Sword and Shadow (34 page)

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Saje Williams

They’d gone through so much in the last year, she thought. Together
and
apart. And he was asking her to share his life with him, not just for the foreseeable future, but forever. He was asking for the ultimate commitment, considering he was fighting to have her made immortal.

He’d come a long way from the uncertain, emotionally burdened man she’d met—it seemed so long ago—and the fact that he’d screwed up the courage to ask in the first place seemed a validation of how she felt about
him
.

“Yes,” she said, the word tumbling from her mouth with no conscious intent to form it. But as soon as she said it she knew that she meant it.

She wanted to spend the rest of her life delving the depths of the mystery that was Raven, even if that life lasted for eternity.

Somehow she knew she’d never be bored.

“Then it’s settled,” ArchAngel boomed, clapping his hands together.

“There will be a healing agency—we’ll call it ‘Helix’—Valerie will become immortal, and head this newest agency, and we’re going to throw a wedding the likes of which no one has ever seen in
any
universe!”

Meanwhile, elsewhere on Starhaven, in a virtually unknown laboratory, a young healer held a test tube up to the light, peering at the thin worm wriggling in the small amount of fluid at the bottom. He licked suddenly dry lips and slid the beaker into a rack on a nearby counter. He quickly tapped something out on a keyboard, the words flashing on a nearby screen.

He glanced through the one-way glass into the adjacent room, where the patient lay, still sedated, on a medical bed that was currently monitoring his heart-rate and other vital signs. Extracting the worm hadn’t seemed to have any negative effects, but they were watching him closely nevertheless.

If everything the healer been told was true, this worm could hold the key to immortality and he planned on making use of it whether it was approved by his superiors or not.

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Sword and Shadow

He smiled and glanced back at the worm. This was his ticket to a bright and eternal future. No matter the cost. He’d pay any price to become one of the elite.

The End (for now)

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About the Author

Saje has been a Northwest native for most of his life, and currently resides in Tacoma, WA, with his wife and an assortment of furry kids.

He’s also the proud father of two bipedal children as well, but they currently live elsewhere.

When not writing, he’s either working, thinking about writing, or doing both at the same time. This tends to cause a bit of confusion when he’s standing at a sixth-floor window gauging the distance between the building in which he works and the adjacent parking garage and wondering whether a vampire could easily make the leap.

He happens to believe a vampire could make that leap, but he’s reluctant to discuss the matter with his co-workers.

Saje is the author of two well-reviewed novels so far, “Loki’s Sin” and

“Of Man and Monster,” by Wings ePress, and is currently awaiting the publication of the next two novels in his genre-bending paranormal science-fantasy series, the Infinity: Earth Saga.

He’s a recipient of the Loveromances Rising Star award for “Loki’s Sin,” which also received the prestigious Staff Pick award as well.

To learn more about Saje, please visit
www.sajewilliams.com. Send

an email to Saje at
[email protected]
or join his Yahoo! group to join in the fun with other readers as well as Saje!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Infinitycollective/

Look for these titles by Saje Williams:
Coming Soon from Samhain Publishing:

Tales from the Magitech Lounge

2260

Another Earth

There’s no place like it on Earth. Or anywhere in the Confederacy of Human Worlds, for that matter. It’s a place where the terminally weird gather to find companionship, friendship, and redemption. Located on a side-street not far from the legendary Haight Street in San Francisco, the Magitech Lounge is a place of wonder for normals and preternaturals alike.

Jack didn’t quite know what to expect when he was asked to open the place, but he’s grown quite fond of the irregular regulars that frequent his club late at night. They’re like a family made up of vampires, lycanthropes, trolls, mages, and the occasional creature even weirder than that.

Welcome to the Magitech Lounge, where being a freak isn’t only accepted, but expected.

Tales from the Magitech Lounge,
the newest novel from the keyboard of Science Fantasy author Saje Williams, the first book in his brand new
Infinity: Empire
series. Where high magic meets high technology and humanity looks at itself in the mirror of infinite possibilities.

