Archon: Part I (excerpt)

 

 

Coming soon: Archon – Part 1.

 

A dieselpunk story arc that will be available in serial form. It’s based in the same world as Blightcross. When I say it’s the bastard child of Memphis Belle and heroic fantasy, I’m not joking. Bam.

 

The light hissed past his starboard wing. Jaris shook the cobwebs from his head and jammed open the throttle, pulled the stick. A crash behind him shook the cabin, and he glanced in the mirror. Plumes of smoke. A streak of fire. Shards of burning metal cascading down, trailing black.

The engine roared, and the strange impression that had frozen him turned to a stupid afterthought. How could he have been so distracted?

He spoke into the comm. “Shit. I must have missed it. They said there wasn’t anything to worry about. Just a group of bandits causing trouble.”

“Why didn’t you fire when you had the chance?” Auren’s voice wavered. Anger or fear–hard to tell.

“I . . .” Jaris banked and peered down at the convoy. Out of range for now, though it was anyone’s guess what the range of an Ehzeri terror-mage actually was. Nobody had really fought them from the air. Until now.

“You what?”

He formed on Auren’s wing. “I just . . . just choked.”

A point of light burned the margins of his vision. A second later, an explosion of oil and metal splattered Jaris’ windscreen. A second more, and Auren’s ship careened towards the desert, burning oil tracing its fall.

#

 

Watch for it.