Excursions from the Citadel- Excerpt from The Lady down the Hall

Lady, woman, girl, mother and wife. These were words Lord-Mage Dodandy Mofrin did not seem to know. Whore. It was his only word for any female and was a shining example of the filth that crowded his mind. Oh if he was speaking, on the unlikely occasion, to the Queen or a whore of similar stature, he would just use their proper name. Of this thing, the mage did not give a thought to as he absent mindedly pushed his sloth prime rib around his plate and listened to the pimp drone on.

It was his normal weeknight – visiting pimps and whores would come and try to get his hard earned coin. The pair in front of him prattled about the whore sitting there smiling at him coyly. They were extolling the fact that she had learned a trick or two since he had had her. This violated one of his two prime rules in whore chasing. He would never visit the same whore twice despite his primary rule being that the whores needed broken in. They needed to know their trade well if he was going to use them. He dismissed the pair, instructing his butler to give the pimps and whore his customary honorarium for just coming to him. He hated parting with silver, but these two pimps had served him well in the past and he wanted to insure they would do so in the future. His last, and hopefully best guest was next.

This guest would be a well known fixer named Kasis, whom he had dealt with many times in the past. Kasis dealt in the same high end goods and services as Dodandy had a craving for. The street had brought him rumours that Kasis represented a often-travelling pimp who had very exotic goods, named Tavaz, who was in town with extra exotic whores. Dodandy licked his lips. At their last meeting, Tavaz had brought him to a very, very satisfactory encounter with a sort of mermaid. He wrung his plump, greasy fingers in anticipation.

The tall, well dressed fixer was ushered in without fanfare. Kasis quickly began his speal. “Most excellent Grand High Lord Mage….” Dodandy tuned him out as he droned on and on, paying a little more attention to his now cold dinner. The fixer was quite long winded when he put his mind to it. Now he seemed especially so. The mage reflected on the manner of Kasis’ address. In his many dealings with the fixer, he had never been quite this long winded and certainly not this nervous. What was his game? No matter what it was, Dodandy had no more patience for unnecessary interruptions to the news that he was dying to hear.

Above is the excerpt from the only mature audience piece we have included in this particular volume, written by my collaborator for The Labor of an Empress. Like all other pieces in this volume, it is a fantasy story based not on our Earth setting but on a distant moon.

The actual ebook has gone alive now. It can be viewed here