Chasing the Unicorn - PART 1: OUTSET
“BEGIN!" The bark rang out across the ring, the line of novices and squires alike watching with intent as the mailed hand of the Master-of-Arms cut the air like a blade, the two men poised at either end of the sandy circle gripped weapons and slowly...
Chasing the Unicorn - PART 6: OATH OF GOLD
The sound of song stirred him. A full, matronly voice raised in wordless harmony. Bart awoke and felt refreshed. His pain absent, his body sprawled out in a soft bed of downy grass, the big man stirred slowly with a sort of bemusement. He touched his...
Chasing the Unicorn - PART 10: FAREWELLS
The day had turned to evening, and in its passing was merriment. Bart had never known such a rush of joy and happiness, overshadowing the gloom that loomed even now on the horizon utterly. In the wake of the ceremony, the peoples of the town had simply...
Chasing the Unicorn - PART 2: LACHHEIM
Lachheim was a city that couldn't decide who or what it was. The name of the city came from the dozens of tiny runoff lakes that dotted the landscape, fed by splintered tributaries and creeks that split off the Espree River. The 'Land of Lakes'...
Chasing the Unicorn - PART 3: BELLY OF THE BEAST
"Hey. Tinman." Lidia said after a long stretch of silence, looking down at her wrists as they walked. "Yes?" Bart replied, eyes fixed ahead, letting her lead. "About ye wee little book. I'm sorry, aye?" she apologized, shifting her ragged...
Chasing the Unicorn - PART 4: HELL ABOVE, HELL BENEATH
The storm tunnels wended and wound for a while, the entire time Bart found himself feeling more and more concerned about the space. They were mostly dry, with but a few puddles here and there in the middle of the channels - Lidia assured him that the...
Chasing the Unicorn - PART 5: BY BLOOD AND BY DEED
Bartholomus awoke to the sunlight streaming through the small window of Naima's wagon, he dragged himself from the cot, forced to hunch his frame in the small space — how Naima and Rashid shared this was beyond him, but he imagined love solved a great...
Chasing the Unicorn - PART 7: THE ROAD OF BONES
“I'm telling you, this is not going to work," Bart said peering over at the Unicorn. The next day had dawned. The waterfall clearing had woken them both with sunlight, birdsong, and the lapping of water on stone. Bart had never felt so well-rested...
Chasing the Unicorn - PART 11: EPILOGUE
The horizon rose over their journey many times, the purple dawn cresting over the ravaged lands they traversed. A solemn journey across the blasted and pockmarked fields of Lachheim. Cithara's sorrow seemed to manifest itself in the still palpable haze...
Chasing the Unicorn - PART 8: ANOTHER PLACE
The air was still. Too still. No wind or birds carried sound across the empty spaces, no chatter of voices or milling of hooves. It was too still. This was Bart's first inkling that something was amiss. Bart, now a newly-minted Paladin and Queen's...
The Distant Year - CHAPTER 1
PART ONE: DREAMS The darkness was nearly total, a primeval sort of blackness that was unlike the moon-bathed night nor the ebon-gray shadows of well-run tunnels. This was darkness. Pure, elemental darkness. Lidia's sidheborn gaze was not totally...
Chasing the Unicorn - PART 9: TO TOUCH THE SUN
The laughter echoed out unnaturally, ringing among the fallen pillars of a dead world. The darkness swallowed it without note, the void hungry for all — even the bilious warmth of mockery was devoured. The Ogre King's mere presence was an oppression...