Steelflower
Chapter One
I woke from a fuzzy trance with my mead-filled head ringing and four Hain Guards
seeking to separate said head from my shoulders.
In strictest point of fact, they did not seek to kill me. They sought to
kill the barbarian whose pocket I had picked last night, and I dove into the
fray without realizing it, still half-asleep. The case could further be
made that things were a general mess because of one small reflexive action.
I am not my usual charming self with my head pounding like Baiiar drums and my
mouth full of foul Kshanti camel-piss, and I was a bit more enthusiastic than
I was necessary. As I wiped my dotanii, after the last Hain lay flopping
and gasping on the floor, I finally had a chance to look about me.
I had killed three of them, two with short thrusts and one with the
piri-splitter cut, carving half his face off. He drowned in his own blood.
The tavern's commonroom was full of patrons who had either slept through the
fray or pretended to. Nevertheless, there was a wide space around the table I
had used-leaping atop it to get some altitude, ... read full excerpt from: Steelflower ebook
