Sword of the Demon

by Richard A. Lupoff

Genres: Science Fiction; Military Sci-Fi; Space Opera

Synopsis

Through realms of oriental splender and superhuman conflict, a beautiful woman warrior and a fierce man-god journey to challenge a being more awesome than the gods for a magical sword that holds the power of death ... and the key to enlightenment.

Release date: July 30, 2015

Publisher: Gateway

Print pages: 320

Sample

The figure in yellow.

Beneath those feet: blackness.

In all directions: darkling void permeated with primal matter, nascent whirling atoms, free particles, proto-dust primed to coalesce through the action of incipient gravitation, ready for friction to generate radiation, hovering on the brink of heat, on the edge of night.

The figure in yellow: frozen in a timeless instant.

There is neither movement nor energy, sensation nor thought. The figure in yellow, hominoid, featureless, its face and body a continuous satiny surface. Its form, androgynous: small breasts, nipples erect, penis and scrotum visible through a thin membrane.

A free electron is attracted by the gargantuan gravity of a single proton. They approach each other. An energy flux flares into brief existence.

The figure in yellow turns slightly in the direction of the energy flux. Its posture is unaltered: there is no evidence of volition: a tropism.

The free electron and proton collide. There is a momentary broadcast of energy as the electrical charges of the particles cancel. A neutron survives the event. The figure in yellow quivers imperceptibly.

The figure in black.

The face of the figure in yellow turns. This is a change in the posture of the being. It directs what might be a glance at the figure in black. This being is wholly asexual, its flat chest devoid of paps, its crotch a plain curve, a simple concavity, glistening like satin.

The figure in black raises an arm, points one finger at the figure in yellow.

The figure in yellow turns to gaze toward its own hand. This is unformed, spatulate, ovoid. The figure stares. Undifferentiated protoplasm is shaped, articulated into digits. It clenches a fist, opens, spreads its fingers, looks again toward the figure in black. It duplicates the gesture of the figure in black, purposelessly pointing with a new forefinger.

The figure in black glares. A mouth opens in the satiny ebon face. A red-black clot of thunder emerges from lips like coal, rolls slowly forward, passes the pointed finger. A cruelly hooked talon curves from the tip of that finger.

The ball of thunder sails through the distances that separate the figure in black from that in yellow. The red and black thunder, moiling and pierced with discharges of electricity, crashes alongside the head of the figure in yellow. For a moment the cloud grows until it envelopes the head, then penetrates the yellow exterior.

It is the first sound heard.

The figure in yellow clutches its head in anguish. Its second hand, mitten-like, forms itself into fingers and thumb, bones and nails. It clutches its head. Its mouth falls open.

The first speech is a cry of pain.

It turns to flee. Bones and muscles work in its legs. It runs away.

The show has begun.

Beneath its feet distantly spaced particles are distributed through the blackness. It runs at first clumsily, irregularly. Its arms flail in imbalance. Its chest pains it, its head pounds, its ears ring.

Within its chest it feels a terrible pressure. Beneath the satiny yellow skin, undifferentiated protoplasm is becoming structured. It opens its mouth, gasps for breath to fill the new, empty, pain-drenched lungs. It draws breath.

It stumbles and sprawls among the nothingness, tumbling and skidding. The empty blackness offers no purchase to widespread feet, clutching fingers.

It fetches up against a clod of newly condensing matter. More massive than the tumbler, yet the lump of matter skitters slowly away, accruing additional particles as it glides through the void. The figure in yellow rebounds, collapses, is stationary, momentarily stunned.

It sits up, shakes its head, blinks its eyes, gazes back in the direction from which it has fled. All is blackness, blackness pointed with specks of unspecifiable color. One point glimmers faintly and moves, relative to the rest, at a barely perceptible rate.

The figure in yellow turns. Far now in the direction of its ended skid there is a radiant glare. Matter is accumulating, the clot that stopped the being’s movement is itself flying, gathering additional particles, colliding with stray bits of substance, growing in dimension and accrued energy, beginning to glow, its rolling motion visible as a whirling and echoing of spiroid tracks made of dust and gas.

From behind the tumbler comes a roar. The figure in yellow turns to face once again the point of its own first appearance. Moving toward it is a speck of ebon glare against the background of darkness.

The figure in black.

The figure in yellow stands steadily, illumined from without and from within: the living androgyne. Her breasts heave with each straining breath. His genitals ache from the effort of flight.

The figure in black approaches, glistening darkly against the darkness, eyes glowing like embers, breath glowing like incandescent gas, crotch a smooth concavity.

It extends its two arms toward the androgyne. It strides forward. It nods. It almost smiles.

The figure in yellow watches its approach, eyes flickering cat-yellow, hands at its sides. Her waist is gracefully slim, her hips curve gently outward, his pelvis supports his small phallus lightly.

