Seersucker

Penitent Ch 82: Keeping Busy

They did wake him for dinner, and after another night of rest they all enjoyed a breakfast on the castle walls together before Bayle rounded all of them up to head back to the fort.

“No horses this time?” asked Ollie with a grimace as he rubbed his inner thigh exaggeratedly.

Bayle shook his head. “No, they’ll need them for messengers and scouts while the Tusinians start to gather strength here again. We’ll be on foot, all the way back to the fort. After that I’ll be ga...

Penitent Ch 81: Recuperation

Michael, his mind fried and his body exhausted, spent the next two hours carefully listing the problems with his sketches while Davi made his own. Michael had never seen him draw anything, but his hands moved quickly and efficiently and he approached it with a greater patience than Michael would’ve expected. By the time he was done Michael had sketches of his wife Sara, his sons Vick and Gabe, and his daughter Laura. When Davi finished the last of them, he handed it to Michael who spread th...

Penitent Ch 80: Faces

While the immediate threat was handled, they were still in enemy territory, so while Bayle interrogated the villagers for any additional information they may have gleaned, Marcus climbed onto a nearby roof to keep watch with Ollie. Michael healed the villagers of rope burns, concussions, and claw marks before healing himself and the others for some minor injuries they’d sustained in their short conflict with the creatures beyond the rift. He stayed close to Bayle, who he wanted to make sure...

Penitent Ch 79: Praise the Divine

Michael could hear the screams of Bayle and his friends as he leapt at the portal. His body was screaming at him with fear as he leapt, but he was more worried about whoever had been crying out. The transition from one end of the rift to the other was immediate, but felt vaguely like he’d broken through a wall of glass, as if there had been something slim and fragile between him and the other side, but the force of his momentum had broken through it. 

He landed with his sword and...

Downtown Druid Book 1 is out!

Hey everybody,

My last series Downtown Druid, has it's book one out on amazon today!

A lot of you are probably already familiar with it, but just in case you aren't, here's the blurb:

Betrayed by his former gang and thrown into the Rendhold Underprison, Dantes has spent the last five years scraping by. A bastard of human, orcish, and elvish blood, he's lived on the periphery of the periphery, lyin...

Penitent Ch 78: Wrong

Everyone quickly dressed and prepared all of their gear. Michael hadn’t had a chance to take care of his chipped and dented sword and shield, but was pleasantly surprised to notice that they’d already been replaced. Whether it was by his friends, or Bayle he wasn’t sure, but he was grateful to have the fresh gear. He kissed his amulet to the divine as he slipped it into his shirt and started placing it on his breastplate. His armor at least was still fresh since he hadn’t worn it at a...

Penitent Ch 77: Attempts at Martyrdom

Bayle walked Michael through the courtyard and into the interior wall where the Tusinian prisoners were still being accounted for. The Count and his family were simply confined to their quarters in the tower, and the officers got placed in servant’s quarters, but it seemed that the footsoldiers would be contained in fenced off tents.

They made their way to a wide room that smelled of blood. It was dimly lit, so Michael raised his hand, focusing just enough to make it glow, and saw tha...

Penitent Ch 76: Questioning

There was no fanfare for the Penitents and Bayle who had been integral in the taking of the fort. Instead there was a formal handing over of the castle from the Count to the General, and they were all to watch it from the furthest wall later in the day. The general hadn’t hesitated for even a moment to take control of the narrative that he was the one who’d not only allowed Bayle’s plan, but had in fact been the one to suggest it. Bayle made no complaints, he seemed satisfied that his p...

Penitent Ch 75: The Last Tower

Michael and Bayle started to make their way along the wall toward the inner wall and castle interior. The Tusinian soldiers had already fallen back to it, overwhelmed by the Stent attack within their outer wall, and the dark of the night was broken up by explosions being thrown by mages and sparks from duels between sergeants whose titles made them as much of a bane for their equipment as it did for their opponents. 

They reached allies who were fighting off the last of the resista...

Penitent Ch 74: The Taken Wall

They all moved quickly up the stairs above the gate. As Michael crested the top of the steps Marcus loosed a black feathered arrow and it flew in a perfect straight into the face of the incoming patrol. The rest of the patrol reacted in shock aside from one of them that charged forward toward them. Michael loosed the shield from his back and smacked the man’s spear away before driving his sword into his gut. Davi tackled another that had regained the initiative, throwing him off the side of...

