One of the blond girls fell down. One of them pulled vainly at the webbing. The third picked up a rock from the ground and threw it with all of her might at Bassington hitting him just above the temple. The fourth waved her hand, saying the magic word “uuthanum”, and dispelling the webs. The girl who had pulled at the webbing helped the fallen girl stand up, and then the two of them merged together. The other two girls merged into her, and once again, there was only one Senta.

“Uuthanum uusteros vadia,” said Bassington and he disappeared.

Senta stood there for a moment, and then out of the corner of her eye, she saw several pieces of gravel shift on the ground to her left. She pointed her finger in the direction.

“Uuthanum Regnum,” she said.

A ray of colorful, sparkling light sprayed from her fingertip in the direction she pointed. Bassington cried out in surprise and reappeared, though he didn’t seem to suffer any ill effects of the spell, which usually left its victims covered in painful rashes.

“Erros Uuthanum tijiia,” he said.

A huge spectral hand, more than five feet across, appeared in the air in front of Senta. The middle finger was bent back beneath the thumb, and then flicked Senta in the chest. She fell backwards onto her bottom, crunching her bustle, and sliding several feet across the gravel road. She struggled to suck in a breath.

“Time to say ‘uncle’, don’t you think?” Bassington crossed his arms.

Senta tilted her head back and at last managed to pull some air into her lungs. The wizard waited.

“Well?” he said, finally.

“The sky is purple,” said Senta. “My dress is orange, and my dragon is going to bite your head off.”

Bassington stared for only a moment at Senta’s blue dress, before diving out of the way, just as Bessemer landed with a huge whomp right where he had been standing.

“Maiius Uuthanum nejor paj!” shouted Bassington, pointing toward the dragon, and then turned and ran north up the road as fast as he could.

Red smoke erupted just in front of Bessemer. As it dissipated, it revealed a huge shaggy man-like creature, covered in white hair and more than seven feet tall. Senta had never seen a gharhast ape before except in books, but she recognized one now that she saw it. The ape bared a set of incredibly long fangs, and yelling out a tremendous roar, jumped onto the dragon. Two very human looking hands grabbed the dragon around the neck as the ape attempted to dig its fangs into Bessemer’s neck. The steel colored scales remained impenetrable, though a startled look was visible in the dragon’s eyes.

The Dark and Forbidding Land – Excerpt

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The Voyage of the MinotaurNoticing that Finkler’s Bakery was open, Senta started across the square toward it. She wasn’t hungry, having just finished tea, but was interested to see what service at Port Dechantagne’s first eating establishment looked like. Halfway there she suddenly stumbled, sprawling across the gravel, wet and muddy with melted snow and scratchy with rock salt and jagged pebbles. Looking toward her feet, she spied a large rock that had obviously been the cause of her tumble. But how could she have missed it? Looking toward the pfennig store, she saw Streck laughing heartily. Jumping to her feet, she aimed a spell at him.

“Uuthanum,” she said, and six or seven gallons of water appeared in the air above the Freedonian’s head, dousing him.

Senta could see him mouthing the magic word even though she couldn’t hear it. Her feet flew out from beneath her, plopping her onto her bottom in the wet gravel. She fired right back, causing the pfennig store door to fly open, smacking Streck in the back of the head. With a shout in Freedonian that was no doubt profane, he made half a dozen determined strides toward her before remembering himself and coming to a stop in the middle of the square.

“Why don’t you shoot a lightning bolt?” he called to her. “Or perhaps a fireball?”

“I don’t want to burn down Mr. Parnorsham’s store.”

He sneered, then raised both hands toward her and said. “Talik Uuthanum.”

It was the first magic above the most basic cantrip that Senta had seen him do, and because the spell was an unfamiliar one, she didn’t know what to expect.

“Prestus Uuthanum,” she said, throwing a shield up around herself. She felt the magic bounce off and she saw Streck’s eyes widen. She mentally flipped through the spells with which she could counter-attack, but she didn’t use any of them. She waited to see what he would do. He stared at her for a moment, and then turning on his heel, he strode swiftly from the Town Square.

“Too right,” she called after him. “And don’t come back.”