The figure in black advances. It is close now.

It smiles.

The inside of its mouth glows as do coals, its tongue flicks once, red, gleaming, bifurcated. It hisses a breath at the other. Its breath is crimson, radiant with heat.

The figure in yellow quivers. It takes a step forward, toward the other, but then halts. They are still some distance apart.

The figure in black inclines its head in suggestion, in invitation.

The figure in yellow takes another half-step forward.

The figure in-black hisses another breath toward the androgyne. The breath seethes with orange-red sparks.

The hand of the figure in yellow is extended. So close are they that the hand feels the red breath. The figure in yellow draws back its hand, presses it in pain against a satiny cheek. Tears brim in the tumbler’s eyes.

The tumbler turns, draws away once again. The figure begins to run, more surely with this attempt, beginning with a great bound.

From behind, a taloned satiny-black claw sweeps downward. It catches the figure in yellow, catches the flesh of its back. The claws penetrate the skin, although not deeply. The figure in yellow pulls away. The claws rip downward, leaving ugly parallel scars.

There are two screams: from the figure in yellow, of fear and pain; from that in black, of rage frustrated.

The figure in yellow runs gracefully this time, firm legs better developed, technic improved by practice. Long strides cover great distances rapidly. There is no looking back.

The figure in black pursues. It lacks the developing grace of its prey: in its movements there is no beauty save that of dedicated function. Its legs move with machine-like regularity. Its exhalations are fiery. Its skin gleams a polished blue-black.

Beneath the feet of the two, blackness pounds back, jolting each runner with every stride. From afar they are two specks, one of creamy yellow, one of burnished blue-black. Their eyes gleam: cat-yellow, ember-red. One figure moves with sexual grace, one with mechanical precision. Their pace is identical.

In the frigidity of the void their exhalations linger in the air behind them as each stride carries the runner past its own most recent spoor: yellow cloudlets, red cloudlets.

The back of the yellow runner aches. It is the claw tracks of the black’s assault that cause the pain. A soreness begins to spread from the scratches just as it would had a local toxin coated the gleaming talons that dug those furrows.

The shoulder and arm of the yellow runner ache. The neck aches. The legs are as yet unaffected, yet the runner is becoming fatigued. The figure glances over its whole shoulder, sees its glittering black pursuer keeping pace. The price of this information is the loss of some small distance, perhaps half a pace, in their separation.

The figure in yellow begins to search for a place of refuge, an avenue of escape from that black pursuer.

The pursuer continues implacably onward. As its prey turns and searches for a home-free, the pursuer continues forward, its only sign of fatigue the ragged cadence of its breath. Each is an outburst of boiling cinders. The black mouth opens an ember-red. Black eyes glare crimson.

Before the yellow being open endless vistas of darkness. The primitive particles have gathered now into concentrations: specks, clots, lumps, blobs of matter. Overhead the figure sees a giant wheel of fire. Increasing its pace, the runner begins to rise toward the spinning concentration of substance.

The figure runs uphill, glancing beneath and behind itself at the pursuer in black. It paces steadily, its breath coming in red bursts, its skin shining blue-black, its naked chest gleaming smoothly, its waist and hips straight, its crotch genderless.

Before the yellow runner revolves the whirling fiery disk. Behind there paces the pursuer in black.

The androgyne leaps through the blackness, arms outstretched like delicate membranous wings. It is propelled upward by the force of its muscular legs, arched back paining.

The runner reaches the glowing, whirling disk and halts. The androgyne seizes its edges, and holding it shield-like before itself turns to confront its pursuer. The glowing disk covers the androgyne’s breasts and membrane-covered genitalia.

The follower in black has covered the androgyne’s trail, its piston-like pace devouring distance, matching the strides of its prey one for one, gaining a fraction at each deviation from the pace of the yellow’s flight.

The black comes to a halt. It is directly beneath its prey. It stretches upward with one taloned paw but cannot reach the feet of the yellow creature. It rises to its toes and swings its arms but it cannot gain the height of the yellow.

It throws back its head and bellows, monstrous roars emerging visibly from its mouth and hurtling upward to fly past the figure in yellow, curving away to invisibility in the distance of the void, their sound echoing faintly until they are so distant they can be neither heard nor seen any longer.

The figure in yellow peers downward.

The figure in black crouches, gathering the strength of its machine-like smooth body, its powerful legs. It springs with all its strength, its body uncoiling as it does so, its arms extended above its head, its legs trailing beneath it, toes extended, talons of fore and hind limbs curving wickedly in search of any purchase.

The figure in yellow recoils.

The figure in black reaches the level of the other, catches with its foretalons, scratching and scrabbling until it crawls to a position before the yellow.

