Excerpt from book two in the series, Tales of the Triad - Dragons and Goblins and Wizards, Oh My!
“Any idea what's up with John, lately?” Christine and Joshua were enjoying lunch in the newest addition to the Citadel, 'Little Italy' and savoring a deep dish pizza that could have passed for lasagna, only it had more stuff. Joshua and Suki both shook their heads side to side, while chewing slowly. They were filling up, something that was a rare event in the first place and they didn't want to waste valuable chewing time with speaking. Tasha was not eager to speak either, but for different reasons.
“It's the girls, too, not just John. I've seen them coming out of John's room for the last two weeks, early, in their PJ's. I think they're sleeping in there with him. When I talk to them, they're really vague and it's like, they don't know how they got there. They just wake up in bed with John. Nothing weird, not like, you know, kinky, no sex or anything. They wake up and John wakes up and they get up and the girls go back to their room. Next morning, they're back in John's room. John says he doesn't hear them when they come in and get in bed.”
“They did that before, didn't they? Just walk through the wall and get in bed with him?” Joshua asked.
“That was after the Japanese survivors were picked up and everyone was stressed and worn out. John was too tired to feel a nuke going off. He is usually a light sleeper.” Christine said, remembering the early days.
“That's part of what's bothering him, that none of them can figure out how they get there or why John doesn't wake up when they get into bed. I don't think that's all, but that is at least a part of it. I sat up for three nights, watching the rooms and they went in their own rooms and came out of John's twice one night. The other nights they only came out in the morning. We checked the walls, the floor, everything, we put up linked wards around everything, you know, the ones where you can break it, but not without alerting everyone who helped set it and nothing. The girls just walked out in the morning and they never tripped the ward until then. We even did the truth thing, on all of them and they are clueless how it's happening.”
“Who's 'we', who helped you?”
“Carl.”
“Carl? He hasn't been here in a month. Those girls have been in John's room every night for over a month?!”
“Can I watch you hurt him?” Joshua chuckled. “You know he wouldn't touch those girls. He loves them way too much to do anything stupid with them. They're like his lost kids to him.”
“I wasn't thinking of hurting John, not this time. We need to do something to help or to find out what else is going on. What if we stay in John's room and keep watch? You think he'd let us do that?”
“Depends. How will you dress, something slinky?”
They looked up and saw John and the girls standing next to them. “You sleep in my room, you have to dress properly.”
“How long were you standing there?”
“About a pound and a half of that pizza ago. Long enough. Eat and we will meet you back at the Star Chamber. Carl's on his way too. Forty five minutes?” John and the girls walked away, Jenny and Beth each with a hand.
“Well, we may find out more than we wanted to know. Forty five minutes. We have time.” Joshua waved at the waitress and ordered another pitcher of beer.
The door was locked, sealed, warded and shielded. A normal precaution for the Star Chamber, even when it was empty. The Wizards were all present and eagerly awaiting the next announcement from John. He seemed to be in no hurry, chatting with Carl about the new cave systems they were working on, the construction on the sewer and water system, the new solar panels and the choice of skylight material. Christine was getting annoyed. Jenny looked over at Christine and leaned closer to John, whispering to him. John nodded and slowly came to his feet, tapping the gavel lightly.
“This meeting will be brief and will reconvene in the crystal chamber below. The Dragons are about to awaken. We will be present for this and we need you to stand guard at the entrance to the birthing chamber, ready to render assistance as needed. Any questions so far? We have a little time before we need to leave.”
About the Author
R J Murray was born on a small farm in central Kentucky in the early fifties. Growing up in the country gave him a love of nature and a dislike of shoveling manure, as well as the certain knowledge that goats were smarter than dogs and cows were dumber than rocks.
After moving to Florida with his family, he returned to Kentucky each summer with his siblings and first heard about organic gardening as a teenager. Manure finally had a purpose. Winters were spent attending school on Florida's east coast and he returned to Kentucky after graduating from High School in 1969, where he got a job flipping burgers while he attended the local branch of the University of Kentucky. His free time was spent reading Science Fiction from the Golden Age, hunting, fishing and gardening. Hobbies have included history, spelunking, geology, as well as many different home crafts such as cross stitch, leather work, making his suit of mail armor and baking. At age fifty-nine, he accepted a challenge from his wife. (With your wild imagination, it should be easy for you.)
He wrote his first novel in fifty eight days, changed the title many times, and ended up with an unpublished manuscript of two thousand pages which, after considerable editing, became the first book in the series, Tales of the Triad.
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