Erabys was a Paladin once, a warrior-wizard sworn to the cause of Light. That was a long time ago. He’s something else now and there are times when not even he is sure what. He does a lot of dirty jobs in a city where even the Angels are corrupt.
Now Erabys must aid a tomb robber who has strayed into the wrong crypt and awoken a lamia, a vampiric female demon, part-snake, part-succubus. His desperate quest takes him into a monster haunted Necropolis to face his darkest fears.
The Graveyard Night is another thrilling short story from the creator of Gotrek and Felix and the author of Death’s Angels and The Guardian of the Dawn.
“The King of High Adventure,” Starlog.
Author’s Notes
Two weeping stone angels guarded the entrance to the tomb. Their features were weathered which just made them look even more mournful. I wondered what it was angels had to weep about? Priests say it’s the sins of mortals but none of the angels I ever talked to cared much about our sins. They were more concerned with their holy war.
There in one paragraph is the reason I love writing fantasy. It starts with a concrete description and progresses to a throwaway line from a bitter, disillusioned man who has lost his faith then, in the last couple of sentences, we learn that the speaker has talked to angels and their concerns were not what he expected. The man talking is Erabys, sometime enforcer for the Wizard’s Guild, on his way to fight an undead monster on behalf of someone he does not even like.
By this time we are far enough into the story to know that Erabys is not mad. He is a former paladin, a one-time foot soldier in the wars of angels, now possibly a deserter from them. He lives in a world where the stuff of theological debate is made manifest and the ideas of humans and angels about their purposes do not necessarily coincide. Why should they? Such beings live on different scales of existence.
None of which has a great deal to do with the actual story other than to establish the character of the lead. It’s stuff like this that I love though– the little details that jar your perception of reality and let you know you are not in Kansas (or Stranraer, for that matter) anymore.
Usually in these author’s notes I tell you a little about the writing of the story. Sadly I can’t remember a single thing about writing The Graveyard Night. I know it was published in a slightly different version by editor Martin Fajkus in an anthology of dark fantasy stories in the Czech Republic a few years ago.
Hey William,
Just a heads-up, when I tried to use the “Subscribe!” feature under the books in your right-hand column, the page just reloaded the moment I clicked in the “Your email here” box to type in my email addy. It could be a fluke on my end, but I wanted to let you know, just in case. This happened in Safari 5 and Firefox 4.
Good luck with your writing!
Brian
Thanks for letting me know Brian,
I have sometimes gotten that myself. Do you, by any chance, have an adblocker or something like NoScript running? At the moment, it seems to be working all right for me on the test addresses I use. I don’t really have the technical skill with wordpress to do anything beyond that!
I am just above to start Shadowblood – what a fantastic series! I have been unable to put it
down and am so enjoying your writing and the story – best fun I’ve had for ages. I love being
drawn into a book whereby it haunts me when I am not reading it and I am dying to get
back to it (not that it really interferes with the rest of my life or anything!) one thing
I wanted to ask : he never fulfilled his promise to the Serpent priest, mind you he could still
do so…….
wonderful imagination gripping story both clever and very well written with every element
of humour, humanity, wit, threat and promise
WELL DONE
Thank you, Caroline! Your comments are much appreciated. As to the promise to the Serpent Priest, I confess I just assumed Rik kept his promise off camera. But now that you mention it, it could be shown at some future date.
HI William,
I just read The Graveyard Night and loved it!. I’m going to read The Guardian of the Dawn here on your website, then dive into Stealer of Flesh. Are the Kormak stories set in the same world as Graveyard Night? It sounded like a very intriguing world.
Thank you, Linda :). The Kormak stories are set in a different world from Erabys’s. There are some connections between all of them and the world of the Terrarchs as well, which will become obvious over time.
Thanks for answering back so fast! Ok, that is very cool to learn. It sounds like from other posts that you’ve made, that maybe this is some type of shared universe with different planets, or some such thing? At any rate, I’m going to dive into the Kormak books, and then pick up the Terrarch books. I love the idea of evil elves, and I much prefer books with tarnished heros, such as the books of Jim Butcher and David Dalglish. I’m so glad I stumbled onto your books!
Hey Linda– glad you like the books :). At the moment, the links between the worlds are quite vague– there are references to Gates in many of the books and a demon god which first appeared in the Terrarch series gets referenced in an upcoming Kormak book. Over time I am hoping to knit all the worlds together. When I was a kid I always loved the linked multiverses created by the likes of Michael Moorcock and Andre Norton and I am hoping to create my own one bit at a time.
Oh, and sorry for the double post, but I also wanted to add — please consider writing more books about Erabys. I was completely fascinated by him and his world.
Again thanks! I’ve started a couple more stories about him but got bogged down one way or another. This happens to me a lot with short stories. I get a flash of what I think is a brilliant opening scene, write it down and then realise I have no idea what to do next. I usually eventually manage to get things together at some point but it takes time. I tend to do better with novels because I plan them out in advance.