We can’t say that it was by popular demand since the first drafts of these stories were written years ago, but a character whom many readers have claimed as their favorite comes blazing back into the stories this month with Chapter 7, the full, glorious title of which is, “Blood and Thunder, or, “The Sun Sets on the Murder Spree of the Villainous Cheksaw Gang,” being an account of the brave deeds and fateful ends of the daring frontier lawmen known as Hardigan Parnee’s Hot Springs Riders, as recollected by Gelgarth Arbekka.
As the very descriptive penny dreadful-style title explains, this month’s story returns our attention to the old retired Rider of the Wyrn whom we last met in Chapter 3, “Reward, or, The Calling of Gelgarth Arbekka.” When we left him, Gelgarth was setting forth on his long-delayed mission to find the man who betrayed Palm and foiled the quest of the Elect. We join him now on the way to his vengeance, and along the road we’ll learn more about his past as a Rider, a chivalrous history hinted at by his wife, Emily, in Chapter 3. Upon meeting him, Emily is surprised to learn that he was once a Rider of the Wyrn, men whose tales of valor are told in the lurid chapbooks favored by her Old Dad. “Blood and thunder yarns,” Old Dad called them. And that’s what we call this one, too. We hope you enjoy it!
