Paladin Teaser
Here we are in the middle of the DEAD WEIGHT: The Tombs blog tour. If you’ve missed or haven’t kept up with the tour, I’ve already got a bunch of interesting posts about the origins of DEAD WEIGHT and what it all means to me. For those of you who have supported the first installment of my Tale of the Faerie War, thank you. It certainly does mean a lot. Please head over to the official blog tour post and show some support for the cool cats who have allowed me to post on their sites.
As for now, here’s a little teaser for the second installment of my Tale of the Faerie War, DEAD WEIGHT: Paladin.
WARNING: This might be slightly spoiler-ish for DEAD WEIGHT: Paladin.
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So… here I am…writing Tommy’s story before I die.
I had to tear out that page I wrote back at Union Square and start over.
Why?
Because sometimes that’s what you do. Well, maybe you don’t do it that way. Maybe you don’t at all. Probably not, now that I think about it, considering how few people can do what I do. It’s only a small fraction of a percentage that come by this stupid “gift” I have naturally, so yeah, odds are, it’s not how you do it. Just take it on faith it’s how I do it. I heard this one time, this guy scrapped an entire 200K+ manuscript of an urban fantasy novel – how’s that for irony – and started all over. Never heard if he did anything with it. Not that people are into Urban Fantasy novels these days. Kinda like the decline of Cyberpunk in the early part of the century.
But I digress.
Yeah, I know I’m stalling. I’m pretty close to being dead, not that I’m a doctor, but that table has a lot of my blood on it. More than I imagine is healthy. Not to mention the gaping wound in the middle of my torso. Once I finish Tommy’s story and put myself back into sync with the rest of reality, that’s pretty much it for me. I might, might, have time to say goodbye to Cendrine.
Right. Time to suck it up and tell Tommy’s story.
Hell, I don’t even know where to start. Last time I saw Tommy we were skate buddies in junior high. So much has happened since then. Well, to me anyway. I assume a lot happened to Tommy too since he wrote that card about my friends needing help. I miss my friends, Tommy and Phil. I miss Wish, but I don’t even want to think about that. Christina hit a little close to home, in more ways than one. Mary. Snip. Cuban. Lot of good people gone in my wake, while I still managed to keep on going. Well, at least until now.
Stop it. Getting a little too Marvin the Robot here. This isn’t a self-pity fest. It’s not about me and my grief. It’s about telling the story of my friend, Tommy.
Tommy Knight.
Tommy Ronald Knight.
I’m onto something there. Yeah, I can feel the story’s truth coming closer with writing his full name.
Tommy Ronald Knight…only he’s not Tommy any more. They took that name away from him. Gave him me another.
What is it? They gave him me more along with the new name. Let’s chase that down.
Ronald Knight.
Starting with the Knight. Close. Very close. But not quite.
Knight.
Cavalier… no…but closer…
Peer… closer…
Who has peers?
Charlemagne had peers… twelve of them. The twelve Peers of Charlemagne, his greatest knights. They were called Paladins.
Yes!
Ronald Paladin!
No…not Ronald Paladin…but closer. Got the “Paladin” part… It’s the Ronald that’s wrong… No, not wrong… Different… Changed…
Roland? Yeah! Roland! Damn, I’m good. Even in stasis out of sync with time, I’m good.
Really? That’s what they did with it? Just switched two letters? It’s almost as if someone wanted me to figure it…oh…wait… All things considered, they probably did.
Yeah, now I what happened to Roland Paladin.
No…still not there. Must be the blood loss and the lack of practice.
Roland the Paladin. Changeling of the Seelie Court of Arcadia. That’s where he went.
Words from the theme song run through my head, A knight without armor in a savage land…
…Someone had been singing that at Union Square…
…And the words come… I’m both bard and Paladin… sharing a story across space and time… my friend and I… He hears the singer from Union Square… I hear his friend, a woman, say, We shouldn’t need armor…
…funny, I needed armor too, real armor, not some silly enchanted t-shirt…
…and now I’m in the story, and of course, we’re en medias res…
