Thursday, March 18, 2010

The Lawless Hours - James Enge

"It went on for a while longer until the Enemy gave up and the illusion-bait disappeared. Left behind (because it was real, not illusion) was an immense man-trap — or horse-trap, really, since it was made to catch our horses as we gallopped to the rescue. I dismounted and went forward to move the thing out of the way and break it with my truncheon. Liskin remained on his horse as look-out, which was in accordance with the Rules and (for once) good sense besides.

“Be careful!” he called to me as I hustled the shattered trap over to the side of the road. “There’s sure to be a Bargainer or two nearby in the wood!”

“You think?” I grunted as I hurled the broken metal into the woods. At that moment I was glaring eye-to-eye with a Bargainer crouching in the brush alongside the road. He made no move toward me, nor I to him, but he smiled at me, showing his teeth filed sharp as needles."


4 out of 5


http://www.blackgate.com/fiction-excerpt-the-lawless-hours/

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