Brushing off her coat, Senta turned to see about twenty people watching her from in front of the bakery. Their expressions were not difficult to read. There was concern, curiosity, and yes there was definitely fear. Some turned and went about their business, but most continued to watch her as she slowly crossed the square toward them.

“How’s the food?” she asked, when she was just a few steps away.

“It is of course, excellent,” said Aalwijn Finkler, stepping forward from the back of the group. “Would you like me to wrap up a couple of sandwiches and some soup for you to take home for dinner?”

“Um, I don’t have any money.”

“I will be happy to extend you credit.”

“Alright then.”

Senta waited outside the bakery, half watching to see if Streck would return. By the time Aalwijn came out with a small box loaded with wrapped packages of food, most of the gawkers were gone.

“I added a nice large piece of strudel—my gift for anyone who fights the Reine Zauberei.”

“So you know about them, eh?”

“There has been much talk of them and of him, among the Zaeri colonists.”

“Well, don’t get your corset in a twist. He’s just a wanker.”

The Voyage of the Minotaur – Excerpt

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The Voyage of the Minotaur“Hello beautiful ladies,” said an accented voice from the east side of the stream.

Senta and Zurfina both looked up to see Suvir Kesi standing beneath a large pine. He wore his usual bright blue clothes and yellow fez with a blue tassel on top. He held his right hand straight out and dangled an 8 ½ x 11 inch sheet of paper.

“Uuthanum,” he said, and the paper burst in flame from the bottom, burning upwards as if it had been soaked in lamp oil.

“What the hell was that supposed to be?” asked the sorceress.

“A bit of mathematics,” Kesi giggled. “A result of the mechanism, you might say.”

“Silly thing to die over,” said Zurfina, “Uuthanum.”

She pointed to him with her right index finger, but nothing happened.

“Uuthanum uluchaiia uluthiuth!” shouted Kesi, raising both hands, and pressing them together, palms up.

A sphere of flame formed as he pulled his palms apart. Only two inches across, it surged and swirled there for a second, then shot toward the sorceress. In the thirty feet or so between the two of them, the ball of flame grew until when it hit Zurfina, it was six feet across. It exploded into a huge flash, knocking Senta away and into the water. When she looked back, she saw Zurfina completely on fire, her clothing and even her hair in flames. She too fell into the water, in a cloud of steam and smoke. Kesi let out another shrill laugh.

Senta couldn’t believe it, but Zurfina climbed back to her feet. Most of the black leather pants and leather corset she was wearing were gone, as was most of her blond hair. Her skin was scorched and when she moved, it cracked hideously. She pointed her finger again at Kesi.

“Uuthanum uastus corakathum paj,” she hissed. Again nothing happened.

“Bechnoth uuthanum pestor paj,” said Kesi, stretching out his hand.

A cone of cold, like the simple spell that Senta had learned her first day with Zurfina, but much larger and more powerful sprang from the wizard’s hand. The frosty air cut through the space between the two spellcasters, centering on Zurfina. In seconds, frost formed to cover her entire body, even freezing the stream for ten feet or more around her.

Senta let out a shriek and ran for the protection of the nearest tree on the opposite side of the river from where Kesi stood. She ducked behind a redwood three feet in diameter and dropped to her knees.

“Don’t go far!” called Kesi. “I have something I need to show you!”

It wasn’t the wizard, but a crashing sound that made Senta look around the tree. Just as she had suspected, Zurfina had broken out of the icy prison, melting the frost on her body and the ice in the stream. Senta had always thought that Zurfina could not be harmed by magic, but now the sorceress looked very unsteady. She reached up and snatched something out of the air near her face and threw the invisible object at Suvir Kesi. Whatever it was must have hit near him, because from out of the ground around his feet sprang a dozen black tentacles, each more than ten feet long. They immediately began grappling with the man. Zurfina dropped backwards into a sitting position in the chilly water.