Penitent Ch 73: Skullduggery

Michael was lucky, the man that was running for the stairs tripped on an uneven bit of stone and by the time the Penitent had reached him he decided to fight rather than be stabbed in the back. He drew a shortsword and leapt toward Michael who didn’t slow, but instead twisted his body so that the shield on his back would absorb the blow as he slammed his shoulder into the man, knocking him back onto the ground. He drew the elven dagger from his waist and drove it quickly into the man’s ch...

Penitent Ch 72: Foetid

It was, unfortunately for Marcus, not fantasy cocaine. After nearly an hour of rest Bayle returned to them with a small pouch in his hand that he was already opening. He pulled out a large leaf and handed one to Crick first.

“Oh, fuck,” he said grimacing as he took it.

“You’re familiar then?” asked Bayle.

“I was given one for a forced march to keep me on my feet. Tastes like death and gave me shits for a week.”

Bayle shrugged holding out another of the le...

Penitent Ch 71: Cowardice

Michael and the others didn’t have to wait long until a sergeant left the command tent and moved toward them.

“The Knight-Lieutenant will be some time with this meeting. I am to escort you all to the Penitent part of the camp. He says that one of you is a healer?”

“I am,” said Michael.

“After I show you where to set up your tent I’ll be escorting you to the infirmary.” He gestured to the Carrion King. “Leave that here, we’re going to have him taken immedi...

Penitent Ch 70: Lucky

The Carrion King was much easier to move than the Lord of the Forest had been. The massive vulture was similar in size to the stag, but its hollow bones and the fact that they didn’t need to carve their way through thick forest to move it made a significant difference. Still, Michael and Davi found themselves once again being the ones transporting it by nature of their larger size. 

“This doesn’t seem fair,” said Davi, as they walked along the road, leaving the battlefield ...

Penitent Ch 69: Carrion King

Slowly, the gold letters began to coalesce to form a list of titles and deeds.

Titles:

Carrion King

Bloodbeak

Deeds:

Devourer of Lords

Slayer of Horses

As those gold letters floated around the massive vulture, it tilted its head back to swallow a head, helmet and all. Then it turned to look directly at Michael, almost as if it knew what he was doing. It opened its beak and let out a terrible cry th...

Penitent Ch 68: Wake

Michael was packing his things, laying out his arms and armor on his bed pallet to make them easy to put on when he was done. He’d finally gotten a new shield from the quartermaster, though it was singed and dented, so had spent a good chunk of the previous day fixing it up as best he could in the way he’d been taught by Dugan.

Marcus approached him from behind. “This could be it,” he whispered as he got close.

“It being me dying to the smell of your breath?” he asked ...

Penitent Ch 67: Measuring

The next day Bayle had them all assembled in the courtyard wearing their full armor and armed with their favored weapons. He even insisted on Marcus bringing his rifle. Bayle himself was wearing an odd mix of the newest type of armor the knights had, but missing certain pieces like the shoulderplates and greaves. He had two short swords and a dagger at his belt and a small, angular buckler. He looked a little odd without a bunch of papers and notebooks around him.

“What about Crick?�...

Penitent Ch 66: Strength

Michael looked into the small shard of mirror with the edges wrapped in leather, studying his reflection. He took his knife and dragged it slowly and gently across his cheek, scraping the sides of the blade against the bowl of warm water in front of him then dipping the knife in the water before bringing it back to his face. He’d never really been a ‘beard’ guy, even back on Earth. He had a lot of difficulty dealing with the scratchy and itchy phase before the beard started to get full,...

Schedule Shift Tues, Thurs, Sat

Hey everybody, so this will be the last of the daily updates, and from here on I'll be transitioning to Tues, Thurs, Sat update schedule. I'm hoping to do some revisions based on some of the comments I've gotten on the story so far now that I'm slowing things down, but the major beats will all remain the same.

This is probably my most controversial story so far in a lot of ways. I always like to take big swings with each story and this one seems to be getting the biggest reaction, and p...

Penitent Ch 65: Aelven Ambush

Farlin’s hands went to his throat and he fell backward out of the wagon as blood began to sputter from the wound. Michael dove after him, more arrows flying from the woods as he did, two of them bouncing off his breastplate as he landed. He angled himself over Farlin to block anymore incoming arrows with his armor, and grabbed the shaft of the arrow in his neck. He couldn’t pull it out, the head of it was too wide and barbed.

