Chapter one Pawn of the Star Lords“I will stay on Kregen!” In my nostrils stank the odors of blood and sweat, oiled leather, dust, and my ears rang with the sounds of combat as swords clashed and clanged and pikes pierced mail and crossbow bolts punched into armored men. I could smell and hear, but I could see only an all-encompassing blueness lambent about me, and my gripping fist closed on emptiness where I should be grasping the hilt of my long sword. “I will not go back to Earth!” Everything was blue now, roaring and twisting in my head, in my eyes and ears, tumbling me head over heels into a blue nothingness. “I will stay on Kregen beneath the suns of Scorpio! I will!” I, Dray Prescot of Earth, screamed it out in my agony and despair. “I will stay on Kregen!” A wind riffled my