Shadows & Sorcery #36
Welcome to the thirty-sixth edition of Shadows & Sorcery! This week’s edition is a paid one, but as ever the first story’s free (as ar the first stories of all previous editions), and subscriptions are only $2/m and come with a 7-day free trial of the full archives!
For anyone wondering, the first installment of my serial novel “The Path of Poison” is still on the way, but I’m giving it the treatment it deserves, letting it ferment a little.
This week’s edition is also a bit special, actually. I am VERY happy to show off the first of four gorgeous pieces by the awesome local artist Jessica Sharkey - go check her stuff out over on Instagram @jessyphus and revel in these visions! I’m gonna post one for the next four weeks (mostly because posting all four will clip the email version of this edition oops), leading up to the bumper 40th issue and 200th story special!
(Click or tap to see the full size)
This week’s edition brings us to a ruin town beset by a cosmic threat, we witness a young warrior’s challenge, we learn the primal secret of a stately city, a flowering curse finds its way from confinement, and an old man prepares for the Dark Season…
The tales are:
Sorcerers of the Stars
The Old Steel
Temple of the Wilderness
Cursed Catacombs
Dark of Winter
Sorcerers of the Stars
Thunder in the night. A streak of blue. White fire that lit up the horizon. It had been felt across the entire region. Couriers had been busy since before dawn delivering word between the different lords, and Baron Carro's soldiers, riding out from under under a leaden sky, would have the honour of slaying another sorcerer from the stars.
Over the hill and down the long plains, the soldiers rode up alongside the polluted river until the town walls loomed on the horizon. The stone was loose and sagging, the gate was intact but bulged outwards, warped and splintered in some places. The only other way would be through the river which flowed through the town. They tramped knee deep through the treacherous riverbed, seeking the thick iron bars that stopped smugglers and assassins, hoping they'd been dislodged or damaged.
When they clambered up the black, slimy riverbank and surveyed their surroundings, they couldn't believe that not two nights ago, this was a thriving settlement. The town had been levelled and if anything did remain standing, it was barely recognizable. But it was not empty, for where the town's square, homes and temples had to stood for several hundred years, there was now something else.
Like a great tall diamond, opaque with foggy light, with long shimmering designs upon its surface, it was of bright silver, the most pale gold, a brilliant white, even faint traces of the lightest blues. Amidst the grim destruction, nothing could have been more of a contradiction.
The soldiers stalked across the thrown up earth, yet still were they unprepared for the tall figure which strode from the great diamond shape, seemingly stepping out from the very surface of the thing without a sound. It was shaped like a person, in fact it somewhat resembled a knight, but from some far off and strange land. It was opalescent, like the diamond, and it's face was like a knight's helm, fierce and unmoving. Sounds like a gatehouse crank followed every movement, and as it held up a hand, something like a voice issued from it, and a beam of gold shot directly into the captain's chest where a shining fire erupted for a moment before dissipating. His leather plate cuirass was cracked and burnt through, useless, his flesh seared a bright, raw red.
Neither sword's edge nor spear's point could do much harm to the steel-like shell of the sorcerers, a lesson learned through blood, but maces and warpicks could make short work of them, provided their wielders were swift. The sergeant snarled and fell back, unhooking the short-handled mallet that had been his constant companion since his days as a bodyguard. The sorcerer had but turned to him when the sergeant was already rushing forward with a war cry.
The sorcerer buckled under the mighty crash of the iron head against its chest. Small, shimmering shards of lights flaked into the air, dissipating. He shielded his eyes as the thing bellowed a crackling word, sending the sergeant stumbling back, the sensation of searing pins all across this body. But the others had closed the gap in that moment, bringing their maces onto the legs and back of the sorcerer. The sergeant shook himself and burst forward, and with a mighty upswing of his hammer, sent the sorcerer's crowned head flying back and cracking open, a mess of steaming gore pouring forth in a short, gurgling torrent.
The sergeant stood, wheezing, and stumbled over to the captain who was only sitting up. The others rushed to their aid. The sergeant would need a healer against the effects of the sorcerer's magic, but the captain, though thoroughly winded, had been narrowly saved by his treated leathers. Priests would come soon to exorcise the diamond thing, and likely there was little of the town to save, but searching for survivors would be easier now that the sorcerer of the stars lay dead, its alien form cold and grey.
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