Murder With a Twist
by Roderick T. Long
[written around 12, or 1976-ish, in Idaho Falls.]
Sandaled feet treaded softly over rough-hewn cobblestones. A white shadow, heavily veiled and turbaned, moved along the Avenue of Bards. In his hands glittered the silvery tube of a deathsender.
The shadow came to the Rotunda of Pearl and Ivory. He swiftly climbed the ancient vines that encircled it. He stepped into the window.
The room was dark and quiet. In the bed lay Rombults. The shadow lifted the deathsender and sent a blue bolt into the bed. Rombults died.
The white shadow slipped out of the window. In the morning, the servants would find Rombults body. There would be mourning on the Avenue of Bards.
The sun rose. The white shadow shed his garment. He donned the black cape of the Dnai-Tokali Shebab. He placed the deathsender in its drawer. Then he went out into the Avenue of Bards to mourn himself! Rombults was seen that day at the funeral, clad in the raiment of the Dnai-Tokali Shebab. But no one recognized him, for he covered his face in grief. And besides, Rombults was dead killed in the Rotunda of Pearl and Ivory by a white shadow with a deathsender a white shadow named FATE.
Back to Juvenilia and Other Offenses