Etheric Knight

by P. J. Cherubino

  Jiri was there.

  They pressed their backs together and fought in a violent circle. The contact felt familiar and right.

  The fight wore on and time seemed like a collection of single events. Tarkon blasted away with his pistols. Moxy used her blowpipe/staff to set Movers up for kills. Tracker used his deadly dreadlocks to slash at the enemy.

  At first, she had no idea how this happened. Costin was dead. She only remembered getting his magic-casting arm wrapped in her line. She blocked his sword arm with her other arm. The next thing she saw was a dead, possessed Mover with a smoldering hole in his chest and the Forge Monk standing over him.

  “His armor did him little good,” Tarkon commented. He tucked his weapon back into his waistband.

  Rifle shots announced the deaths of the last remnant. Astrid stood in a post-battle daze as she realized it was over.

  Or was it? The main portal was still open.

  “Movement!” Astrid shouted. Something was coming through. She charged forward only to stop dead in her tracks.

  Daku and her two sisters hopped through the rift.

  “You might not want to put that weapon down,” Daku growled as she approached. “Remember that alliance you encouraged me to join? Well, we followed the slimy goat sack through a portal just like that one. He attacked my crew and me as soon as the damn thing closed. We hid out in the woods until we heard it open again.”

  Astrid shrugged. “Welcome home, then.”

  Daku lowered her shoulders and shook her head. “You bitch,” she scowled.

  “Maybe,” Astrid replied with a wink. “But you had an adventure, didn’t you?”

  With a hiss, the main portal shrank to a black pinpoint, then disappeared.

  Epilogue

  “Twenty-three dead,” Astrid announced as she sat heavily on a couch in Vinnie’s office.

  She had just received the final report from the lead officer of their decoy expedition. After making certain all the wounded were cared for, Astrid had come back to the workshop. Vinnie’s office was crowded with the Righteous Dregs and their new allies.

  “I like this as our new war room,” Gormer remarked. He sat shakily on a hard chair at the bare work table. Daku and her two sisters sat around the same table with haunted eyes.

  Everyone in the room sported lacerations and abrasions, even Astrid. She hadn’t bothered to focus healing energy into the minor wounds. Doing so would have felt like a betrayal to the twenty-three lives lost under her command.

  “Anywhere we assemble is the new war room,” Astrid remarked. “We need to talk about this. Our battle is just beginning.”

  Vinnie chimed in from his New Ancient office chair. “And it looks like we won the first engagement.” The desk before him was bare, except for a single sheet of paper. Boone squatted beside Vinnie’s chair looking like an odd statue. One set of arms was folded across his knees, the other across his chest.

  A long pause stretched across the room until Daku spoke. “Costin must have been under the control of that mindfucker for months. Him and his pissing perfect hair.” Her anger was tinged with a touch of sadness. “I wanted to kill him, but I wouldn’t wish a mindfucker on my worst enemy. He didn’t deserve that.”

  “I felt his mind at the end,” Gormer added. He focused on some indefinite point in the rafters. “You’re right not to want that for anyone.” He shuddered as he spoke.

  Moxy lay wrapped in a blanket with her head on Tarkon’s lap. Her sleeping face still held smudges of blood and grime. Tracker stood beside their couch leaning on his blowpipe. His posture was vigilant, and his eyes scanned the room.

  Astrid's eyes found Jiri standing in a shadowed corner with his thick arms folded across his barrel chest. He had taken off his breastplate. He returned her gaze more as a soldier than a lover. For that, she was grateful.

  She turned her attention to Daku. “What can you tell me about the other side of the portal? Did you recognize anything?”

  “Yes,” Daku answered quickly. “I did recognize the place. I was there years ago. I recognized the mountain ranges. It’s a wild place a few hundred miles southeast of here. They say the place was wild even during the time of the New Ancients.”

  “Can you get us there again?” Astrid inquired.

  Daku answered without hesitation. “I can, and I will.” Her sisters gave curt nods beside her. “Whatever this thing is, we need to kill it and destroy everything associated with it.”

  Astrid shot a look at Boone. “Not everything. Just everything it corrupts.”

  “Of course,” Daku corrected, following Astrid’s eyes to Boone. “Can you fight, crayfish man?”

  “I can,” Boone replied, picking up his head. His eye stalks stood up straight. “My new master will help us kill my old master.”

  “I am not your master,” Astrid shot back firmly. “You need to remember that, Boone. You are your own master. You choose who to follow. If you follow me, you honor me, and I will honor you. All of you.”

  “But what do I call you, if not master?” Boone asked. His voice sounded pleading.

  Astrid sighed. “I don’t know what title to accept.”

  “Yes, you do.” Jiri’s voice was firm and fierce. He stepped forward, drew his sword, then took a knee. “You are the Protector of these lands. You are the Knight Protector.”

  “Knight Protector,” Vinnie added in a low voice as he rose from his desk.

  One by one, everyone stood straight and repeated, “Knight Protector.”

  Everyone, that was, except Tarkon, who did not want to disturb his sleeping wife. Instead, he fixed Astrid with his deepest smile yet and said, “Our Knight Protector.”

