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Chapter 22: Gnarl Is Unhappy Gnarl froze when he heard voices. Human voices. He'd thought the lands east of the Spine of the World were empty. The great plague which had driven the old Overlords west, long before the Gromgard dynasty, had killed everyone. It was typical of Master Doniel not to tell him there were people here. Bloody deities Gnarl was careful not to think that too loudly. Master Doniel might be listening. Can't go fetch his Dark-plagued books himself, oh no. He has to get me to do it because he's not ready for a pissing contest with the Mother Goddess. Not that Gnarl was ready for that, either. He hadn't been out of the Ne

Chapter 21: Allied Issues Allies Thorn reminded himself for what seemed like the hundredth time. These westerners were more useful to him as allies than as enemies or dead. It didn't help that the minions were bored and at least as irritable as their master: he was no longer sure whether he was being affected by their mood or they by his. Either way, it was a constant challenge to keep his temper in check. Traveling on foot through a network of caves and tunnels that were mostly sized for normal humans and elves wasn't appealing. While he could fit through most of them, there was so little spare room he felt cramped, confined. Added to th

Chapter 20: Decisions Once Thorn had the girl resting in the shade, with the blues hovering and petting their baby kroks, he turned to the strangers. Both the elves were staring at Fay, who had yet to stop cooing over her son. One of them asked softly, in a dialect of elvish that sounded ridiculously archaic, "Art thou Blood of Ever Night, Lady?" Fay blinked. Her mouth opened a little, then closed. "I am. My beloved Lord --" she indicated Thorn with her head "-- speaks for me in all things." The elves looked bewildered, their gaze going between Thorn and Fay as though they could make no sense of either. "But... Lady... He is..." "Evil?"

Chapter 19: Misunderstanding the misunderstanding Thorn tore the burning vines from the cliff and strode into the dark cavern beyond. His gauntlets didn't even get warm: good. He sent the minions ahead to protect his children, following at a steady pace that would allow his vision to adjust to the dimness. His senses told him where the babies were, and where the others were. That was enough for now. Someone called out, in a language oddly familiar but incomprehensible. He could see shapes now: four tall enough to be human or elf, two shorter and with the solid build of dwarves. They stood on a rise on the far side of the stream. The minio

Chapter 18 When Good Rescues Go Bad The beach sands could have been used to cook a sheep. Thorn sweated in his armor, and tried to ignore the way his feet were slowly roasting. It seemed the extra fire resistance Giblet had forged into it didn't count when standing on sand so hot that the reds had to carry the blues, greens and browns to the shade at the edge of the beach. To be fair, the browns had taken the brunt of two days miserable rowing in increasingly hot, humid weather. The blues had revived fully half of them at least once, and some of the weakest browns twice. The reds were the only minions that seemed happy: minions that would d

Chapter 17: Westward Oh Crap Maiala paced the confines of her prison, rocking the dark-haired baby in her arms. Though she tried to hide her fears, all three of them knew something was wrong. They burbled softly, and smiled a lot, but rarely cried – perhaps responding to her undisguised terror of anything disturbing the Centurion. Little Red could roll himself over and lift his head for short times, Dark kept trying to pet her cheek, sometimes managing and more often smacking her, while Pale would watch her intently as though he was trying to make something happen just by staring. All three had outgrown their swaddling, which Maiala now us

Chapter 16: Overlords Hate Waiting Thorn sighed under his breath as the dwarf envoy bowed so low he risked tripping over his own beard. It made sense to ally with the dwarves rather than fighting them if only because he was unlikely to be able to seal them in their underground caverns or exterminate them altogether. That didn't mean he had to enjoy it. They were better engineers than anything the Empire had developed, and much better with metals and explosives. After the best part of twenty years underground, they were also desperate for real meat. Thorn's initial good faith gift of half a dozen sheep had been met with the kind of eagernes

Chapter 15: Studies The captain's cabin of the Imperial warship had two occupants, neither of them the captain of the vessel in question. Not that the captain was complaining: Centurion Lucius wasn't the kind of man one complained to. With one exception, currently pacing the cabin. She was almost as tall as the Centurion, a slender young woman with the kind of lush figure men dreamed of. Her dark hair was currently worn in a simple braid, and her clothing an equally simple, if well-made, long tunic that she could manage without the assistance of servants. Her green eyes were narrowed, and smudges of dirt and ash remained on her skin and in

Chapter 14: A New Nurse Maiala lay still and quiet in the deep shadows of the ravine while she watched the men pass. If they saw her, they'd beat her. She might have been a useful extra set of hands, but lately as the wasteland expanded and the great river's poison ate more of the ocean's harvest she'd become more of a burden. A skinny girl slave wasn't as useful as a sturdy boy, and the other use for girls… well, if it was that or food even the most lustful man would choose food. If there'd been anywhere she could go, Maiala would have run. The Ruborian Desert was as secure a cage as anything physical, and the waste was worse. Villag