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"The Inheritors 2
or
The Curse of the Sleepless Knight"

by C. Wayne Owens

FOREWORD

An excerpt from

“Journals of an Immorti”

by Shelby Keaton

(as told to C. W. McCall)

“Back, before the new world was discovered, there was a village in what is now Rumania. It was called Sepsis. It was a good place to live, I’m told by some who passed through there, but never saw the place myself.

In that town lived a mighty champion of the people by the name of Vadid Shastan. Up till Vlad, he was the most heralded hero of the region.

He was happy, he had a family and position and just about anything a man would likely want in any one lifetime.

Then, in this village, a wizard came forward. He had battled Shastan before and knew he couldn’t beat him. But he could revenge himself. He stood to take everything away from him that he had heart for.

The Wizard, who’s name is lost, as is he, had created a poison to infect the warrior’s family. But this one was better than his ability. He had created something even he had no control over.

There in the village whose name is only remembered as a synonym for death, the first cases of the plague known as the Black Death came to be.

This little trading center was emptied of people in a week, and the plague wiped out most of Europe.

It even killed the wizard who created it.

But not Shastan. He was alive and unharmed.

And now he was completely insane with grief.

He was what some call an “Inheritor,” because he had inherited powers from beyond humanity.

He was also an Immorti, and had lived a thousand lives already. Now when he would be reborn it would be as a powerful madman. Set on the job of finishing the wizards’ work.

If his family couldn’t live, then none on Earth deserved to, either.

He would not sleep until the planet was barren of life.

So, every 20-30 years he rises again. He grows to adulthood and begins his crusade to destroy the mankind he once championed.

Legends call him ‘The Sleepless Knight.’

He forgets nothing. He becomes more dangerous every generation.

I will tell you this, many have fallen to stop him. One day, there won’t be a great enough hero to stand against him.

That day will be the last day.”

 

© 2005 by C. Wayne Owens