  FINIS

  Author Notes - P.J. Cherubino

  August 1, 2018

  It's happening. We're really doing it.

  Circa 2005, I had a dear friend who was a limo driver. I helped him maintain his limo, since once-upon-a-time, I was an auto mechanic. But that's another story for another time.

  Anyway, I also enjoyed tagging along with said friend when he'd make long runs between the airport and some far-off location. On our road trips, we enjoyed telling tall tales and making each other laugh. We would also listen to music.

  One of his favorite CDs was a live Metallica concert. I don't remember where the concert was recorded. The location wasn't important. The location wasn't what made the CD special. It was a very special CD, though.

  What made that recording so unique was a single voice. You had to listen very carefully to hear this voice. It didn't belong to anyone in the band. The voice belonged to a fan.

  During the introduction to Enter Sandman, over the roar of the crowd, over the blaring notes, one voice rose above it all. That recording captured the overwhelming enthusiasm of a single fan. Maybe, it was Metallica's biggest fan.

  "Whooooooo!!!!" A voice on the ragged edge of total joy screamed out for a full seven seconds at top volume. Yes, I counted the seconds. I needed metrics to understand just how much that person put into that scream.

  My limo-driving buddy had to rewind the section twice before I heard it, but hear it I did. We rewound again and again just to listen to that scream.

  We created a total narrative for the screamer, but we didn't give him a name. He was simply “The Screamer.” We surmised that he had a friend named Larry, to whom he turned at some point and screamed at equal volume, "It's happening, Larry! We're really doing it! We're at the Metallica concert, Larry!"

  Writing in this world still makes me feel like The Screamer and his friend Larry.

  We're really doing it, Larry!

  "WHOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

  Book 4 is complete. Book 5 is in the works. The second three-book arc is coming along. Astrid and the Righteous Dregs are on the move and fighting for Justice. The Protectorates are evolving rapidly, and new characters are growing strong to take on the next fight.

  I am even contemplating some spin-off novels or short stories for some of the other characters.
Their back stories become more apparent as I write. Why not spin them off or write about their lives before they met Astrid?

  Anything is possible. That's why I love writing in the KGU, and especially the Age of Magic.

  Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.

  P. J. Cherubino

  As always, you can always sign up for my newsletter or contact me directly.

  pjc@pjosephcherubino.site

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  Author Notes - Michael Anderle

  Written August 1, 2 018

  THANK YOU For not only reading this story but all the way through to these notes, as well!

  Just last year, I was at a Metallica concert (that morning I had tried to work on a book during a sailboat jaunt, and I got violently sick. My ‘WHOOOOOOOO’ was all pain —no joy in it at all.)

  But, PJ is really on point on an idea that bears repeating. The total exuberance when you are where you want to be and enjoying the hell out of it.

  Like me, right here and right now.

  As a child, I always had toys, and I was making up stories in my head. I kept this up in elementary school where I was introduced to books. This wasn’t an “OH MY GOODNESS WHY HAS NO ONE INTRODUCED ME TO BOOKS BEFORE!? Moment.”

  Nope, it was “Oh, I’m grounded for two weeks! I can’t have anything… Maybe I should try reading?” moment. So I did, and I got really good at it.

  In fact, you could call it a pastime that allowed me to keep my shit together sometimes. When I was overly stressed, there was always one place I could go to get away. Considering how often I got grounded, maybe there was a subconscious effort on my part to just provide myself a reason to read more, with no expectation from my parents that I should be outside?

  I like that idea. Not that it is true (I was not even remotely aware enough of myself to think this was a good idea, and I was scared of my dad being mad at me so purposefully working to get in trouble?)

  That would not compute.

  Yesterday, I got full-on pink-eye. My eye (left) was watering, itching, felt horrible, scratchy and everything else… But you know what I was doing?

  Reading.

  My wife (who will never read this, so don’t tell her) left to go get me some medicine after I ‘fessed up to my issues —but did I sit back and close my eyes, letting them rest?

  Hell no. I kept reading the book that had me so engrossed that I needed to know what happened next.

  (I finished the book Last Man Out (Poor Man’s Fight Book 05 by Eliiot Kay) on the drive back from Las Angeles to Las Vegas today after doing some work. I was supposed to be letting my eye relax.)

  Now I can consider my reading work. I can stand up and yell WHOOOOOOO when I read…because I get to read and it is my job.

  Thanks to you, and the wonderful support you give us with every book.

  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

  Michael Anderle

  Books By P.J. Cherubino

  TALES OF THE WELLSPRING KNIGHT

  *with Michael Anderle*

  Knight’s Creed (01)

  Knight’s Struggle (02)

  Knight’s Justice (03)

  Etheric Knight (04)

  THE GENETIC IMPERATIVE

  Fleetfoot Insterstellar (Fleetfoot Interstallar, Book 1)

  Rogue Messiah (Fleetfoot Interstallar, Book 2)

  Realm of the Nine Circles (R9C1)

  The Grind (R9C2)

  Dead, Wired and Online

  Books By Michael Anderle

  For a complete list of books by Michael Anderle, please visit:

  www.lmbpn.com/ma-books/

  All LMBPN Audiobooks are Available at Audible.com and iTunes

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