Kindle Edition
Brendan Carroll, Author
Category:
Fantasy
Type: Fiction
Pages: 322
Copyright: Dec. 7, 2012
Price: $3.99 (eBook)
The Assassin Chronicles draws to a close and just in time for the Mayan Apocalypse. Hopefully, we will all survive long enough to find out what happens to the Knight of Death and his kith and kin.
The Assassin Chronicles draws to a close and just in time for the Mayan Apocalypse. Hopefully, we will all survive long enough to find out what happens to the Knight of Death and his kith and kin. In Book 30, many loose ends are tied, explanations are given, reconciliations are made and prophecies are fulfilled. Could it be that truth is stranger than fiction when applied to the history and future of the Earth? Can we look forward to a new cycle, higher evolution and unending adventure or do we simply fall into oblivion? When science, mythology and religion are woven into one clan tartan, does it all make sense?
With a great sense of relief and sadness, the Order of the Red Cross of Gold must bid farewell to us. Spes mea in deo est! And remember: Keep it simple.
Excerpt
Nicole fell screaming into her bed and Luke fell directly on top of her, knocking the remaining breath from her, cutting her scream short. He came up quickly, climbed blindly out of the marble pit into the waiting arms of Bari Kadif. He fought wildly with Bari, and then Nicole screamed again as the gory figure of Asadarlu materialized in the air above her and crashed down on her before she could move.
“Great God in Heaven!” Bari shouted and drew his sword as he fell back disengaging Luke Andrew. “What in God’s creation have you done, Nicole?”
Luke ran, stumbled, fell and got up again. He looked about Nicole’s bedchamber desperately before his eyes fell on a table full of weapons near the door. Within seconds, he had armed himself with a long, curved knife and a short dagger.
Nicole screamed again and then once more as the nasty creature used her body as a stepping stone from the bed, kicking and flinging cushions and pillows in all directions. The thing bellowed, gnashed its gruesome teeth and drooled on the marble tiles as it stepped up in front of Bari. Its eyes rolled in their lidless sockets, and then focused on Luke Andrew as he took another step backwards toward the door. It glanced at the Prophet’s son only briefly. Bari was not its target. It turned and headed directly for Luke.
Luke made a valiant effort to remain in the room with the hideous creature, but when he saw that Nicole was still alive, he shrieked uncontrollably and dashed through the door.
“That’s him!” Asaralia rushed to Bari’s side as he recovered his balance. “That’s Asadarlu! He wields the flaming sword!”
Barshak scrambled into the bed and helped Nicole disentangle herself from the coverlets there.
“After him!” Nicole shrieked at them. “Get him!”
Barshak, Asaralia and Bari flew from the room after the hideous beast with Nicole close behind them. Asadarlu was already closing in on Luke Andrew as he ran full tilt down the polished corridor. Several doors opened as they passed, shrieking, shouting and screaming, and soon, everyone at the palace was charging down the hall, wielding various weapons, in pursuit of the outraged power of Marduk.
“Where did he come from?!” Nicole shouted the question at Bari when she passed him on the stairs.
“I don’t know! You brought him back with you, didn’t you?!”
They topped the stairs and ran headlong down the Djinni’s inner courtyard. The beast crashed straight through the lily pond. Colorful parrots and small monkeys were screeching and fleeing or flying in all directions. Nicole could see that Luke Andrew had stopped and turned to face his attacker on the balcony where he waited with his pitifully inadequate weapons. There was nowhere left to go except over the railing. His weapons were pitifully inadequate for confronting the monster that swung one of the twisted golden swords back and forth, slashing limbs, leaves and flowers from the plants on the artificial islands dotting the long pools in the courtyard.
John Paul, Nicholas and Gregory skidded through an arched doorway ahead of Nicole and raced after the thing. Nicole rushed headlong toward her brother without even a letter opener to defend herself.
Bari caught up with her again and shouted for her to stop. Barshak tried to stop her, but she fought with him on the edge of the pool, screaming at him to help her brother.
“I cannot!” he told her. “The powers cannot fight against one another. It is impossible. You must stop, my mad princess. He will kill you!”
Nicole jerked free of him and ran toward the fight. John Paul, his two sons, Semiramis and Luke Andrew took turns charging and striking at the incredibly ugly brute, but none of them could get close enough to land a good blow on it. Bari tried to fling himself onto its back and was batted against the wall like an annoying insect. He struck the wall and slid to the floor where he remained. The thing had the flaming sword firmly in one hand now and a seemingly endless supply of daggers and knives at its disposal, with which he alternately threw or slashed at them.
Gregory received one of the glittering missiles in his upper arm and fell out of the fray. Meredith and Aurora dragged him away as Jozsef and Anna joined in the fight. A number of others stood watching in shocked horror. Jasmine and her son, Seularik, came at once and helped carry Gregory out of the courtyard. William and Marco came down the stairs from the roof in time to retrieve Nicholas from beneath the feet of the monstrosity, but not before the creature landed a devastating blow on the back of his head with hilt of the sword. They dragged Nicholas to safety and handed him over to Meredith and Lucia while Jasmine struggled to pull the unconscious Bari out of the way.
Aurora’s scream pierced the air as Asadarlu ran the full length of the golden blade completely through John Paul. The prophet fell against one of the great brass urns on the balcony when the beast jerked the blade free, and then tumbled down the steps, losing his gold and silver sword in the process. William von Hetz turned to go after him and received a crushing blow to the top of his head. He joined John Paul at the bottom of the stairs, bleeding and unconscious.
The beast roared as if well pleased with its great success and scooped the precious sword from the steps. Meredith left Nicholas with Lucia and the Fox sergeant, who had finally ventured close enough to lend a hand and ran back to help Aurora with John Paul.
To their horror he left a wide trail of bright blood on the white tiles. Meredith had thought it impossible for him to fall, let alone bleed! Only Jozsef, Anna and Luke remained actively fighting with the creature. Semiramis had been dispatched over the balcony railing some few moments before John Paul had fallen. Her screams still seemed to echo in the palace corridors as Selwig and a number of the household servants, along with several of the Djinni’s Zoroastrian followers rushed down the spiraling stairs leading to the beach below. A sizable crowd lingered, ebbed and flowed in and out of the anterooms adjoining the courtyard as the house of Adalune endeavored to see what was going on. Many of the women and children had been sent rushing down into the relative safety in the depths of the palace’s underbelly, but it was Nicole who persisted in harrying the creature with a surprising number of household items. She darted in and out between the fighters, throwing vases, statuettes, bowls, goblets, stones from the pools, coconuts, oranges and anything else she could get her hands on. Most of these struck their marks quite accurately, sometimes helping to hinder the deadly movements enough to spare its opponents.
The creature turned suddenly on Jozsef who was attacking him from behind, taking him unawares. The silver and gold blade belonging to his father barely missed Jozsef’s head as he ducked, but the flashing blade of the flaming sword caught him a glancing blow in the ribcage, spinning him around and down. Anna leapt between the creature and Jozsef and it withdrew in the face of her frenzied onslaught, but not before receiving a nasty cut to the left forearm and a painful jab in the right thigh.
It roared in pain and anger before turning its attention back to Luke Andrew.
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