1)
“Who dares disturb the rest of Malauragris, Lich Most Awesome?” the voice thundered, deep and deafening in the tomb.
“Haldrimm is my name,” the bored-looking man replied, “and I’ve been sent by the king.”
“Malauragris cares naught for kings,” said the lich…#epic fantasy— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 15, 2018
2
scornfully. “Needs he my aid?”
“No,” Haldrimm replied, “he needs your taxes. Over a century of back taxes, as yet unpaid, to be precise.”
“WHAT?”
The lich’s dumbfoundedness swiftly sank into peals of icy laughter.
Go away, ridiculous little man!” said Malauragris,#epic fantasy— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 15, 2018
3)
…when at last his booming mirth was done. “Your king’s demand is amusing in its presumptuousness, I’ll grant, but—no. Certainly not.”
Haldrimm nodded—and shook a clear glass vial out of his sleeve.
Something was glowing in the depths of the liquid inside it.#epic fantasy— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 15, 2018
4
Something that was rapidly getting smaller.
“Is that—?”
“Yes,” said the tax collector. “Your phylactery.”
“But-but—”
“Oh, fear not, great lich. Your magics, in these walls all around us, should sustain you, until you can craft another. So long as you don’t awaken#epic fantasy— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 15, 2018
5)
…them to, say, destroy me.”
The lich’s howl of rage and dismay fairly shook the tomb.
“And it’s the tomb the king levies taxes on, as it happens,” Hardrimm added.
The lich said a word that had been far dirtier six centuries earlier. And then snarled, “And if I#epic fantasy— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 15, 2018
6)
…kill you the old way, and just bar the door?”
Haldrimm shrugged, took something that glowed from his pocket, and put it VERY gently on the floor.
“Nice tomb you’ve got here,” he observed calmly. “Be a pity if something happened to it.”#epic fantasy— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 15, 2018
7)
The lich said the dirty word again. And then the tomb walls started to rain gleaming torrents of gold coins.
Burying the tax collector where he stood.
The lich didn’t laugh, for it was old, and knew the world. There’d be other tax collectors.#epic fantasy— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 15, 2018
