Ace of Swords: Stories from Archanea

By Anton Brzezinski

"If you like Anton's work you will eat this stuff up!" -- Kenneth W. Prosch (For Anton's Inferno). This new book contains all original Sword and Sorcery stories from the Archanean Diary, an epic adventure series set on a world similar to Earth in the late Middle Ages, that is, if our world had magic and monsters! A companion book to The Sword and the Raven, first in the Archanean Diary Trilogy of full length novels. From the unique mind of Science Fiction Illustrator Anton Brzezinski comes a rich and exciting world. These stories take place before the events in the Sword and the Raven.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anton Brzezinski
• Release date: Jan 8, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310735837

Anton Brzezinski

A former Actor. Hollywood artist and long time fan of fantasy and horror, Anton Brzezinski is best known for his retro Science fiction covers and horror short stories. He has written and published several books, and currently is devoting all his time to a series of Epic Fantasy novels.

Book preview

The Ace of Swords

Stories From Archanea

By Anton Brzezinski

Copyright Anthony E. Brzezinski 2016

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition License Notes:

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please go to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

About the Author

Afterword by the Author

Archanean Dictionary

Other Books in the Series

Other Books by Anton Brzezinski

Miscellaneous

The dates in this story end in the suffix N.S, Which stands for the Night of the Star, the beginning of the New Era. This is a work of fiction set on a fantasy world called Akansha. None of the places or characters are intended to represent real places or people or families that exist now or ever have existed. Artwork is author-created, purchased from Pond 5, a source of public domain images or created by the author using 3d models then altered with PhotoShop. These stories are part of the author's Archanean Diary series of novels that begins with The Sword and the Raven. This collection is a prequel offering insights to the origins of Maleva the witch, Rynald the wizard and other characters from the trilogy.

Note for some ebook editions: Otherworldly terms like "kajool and kyne" are italicized to show they aren't misspelled, and linked to the dictionary at the end for reference. If they don't link by touching them please check the dictionary at the end if you have any problem understanding the story. Thanks.

Copyright 2016 Anthony E. Brzezinski (writing under the name Anton Brzezinski.

Prologue

The Laboratory

Traug Mountains, present day:

A crack appeared. A small part of the wall split open, multiple tongues licked pulverized concrete aside and a bullet shaped head broke through. A large hermaphroditic rock-worm in search of a place to lay its eggs inched through the wall. It dropped into the nearly absolute darkness of a long buried chamber. No Fae or human mind even suspected the large room existed, and the worm wasn't sentient enough to understand it had discovered something remarkable.

The over-sized room buried in the mountain wasn't completely dark. Dials on some of the instruments still glowed with a dim cold radioactivity, although the Fae who had last seen them had died thousands of years ago. His body had been sealed here in a dry environment, in which the moisture had long evaporated. Only desiccated tissue and bone had remained and upon further drying had crumbled to dust.

The dust remained here, the gasses long evaporated. The scientist's calcium and carbon were joined with phosphorus, sulfur, sodium and magnesium along with traces of some metals which made up a living organism, and some unusual metals which represented implants. There were other such dust piles. He hadn't been the room's only occupant.

The name of the Fae scientist whose ran this laboratory had been lost to history. Although he had signed the cover of the notebook which rested on the floor, the book had become so brittle the weight of the falling rock-worm crumbled it .The worm, it's shiny chitinous segments made matte by the dust, raised it's head and appeared to look around. The molar mass of it's chitin was heavier than most arthropods, a distinction the scientist would have understood, which enabled it to bore through rock. Optically blind, it was sniffing for silicate. Less fragile than the book were tables, cabinets and metallic instruments. Even in ancient times the Fae had enduring metals. The worm was unaware of the tables. Sensing a concentration of glass it slid over the floor with determination.

It was rumored even among some of the Elfin that the Fae had brought their advanced science from another world. The truth of that was something that couldn't be determined here. However, a terrible secret waited to be discovered. Unfortunately revealing what had been created in the forgotten room would require someone more intelligent than a worm.

If a sufficiently analytical archeologist discovered and examined the chamber the worm now explored the sleuth would easily determine an earthquake had long ago sealed off the chamber from the outside world. From the large room's unlikely location, he or she might suspect it had been built to conduct forbidden experiments. They could guess the large tables with cuffs and ankle straps had been designed to restrain humanoid creatures twice the size of a man.

The tall cages around the periphery of the room also might have suggested something to an investigator. They would notice beakers had survived in which chemical residue might be found. If analyzed it would be determined the mixtures stimulated protein growth. An enormous pipe-fed tank, two sides still intact, must once have held some growing creature. If the investigator was given to wild speculation, they might believe they had discovered a secret laboratory where a mad scientist had once tried to create a race of super warriors.

Any bones in the room had lacked the proper conditions to become fossilized and long ago turned to calcium powder. But two skull castings of a more durable Fae designed material still existed. They rested on metal stands.

One was the skull of a forest creature of average size. As a skull, it was long and tapered to a snout. Not terribly different at first glance from the skull of a horse or an alligator ... except for the large curved tusks issuing from accommodating osteological protrusions bilaterally disposed on the upper and lower jaws. It was a skull casting of a boar, a wild pig common on Akansha.

The second, much larger skull had tusks like the first, but was enormously larger. It was the skull of a monstrosity that walked on two legs. Unfortunately it was also common to this world. The giant beast race occupied the mountains above the chamber.

The larger casting was the skull of a Traug.

The worm crawled into an alcove formed by a collapsed piece of wall next to some broken beakers. The silicates it detected in the broken glass would feed her newborns when they hatched. The sight of a rockworm laying eggs is not for the squeamish. It was as hermaphroditic as a common earthworm but instead of one, the rock-worm's forward segment had multiple mucous tubes pregnant with worm sperm, some of which had already been rubbed off in transit, She now gyrated to to cause the remaining bloated tubes to fall off and dry into eggs, each