The first thing I noticed as I waited for the artificial world’s gravity to overcome the force of the throw and deposit me on the roof, was the lack of the expected signal fire. The beacon was there, its frame, but there was no flammable material inside it whatsoever. Which begged the question, why were we just about to get ourselves killed for it? The next thing I noticed, upon landing, was the stench of burnt spider hair and this caused the battle rage to settle even more completely upon me.
To my right, Teini’s whirling blade was forcing an opponent back towards the edge of the tower’s roof. At the far side of the roof, another, smaller figure - the wizard - was looking towards Teini, a bluish sphere growing in its hands. I started to charge the wizard, hoping to at least interrupt the spell casting, but someone blind-sided me from behind and to the left, their mace glancing off my shoulder and causing a shot of the dull, reduced version of pain that came with injuries in CyberV. It was still enough for me to elicit an involuntary yelp and I barreled into my opponent, briefly dancing a scrappy waltz with them as we grappled in the half light of the setting moon.
Finally I uncoupled from them with a mighty shove and (though I would insist it was planned at the time) had fortunately chosen the right shoving moment to see them disappear down the enlarged opening and into the clutches of Bubeh’s war hammer. Turning back, the spell caster was now more fully illuminated so as to be visible and had turned out to be a halfling female. This was a problem.
“Stop!” she screamed at the top of her magically amplified voice.
Everyone did so and looked around at each other, stunned… We were all supposed to be on the same side!
“What the fuck are you doing?” she demanded of Teini.
“What do you mean, ‘what the fuck are we doing’?” he exclaimed as best he could between breaths. “You just tried to bloody kill us!”
“We thought you were tower guards,” said the soldier that Teini had nearly forced off the side of the tower.
“Do we look like tower guards?” I said to the halfling. She was cute-looking - for a halfling, that is.
“Well…” she struggled momentarily, then returned with sharp-tongued form. “You made enough noise for twenty guards; plus, you sent that great big spider after us.”
Fes! Poor Fes.
“Can I put this guy down now?” Bubeh called up from below.
“Guess so,” Teini replied, though he kept his eye on the armoured soldier before him. Then he turned to the witch, (in the game, female wizards are witches and male ones are warlocks) as she seemed to be the leader. “What the hell are you doing in our tower?”
“Your tower?” she cried out. “This was our bloody tower to take you troll-dunged morons!”
For the first time, I noticed the human thief who had taken my arrow in the shoulder as he rose to his feet from the battlements near the witch. He was looking at me with a murderous expression – possibly something to do with the quiver of arrows on my back.
“No,” replied Teini with condescending calmness, “this is our tower, ‘Tower G’.”
A collective groan went up from the witch, the soldier and the thief.
“Don’t worry,” Teini continued, even more condescendingly, “could happen to anyone. That alphabet is a tricky one and it’s not like there’s any harm done, you only fried his companion and left a watchtower free to signal that our arm-”
“-This is ‘H’.” The halfling witch’s timing was flawless and Teini’s face a picture. “That’s ‘G’,” she said, pointing to an even higher ridge several kilometres to the southeast, its silhouette faintly visible against the lightening sky which signalled that dawn was less than half an hour away.
Teini turned to look at it, his expression pulled gaunt with the realisation of how badly we had screwed up. “The raiding party will be coming past there in the next ten, fifteen minutes; we’ll never make it in time.”
“If it’s only that beacon,” the halfling replied, almost managing kind, now that Teini had admitted our error, “it might be alright. It might not get seen.”
“You think?” asked Teini, desperate for some hope.
“Actually, I think it probably won’t matter.”
“Why’s that?”
The witch, the thief and the soldier – who I could now see was a dwarf character – all looked at each other.
“What?” Teini and I insisted together.
“The tower was empty and there was no signal fire here,” said the thief in the gravest of voices.
“And…?” called Bubeh from below. “So what?”
But I was beginning to understand and I could see from Teini’s face that he was too. Nobody seemed to want to say it.
