Where Lies Adventure!

            OF GODS AND MEN Chapter 22: A Sword for Service             Slivers of light pierced the darkness.  Images flashed in Tarsus’s mind.  Images of stone…steel…a dying man.  They came to him like crashing waves on a shore: instantly and with great force.  And just as quickly as they came, they went – catching him up in their undertow and then leaving him behind as they passed over.               With the sudden ferocity of a lion leaping onto its prey, Tarsus woke.   He pushed himself to his knees as he struggled for air, but there was none left now.   He stood frantically, hoping to break through an imagined threshold between air and no air: on the other side of which would be the promise of life.   But even standing, there was nothing to breathe.   His time was up.             He searched frantically for any sign of the GodKing’s sword.   He had overcome the challenge of Drake by admitting his deepest desires and pushing past them.   Selfish though he was before, n

OF GODS AND MEN Chapter 21: The Better Man             The darkness lifted suddenly, but Tarsus expected it this time.  The light was blinding, yet as his eyes grew accustomed to it the blur of bright colors coalesced into yet another familiar scene.             To the left and right of him were church pews made of solid stone.   Tarsus’s gaze flitted over them and fell onto the lush red carpet he stood on that ran down the aisle in between them.   He followed it to the head of the room, where a familiar dais itched at his memory.   He had an inkling that he knew where he was.             That inkling turned into confirmation as he saw what was on the dais: the great stone statue of the GodKing Malthus, standing in his warlike pose with arms stretched over his head and hands gripping an absent weapon.   Sunbeams fell across the statue, and Tarsus looked up to see the iron lattices that served as the ceiling of the cathedral, and the floor of the magnificent crystal dome th

OF GODS AND MEN Chapter 20: Hero in Another's Story                 Finnian stood looking over the side of the ship’s railing, searching with an all-consuming intensity the black surface of the Crystal Sea.  Tarsus had jumped in only a few moments ago, but in that time the normally transparent water, even in the midst of night, had turned dark to his eyes.             “Something’s happened,” Finnian proclaimed in dread.   “The water’s gone dark.”             “Your friend has passed his first test,” Cassius said eagerly.   The demigod was a mirror image of Finnian, looking over the railing, fevered eyes scanning the sea.   Whereas Finnian stood closer to the ship’s bow, though, Cassius stood apart, nearer the captain’s quarters.             “What does that mean?” Cecily asked with all the trepidation of uncertainty.             “It means he has gone beyond your sight,” a smug Cassius replied.             Cecily and Finnian shared a look then.   Concern etched both o