“Sorry about this.”

Michael pushed the arrow th...

Penitent Ch 64: Morning Prayer

Michael was untied and released shortly after Merk and the Sergeant went to speak with the Knight-Commander. Merk looked pale from the conversation and had two guards with him, one of whom was holding a cane, but the Sergeant was smiling slightly as he ordered two men to undo his bindings.

“The Knight-Commander was speaking with a young Knight named Tain when we arrived there. He nearly throttled Merk when he tried to name you a deserter,” said the Sergeant quietly after Merk was es...

Penitent Ch 63: Shrine

Michael stood there confused for a few moments, running his hands along the stone. It was difficult to tell the color of it, as his night vision washed out a lot of the color around him, so he raised his hand and focused on it as if he was going to heal someone to make it glow. The stone was large, reaching nearly as high as his chin and overgrown with roots and vines. He walked slowly around it, careful to watch his step. He saw small patches of gray on the ground as well, realizing that whe...

Penitent Ch 62: Foolish

Michael was blinded as the fireball hit Rein and almost immediately after that first blast hit, Ollie released his own. This time he was able to hit a solid concentration of the mercenaries who started to scatter in confusion from the two blasts in their midst in quick succession. 

Michael charged after the second fireball, even as he heard Pyotr and Davi yelling for him to retreat. He leapt over a dazed dwarf, kicking him into a patch of flame as he moved forward. A human merc tri...

Penitent Ch 61: Ambush

There were several strikes after that first one, followed by a brief lull as another target was identified.  The worst part of the lead-up to that attack was the boredom. Once they’d retreated deeper into the woods, cleared a new spot for camp, and posted lookouts there was nothing to do, but wait until they scouted another group of mercs or supply wagon coming down a nearby road. After one more strike the plan was to head back to the nearest camp to rest and resupply. Until then Micha...

Penitent Ch 60: Rein and Tain

After they’d all eaten they got on the road. Merk was easily annoyed and demanding. He criticized them for moving too fast through the forest, or too slow. To him their muffle spells made all of them ‘sloppy’, as did their reliance on magic in general. He moved them through a number of winding hunting trails, small forest paths, and occasionally had them cross over pieces of main roads quickly to avoid being seen by anyone. It reminded Michael of moving into enemy territory with the sco...

Penitent Ch 59: Aelven Echoes

The next day, in the early morning, they were being escorted to the front. Michael managed, thanks to his experience with Dugan, to find a supply wagon that was already heading in the same direction. Their escort was equally grateful, he was an older sergeant with a large gut named Farlin whose greatest virtue was his indifference towards them, rather than the hate they were used to from the others. From what Michael could glean he was in his final year before he retired and jobs like this we...

Penitent Ch 58: Return

It took a forced march for most of a day to reach the nearest camp. It was slower moving with the group, but safer and despite the fact that they were all clearly tired, they seemed to have gained a second wind thanks to the promise of rest. The camp was more of a miniature fort that reminded Michael of Roman encampment descriptions he’d read in books and seen on the history channel. There was a dug up trench all around it, a barricade made from felled trees behind that, guards patrolling t...

Penitent Ch 57: Hardened Lance

The wagon had a chest filled with neatly arranged gold, silver, and copper coins. It was counted thoroughly and the gold and silver was divided into small bags that each of them carried, with the copper coins just being scattered onto the ground. The coin added around twenty pounds to each of their kits, and the scouts made it very clear that they would be counting the coin every night and any missing money would be paid for in flesh back at the fort. The trek back was harrowing with the adde...

Penitent Ch 56: Delivery

Davi was the first one to wake up to see Michael staring deadeyed at the door frame markings. He pushed himself up, realizing the scout wasn’t there.

“You okay?”

Michael didn’t look at him, though he did finally blink. “I had to kill a man last night.”

Davi pushed himself up quickly, reaching for his sword. “Did someone slip into camp?”

“They were beating a Tusinian deserter in the barn. They asked me to heal him so they could have another go at beati...

Penitent Ch 55: Marks on a Doorframe

They all stood at the exit to the fort. The taker Penitents wore only their breastplates with their helmets belted at their sides and their weapons of choice which for Michael meant a sword sheathed at his waist and a shield on his back. They all had rations for four days, and water in their canteens. The other Penitents were wearing just chainmail and hardened leather caps with spears in each of their hands and long daggers at their waists. The difference in kit was stark, and Michael found ...