Excerpt Thursday: THE BLACK PALADIN

It’s Excerpt Thursday! Today’s excerpt is from THE BLACK PALADIN.

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Raelum broke into a run, heedless of the noise. Another sob echoed out, and the horrible voice laughed again. Raelum darted around a tree, vaulted over a weathered boulder, and landed in a small, crowded clearing.

A young woman in worn clothes stood in the center of the clearing, blue eyes wide, cheeks flushed with cold and terror. From her halting limp, Raelum guessed that she had sprained her ankle.

A half-dozen hunched, misshapen figures stood around in her. The stench of rotting meat rose from their grinning, fang-choked mouths. Gray skin hung from their twisted bodies, revealing rotten flesh and crumbled bone. Eyes like dying coals stared at the young woman, watching her with hunger and lust.

The creatures were ghouls, corpses inhabited by minor demons of the astral world. They hunted the countryside, feasting on human flesh, and cunning ones could hide themselves in cities for decades, even centuries, devouring the unwary.

But Raelum had faced their like before. He lifted the sword that Sir Oliver had carried and strode into the clearing, the familiar anger churning in him. He dropped his pack, unbuckled his sword belt so his scabbard would not tangle his legs, and set himself.

“You will be mine, pretty thing,” rasped the largest ghoul. She flinched away. “We feast on you, yes, and then you shall rise as one of us! No more will we hunt alone.”

“You shall not!” said Raelum, pointing the sword at the ghoul. For a moment he saw Red Philip’s sneering face once more. “Wretched thing, you shall not!”

The ghouls whirled, and the girl gaped at him. The sword shuddered in Raelum’s hand, the sigil of the rose and sword on the blade beginning to glow.

“And who are you, little man?” snarled the biggest ghoul. Even from thirty feet away, the creature’s rank breath made Raelum’s skin crawl.

“I am Raelum, once of Khauldun,” said Raelum, “and by the Divine, I swear that you wretched beasts will never see another night!”

The ghoul gibbered with laughter. “This shell was Morick, in life.” Sometimes the demons inside the ghouls claimed the memories and identities of their dead hosts. “Now I am strong! We shall feast on your flesh!”

“Try,” spat Raelum, sword gripped in both hands.

The ghouls glanced at each other. The girl stared at him, shaking with fear.

The sun disappeared beneath the trees.

“Night is my time!” roared Morick, shaking his talons. “Now, little man, you shall die!”

Two of the ghouls stood guard over the girl, but Morick and the remaining three charged towards Raelum, darting over the snowy ground on all fours like wolves.