by Rex Jameson
The three men quietly pruned in their wooden barrels. Ashton was the first to break their silence. He felt it was time to reveal her conversation in more detail.
“She told me she wanted me to be her general,” Ashton said. “She wanted me to lead her legions of demons and raise a new army of undead against her enemies.”
“That’s not surprising,” Cedric said. “She likes to twist your passions and powers into her own causes.”
Jayden nodded. A smile spread across his face.
“As the potential next King of Chaos,” he said with some pomp from his bath barrel, “I guess I do have need of a general. You know. A man I can trust to help me assault all the armies of the Abyss for my Queen.”
Ashton nodded and shrugged his shoulders through the water. He smiled playfully to Jayden and his mock proposal. “I guess, if I have to.”
“You guys are making me feel a lot better,” Cedric said, leaning toward them. “She only wants me for my soul!”
The paladin grinned widely, and Jayden and Ashton both shared in the mirth. They burst into laughter, splashing each other with soiled, soapy water.
“Over my dead body!” Jayden said.
“And my hordes of undead ones!” Ashton promised.
After winding down their laughter, Cedric left his basin first. As the paladin dressed, Jayden and Ashton shared a look of respect.
“We’ll find a way,” Cedric promised as he opened the door. He nodded to them, closed the door, and walked noisily down the stairs to the main hall. “She won’t win. None of them will.”
Jayden dressed next in his soiled outfit.
“Probably should have washed those,” Ashton said.
“Maybe tomorrow,” Jayden said. “Tonight, I’m going to get drunk.”
Ashton nodded, and Jayden left as the paladin had before.
Ashton stayed in his tub for a while longer. He thought about his dreams of Riley in the underworld, and the visit from the Queen of Chaos in Dona. He thought about the demon ripping through knights in front of Mallory Keep and melting through the foundations of a castle with his bare hands. He thought about his father running for his life from Xhonia, a mysterious device hidden in a bag. Then he remembered his undead friend Clayton waiting on him in some alleyway to finish his bath.
“I’m such an asshole!” he exclaimed.
He dressed quickly and ran down the stairs, leaving the door to the washroom wide open. He waved to Cedric and Jayden at the bar, each raising a mug to him as he ran toward the front door. He pushed the door so hard that it slammed against the wall loudly.
“Sorry!” Ashton shouted back to the barkeep Harold. “My bad!”
He found his friend in a dark alleyway across the street, arms folded, sitting against a wooden building.
Clayton stood up and groaned something.
“I just came out to see you,” Ashton said, grinning.
He put his arm around Clayton as they walked together into the darkness and the cold night. A strong smell of flowers wafted into his nose with every squeeze of his friend’s torso, and with every retelling of old stories, he found himself pulling Clayton closer to his side.
“I love you, man,” Ashton said. “Thanks for being here with me.”
Clayton groaned and mumbled something while shyly looking away.
“Well, I mean it,” Ashton said.
Outside of The Sleeping Pony, Lord General Godfrey Ross waited in nondescript, ratty garb covering his plate armor. A gray hood draped down to his eyes as he leaned against a nearby wall in the darkness. Beside him, Jeremy Vossen, one of his son’s closest friends, held a gloved hand over his long sword pommel. Jeremy too did not outwardly wear his house colors, and he had shaved his beard to be more incognito. A long length of rope wound around his arm.
“I need him alive,” Godfrey reminded Jeremy. “Don’t kill him.”
“If he sends that undead brute after me,” Jeremy said, “I may have no choice.”
“If you kill him,” Godfrey said, “then my son can’t be brought back from the dead. He’ll sit in that icebox back in Kingarth until I fetch him and put him into the ground. Is that what you want?”
Jeremy sighed deeply.
“If there’s a way to bring my son back,” Godfrey said, “then by all the gods, I’ll…”
The door to The Sleeping Pony slammed loudly against the wooden wall, and a dark figure exited.
“Sorry!” a young man yelled. “My bad!”
“That’s him!” Godfrey whispered to Jeremy.
Jeremy nodded to Godfrey and unwound the rope from his arm. He looped the rope into a lasso and tied a sliding knot that would tighten the more his target struggled.
“Follow him,” Godfrey said. “I’ll grab the horses.”
The End of
The People’s Necromancer
Book One of the Age of Magic
The Age of Magic continues in
The Dark Paladin!
The Age of Magic Series
The People’s Necromancer
The Dark Paladin
The Dragon Prince
The Red Poet
The Queen’s Consort
The Blood Chief
The Holy One
About the Author
Rex Jameson is the USA Today Bestselling author of the Primal Patterns series, the Age of Magic series, and half a dozen short stories. An avid history buff and an unabashed nerd with an appetite for science fiction and fantasy, he loves to create complex speculative fiction with layered characters. He earned a PhD in Computer Science at Vanderbilt University and researches distributed artificial intelligence in robotics at Carnegie Mellon University. Rex and his wife Jenny live in Pittsburgh where they enjoy hosting family and friends.
Other Fiction by Rex Jameson
The Primal Patterns Series
Lucifer’s Odyssey
The Goblin Rebellion
Shadows of our Fathers
The Perspectives Series
Angels and Demons: Violent Afterlife
Elves and Goblins: Father’s Rebellion
Other Fiction
Hallow’s Ween
“Don’t Mess with the Meadow” in the Pink Snowbunnies Ski in Hell Anthology.
“Saving Suzanna” in The Pride Collection.
If you liked this book and would like the series to continue, please be sure to leave a review on all of those amazing online places where readers congregate to find good books. Also, tell your friends!
Author website: http://www.rex-jameson.com
Newsletter: https://rex-jameson.com/new-releases-email-list
