THE FLAMES IN THE SHADOW

ot to have said in front of your very eyes," he said, "but you know not jack shit. Did you expect me to ask you to come and help a sorcerer? Who am I-a wealthy gobshite?" He took

tely for me, you never really want

edzka? Will my word not hurt if I should say that you're a numskull? I'm not the man I claimed to be. I'm not that same man you

"You were my father's friend, but there is something you do not know. Agron

s," Lord Golrus smiled. "This entire island shall fall to me. I've known y

your own failure

d Golrus. "I shall turn every province on this island into a kingdom-w

said Zeranah, "whereas it's just an omen. Things change according

s eyes open. "The divinities were once men on this fucking island and they're dead already," he spat. "Why

ed angrily. "You shall not achieve that imperial d

advice for you-go find a cave where you can hide. I shall show not mercy to those who will dare to become my ene

mien remained utterly void of panic about the odious cast to the

conquer the island, though she knew not how and from where he could procure the invincible foul army. S

to hinder me from doing whatever I want," Lord Go

you," Zeranah rasped. "I shall make you cu

me peals of cracking in his body while his head began to change into a

kept gaping at him. It came about that Lord Golrus' ensemble start

le-headed perceptibly. His arms and legs were fast morphing into the limbs of a lion, and, very soon a

ossing his leonine tail. He made the squawk of an eagle, hereupon he set his wings open all the wa

urge whose soul was ridden with venom. Before now she had started

nd render her gory and seamed. And again, he believed that Zeranah w

f the Agronite year 3351 that she attained twenty-three years old and had not yet spent a quarter of a centenarian's lifetime.

on each fingertip; she had girded herself up for a fatal fight, ready to show Lord Golrus how and why she was truly a powerful occultist. She was a

again. Zeranah, on the qui vive, thought that Lord Golrus would take on the of

esire to fall into a mortal fight with Zeranah as he might have thought that Zeranah's demise would give him nae ad

sappeared as a fight had vainly transpired betwixt the griffin and the col

t known that the intensity of the power of her resistance was less beside the intensity of Lord

ing to her own pulsations, and her eyes were still downcast.

the prophetic words, she was disappointed in herself because she had dealt with

warning to Lord Golrus. Come to think of it