April Teaser, part 1.

Well. Not really a teaser. A bit of background.

Hedrack's blood was boiling. The slave across the room flinched when she dared to look at him and found him glaring back, through heavy-lidded eyes. “I need to think.”

“Satau dead? Thukos? And Chymon? It seems impossible. Especially with all of the funds that slobbering bastard had spent building his accursed clone.” He paced toward the slave and she lowered her gaze as he approached. He raised his hand high, then dropped it suddenly and strode quickly to his desk.

A sending. It’s time to harness Tharizdun’s power. It’s time to call forth His avatar.

Once at his desk, he emitted a barking laugh and opened a hidden drawer. He pulled out a curiously bent piece of copper wire and placed it between his thumb and forefinger, then spoke a few syllables. He then barked a word in a harsh dialect. There was an immediate reply in the same language. Hedrack and the other voice growled and barked in the language for a few moments, then he dropped the copper wire back onto his desk. While he had been speaking, the slave’s eyes grew wide. He sat down in an overstuffed armchair and looked again at the slave, smiling with sickening glee. In a short while, the body would be anointed and brought, and Tharizdun’s Champion would be raised again.

“Bring me that glass, slave.” He pointed at a half-full glass of wine near the bed. The nude blonde slave stepped down from her pedestal and walked gracefully over to the wineglass, her only ornamentation a bright coral necklace. Hedrack motioned quickly with his hand and a small pool of liquid appeared just under the woman’s feet. Her feet slipped from under her just as she lifted the wineglass from the table and she let out a small, surprised squeak. She thudded to the ground, now covered in the grease from Hedrack’s spell, and the glass seemed suspended in air for a moment before shattering on the smooth black basalt floor.

Hedrack laughed as the slave fell, her will dissolving. She was now huddled weeping uncontrollably on the floor. He walked over to her and extended a hand to help her up. He also picked up the jagged stem of the wineglass. “My dear Kelashein, this sort of clumsiness just won’t do. You failed me once as head of the Water Temple, allowing yourself to be captured and taken to the stronghold of that despicable godling, Pelor. I had the temple razed, had you rescued, along with another, who will soon serve infinitely more useful. I thought to give you a second chance here, under my care. More than you deserved. Stand.” He whipped his arm back and then quickly and powerfully sliced it through the air, still holding the jagged wineglass.

Blood spattered over the black basalt floor, which was greedily absorbed into the stone. Hedrack sliced the former water temple mistress over and over. When the winestem finally cracked, he threw it down and kicked what little life still flowed through her body away. After hefting the body into the tub, he stalked out of the room, smiling cruelly.

Stay tuned for part two, which will be coming in the next week or so.