Tales of the Zorantian Brotherhood II

About the Book

Caught from behind, he was slammed face first into the wall of the corridor. Off guard because he was in a Brotherhood secured area of Ganthos, Skal’s reaction was a fraction too slow. His feet swept from under him, he looked up into coldly furious eyes in a face twisted by old scars. The man behind them wore a shadowed blackness that had nothing to do with his clothing.

“What game do you play, Skal?”

A crumpled rag landed beside him.

“A Shareem! You are the filthy degenerate thing you think to emulate.”

Skal rose slowly and watchfully to his feet.

“I follow the orders I am given,” he said evenly, in a clipped tone none of his smuggler associates would have recognized as his. “We needed to terrify them. We did.”

“Terrify them? You should terrify yourself, pirate.”

The Algolana banner with symbolic double-headed ax, the bared fangs of a skull set within its blades, lay between them.

“When do you plan to set up the altars? Or is that going too far for even you, fool?”

Contemptuously he turned his back.

Skal’s eyes burned with a carefully controlled disdain as he watched the older man.

“I will use the means required to accomplish my mission, klerr’nadh. Assassin,” he said. “I can call names too.”

But he spoke to empty air.

Dust shimmered in the pleasantly warm air of the Xackarn pavilion. There would be more hatchlings soon. The Oldest contemplated their possible futures while staring down at the cloth brought to him earlier in the day. Although his eyes did not register the red of the background as did human eyes; he saw the bared fangs and felt the warrior response building within himself. Fifteen thousand years had not lessened his people’s distrust of humans, but he was not an untutored female giving way to terror and unthinking hatred.

The child of the green mountain had said that the children of darkness who followed him would honor the oath. Long experience with this group of humans inclined him to accept that one’s word. But… There was evil stirring and now it seemed that not all the children of darkness were of one mind.

He would send messages to the others, the so-called non-human races. It was odd to be part of a group simply because they were not of the humans, but war allies cannot always be chosen. Perhaps, if they stood together this time… If it was indeed necessary.

Also read: Tales of the Zorantian Brotherhood I: Black Winds, Tales of the Zorantian Brotherhood III: Washed in the Blood

About the Author

Our lives have been interesting and we find our books to be more fascinating. Therefore, we suggest you read our books.