The black looks searchingly into the face of the other, its red-glowing eyes locked with those of cat-yellow.

Slowly it rises to all fours, twitching a long, massive tail that disappears after a single sinuous swipe. It takes a short pace forward on all fours, glaring upward into the face of the other. It emits a sound somewhere between a growl and a purr. The vibrations drift upward, reaching the ears of the yellow. This hears and responds with a facial movement. The sound drifts past the yellow head and away, tumbling lazily along a path that carries it slowly downward and is gone.

The black figure rises to its hind feet, its forepaws lengthen into hands, its hooked talons shorten into gleaming metallic nails. Its face is a satiny blue-black, its eyes glow red. It opens its mouth and the interior glows a hot crimson.

The black places one foot forward toward the yellow. The yellow draws back.

The black takes another step forward. The yellow raises the whirling disk a small distance, holding it as if it were a shield.

The black tilts its head slightly, as if in appeal. It extends its two hands forward, satiny blue-black palms upward, nails curving at fingertips. It makes a small sound.

The yellow again retreats, but only a very small distance. Cat eyes travel from the face of the black figure to its flat chest, its straight torso, its entreating hands.

The yellow lowers its shield slowly. Its back aches with a throbbing dullness. It peers intently into the face of the black.

This one steps forward. It is not quite the same height as the yellow, appearing from moment to moment the slightest bit shorter or taller than the other. The yellow eyes drop to the feet of the black. The feet are long-toed, taloned. The cat-yellow eyes travel slowly up the piston legs, rest momentarily at the genderless place of their joining, then continue upward to lock with the red eyes of the other.

The black figure opens its arms, its forelimbs ending in perfect hands, the nails curved and sharp-ended. It moves slowly forward. The yellow stands stationary, hands at its sides.

The black reaches forward. It places one hand on the breast of the yellow, fingertips pressing into the soft flesh, palm against the small rigid nipple. The other hand it places on the yellow translucent membrane covering the male genitalia of the androgyne.

As if charged with a seething energy beyond the power of its endurance, the androgyne recoils from the touch of the figure in black, but that neuter being strides forward, maintaining its grasp. The left hand of the black entity, clutching the small breast of the androgyne, is as frigid as the blackest and most distant void. The right hand, clutching the genitalia of the androgyne, is searingly hot.

The yellow writhes, her nipple sending a powerful shock through her breast. His roasting phallus responds to the heated grasp of the figure in black, growing tumescent even in the agony of the other’s grip.

The yellow mouth opens, yellow shouts emerge and fall heavily, bounding and rolling across the plane from which the two figures have arisen. The yellow androgyne writhes away from the neuter black. The talons of the neuter pierce the membrane enclosing the genitalia of the androgyne. Thumb and nail of longest finger tear toward each other. The membrane is split. The organs of the androgyne are exposed; the claws of the neuter hold only dripping shreds of torn membrane.

Again the yellow writhes. Her breast slips away from the frigid grip of the neuter. She whirls and runs a short distance, hurls herself into space, drifts gently downward.

As she drifts she holds her injured parts. Her torn flesh pains her at back and shoulder. From the burst membrane of his crotch a small blob of mucous egg-yellow fluid rolls along one thigh. He floats slowly, as if buoyed near to equilibrium. He rolls slowly, drifting downward, eyes turned back toward the height from which he had leaped.

Above, as on a promontory, the black figure stands, skin glistening bluely, eyes and mouth open, a ruddy triad of dim light. The yellow sees the swirling disk lying beside the black. The black bends, heavily raises the spiral in both its hands.

Limbs straining with effort, the neuter raises the disk above itself. It whirls the disk faster and faster above its head. Bright specks fly from the edges of the disk, elongated arms stretch longer yet. The black squats, rises, whirls, heaves the disk after the yellow.

The yellow begins to flee, drops her feet to the level plane, pounds away from the height. The whirling disk approaches closer and closer, emitting a piercing scream as it dances through space toward the yellow androgyne. Even as she runs she realizes that she cannot distance the whirling disk and instead swerves to one side.

She hears the disk whiz past her as she dodges.

She halts and turns to gaze after the disk. It skims rapidly, its axis parallel to the plane of the androgyne’s flight from the neuter. She stands gasping for breath.

Back on the promontory, the neuter black watches angrily. It climbs slowly down, painful clawhold following clawhold until it arrives within a short distance of the lower plane, then drops softly to all fours. On padded paws it stands, neck arched downward, keen nostrils sniffing for the spoor of the androgyne. Its black tail lashes in fury.

Raising its head again, nostrils quivering, red eyes burning through the blackness that separates it from the yellow, the black entity starts forward, breaking quickly into a space-consuming trot. From time to time it drops its snout to the darkness beneath its feet, confirming the continued pres. . .