Dakota Frost is the best magical tattooist in the Southeast, and is rapidly becoming the best magical investigator … but what about magical medicine? When Dakota’s called on to help with a zombie epidemic, is the solution simply finding a cure for a disease … or stopping an implacable force determined to break down the walls between the living and the dead?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\nThose who live by the sword, die by the sword, or so the saying goes; personally, I<\/em> like to say that those who acquire a dangerous magical blade ought to learn to use it properly, or they\u2019re likely to die skewered, embarrassingly, by their own faerie lightsaber.<\/p>\nOn that note, having the most powerful magical sword in the world sure wasn\u2019t saving my ass today. For that matter, my ass was not well being well served by my martial arts training, my considerable magical expertise, nor even my vast library of magical tattoos.<\/p>\n
Because I\u2019m Dakota Frost, the Skeptical Witch, and while I am many things\u2014the best magical tattooist in the Southeast, a Skindancer who can dance her tattoos to life, making me, allegedly, one of the most powerful magicians in the world\u2014one thing I am not<\/em> is a fencer<\/em>.<\/p>\n\u201cOw,\u201d I said, as my instructor whapped my ass, once again, with a springy wooden Japanese practice sword called a shinai<\/em>. I stumbled away, swinging my own shinai back at her, as she stepped back and laughed. \u201cNo fair capitalizing on my \u2026 my stupidness.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cIt was your<\/em> idea to add free form practice,\u201d said Gina Ho, the secondary instructor at the dojo where I dilettanted at Shao Lin. She was an actual Olympic-grade sabreuse who\u2019d agreed to train me after hours. \u201cPick a style and learn the basics before picking up that \u2026 that thing.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\nShe jerked her head at the wall of the dojo, where I had piled my gym bag, my satchel, my folded leather pants, my carefully folded leather vestcoat, and leaning carelessly atop it all, an innocent-looking brown leather case with shoulder-slung strap. One had too look at it closely to realize that the handle poking out of the end meant the leather case \u2026 was a scabbard.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou practicing?\u201d asked Master Ho cheerfully, and Gina and I jumped. Gina\u2019s uncle was a genial, balding Iowan of Chinese descent, whose Midwestern accent belied his deep roots in the Shao Lin tradition he\u2019d received from his father\u2014down to a near-supernatural ability to move around silently on his perpetually unshod feet. \u201cNo? Give her her money\u2019s worth.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMoney?\u201d Gina grumbled. \u201cUncle Marcus, I\u2019m volunteering to\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRemember your proverbs,\u201d Ho said, mock-sternly. \u201cAlways listen to your uncle.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFine,\u201d Gina said, stomping off to the lockers. \u201cAlright, Dakota, you get your wish.\u201d<\/p>\n
I smiled, bowed politely to Gina\u2019s back, bowed to Master Ho \u2026 and then darted back to my things, hefting the long case, feeling its weight. \u201cMy precious,\u201d I muttered, though I really wasn\u2019t that attached; still, my eyes gleamed \u2026 as I drew the Salzkammergutschwert.<\/p>\n
The Salt Chamber Sword was a dark metal sword, strangely angular, like a geometric S<\/em>. Thirty one inches from tip to guard, tapered triangular, like a cleaver, the Salzkammergutschwert was forged from a strange lustrous metal as dark as hematite\u2014not one blade, but two, back to back, with a hairsbreadth\u2019s distance between them; they never seemed to strike each other, but resonated, like a tuning fork, leading to its other name \u2026 the Songblade.<\/p>\nCurrent theory was the Songblade wasn\u2019t a sword at all, but a component of a larger faery artifact, some magical resonator which merely happened to be indestructible\u2014and sharp, leading early humans to wrap its \u201chilt\u201d with dark, oily leather straps enchanted for durability. Maybe that was why the hilt, thirteen inches from guard to pommel, was fashioned in two angled parts that didn\u2019t quite align with the blade, but it gave the weapon a comfortable hand-and-a-half grip. Backing the resonator theory was a circular space in the pommel, showing all signs of being a setting for a magical gem; but that missing component didn\u2019t prevent the Salt Chamber Sword from serving its primary magical function as a negative energy resonator \u2026 making it of great<\/em> interest to a Skeptical Witch who knew a little physics.<\/p>\nBut still, it looked like a sword, and was used like one, because it was indestructible.<\/p>\n
Time to learn how to wield it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
More soon. I got 1500+ words done tonight! Just 48500 words to go!<\/p>\n
Onward!<\/p>\n
-the Centaur<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So for the 18th time I\u2019m taking on a National Novel Writing Month challenge (counting Camp Nano), this time starting Dakota Frost Book 6: Spiritual Gold! Dakota Frost is the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[204,197,198,202],"tags":[6,4,91],"class_list":["post-3438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-challenges","category-fiction","category-urban-fantasy","category-writing","tag-dakota-frost","tag-dragon-writers","tag-nanowrimo","ratio-2-1","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3438"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3644,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3438\/revisions\/3644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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