Scorpio Drums

Dray Prescot

Dray PrescotOf himself, Dray Prescot presents an enigmatic and compelling figure. He is dynamic, dominating, demanding, yet we sense in him a vulnerability completely at odds with his given character within his narrative. He has been described as a man above middle height with brown hair and level brown eyes, with enormously broad shoulders and powerful physique. There is about him an abrasive honesty and indomitable courage. He moves like a savage hunting cat, quiet and lethal. Reared in the cruelly harsh conditions of Nelson’s navy, he has been transported to the savage and exotic world of Kregen, four hundred light years from Earth, under the double star Antares, the twin Suns of Scorpio.

There he has made a new life for himself. He has gained fame and fortune, has been blessed with good comrades and a family, and, most of all, by Delia of Delphond, Delia of the Blue Mountains. He has recently given up the job of being Emperor of Vallia, only to be pitchforked into the task of uniting all the varied continents and islands of Paz, one half of Kregen, to resist the reiving onslaughts of the Shanks from Schan, the other half of Kregen. People are beginning to call him the Emperor of Emperors, the Emperor of Paz.

Down in the southern continent of Loh he has met new friends in the task of throwing the Shanks out of Tarankar, a country on the west coast. The capital city of Taranjin, under attack by Prescot’s forces, was on the point of being taken when Carazaar, a superhuman being apparently working with the Shanks, sorcerously interfered. Prescot’s comrade Wizards of Loh were able to place him on Carazaar’s plane where in a ferociously brief fight Carazaar decamped in confusion, leaving the forces of Paz to sweep on to victory. Prescot enters the city to assist in the rout of the Shanks and their slaving allies, the whiptailed Katakis. To his horror he sees Delia being carried off by a group of the slavers, galloping off astride zorcas. Frenziedly he charges after them...

Alan Burt Akers