Zanarkand Marina Jecht's houseboat was the least maintained of all the vessels in the Zanarkand Marina. It was overdue for a reseal, the underside crusted in Sinscale spines, the sails were ripped, the lines frayed and all of the internal machina was rusty. The inside fared no better. The tidal wave from the Sin attack 3 years ago and a malfunctioning pu...
It was seeing Tony that really made me feel embarrassed. To be honest I had hardly met some of the others before. Gavin had been to the same school as the rest of us but he was several years older. Clive had actually been in my class but was generally seen as a bit of a swot, a sort of 'teachers pet' if you like. He wasn't as physically handsome as the other...
It took weeks for Tom to catch up on his schoolwork, even with Greg and Harvey's combined help and tutelage. During that time, his ribs healed slowly and he managed to get rid of his cast and brace, though two doctors told him that he should avoid strenuous activity for two more weeks. Amazingly, Tom felt fine after such a short time, even though he had lite...
Part One: Arrival Her eyes open, but nothing changes. It's just as dark. She breathes in. When plants are caught in absolute darkness, a substance in them called auxin stretches their stems out, until they die. That's why when you leave a plant in a closet it turns a ghostly pale, warped and disfigured. Our plant is stretching; she's been in the dark for...
Prologue Anna Plowright trudged grimly along the country lane towards her cottage still two kilometres distant. She was soaked to the skin. The rain bucketed down and reduced her hair to a stringy ruin, and found every available gap in her clothing to trickle down her back and between her breasts. When she had set out that morning for her daily ten-kilomet...
It was an upscale bar, guess I should really call it a Cocktail Lounge. But it was a friendly place. When I got into a casual conversation in the john with a guy who came in with some fellow workers he invited me over to join their group. Nice bunch, too, four guys and a couple gals just leaving the office on Friday afternoon. From what they said this was a...
"Sera, if you would be so kind as to get some pink belladonna root from the basement?" Sera muttered as she made her way down the stone stairs. The graduation age of a wizard was, by all official rules, 20 years, and Sera was just 2 years away from that. And she hadn't learned a thing from her master. Well, not quite. She could do some basic energy manipul...
I could escape it no longer. As an 18 year old senior in high school, I had to get a job. Somehow I had managed to get out of getting a part time job my first three years of high school, but finally my parents could put up with it no longer. I needed a job. If that wasn't bad enough, to get the job I had to get a work permit from my school, and to fill out...
JULIE'S A FAMILY MEMBER, NOW When I woke up the next morning, Gigi was gone from our bed. I quickly showered and headed downstairs. Gigi fixed me a cup of coffee as I sat down to read the morning paper while she started to separate the bacon slices. "Look here!" I exclaimed holding the newspaper up for Gigi to see, "Direct from Las Angeles: Hollywood Porn...
For M. She knows why. Thanks also to violent intimacy for her editing skills. * Day One A voice from a shadowy corner of the room said, "Don't turn on the lights. You know why we are here. Sit down on the sofa and listen carefully as we tell you what we expect of you for the next forty-eight hours." I sank slowly onto the sofa and let the darkness settle...