Release date: February 19, 2019
Subgenre: Sword and Sorcery
About The Road of Skeletons:
On their way to the northern city of Khon Orzad, Thurvok, the sellsword,
and his friend Meldom, thief, cutpurse and occasional assassin, travel
along a road lined with the skeletons of executed heretics.
It's a grim path that becomes even grimmer when Thurvok and Meldom come upon a blindfolded woman who is still very much alive tied to a stake by the side of the road.
Should they continue their journey or rescue the woman and risk the wrath of the priest kings of Khon Orzad…
This is a short story of 5500 words or 20 print pages in the Thurvok sword and sorcery series, but may be read as a standalone. Includes an introduction and afterword.
It's a grim path that becomes even grimmer when Thurvok and Meldom come upon a blindfolded woman who is still very much alive tied to a stake by the side of the road.
Should they continue their journey or rescue the woman and risk the wrath of the priest kings of Khon Orzad…
This is a short story of 5500 words or 20 print pages in the Thurvok sword and sorcery series, but may be read as a standalone. Includes an introduction and afterword.
Excerpt:
The road that led to the northern city of Khon Orzad was a thin white ribbon of sand and gravel that was flanked by pine trees looming on either side, pine trees so high that they cast the road into shadow, even though the wan winter sun had barely passed its zenith.
Two men, one tall and muscular and one lithe and wiry and a good head shorter than his companion, were walking along that road at a leisurely pace. They were Thurvok, the sellsword, and his friend and travelling companion Meldom, cutpurse, thief, assassin, whatever someone was willing to pay him for. Both men were on their way to Khon Orzad in search of employment and opportunity.
So far, their journey had been peaceful, if cold, for winter was closing in and Khon Orzad lay far north of Thurvok’s usual stomping grounds. Meldom had been there before, though, and said that he knew someone in town who might be willing to hire a sellsword and a cutpurse cum thief cum assassin. But then, Meldom knew someone who might be willing to hire the pair of them in almost every city. Sometimes, the jobs were even as advertised and Meldom’s contacts paid up as promised.
The pine forest ended abruptly and before them lay the sea, its waters grey as the steel of a well-worn blade and foaming like soup boiling in a kettle. According to the map Meldom had purchased at their last stop, this inlet was called the Bay of Mourning Tides. It was certainly a fitting name, for the cries of the seagulls circling above the waves really did sound like a mourning dirge.
Beyond the Bay lay Khon Orzad, perched on a cliff high above the sea. If they had a way of crossing the Bay, Thurvok and Meldom could probably reach the city in as little time as it took to roast a rabbit or pheasant. But there was neither a ferry nor any other boat and so they had to take the long way, following the road as it wound around the Bay all the way to Khon Orzad.
Now that their destination was so close, Thurvok and Meldom strutted onwards at a brisker pace, eager to make it to the city and an inn, where they would find a hot meal, a tankard of ale or a jug of wine, a clean bed and maybe even a willing wench to share it with.
But then Thurvok came to an abrupt halt, when he spotted something alarming by the side of the road. Skeletons, lots of them.
Some still had a bit of flesh on them, others had been picked to the bone by the ravens and seagulls circling overhead. Most were standing upright, bound to stakes by the side of the road. But sometimes, the ropes that held them had rotted away and the skeletons had fallen to the ground in a pile of bones. Sometimes, rusty swords had been thrust into the ground around the skeletons, as if to keep them from running away.
It was not uncommon for cities to display the bodies of executed criminals outside their gates to deter would-be wrongdoers. But this forest of bones was extreme even by the standards of the most bloodthirsty of city states in the realm.
Even the naturally chatty Meldom had fallen uncharacteristically silent in the face of so much death.
In the end, it was Thurvok who broke the silence. “I thought you said this was a good place for business.”
“It is,” Meldom replied curtly.
“Their courts and magistrates seem rather bloody-minded, though,” Thurvok remarked, kicking aside an errant bone.
“I thought you didn’t care what courts, magistrates and judges say,” Meldom countered.
“I don’t,” Thurvok said, “But if I have to fight my way down from a scaffold, I’d like to be warned beforehand.”
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About Richard Blakemore:
Richard Blakemore (1900 – 1994) was a prolific writer of pulp
fiction. Nowadays, he is best remembered for creating the Silencer, a masked
vigilante in the vein of the Shadow or the Spider, during the hero pulp boom of
the 1930s. But Richard Blakemore also wrote in many other genres, including an
early sword and sorcery series about the adventures of a sellsword named
Thurvok and his companions.
Richard Blakemore's private life was almost as exciting as his fiction.
He was a veteran of World War I and II as well as a skilled sportsman and
adventurer who travelled the world during the 1920s. He may also have been the
person behind the mask of the real life Silencer who prowled New York City
between 1933 and 1942, fighting crime, protecting the innocent and punishing
the guilty, though nothing has ever been proven.
Richard Blakemore was married for more than fifty years to Constance
Allen Blakemore and the couple had four children.
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About Cora Buhlert:
Cora Buhlert was
born and bred in North Germany, where she still lives today – after time
spent in London, Singapore, Rotterdam and Mississippi. Cora holds an MA
degree in English from the University of Bremen and is currently
working towards her PhD.
Cora has been writing, since she was a teenager, and has published stories, articles and poetry in various international magazines. She is the author of the Silencer series of pulp style thrillers, the Shattered Empire space opera series, the In Love and War science fiction romance series, the Helen Shepherd Mysteries and plenty of standalone stories in multiple genres.
When Cora is not writing, she works as a translator and teacher. She also runs the Speculative Fiction Showcase and the Indie Crime Scene and contributes to the Hugo-nominated fanzine Galactic Journey.
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