The Dagger Before Me: A Rousing Sword & Sorcery Fantasy by Robert E. Vardeman & Richard Prosch

Author:Robert E. Vardeman & Richard Prosch [Vardeman, Robert E. & Prosch, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Cenotaph Corporation
Published: 2024-01-22T00:00:00+00:00

From behind a support beam outside Govannon’s chambers, Greater Mage Viriato smiled as the king waddled away with General Palin trailing behind him like a bad smell.

In Loyin, military officers were used up with such wild abandon, it was nothing short of a miracle that any agreed to be promoted to Govannon’s inner staff. Better to slip away in the night and live as a lighthouse keeper in far-off Doom Point where no sane person ever visited.

When the mage saw the last of Govannon's back, he moved to the council chamber door. He pressed his palms against the panels, closed his eyes and concentrated.

Tiny tingles in his fingers worked to his wrists, and coils of energy flowed up and around his arms. Intricate patterns built from a chaotic blur of magical mists. Viriato combined strands and lumps of raw wizardry, pushed aside glowing blocks, and built slender spirals of magic until the lock opened.

Sweating from the strain of the rapid spell, he slipped into the council chamber.

The room carried a chill that made even the most confident visitor shiver with anxiety. Gathering his resolve, he walked to the plain wooden table at the room’s far end and leaned against a simple straight-backed chair.

Was he not still Viriato, senior mage and master of the Invincible armor?

He let his gaze wander over the century-old chair. It hailed from a better time and place, when the kingdom of Loyin was nearly as bright at Tatendra. An era when the military and economic dominance of Gunne Terzi had yet to be decided.

Many was the time Viriato sat in this very chair listening to Govannon rant on about what could have been. What should have been. Always deriding past events while failing to prepare for the future.

How Marinka D’Armon-Kith and her father had stolen Loyin’s rightful glory. How Tatendra must be made to pay, to suffer. How she was destined to fall before the mighty Govannon and his confederacy of smaller kings.

Of lesser kings.

And now, somehow, the king had almost made good on the promise with his Invincible.

How a man with such a pittance of magical ability, and even less imagination had put together the energumen-powered armor was beyond Viriato’s ken. Such genius seemed a trifle off. Well, more than a trifle.

He pushed away from the chair and went to Govannon's steel couch. Behind the uncomfortable perch black velvet curtains stretched from one side of the room to the other. Viriato paused, closed his eyes and then fought the irrational urge to run from the room.

Something evil resided behind all that soul-crushing black drapery. He sensed it.

Viriato closed his eyes and visions of terror filled his mind. Gore and unspeakable acts of carnage. A feeling as if he were falling for eternity into a slime-ridden pit of sewage.

A thousand screams from a thousand different torments echoed through his mind’s eye.

His eyes snapped open.

The secret to Govannon's reign was behind the curtain. This was exactly the information Viriato sought.

In a fit of motion, he grabbed a handful of fabric and yanked the curtain back.

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