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Key to Survival
ChroMagic Series Book Five
Key to Survival is the fifth and concluding quarter-million word sexy ChroMagic fantasy novel. It features King Havoc, Queen Gale, and their four Glamor children as they tackle the invasion of the machines.
The machines have destroyed one third of the galaxy and are working on the rest. They have overwhelming power and ruthless competence. But one thing makes them pause: they want to recruit Havoc's daughter Voila to their cause, as she is the strongest of all glamors with a talent they need. If she joins them, they will spare the rest of the human culture--and destroy the rest of the galaxy much faster.
This is an offer Voila has to think about: whether to betray all the other living cultures, to save her own. |
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About the Author
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Piers Anthony is one of the world's most prolific and popular authors. His fantasy Xanth novels have been read and loved by millions of readers around the world, and have been on the New York Times Best Seller list twenty-one times. Although Piers is mostly known for fantasy and science fiction, he has written several novels in other genres as well, including historical fiction, martial arts, and horror. Piers lives with his wife in a secluded woods hidden deep in Central Florida.
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Reviews
Piers Anthony is one of those authors who can perform magic with the ordinary... [He] is a craftsman, and, like a skilled furniture builder who can make a chair much more than a place to sit, makes a book more than words to read. —A Reader's Guide to Science Fiction
His portraits of aliens and their societies is one of his great strengths as a science fiction writer. —20th Century Science Fiction Writers
Praise for Piers Anthony
"I loved the book. I didn't want to see it end ... It's quite worth reading."
—David McGrath, Multum in Parvo
"Piers Anthony is one of those authors who can perform magic with the ordinary … [He] is a craftsman, and, like a skilled furniture builder who can make a chair much more than a place to sit, makes a book more than words to read."
—A Reader's Guide to Science Fiction
"His portraits of aliens and their societies is one of his great strengths as a science fiction writer."
—20th Century Science Fiction Writers
Except
A large ugly man stepped out on the path ahead. "Ho, traveler!" he called. "We'll take your valuables now, including the girl."
"Brigands. If they approach you, run into a Chroma zone," Hayseed whispered. "They won't follow you there."
They were standing between a red and a blue zone. It would be easy to reach one or the other. But why wasn't he fleeing too?
Hayseed strode forward. "We are not for you," he told the man. "Let us pass unmolested, and you will be spared."
"Ho ho ho!" the man bellowed. "The man's a joker." He put his hand on his club, menacingly.
Hayseed's long staff swung up, clipping the man on the side of the head. He fell, cursing.
Then four more men jumped out from the bushes on either side. Two grabbed each of Hayseed's arms and swung him about.
"So you want to fight, eh?" the first brigand said, getting up. "Well, we'll oblige you, sucker." He closed his fist and struck Hayseed in the belly.
Opaline acted before she thought. "Brigand!" she called.
"Ah, the morsel speaks," the brigand said, turning to look at her. And stared, surprised.
Opaline was holding her blade to her own throat. "Let him go, and I will drop the knife," she called. She knew that would mean being gang raped, but she couldn't stand to see Hayseed brutalized.
"Well, now," the brigand said. "The wench has spirit. I like that." He strode toward her.
"Touch her and you die," Hayseed said.
"Ho ho ho!" The brigand continued striding.
Opaline tried to slice her throat, but her hand wouldn't move. It had been a bluff, and she lacked the nerve.
The brigand loomed before her, his body stinking of sweat. He reached out to take her knife.
And dropped to the ground before her. A different knife projected from his back.
Opaline looked at Hayseed. Now he was walking toward her. The four men who had held him were all sprawled on the ground, unmoving. Somehow she knew they were dead.
Hayseed took the knife from her hand and returned it to her hidden underarm sheath.
"What—how—?" she asked, collapsing into his arms.
"I am a martial artist," he said. "We needed to be rid of those brigands, so I provoked them into giving me cause."
"Provoked them—by having me as bait?"
"Affirmation." He gently disengaged, and bent to draw out his knife from the brigand. He cleaned it against the ground and returned it to his own hidden sheath.
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