The Malmillard Codex by K.G. McAbee Page A

Nibiat warriors. Deep
within the floating globe there was the image of two tiny figures
walking along a sandy shore, their arms draped about each
other.
    "No suspicion as yet?" asked the dark.
    "None in the least," assured cold.
    "You are too sure, it seems to me," replied
dark in an ebony whine. "We have waited long for our plans to come
to fruition. It would be bad to lose our advantages now, when we
are so close to our ultimate goal."
    A frigid wind blew through the chamber,
across rows of books bound in warty skin, around tall glass jars
containing grinning heads. The gust rifled piles of papers on the
top of a long desk, papers held secure with weights of lead-filled
skulls.
    Cold was laughing. "We will obtain the final
pieces to our puzzle, brother dear," promised cold, when the laugh
had died away at last. "What was found before shall be found again.
And before all is lost forever."
    Outside the tall stone tower, a sizzle and
crack of lightning spat across a jet sky. Stars jostled against
each other outside the open window, gathering to spy on the
inhabitants of the round, sad room.
    "See that it is so, then," reminded the dark
voice. "I would have them suffer anew."
    "Suffering, after all, is our business,
brother," agreed cold.
    A stone lying on the windowsill cracked wide
in the icy air and split into twin sections. One piece fell out the
window, tumbling for long, slow instants before it reached the sere
and arid soil, where nothing dared to grow.

Chapter Ten
    The stars
spread over them in a canopy of glory. The sound of waves breaking
on the shore was a soft and distant accompaniment to their words.
Val and Madryn lay side by side on the warm sands, separated by an
arm's length of sand, sheltered by a high jumble of rocks from a
blazing fire and the remnants of survivors. Madryn was still, her
breathing soft and gentle. Val twisted and turned, his face a mask
of pain and confusion.
    Five days had passed since the wreck of the Atria.
    Val enjoyed every moment of every one of
those sun-drenched days. He ate his fill of shellfish and regained
his strength, first walking and then running up and down the sandy
shale. He spent every waking moment in Madryn's company, ignoring
the others as he spoke with her, watched her walk and sit and eat;
waiting for that crooked smile to light up her narrow face. On the
third day, she taught him to swim, laughing at his mad antics and
the clumsy paddling of his thick, strong arms.
    But at night…at night, there were the
dreams. The first night Val slept poorly, drifting in a daze far
short of true sleep. But as his bruised and battered head began to
heal, he slept…and the dreams began in earnest.
    Each night, as soon as his eyes closed, Val
found himself in the body and in the world of Lord Valaren
Starseeker. He walked through marble palaces, he ate from golden
plates, he slept in feather beds, and he dressed in silks and
satin. It was a life that was at once familiar and utterly alien to
Valerik the slave. He had all the things in his dreams that he had
ever wanted.
    And he hated it all. Lord Valaren was a
cruel, arrogant man, full of his own importance, viciously
belittling others. Anything that he could not control infuriated
him; anyone who dared to cross him irritated him; and any who did
not share his desires astonished him.
    Madryn infuriated, irritated and astonished
Lord Valaren. To a great extent, Val could understand the man's
feelings; Madryn often had the same effect on him.
    But not for the same reasons.
    Val began to dread sleep, to hate the man
whose mind he inhabited during the long reaches of the night.
    How could Madryn have wanted a man like
Valaren Starseeker?
    ***
    Captain Zenobio had survived his ship and
another was sure to be on its way, he told the other survivors each
morning. The ship had the great good luck to weather the storm just
long enough to wreck within sight—and reach—of the shore. The
captain assured the remainder of his passengers and