“Welcome to Schwarztogrube, Mr. Halifax,” said Sergeant Halser, saluting.

“Thank you. No need to salute. I’m a civilian after all.”

Mr. Halifax held out a hand and Sergeant Halser helped him out of the small boat and up onto the shaped stone dock on the lowest section of the ancient castle. He was a short, rotund man wearing a white suit, the shirt of which was still stained with his lunch, eaten aboard the ship that had brought him. Halifax led him up the stone stairway to the upper levels.

“Can you explain to me what happened? The Judge Advocate General was rather vague in his description.”

“As far as anyone can tell, it was some kind of disease. It could have been brought here by one of the guards returning from leave. They were all killed. Most of the prisoners. A few of the boys. The boys might have been less affected because of age or because they were all down near the water. No one really knows.”

“I have no doubt it was due to mismanagement of some form or another,” opined Halifax. “That’s why operations were taken away from the Ministry of War and were given to us.”

They reached a fork in the passageway.

“The north wing is this way, sir. It’s where the offices and kitchen are, and most of the prisoners.”

“How many prisoners are there?”

“There are twelve surviving prisoners in the north wing; one in the south wing.”

“Only one?”

“Yes. Prisoner 89 was segregated from the others. There’s no record of why. Perhaps it is because she is the only woman.”

“A woman? Here?” Halifax frowned and licked his lips.

Halser nodded.

“Take me to her cell.”

Halser led his new superior up another set of stairs and down the stone hallway to a door with a single small, barred window. Halifax had to stand on his tiptoes to peer through. He could see a blond woman inside, dressed in rags, sweeping the floor of the cell with a broom.

“Open it.”

Halser unlocked the door and followed Halifax inside. The woman immediately stopped sweeping and stood demurely with her head bowed. The room was clean but Spartan. Only a single window high up on the wall let in a square of sunlight. Halifax glared accusingly at Halser.

“It was worse, when I got here, sir. I had the cot brought in and a chamber pot, and a broom so that she could clean the place up.”

“It’s true, sir. Sergeant Halser has been very kind.”

“Still, it seems poor treatment for a young lady, regardless of your crimes. What is it you are here for?”

“I used magic without approval, sir. And when they tried to arrest me, I fought back. I may have injured a wizard, sir.”

Halifax’s expression said all too clearly that he thought the injury or death of a wizard to be a relatively minor offense. “Well, you can’t do any magic here, so we don’t have to worry about that. And what is your name, my dear?”

“Zurfina, sir.”

“Zurfina. Like the daughter of Magnus the Great?”

“Yes, sir.” Zurfina curtsied.

“Is there anything you need right now?”

“If it’s not too much trouble, sir, I would appreciate a bucket of water so that I could bathe. And if a needle and thread could be had, and some scraps of cloth so that I could make myself something to wear.”

“Sergeant Halser, see if you can find a bucket of water and some soap for the young lady, and a washrag too. You can leave the keys with me. I’ll lock up.”

“Yes sir.”

After the Sergeant had left, Halifax stepped close to the woman and reaching out, brushed the hair from her face.

“You are not unattractive.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Things are not going to be like before,” he said, pacing first toward the door and then back to her. “There will be better food and cleaner conditions. Maybe we could have some decent clothes brought from the mainland for you, and perhaps an occasional sweet.”

“That would be most delightful, sir.”

“When my duties allow, I could come to your cell here and visit with you. Would you like that? Would you be… cooperative?”

“Oh, yes sir.”

He reached out and brushed her hair back again, this time caressing her temple with his thumb. “You do understand what I mean when I say cooperative, don’t you?”

Zurfina looked up from the floor and into his eyes. She reached up and pulled his chubby hand from her face, moving it down to rest on her breast.

“I’m anxious to be cooperative,” she said. “Very, very cooperative.”

One of my recent discoveries is a web comic called Curvy. Warning: it is not safe for work!

Curvy tells a fairytale story of candy world and travel between our world (boring world) and this wonderful other realm.  Unlike children’s stories along these lines, Curvy is filled with graphic and deviant (in the best sense of that word) sex.  Pretty much somebody is having sex on every page.  If that sounds like something you would like, check out Curvy.

Astrid Maxxim, brilliant teenage inventor returns. Astrid is looking forward to racing against a professional driving team to prove her electric racecar can take on the gas-guzzlers. Then without warning, she wakes up in the hospital with partial amnesia. What could have happened to her? Now everyone treats her like she’s brain-damaged! What if her IQ really did drop to 184? What a nightmare!

Astrid Maxxim and the Electric Racecar Challenge is available on iBooks for just 99 cents.

A group of about a dozen designers and engineers sat around the conference table and upon the table’s surface was a variety of different devices. Mrs. Maxxim stood nearby. After giving her daughter a hug, she waved for the designers to present their efforts. Astrid, her mother, and Mr. Brown were shown next year’s tablets, phones, notebook computers, and pocket computers. Finally a young woman with red hair and large glasses stood up holding a small object on a key chain.

“And this is our fob,” she said. “You can use it not only to unlock and remote start your Maxxim Motor Cars, but also to control its sound system, security alarm, and wifi base station.”

“Isn’t that redundant?” asked Astrid.

“What do you mean?” the woman wondered.

“We can do all that by putting an app on your Maxxim Phone or on your watch.”

“Maxxim Carpé,” added her mother, giving the official name of the company’s computer watch.

“But not everyone has a Maxxim Phone or a Maxxim Carpé,” said the designer.

“But we want them to,” said Astrid. “In fact, we should include a Maxxim Carpé with the purchase of one of our cars. Keep the fob simple, for people to use as a backup.”

The woman looked crestfallen, but nodded and sat back down.

“What’s this?” asked Astrid, picking up a device the size of a deck of cards. “A new portable data drive?”

“This is our latest solid state drive,” said another engineer, this one a tall blond man.

“What’s the capacity?” asked the girl inventor.

“Three terabytes,” answered a shorter, dark-skinned man.

“No cables?”

“No, it connects by wifi,” the first engineer said, puffing himself up.

“It should be smaller, maybe half this size,” said Astrid, looking first at him and then at the other designer. “Make it smaller.”

“You don’t understand,” said the second engineer. “This is the culmination of a year’s work.”

“No,” said Astrid. “I understand perfectly. It’s you who apparently don’t understand.”

She walked across the room and tossed the device into the aquarium, eliciting gasps from the gathered engineers.

“See the bubbles?” said Astrid. “The bubbles mean there was air inside of that device—air means space. Make it smaller.”

As I’ve been going through Astrid Maxxim books doing excerpts here on the blog, I’ve been thinking “Wow!  These are some great covers!”  I am so pleased with them.  They were of course done by Matthew Riggenbach at Shaed Studios, whom I can’t say enough about.  He is a true professional and a joy to work with.

Here is another look at the cover he did for the next Astrid Maxxim book: Astrid Maxxim and the Secret of Dolphin Island.  Right now, it’s still in outline form.  Look for it some time in 2017.