He knew what worked and what didn't, the forms and givens, what needed to be explained to the reader and what the normal reader of fantasy would under...tand without question. The odds were good that if he were doing an adequate job of judging his own work, it would be better than all of the crap that came through the slush pile.Maybe it was his own ego talking, but he thought if he were to write a fantasy book, he wouldn't write something conventional, but something that would push the limits of. His father and brother had arranged for his marriage to a senator's lesser daughter. She had allowed him to father two children, but her political aspirations required that he find a way to distinguish himself above his peers. To meet her expectations, he had managed to get promoted as a junior Tribune in a force that was attending the needs in the northern reaches of the Empire. He suspected that the promotion did not please her as much as the fact that he would be gone for three to five. "I, think I might be bisexual John."Now he smiled at her. "It's something I can handle, losing you issomething I don't want to think about." It wasn't just the lesbian sex John. I admit it sort of turned me onthinking that another woman could want me that way. But then she tied myhands," She looked up at him scared. "I came in my panties when she threwme on the bed," she blushed. "What if it was me John? What if I was theone who lead her on?" You didn't, Morrison would have kicked her loose by. The dogs followed the scent the wrong way, into the trees, but the hunters soon turned them and the trail led to the hillside stream.Up the stream they went until they picked up the trail again and were away towards the caves at a canter. Only about an hour remained of the allotted time when Laura heard the dogs. She discovered a rear exit from the caves and fled down the far side of the hill through another patch of swampy ground into a small wood again. The dogs tried to follow her trail.