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    Bone Dancer's War
    Bone Dancer's War
    Bone Dancer's War
    Ebook52 pages50 minutes

    Bone Dancer's War

    By J.C. Merrill

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    About this ebook

    In the mountaintop fortress of Maseko, a God-Queen's consorts come under attack from a necromancer of unknown intent. As Junior Consort Elosha and his fellow husbands are hunted, Elosha must unravel the plot against his family and his homeland before both are destroyed. Elosha's only weapon is his talent as the God-Queen's spiritualist, using a magic whose potential he has barely begun to explore. All he trusts and expects will turn against him, and he must decide who and what he wants to become.

    'Bone Dancer's War' is a novelette of necromancy, polyandry, gods, and monsters. It is the first volume of the Songs of Esoka, followed by 'Gate of Thorns', 'Never Reach the Sea', and 'Lands of No Return'.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJ.C. Merrill
    Release dateAug 1, 2015
    ISBN9781311415226
    Bone Dancer's War
    Author

    J.C. Merrill

    J.C. Merrill is the author of the Songs of Esoka, a series of fantasy novelettes and novellas set in a world with African roots. J.C. Merrill is a pen name for Jonathan Olfert, whose short fiction and non-fiction have been published in various markets and under various names. He has an M.A. in political science, an enduring fascination with Africa, and possibly too much interest in necromancy.

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      Book preview

      Bone Dancer's War - J.C. Merrill

      Bone Dancer's War

      Book One of the Songs of Esoka

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright 2015 J.C. Merrill

      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 use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      Bone Dancer's War

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      Bone Dancer's War

      God-Queen Almakai of Maseko wore indigo on the day of her forty-second death. So far as junior consort Elosha knew, the color had no symbolic value; the die was expensive, an Angharabadi import, and that was statement enough. Or maybe she just liked the shade. Seven years as one of her husbands, and he still couldn't say what his wife's favorite colors were. Then again, the other two dozen royal consorts in the room probably couldn't say either, apart from the two men who stood by her feet. Two of the three senior consorts, men whose tattooed foreheads and temples marked their identity from new life to new life.

      The third one was late, and the God-Queen was dying anyway. There would be hell to pay when she woke up.

      She'd been nearly seven feet tall when Elosha was selected as a consort, seven feet of whipcord muscle, a runner from the plains below Maseko. For most of their life together, though, insofar as together existed at all, she'd been compact and soft-spoken, her strength felt rather than seen. This was his second time watching her die on these stone beds, and it most certainly wasn't getting easier.

      Neither death had been foreseen, but neither death had been immediate either. Blood welled up from her ribs, through bandages and the indigo shroud. The new host wore the same shade, perhaps the first time in her life she'd worn anything so rich — prospective hosts were always willing, but apart from honor, incentives were minimized. The new host's skin was dark; Elosha had to squint to make out the blue-black tattoo that twined down her temples onto her cheekbones. The God-Queen tattoo was still a bit red around the edges, applied only days ago. Her eyes were closed, like the dying God-Queen, as wads of chaffor-leaf slowed their minds and hearts.

      As he had last time, he wondered who this one had been, what had made her volunteer. She looked tall, with a warrior's build and scars. A statement to foreign rulers in uncertain and hostile times, the kind of statement only Almakai could make. After a few centuries of rule, alongside mortal and immortal consorts, she knew how to make an impression.

      Igekai, Third Consort to the God-Queen, still wasn't here. Elosha exchanged sidelong looks with the other men, his fellow junior consorts. The First and Second stared straight ahead; they might have been carved from stone. Irritable stone.

      A faceted piece of quartz, polished to perfection, hung above the current God-Queen in a golden basket. Between one heartbeat and the next it glowed like the sun, and Elosha — who'd seen his share of death — watched his wife take her last breath. The First, a heavyset man named Abatto, moved forward and pulled the corner of the indigo shroud over her face. All eyes turned to the new host.

      The door slammed open, a minor sacrilege, and Elosha's head snapped around. It was one of Igekai's servants, bearing a small part of the Third Consort's tattoo, about as much ink as Elosha wore. A steward, then, and not one Elosha knew. He looked to have run up the granite steps, here to the mountaintop where the consorts and the new host had carried Almakai. Elosha saw no embarrassment, just…fear.

      The Third Consort is dead, said the steward between gulps of air, and he's not in his new host.

      Every man in sight flinched.

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