You have been exposed to subversive influences:
for your own security and well being, you will now be terminated.

Homeland

© 2006 Michael Amos

Available in digital and paperback at Samhain Publishing
Tracy Dwayne Jocelyn Higgs has a problem. Not only is he a Security Officer saddled with a girl’s name, he has awoken to find himself in a vast shopping mall with no recollection of how he came to be there.

Worse still, the mall is under almost constant terrorist attack. The security apparatus operates a permanent state of emergency and none of the other terrified inhabitants of the mall have any idea how they came to be there or how to get out.

Stalked by the obsessive femme fatale Mandy, shadowed by the annoying Information Officer Simms and in love with the no-nonsense Doctor Jodi Francis, Higgs must find out where he is, get in touch with his feminine side and save the inhabitants of the mall before he is terminated for his own security and well being.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Homeland
: The Reverend Michealod stood in his pulpit, lungs bursting as he led the congregation in a rousing chorus of “America the Free”. Behind him hung a huge star-spangled banner, which largely obscured the mural of Christ crucified on the wall beyond. The reverend felt at his happiest here, all the nagging doubts of faith left behind. Nothing like a good song to move the spirits along, he always said.

He glanced down at the electric organ, an imposing instrument below the pulpit, tastefully backed with light pine veneer and currently pumping out music at an entirely sensible level of decibels. It worked entirely on automatic of course—nobody actually played it. The reverend viewed it as a truly remarkable innovation, an electric organ which had over a thousand of the Lord’s finest hymns stored away in its memory banks. He simply needed to select the ones he wanted before the service

and put in the running order. It even had a repertoire of moving classical pieces to play during the hushed intimacy of Holy Communion. No need for some poor aging spinster to spend hours practicing, only to make a fool of herself with wrong notes halfway through a rousing chorus of

“Abide With Me”. No, these days, what with the electric organ and the church kneelers mass produced in Taiwan, nothing came between the faithful and the serious business of worshipping the Lord in a schedule which fit in with the busy timescales imposed by modern life.

Higgs and Simms stood in the middle of the congregation. Simms was singing enthusiastically, his eyes closed, little globs of spit accumulating at the corners of his mouth. Higgs didn’t feel quite so inspired. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe, quite the contrary. Without the thought that some higher authority directed everything, life was not worth living or fighting for. He was firm in his faith, he said his prayers, he confessed his sins and he took Holy Communion. But he was distracted, he could not put the thought that Jared had lied to him out of his mind. It niggled away at him, got under his skin. He should trust Jared. He had to trust Jared.

But he was sure he had not been mistaken. The momentary look on Jared’s face had betrayed him when he claimed Higgs’ notes had been destroyed.

Higgs’ chain of thought was broken suddenly as the lights dimmed.

The music from the organ slowed, descending in pitch as it did so. The congregation slowed its singing to match, the poor reverend having to force his mouth into contortions to keep time. Then the lights came back and the organ worked its way up to the correct tempo.
Another brownout.

Another brownout nobody is prepared to admit happens
. Higgs made a mental note to investigate the power sources for the mall.

The song came to a rousing and triumphant ending and the congregation began to sit. The Reverend quickly took the microphone in the pulpit. “Er, no, please remain standing.”

The congregation reversed their momentum and struggled to their feet.

“Hands on your bibles, please.”

Higgs picked up his bible from the shelf on the back of the pew in front of him. The Reverend held his bible up and the congregation followed suit.

“Repeat after me. I swear…”

“I swear…” the congregation replied as one.

“By almighty God…”

“By almighty God…”

“That I am not…”

“That I am not…”

“A terrorist, a subversive or an infiltrator.”

“A terrorist, a subversive or an infiltrator.”

Higgs got halfway through the last response and stopped. He looked sideways at Simms. Without any visible hint of irony, Simms repeated the line, a tear welling up in his eye.

