Thraxas - The Complete Series

by Martin Scott (aka: Martin Millar)

Thraxas

Novel first published by Orbit: 1999.
Reprinted as the first half of the omnibus
Thraxas
by Baen: 2003.

Thraxas and the Warrior Monks

Novel first published by Orbit / Little, Brown UK: 1999.
Reprinted by Orbit: 2001, and as the second half of the omnibus
Thraxas
by Baen: 2003.

Thraxas at the Races

Novel first published by Orbit / Little, Brown UK: 1999.
Reprinted by Orbit: 2001, and as the first half of the omnibus
Death and Thraxas
by Baen: 2004.

Thraxas and the Elvish Isles

Novel first published by Orbit / Little, Brown UK: 1999 (?).
Reprinted by Orbit / Little, Brown UK: 2000, and as the second half of the omnibus
Death and Thraxas
by Baen: 2004.

Thraxas and the Sorcerers

Novel first published by Orbit / Little, Brown UK: 2001.
Reprinted by Baen: 2005 and 2007.

Thraxas and the Dance of Death

Novel first published by Orbit: 2002.
Reprinted by Baen: 2005 and 2007.

Thraxas at War

Novel first published by (Orbit?): 2003.
Reprinted by Baen: 2006 and 2007.

Thraxas Under Siege

Novel first published by Orbit: 2005.
Reprinted by Baen: 2006 and 2008.

For further information, see
Martin Millar’s website
and the
Thraxas website
.

AXE ME NO QUESTIONS

I strap on my sword. Makri wears both her swords, more or less hidden under her cloak, and slips a long knife into each of her boots. As usual, she is not entirely comfortable without her axe, but it’s too conspicuous. She tends to get stopped and questioned, which is inconvenient when we’re on a case.

She’s still grumbling as we depart. “You never know when you’ll need your axe. Once, in the slave pits, I was fighting four Orcs and my first sword broke, my other sword got stuck in the second Orc, and when I stabbed the last one, my knife blade broke. So, right then, when I didn’t have a weapon, they threw in this enormous Troll carrying a club the size of a Human. So that just goes to show.”

“Goes to show what?” I ask.

“That you should never be without your axe.”

“We’ll just have to hope we don’t meet a giant Troll. Did you kill the Troll with your bare hands?”

“No. I vaulted up the wall to the Orc Lord’s gallery. His chief bodyguard ran in front of me so I took his sword off him, stabbed him with it, and leaped back into the arena. The Troll was confused and I was able to hack him to pieces. Then the Orc Lord’s bodyguards leaped down into the arena, all eight of them. It was a pretty close thing for a while, but I managed to pick up another sword and once I had one in each hand, I just mowed them down. The crowd went berserk. I had the longest standing ovation ever granted to a gladiator.”

“Is that story true? Or are you just practising for your speech at the rhetoric class?”

“Of course it’s true. You think I can’t defeat thirteen Orcs and a Troll? Now you mention it, though, it would make a good speech.”

“What subject are you meant to be talking about?”

“Living peacefully in a violent world.”

T
HRAXAS

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

Thraxas
copyright © 1999 by Martin Scott.
Thraxas and the Warrior Monks
© 1999 by Martin Scott.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

A Baen Book

Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY10471
www.baen.com

ISBN: 0-7434-7152-0

Cover art by Monte Moore

First U.S. printing, September 2003

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY10020

Typeset by Bell Road Press, Sherwood, OR
Production by Windhaven Press, Auburn, NH
Printed in the United States of America

Chapter
One
Chapter
Two
Chapter
Three
Chapter
Four
Chapter
Five
Chapter
Six
Chapter
Seven
Chapter
Eight
Chapter
Nine
Chapter
Ten
Chapter
Eleven
Chapter
Twelve
Chapter
Thirteen
Chapter
Fourteen
Chapter
Fifteen
Chapter
Sixteen
Chapter
Seventeen
Chapter
Eighteen
Chapter
Nineteen
Chapter
Twenty
Chapter
Twenty-One
Chapter
Twenty-Two
Chapter
Twenty-Three
Chapter
Twenty-Four
Chapter
Twenty-Five
Chapter
Twenty-Six
Chapter
Twenty-Seven
Chapter
Twenty-Eight
Chapter
Twenty-Nine
Chapter
Thirty
Chapter
Thirty-One

T
urai is a magical city. From the docks at Twelve Seas to Moon Eclipse Park, from the stinking slums to the Imperial Palace, a visitor can find all manner of amazing persons, astonishing items and unique services. You can get drunk and swap tales with Barbarian mercenaries in the dockside taverns, watch musicians, tumblers and jugglers in the streets, dally with whores in Kushni, transact business with visiting Elves in Golden Crescent, consult a Sorcerer in Truth is Beauty Lane, gamble on chariots and gladiators at the Stadium Superbius, hire an Assassin, eat, drink, be merry and consult an apothecary for your hangover. If you find a translator you can talk to the dolphins in the bay. If you’re still in need of fresh experiences after all that, you could go and see the new dragon in the King’s zoo.

If you have a problem, and you don’t have much money, you can even hire me. My name is Thraxas. I’ve done all of the things mentioned above. Apart from the King’s new dragon. I haven’t seen that. I don’t feel the urge. I saw enough dragons in the last Orc Wars.