Euridyce's Lament

by Brian Stableford

  “You think I’m a sorcerer without even knowing it?

  “Yes—just like the little girl. Perhaps Hecate too, in her way. Perhaps we all are, without knowing it—but sometimes, it becomes manifest, as it has three or four times in the last few days. Sometimes, these things just burst under pressure, like volcanoes. You can deny it if you like, but I saw what you did. I know.”

  “You saw me applying paint to a picture. It’s what I do. There’s nothing else to know, and there’s nothing supernatural about it. If I have vision, and insight, it’s purely natural.”

  “I see things differently. But you needn’t worry. I’m your agent. My lips are sealed. No one will ever know what you did tonight—in fact, no one but a favored few will ever know what happened tonight, if the surviving members of the Cult of Orpheus have their way. For the world at large, it will be as if it never happened at all, so far as history is concerned. I wonder how many other things they’ve erased from history, over the centuries?”

  Probably lots, I thought. After all, if my interpretation of the myth is correct, their entire heroic history is a lie.

  And I sighed, deeply and meaningfully.

  Notes

  1 ISBN 978-1-932983-45-6

  Eurydice’s Lament Copyright 2015 by Brian Stableford.

  Front cover illustration Copyright 2015 by Fleurine Rétoré.

  Visit our website at www.blackcoatpress.com

  ISBN 978-1-61227-468-3. First Printing. November 2015. Published by Black Coat Press, an imprint of Hollywood Comics.com, LLC, P.O. Box 17270, Encino, CA 91416. All rights reserved. Except for review purposes, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The stories and characters depicted in this novel are entirely fictional. Printed in the United States of America.