This is an excerpt from a fantasy novel I wrote titled, The Orc who Would be King. This tells the tale of two self-focused wizards who actively seek the destruction of the evil empire by hoping to unify the tribes of the great barbarian lands.

2. Chapter Four: The Chess Game
They had both started out separately as wizards in the Red Desert to the West, an unusual place
to say the least. It was a harsh and chaotic place which offered the quick rise in ability and
stature of young wizard who was willing or brave enough to take the risk. There were one
hundred and eighty-seven barbarians in the Red Desert then. By the time they met, both men
spent several years separately working on their own particular strategies. Rarick had asked to

3. meet with Mohrian, as they had both been able to lower the total number by various means until
it was far closer to forty.
They should have been enemies. They should have hurled themselves against each other in
magnificent conflagration until one or the other and his resources had been depleted and they
were permanently removed from the field of play. But Rarick was twenty years older and he'd
been down that road before. “I see what you are doing. Same thing I am doing and the prize is
already within both of our reaches. So now what? Keep each other from success? You don't even
know the “Why?” I have enacted a similar plan.”
“Alliance?” Mohrian had suggested.
Rarick Mindbender immediately agreed, at which point the two of them joined their efforts and
within six weeks all commanders of the nations of the world had a cautious eye on what was
going on at the time in the Red Desert. The Great Empire of Moldavia had suffered a
catastrophic set back a few decades before. The inner circle of the Empire, a decidedly
murderous group, had members in full control of the Moldavian armies to the West and the
South.
They had attracted the attention of He Who Should Not Be Named. There were wild legends he
was at desperate odds against the Gods of Mythus. It had been recorded that during a past battle
he was able to draw entire armies to serve him from different times and dimensions. There was a

4. particular battle in history where he very publicly stated his commander was the same one who
commanded the Moldavian army at its greatest apex in power ever.
The name of the general matched the one who had disappeared:
Malador.
He and several others of the inner circle disappeared, including the primary general. His second-
in-command. who was with him nearly from the very beginning. Also gone was the personal
High Priestess representative of the god of Death, and nearly three-fourths of the Moldavian
active military forces.
Only two members of inner circle managed to escape whatever happened. One of them was
Nordaine, who had been in control of the Northern Army. It was that army's job to keep an eye
on the Land of the frozen death. An expanse of land He Who Should Not Be Named destroyed
with a single spell.
While the other member of Malador's inner circle who escaped had been far away in distant
lands. No one knew if he was affected or not, as there was nothing publicly written about him
anywhere for the last hundred years.
The suspicion was, even though Nordaine had not disappeared, he had somehow been influenced
by the same magic, although to a lesser effect. What else could explain his rather lackluster
historical record up to that point? Or, more importantly, how he had somehow managed to keep
all of Moldavia together as one cohesive whole.

5. The Red Desert did not directly border Moldavia. There were three fierce barbarian nations.
Logic dictated the two wizards only had to seize control of one of the three barbarian nations and
another one would then be ready to sign enforceable treaties.
To accomplish this task, the two of them combined their efforts and crafted a wondrous sword.
They both used spells that had been involved in the making of one of the great swords of the far
West, the legendary Terava. Each of them put a considerable amount of their mystical might into
its creation. Which was only one part of their plan. The other part was to find a worthy third ally.
Someone who was young, brash, and gave indication they were willing to learn. Rarick
suggested the old tried and true “Indigenous native discovers they were picked to represent their
people by the gods.”
It was a gambit he'd used before and it was relatively successful.
Mohrian had argued that he should decide which native they would convince of such a delusion.
Morally, he was the better of the two to make that sort of decision. So the two wizards started
making secret excursions into a particular barbarian land in disguise. Each would spread tales of
differing apocalyptic visions.
Rarick Mindbender would tell tales of a grand and epic conflict between the primal forces of
good and evil, which would spark a time when the dead rose throughout the land and only the
faithful would be offered sanctuary. Mohrian would spin a tale of the entire planet's impending
destruction. A natural and provable result he would say his careful investigation had proven.
Something was happening deep within the core of Mythus, which was turning the earth itself into
a substance deadly to all living creatures. Not only that, but there was possibility the changes
which already affected the core could cause the entire world to spontaneously explode at any

6. time. He would time the telling of this tale with a pre-set earthquake spell that proved highly
effective.
Once a crowd was sufficiently terrified, he would start speaking about how all hope was not lost,
because the gods of the universe had decided they would save one from the impending
destruction of Mythus. One survivor, which the same space gods had decided would come from
that particular barbarian country.
It took them about three months to build up enough public interest to coincide with when they
planned for their disguised paths crossed. At this point, the religious persona which Rarick
Mindbender assumed very publicly endorsed Mohrian's tale. It was heavily implied that both
tales were part of an apocalyptic whole.
After several competitions and answered riddles Mohrian decided on a young firebrand
Barbarian princess who had passionately let it be known that she wanted to earn the salvation of
the space gods. So the two wizards challenged her with two riddles, one of which she quickly
seduced the answer out of Mohrian. There would be no seducing Rarick Mindbender, though.
She would have to use her other resources to figure out the answer to that one. By the seventh
month, she had finally figured out his riddle after a lengthy stay at his tower, where she spent
much time researching the dilemma.
Mohrian would have preferred she not had to rely on the same strategy which had so easily
plucked his answer from his lips and cared much less for how obvious the senior Rarick was
“taking him to school” for being able to resist her impressive charms for seven months.

