Thraxas - The Complete Series (218 page)

“The boat is coming.”

“Good. So is a dragon.”

The dragon, flapping its wings languidly, appears over the city walls, heading our way. A small boat heaves into view. A tiny fisherman’s craft, with one sail. I sling Makri over my shoulder again and splash through the water towards it, flinging her over the side then climbing in myself. Lisutaris can’t make it over the edge and I have to haul her in. The dragon is getting ominously close.

“Use a spell,” I scream. “Get us out of here.”

Lisutaris snaps her fingers and we begin to drift out to sea. The dragon turns its head towards us but doesn’t follow. Dragons are not keen on flying over water.

Lisutaris lies down on the deck.

“More thazis,” she mutters. “I want more thazis.”

I hand the sorceress my thazis pouch. She rolls herself another stick.

“When I get my strength back,” she says grimly, “I’ll come back and chase those Orcs all the way to the mountains.”

I gaze towards the shore. Maybe I’ll come back with her, and help chase the Orcs. Or maybe I’ll just keep going till I reach the furthest west, and see if anyone there needs an Investigator. The way I’ve been feeling about Turai recently, just keeping going doesn’t seem like such a bad option.

What with the malady, Deeziz’s spell and the thazis, the greatest Sorcerer in the west is once more out of commission. She falls asleep as we drift away from the shore. I haul both Lisutaris and Makri into the small cabin, cover them with their cloaks, and go back on deck, looking towards Turai. Flames and smoke tower over the Palace and dragons still swoop down from the sky. I let the boat drift with the current, and I wonder if I’ll ever see the city again.

Martin Scott is the pseudonym under which Martin Millar writes his humorous fantasy adventures about Thraxas, the overweight, beer-loving private eye and man of action in a fantasy world of elves, Orcs, and mean streets. On his first outing Thraxas won the World Fantasy Award, and has continued his exploits through eight novels. Thraxas’ adventures are an international hit, having been published in France, Japan, Russia, the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland. Now Americans are finding out what they’ve been missing.

Martin Millar, under his own name, has written several mainstream novels, such as
The Good Fairies of New York, Love and Peace with Melody Paradise
, and his newest novel,
Suzy, Led Zeppelin and Me
, which
The Guardian
called “brilliant” and the
London Times
praised as one of the few “great rock novels.” He has been compared to Kurt Vonnegut and Armistead Maupin, and
The Edinburgh Times
calls him “one of Britain’s most gifted underground writers.” Originally from Glasgow, Scotland, he lives in London, England in a flat filled with videos of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.