The congregation filed out of the chapel slowly. The reverend had taken up residence at the exit, limply pressing the hand of each person as they left. Behind him, automatic assault rifle in hand, stood one of the immense armored androids.
The reverend back home would have had
something to say about assault rifles in church
, Higgs thought a little sanctimoniously.

As they moved up the queue to the reverend, Simms leaned over to Higgs.

“Most moving, Higgs, most moving.”

“What are you on about now?” Higgs winced away from Simms’

breath.

“The ceremony. It’s the test. I’d say that you passed with flying colors.

Now you’ve completed that, you can resume your duties.”

Higgs was incredulous. “What, that was it, promising that I’m not a terrorist?” He spoke loudly, unconcerned as to who might overhear. They had reached the reverend and the android at the door.

“Well, yes.” Simms was clearly confused that Higgs should be having difficulty with this apparently simple concept.

Higgs laughed loudly and faced Simms with his hands on his hips.

“But I could be a terrorist but just say that I’m not.”

A sudden space opened around Higgs. Simms was on the floor with his hands over his head before Higgs could blink.

“Overruled.”

The android lowered its gun. Higgs was sure it glowered at him.

Simms slowly got up as a low mumble of conversation resumed around them.

“Higgs, you are really pushing it, you know,” hissed Simms. “I don’t know why you haven’t been terminated already.”

“Don’t tell me that you doubt Homeland’s judgment, Simms?”

Simms looked around in panic at the android. “Of course not. I, no, definitely not.”

The android didn’t move.

The reverend reached out and shook Higgs’ hand, a damp, weak little handshake, the sort Higgs found quite annoying. Why bother with a handshake like that?

“Interesting thing you said back there about lying about not being a terrorist,” the reverend began. “You know, I’ve often wondered the same thing myself—”

A burst of gunfire ripped through the room. Higgs looked down. He was still holding the reverend’s hand but now it had the distinction of no longer having a reverend attached to the end of it. Higgs’ mouth dropped open.

She controls the elements, but he controls her heart.

Nuermar’s Last Witch

© 2006 A. E. Rought

Nuermar’s history is whittled in ruins, its prophecy carved in stone.

Maelis, child of the Prophecies, is the last of her kind—a green-eyed witch, and the only one whom the stones of Nuermar say can channel the Elements. She alone has the power to vanquish the evil that reigns over her land. But without the greatest element of all, she has no hope of winning such an impossible battle.

A turncoat-assassin holds the key to her ultimate triumph. Yet the destruction of her village and the brutal slaughter of Maelis’ family lies on Joran’s hands. Can she overcome her hatred in order to fulfill the Prophecies and channel the ultimate Element―love?

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Nuermar’s Last Witch
, by A.E. Rought: Maelis Keshnar’s tears fell unchecked. Dust rose up with each breath to smart and sting her eyes. Crouched as she was, she felt her heart thunder in her chest, an unsteady rhythm as it pounded in impotent rage. She squinted at the pouch her grandmother had forced into her hand before slamming the door on her hiding place.

Maelis was not prepared for it; she hated it already―yet that was a paltry emotion compared to what was to come.

Fireballs were lobbed through the windows to crash in puddles of flame against the back wall. The doorjamb cracked and gave way as the door flew open, crashed against the wall and sent pots and jars flying from their shelves. From her hidden vantage, Maelis watched her grandmother, Niomi, spin to face the door as an intruder swept in with a swirl of black robes. With surreal speed, he closed the distance between them and his large, tattooed hands snatched at the old woman as she turned to flee. Niomi threw her thin arms up in defense. He cinched the fingers of one hand around her wrist and whipped her around to face him.

Niomi’s face paled in panic. A guttural cry escaped her lips only to be smothered by his heavy palm. Still, she struggled. Her feet flailed, kicked at his legs and knocked over storage baskets all around them, to no avail; he overpowered her.