“Shit!” Bubeh suddenly exclaimed. “They pulled the guards back; it’s a trap!”
Just then, two hairy(ish) legs appeared over the side of the tower’s battlements and strained to pull six more and a great big body over as well. Our three new allies on the roof eyed Fes as he trudged wearily to my side. It’s hard for a pair of seventy centimetre long pedipalps and four pairs of eyes the size of small saucers to look more pissed off and fearsome than they already do the rest of the time, but somehow he managed it.
The thief sniffed and pulled a disgusted face. “Oh my God,” he exclaimed, “what is that nasty smell?”
Fes let out a couple of angry hisses and clicks and shifted to face the thief, his front pair of legs and head still smoking and rather more devoid of hair than usual.
“Oh… sorry.”
http://www.amazon.com/Romance-Cyborg-Story-Fantasy-Adventure-ebook/dp/B00IOMHKFE
Thank You
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Booklist
Links to the other books published by Morris Fenris:
http://www.amazon.com/Romance-Beginnings-Christian-Chances-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00OPE4NQE/ref=sr_1_14?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429935874&sr=1-14&keywords=christian+romance
http://www.amazon.com/Romance-California-Christian-Chances-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00MK9UGSA/ref=sr_1_21?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429935987&sr=1-21&keywords=christian+romance
http://www.amazon.com/Romance-Michelle-Tyler-Christian-Cathedral-ebook/dp/B00UBC3K9U/ref=sr_1_89?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429864127&sr=1-89&keywords=romance
http://www.amazon.com/Romance-Jenna-Christian-Story-Cathedral-ebook/dp/B00RF6UNXG/ref=sr_1_25?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429936025&sr=1-25&keywords=christian+romance
http://www.amazon.com/Romance-Cyborg-Story-Fantasy-Adventure-ebook/dp/B00IOMHKFE/ref=sr_1_49?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429937449&sr=1-49&keywords=cyborg
http://www.amazon.com/Romance-Start-Young-Christmas-Fiction-ebook/dp/B00G1XIORG/ref=sr_1_81?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429936244&sr=1-81&keywords=christian+romance
http://www.amazon.com/Paranormal-Romance-Ghostly-Encounters-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B00UIODTTW/ref=sr_1_127?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429928835&sr=1-127&keywords=paranormal+romance
http://www.amazon.com/Sara-Montana-Second-Chances-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00GU2DJBO/ref=sr_1_151?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429936485&sr=1-151&keywords=christian+romance
http://www.amazon.com/Kids-Book-Folktales-Collection-Children-ebook/dp/B00F9JAUCU/ref=sr_1_151?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429878471&sr=1-151&keywords=kids+books
http://www.amazon.com/Kids-Book-Folktale-Children-Collections-ebook/dp/B00FIPCMVC/ref=sr_1_147?s=
digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429940440&sr=1-147&keywords=kids+books
http://www.amazon.com/Family-Life-Christmas-novellas-Christian-ebook/dp/B00GM2Y0TM/ref=sr_1_4?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429937514&sr=1-4&keywords=family+life
http://www.amazon.com/Paranormal-Romance-Christmas-Healing-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B00G7GBIL6/ref=sr_1_65?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429928680&sr=1-65&keywords=paranormal+romance
http://www.amazon.com/Paranormal-Romance-Plague-Fantasy-Healing-ebook/dp/B00J3BIMSO/ref=sr_1_71?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429928740&sr=1-71&keywords=paranormal+romance
http://www.amazon.com/Childrens-Book-Saving-Christmas-Adventure-ebook/dp/B00GHPFYO4/ref=sr_1_181?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429939992&sr=1-181&keywords=kids+adventure+books
http://www.amazon.com/India-Mythology-Stories-Collections-Reincarnation-ebook/dp/B00HV2MI7S/ref=sr_1_46?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429863531&sr=1-46&keywords=india
http://www.amazon.com/Romance-Young-Christian-Christmas-Fiction-ebook/dp/B00PB09BUO/ref=sr_1_41?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429936167&sr=1-41&keywords=christian+romance
http://www.amazon.com/Romance-Worlds-Mystery-Romantic-Suspense-ebook/dp/B00O3NFQJU/ref=sr_1_92?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429938087&sr=1-92&keywords=mystery+romance