7. They should have been enemies then. They should have hurled themselves against each other in
magnificent conflagration until one or the other and his resources were depleted and he was
permanently removed from the field of play.
He did not. He should have. He wanted to. But his rage was thunderous as the delay had lasted
too long. Nordaine had been amassing troops and maneuvering the largest flanks of his vast
armies at the very edge of his borders. They had already lost a thousand men. He did not have
time to waste. Unknown to Rarick Mindbender, his opposite Mohrian had been a failed sin eater
before he began the long road of becoming a wizard.
He could use this to gain insight into the Gods of the land and the local area. This was an ability
with which he could pry open with his wizardly abilities to a point where it would even be
possible for him to directly petition.
He was surprised to find two major gods of the earth in the general vicinity. One was obviously
Nordaine, who immediately leapt to destroy him like a feral animal. What happened next
occurred so quick Mohrian couldn't even imagine reacting.
“Sorry friend, that vile loathsome thing was trying to kill you. For some reason it fears me.
Fears some aspect of myself, a part I can't seem to properly remember,” the other seemingly
confused god, garbed all in black, said as he firmly presented his weapon.
The godly presence of Nordaine had left the conversation.

8. The man ran over to him as he suddenly looked fatigued, “Not much time. He can be brutally
decisive in his actions. Knowing him, he probably already has 200,000 soldiers flooding in to
overwhelm you.”
“He's going to kill the girl.” Mohrian said.
“Yes, he is going to kill the girl. He's already in her bedroom,” the deity said right before he
suddenly returned to his original location.
Mohrian said “Ihr,” and then grasped the magical edge of his spell and tossed it along one wall,
where open up a portal which summoned Rarick and the woman. Also, as expected, it brought
Nordaine as well.
Nordaine had ripped out the woman's throat and was lapping up the blood like some hideous
dog.
“What have you done!” Rarick screamed drawing raw primal eldritch energy and hurling it
directly at the monster. By this time, Mohrian had been working with the other wizard for several

9. years, and no matter how desperate the moment was, he never imagined for a second the older
wizard could unleash what he sent flying towards Nordaine.
Although he did find himself wishing it was at least somewhat effective.
“Ah ... I have found two arrogant wizards. Two of them, playing their little games. I have played
games for a while. I'll pause here to wipe my mouth and give both of you ample time to kill the
other and start pondering the begging it will require for you to live this day.” The creature
venomously said as it reached deep into its tattered pants and pulled some still sticky fragment of
himself and started applying it to her wounds like a salve.
“What in the hell do you think you are doing!?!” Mohrian shouted, his mind reaching desperately
for the right spell.
“She is mine. I killed her. I turned her to the dust. Then I reached out and grabbed hold of her
departing essence and shoved it back in. Now she is mine until the end of time.” The creature
said mocking them as it walked over to the already weakened Rarick and snapped his leg in three
places with a brutal and very decisive kick.
“Vampire.”

10. “Hahaha! You think that is all this vessel is? Just a vampire? Me? I'm the creature they fear in the
darkest moment of the night.”
“Versteinerung!” Mhorian said as the spell he cast instantly turned female barbarian's deceased
body to stone.
“I know you can change her back. Congratulations, you get to live a moment longer than your
friend.” The creature said as it took a serious bite out of Rarick's side.
An overwhelming sense of panic suddenly gripped the wizard Mohrian, more so than he had ever
thought was possible. So much so, he immediately took off meaning to flee the scene entirely.
This creature was going to be the death of him. All their planning, years of it by two of the
greatest wizards of the land and it was all for naught. Everything they had done from the
beginning deep in the Red Desert, to the poor woman they had tricked into serving their purpose.
All had been for naught.
The moment Nordaine noticed them, their ending was already wrought.
Inevitable.
Then despair came violently upon him. This was the power of the Empire of Moldavia even at its
weakest. What hope did the world have in the shadows of such a relentless beast?

11. Mohrian collapsed to the floor as small flashes of pain shot up his arm and his pulse went into
overdrive.
The creature sensed the particular wave of emotion which had swept over the wizard Mohrian
and rejoiced as if it was a sacred religious event. It spat out strange gibberish and prostrated itself
in various positions around his dying body.
Rarick had somehow managed to recover enough to where he could stand with the help of his
staff. Not yet able to gather his wits about him sufficiently to accurately remember the proper
spell, the wizard picked up the magical sword and stabbed it straight through the back of the
creature. “Die you unholy abomination!” the blood soaked wizard said as he pushed the sword
through all the way up to the hilt.
The creature flashed Rarick a look of murderous rage and then went back to speaking in a
completely incomprehensible manner and kneeling bedside the other dying wizard deeply
inhaling the scent of his despair as if it was a rare perfume that was meant to be savored.
“Sacred gods! Got to get away. Got to gather my thoughts. If Mohrian dies too soon all is lost.”
Rarick thought to himself as he slowly hobbled as best he could as far away from it.