Scorched Earth: A Future History of Planet Earth

Lloyd, too, was recovering for several days, ever since Dearborne and Boy dragged him home. Now he strolled from room to room and through the hallways, stretching his stiffened...

During this dark night, the city of Pomperaque was by no means quiet. Everyone in the city was in a jovial mood, celebrating this day, their great sovereign's anniversary of mar...

The first rays of sunlight illuminated the wisps and billows of smoke that rose from the damaged city. With every passing minute the sun rose higher into the morning sky, lighti...

A breeze gently sighed through the window, the lace coverings flapped about their hangings, animating them into a lively dance and scattering the shy sunlight that intermittentl...

The rain fell throughout the night and into the early morning hours. Just before dawn, the rain had stopped and the sky filled with rainbows as the sun rose over Carter Pass (na...

Pomperaque woke up and Mingo had left Boyce and Lloyd's room, with Bix. They had denied themselves the gold offered by Boyce and they set out to meet many others like themselves...

The mid-morning was always the busiest time of the day in Pomperaque, and should it have been anything else? Afterall, this city had been the capital of Phoride for some five hu...

The next day came early. The two men woke up in the hour before dawn and after having their fill of good food for breakfast, they readied themselves for their long trip to Pompe...

Another day ended. Sol, once again, retired its eternal radiance from man, as it has in its never-ending cycles of dawns and dusks, witnessed by all the generations. In its grea...

With pale blue eyes he looked at the moon for most of the evening and after midnight he saw an odd sight in the northern skies. It was a vision that he did not want to accept. A...

The mask of darkened night had passed-over and covered the face of the land until, the rising sun, brought into play the motions of the morning life. People's voice covered the...

Something strange had taken place over the last couple of weeks in Pomperaque and the rest of Phoride, as well. Under normal circumstances, something like this happening would h...

"You will be able to tell." Lloyd grinned. "They wear obvious clothing, and the two distinct types do carry themselves in a noticeable manner. Plus their title will be the give-...

The deaths of Brook and Dearborne had not meant the death of the world, or even that of Pomperaque. Life endured as it was seemingly meant to, and the evil that lived in their t...

The forest began to take on a lightness and Boyce knew that it had to be morning. He had stayed on his watch longer, letting Lloyd sleep because he knew that Lloyd needed more r...

One cardinal attended the first two days of the academy's opening and he reported to the ArchBishop Manguino that everything was being handled straight as in the Blaisaman and t...

Lloyd saw that Orren and the five other horsemen weren't far off, and as a matter of fact, were so near that s he climbed up the stairs inside the building, he could hear Orren'...

Throughout the year, while the plans for invasion were being finalized, Harvard Bartlett ordered the armies into a building programme, to make Besten and the other major cities...

Lloyd stood up in the nest, stretched and tucked his tunic back into his pants. He looked over at Boyce wrapped tightly in his dark cape, staring right back at him with withdraw...

Boyce and his right arm, Lloyd, ran around the mansion and parts of Pomperaque wishing all those who were voluntarily enlisted to their cause, the greatest of luck and they let...

Over a week had passed since the feast-day at Halls, and once more the city of Pomperaque seemed to have returned to normal. There was, however, a feeling of apprehension that l...

On the following day, word had gone to all the citizens of Phoride, calling them to the town's square to observe the execution of a high official, set for sundown. The high offi...

With Cavander's help, along with some of his friends that were enlisted to the cause, the Blue Mansion began to take shape as the smooth clean structure that it once had been. H...

It wasn't until the middle of the afternoon of this second day that Boyce stirred and the young novice was there. She wet a clean cloth and wiped the sweat from his head and fac...

A beam of dusty light shone into the oubliette of the murky rock vault in which the men were being kept as prisoners for tomorrow's ritual of Life and Energy. Some of the sun's...

In Pomperaque, several years had passed since Manguino's marriage to Eckma and although they had indeed produced children of normal looks and awareness, they never lived passed...

It was in the morning during the men's second wave of sleep that was coming over them in the before-dawn hours, that a cawing shriek was heard coming from overhead.

The first years were depressing for the young Boyce, trying to grow up without his real father and terribly missing the kindness, and love, from his beautiful mother, and at tim...

In Gothal, the Holy City, the nuns at the Abbey of Our Holy Saint Mariot, performed a funeral service for Mercedes and most everyone from Pomperaque, and Gothal itself, turned o...

Lloyd grinned from ear to tear then went to the door and opened it. He thrust his head into the hallway and told the astonished guards to bring some food and drink to the room.

The rest of the way would be quicker and easier because, to their left the ledge soon became a wider path that gradually made its way down, coming out at the river, very near to...

The following morning the men went to market and sew Empal. They bought from him some of his special fruit from the lands to the west, called Ïÿnondan, and they asked his opinio...

"You are right." Boyce agreed. "We'll stop at Gothal for a while. I must see if the Abbey Mother from the Abbey of Our Holy Saint Mariot, is still alive."

They were both awake by the time the sun rose and by the rime that it was fully light, they had finished eating and made their way into the forest.

Boyce opened his eyes to see some birds flying overhead. He quickly sat up but after he saw they had made it across the bridge he felt more relaxed. He stared back, at the immen...

"I had also brought some things for you. A gift from Lloyd's father, Harvard." he told them and Lloyd wondered what his father could possibly send to him and Boyce from Besten.

When daybreak came, Boyce didn't hesitate waking and getting out of his bed. He made his painful way to the window and looked out onto the majesty of Gothal. Below him many nuns...

It has reached the point for Manguino that his whole days spent with Eckma in the act of fornication was beginning to tire him. He wanted an interesting diversion in order to ge...

On his back, Lloyd looked up at the sheer face of a cliff some dozen meters in height and the way that he now felt, he knew that the climb up would be difficult.

It wasn't an impressive city, made up of squat clay buildings that were cube-shaped. Yet, there was something about the whole place that made Lloyd and Boyce feel very ill-at-ease.

A week passed by and although Boyce and Lloyd had recuperated they didn't make plans to leave Gothal and its peaceful atmosphere. However, near the end of the second week, both...