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Romance-John-Yancey-Taking-ebook/dp/B00QH2FD98/ref=sr_1_49?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429900492&sr=1-49&keywords=western+romance
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Romance-Matthew-Yancey-Taking-ebook/dp/B00RAT7DYK/ref=sr_1_18?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429900254&sr=1-18&keywords=western+romance
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Romance-James-Yancey-Taking-ebook/dp/B00S3YP280/ref=sr_1_17?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429900217&sr=1-17&keywords=western+romance
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Romance-Thomas-Yancey-Taking-ebook/dp/B00T727PKK/ref=sr_1_12?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429900111&sr=1-12&keywords=western+romance
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Romance-Travis-Yancey-Taking-ebook/dp/B00U1DALKU/ref=sr_1_38?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429900422&sr=1-38&keywords=western+romance
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Romance-Nathaniel-Yancey-Taking-ebook/dp/B00UZOWEIW/ref=sr_1_22?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429900254&sr=1-22&keywords=western+romance
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Romance-Benton-Yancey-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00W1S9AWS/ref=sr_1_24?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429900254&sr=1-24&keywords=western+romance
http://www.amazon.com/Romance-Broken-Heart-Christian-Story-ebook/dp/B00N32OERW/ref=sr_1_24?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429936025&sr=1-24&keywords=christian+romance
http://www.amazon.com/Romance-Christmas-Reunion-Christian-Fiction-ebook/dp/B00PVCLLT6/ref=sr_1_33?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429936120&sr=1-33&keywords=christian+romance
http://www.amazon.com/Romance-Lucky-Mystery-Romantic-Suspense-ebook/dp/B00VBDV0LS/ref=sr_1_52?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429863968&sr=1-52&keywords=romance
http://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Maximum-Redemption-Suspense-Thriller-ebook/dp/B00G4CEEBY/ref=sr_1_114?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429891621&sr=1-114&keywords=mystery
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Romance-Yancey-Taking-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00X75EYUM/ref=sr_1_16?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1430905952&sr=1-16&keywords=western+romance
http://www.amazon.com/Romance-Brooke-Christian-Cathedral-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00Y6UXEDK/ref=sr_1_30?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1432851993&sr=1-30&keywords=romance
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Romance-Yancey-Taking-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00ZG8CI6K/ref=sr_1_74?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1434203757&sr=1-74&keywords=western+romance
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Romance-Yancey-Taking-Mystery-ebook/dp/B01382OVEM/ref=sr_1_10?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1438529695&sr=1-10&keywords=a+western+romance
http://www.amazon.com/Romance-Grandmother-Novella-Mystery-Suspense-ebook/dp/B016GFXXH4/ref=sr_1_18?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1444768516&sr=1-18&keywords=love+romance
http://www.amazon.com/Romance-Between-Novella-Mystery-Suspense-ebook/dp/B016OXY5SE/ref=sr_1_22?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1445102726&sr=1-22&keywords=love+romance
http://www.amazon.com/Romance-Prince-Novella-Mystery-Suspense-ebook/dp/B016ON2X2E/ref=sr_1_407?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1446761715&sr=1-407&keywords=mystery+romance
http://www.amazon.com/Romance-Eugenia-Novella-Mystery-Suspense-ebook/dp/B017PIAF0E/ref=sr_1_5?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1446926858&sr=1-5&keywords=love+romance
http://www.amazon.com/Romance-JUSTIN-Christian-Story-Brothers-ebook/dp/B017Y41INW/ref=sr_1_15?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1447460196&sr=1-15&keywords=love+romance
The Love I Found: Contemporary Romance Mystery (Ariadne Silver Romance Mystery #3) Page 15