Senta watched as Kesi pulled out a large curved dagger and began to hack at the tentacles, which wrapped themselves around his legs, arms, and neck. There was a real look of panic in his face, but after a moment, he began cutting more of the slippery black tentacles than grew to replace the ones lost. A look of triumph came over him and he slashed with renewed vigor until the last of the squiggly conjurations were gone. Throughout it all, Zurfina sat unmoving, the six-inch deep water flowing around her.

“Nothing to say?” asked Kesi, looking down at the sorceress. “Power all gone? I don’t think so. You still look a little feisty to me.”

“Uuthanum rechthinov uluchaiia,” he said.

Even as he did so, the sorceress grabbed another of the glamours floating around her head and threw it. It looked as though it took all her energy to do so. A bolt of lightning shot from Kesi’s hand directly at her. But a misty form, shaped like the spectral hand of some ghostly giant appeared out of nowhere, palm raised up like that of a police constable directing traffic, and the lightning bolt ricocheted away at a sharp angle.

“That was it, wasn’t it?” said the wizard. “Now you’re done. Thank goodness for that mechanical contraption. Without it, I never would have been able to formulate a spell powerful enough to counter magic that, well let’s be honest, is normally greater than mine by a factor of four.”

Brechalon – Excerpt

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BrechalonZurfina had her ticket on the B511 out of Brech to Flander on the southern coast, where she had already arranged to meet a boat that would take her to a ship bound for Mirsanna. There was no way that she could stay in Brechalon any longer. The government had refused to accept her independence. They would have her join the military or they would see her destroyed. They had already sent a dozen wizards and two sorcerers against her. But Zurfina was the greatest practitioner of sorcery in the Kingdom and was more than a match for any wizard.

A man in a brown suit stepped out from behind a pillar. To the other people in the station, he seemed nothing out of the ordinary, but to Zurfina he glowed bright yellow and was surrounded by a sparkling halo. She didn’t wait for him to cast a spell. She pointed her hand toward him and spat out an incantation.

“Intior uuthanum err.”

Immediately the man doubled over, wracked with uncontrollable cackling laughter. But before Zurfina could smile appreciatively, she was thrown from her feet as the world around her exploded in flames. She had been hit in the back by a fireball, and only the fact that she had previously shielded herself prevented her from becoming a human candle, as four or five innocent bystanders around her now did. Rolling to her feet and turning around, she found that she faced not one, but four wizards. The one who had evidently cast the fireball was preparing another spell, while the other three were casting their own. Her shield protected her from the lightning bolt, and the attempt to charm her, but one of the four magic missiles hit her, burning her shoulder as though it had been dipped in lava.

“Uuthanum uastus corakathum paj—Prestus Uuthanum.” Zurfina ducked into a side alcove as one of the wizards turned to stone and her own shield was replenished. Several more magical bolts struck the stone wall across from her, creating small burnt holes. Peering quickly around the corner, she saw the four wizards just where she left them, the three trying to use their petrified comrade as cover. Looking in the other direction, she saw that the wizard cursed with laughter had recovered and he had been joined by two more.

Seven wizards—well, six. That was a lot of magical firepower. But then Zurfina looked across the station platform. Directly opposite her was the open door of a train; not the B511, but a train bound for somewhere else. If she could reach it, she could get away. She glanced quickly around the corner again. The smell of burnt bodies mixed with thick black smoke in the air, but though there was plenty of the former, there was not enough of the latter for Zurfina’s taste.

“Uuthanum,” she said, and a thick fog began to fill the station platform.

“Maiius uuthanum nejor paj.” The three wizards to her right suddenly faced a dog the size of a draft horse, snarling and foaming at the mouth, and they felt their spells were better aimed at it than any blond sorceress.

Turning to her left, Zurfina cast another spell. “Uuthanum uastus carakathum nit.”

The cement that formed the other end of the platform turned to mud. The petrified wizard, deprived of his secure foundation toppled over onto one of his comrades, crushing him, while the other two struggled to pull themselves from the muck. Zurfina shot out of the alcove and ran toward the train. She had almost made it, when Wizard Bassington stepped into the open doorway in front of her.

