Masquerade
Chapter One: The Viper of Levanto
Under a lavish, tropical starscape, the knight Montenegro stood motionless among the ramshackle boardwalks of Port Levanto. A windblown cloak swathed him in black wool, allowing only glimpses of the steel armor he wore underneath. His hand rested on the hilt of his sword. His eyes blended into the darkness of midnight.
The buccaneer town was a boneyard of driftwood and dead ships and stooped palm trees. Cracked, rickety houses slouched against the grit of the ocean wind. Mounds of sand and splashes of moonlight glazed the port with a wan, skeletal pallor. The surf rolled and slobbered at the shore. Unclean scents and sounds gathered in leeward hollows, where things that washed up from the sea lurked or rotted, unmolested by the town's inhabitants. A consortium of rangy cats stalked the gloom.
Starry candle ... read full excerpt from Ultima: The Technocrat War Book II of III: Masquerade ebook