She stopped right there in the open, unbalanced, unsure now whether to run left or right or back the way that she had come. She felt uncomfortably like an animal caught on the road in the headlamps of an oncoming steam carriage. Bassington didn’t move. He stared at her with his beady eyes. His eyes went wide though when Zurfina reached up to snatch something out of the air. Normal, non-magical people couldn’t see them, but he could—the glamours that orbited her head were spells cast earlier, awaiting the moment when she needed them.

She crushed the glamour and pointed her hand at the spot where Bassington stood, just as he dived away. The entryway where the wizard had been, and the passenger coaches on either side of him exploded, lifting much of the train up off the track as metal and wood shrapnel and human body parts flew in every direction. The flash knocked Zurfina herself back onto the cement and sent her sliding across the pavement and into the far wall. Before she could get up, she was hit with a dozen bolts of magical fire, some but not all of them deflected by her magic shield. It was a spell of weakening, followed by one of sleep though that finally dropped her head unconscious to the ground. The last thing she saw was Bassington’s hobnail boots walking toward her.

His Robot Girlfriend: Charity – Excerpt

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HRG Charity“Are you thinking of moving to Big Bear City?” asked Mindy.

“It’s a great place to live,” said Tag.

“They have nice parks and excellent schools,” said one of the girls, marking the first time that Dakota had heard either one of them speak more than a single word.

“Oh, do you go to school?”

“Of course not,” said Stephen.

“The children are homeschooled,” said Mindy.

“Of course. No, I don’t think we’ll be staying.”

“Dakota needs to find a position in which he can reach his potential,” said Charity.

“Yes, and I need a job too,” he said, smiling at his own joke.

“Sometimes they hire threaders at the Sherriff’s Department,” said Stephen. “I could check an see if there are any openings.”

“I’ll let you know.”

When they finished eating, the robots all retired into the house, leaving the two men on the deck.

“Great meal,” said Dakota.

“Yeah, thanks. So, I think this is as good a time as any to talk. What’s going on with you?”

“There’s really not much to tell. I was living with this girl. I thought it was true love, but I caught her cheating on me, so I left. I was pissed, so I took a bunch of her stuff and donated it to GoodWorks.”

“Illegal,” said Stephen, nodding. “But at least you didn’t shoot them. I’d say she deserved it. Use the account I gave you and in a few days, she’ll give up looking for you, I would think.”

“Probably.”

“So how’s your mother?” asked Stephen.

“Dead.”

“When?”

“Four months ago. She’d been in a home for the past five years. She had Alzheimer’s. For the last two years she didn’t even remember who I was.”

“Shit. That’s really tough. I’m sorry. Those places are expensive. If you had let me know, I could have helped pay for part of it.”

“She was my mother. Her social security and her pension paid for about half.”

“She actually treated me very well,” said Stephen. “I didn’t appreciate it at the time. First I was so unhappy because I had lost my own mother. Then I was upset because Nora drove my father away.”

“You’re fucking kidding me. She didn’t drive him away any more than your mother drove him away. He ran away—chasing a fucking skirt. He was a worthless piece of shit that never did anything for anybody and the only two things he left us were his genes and the inability to maintain a relationship.”

“That’s not true. He was a good man. He was a good father. I remember him before he left Mom. We had fun. He took me to the see the Angels. He took me to Knott’s. He built me a swing set.”

“Yeah, well I guess I just got shit on then, because I didn’t get any of those things.”

Stephen was quiet for a minute.

“Yes, I guess you didn’t get what I got. He was different after he left Mom. That doesn’t mean we can’t… what you said—maintain relationships.”

“It must mean that. Look at you. You have a robot wife and robot kids.”

“I… well, I never really wanted kids. They just grow up and disappoint you. As for Mindy… well, it’s just easier.”

“Easier than a relationship with a real person,” said Dakota. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about. Being married to a real person is work. Even living with another person is real work. Did you even have a serious girlfriend before you custom ordered a lover?”

“Yes, I had a few girlfriends… but none of them were long-lasting. Yes, I suppose you’re right. So, I’m messed up. But I’m thirty-nine years old. I can’t lay all of that at Dad’s feet, or Mom’s or Nora’s either. When you reach my age, you have to take responsibility for your own faults.”

“Well, I still haven’t reached that age yet.”