With me in the studio today is the creature known as the Huay Chivo, who has through sorcerous means traveled here from the Realm of Tolanica in a nearby parallel world.

Welcome, Mr. Chivo.

Thank you. And, please, call me Chivo.

Certainly, Chivo. My first question to you is a little delicate. At the risk of being rude…

You wish to discuss my appearance, right?

Well, if you don’t mind…

It’s not a problem. As you can see, I resemble a goat with ram’s horns, a row of spikes down my back, glowing red eyes, human-like hands and feet, and a long, bare rat-like tail.

And some rather impressive pointed teeth!

Yes, quite handy when you’re a carnivore. And, to anticipate your next question, no, I wasn’t born in this form. Underneath all this, I am as human as you are, though with considerably more skill manipulating supernatural energies.

You mean magic?

That’s as good a word as any, I suppose. Many centuries ago, I was the most powerful sorcerer in the region of Cutzyetelkeh, roughly the equivalent of the Yucatan Peninsula in your world. Back then I was known as Lord Cadmael, and I ruled a large and sophisticated kingdom. Then the Dragon Lords emerged from a parallel world called Hell and conquered the entire planet. I successfully resisted two of the dragons—Ketz-Alkwat and Manqu—for decades, but eventually I was overcome. Or so they tell me. My memories of the end of my kingdom and the years that came after are vague. I’m dimly aware of wandering for centuries in my current form, mindlessly hunting and surviving. That’s when they began calling me the Huay Chivo: the Goat Sorcerer.

I was warned that I should avoid the lethal gaze of your glowing eyes.

[chuckling] That’s a bit dramatic. When I’m hunting, I bring down my prey by meeting their eyes with my own. My ‘lethal gaze,’ as you put it, causes extreme nausea, and when my prey is helpless—I strike! I developed this spell when I still maintained a human form. It was an entertaining way to intimidate anyone foolish enough to oppose my leadership.

I see…. Chivo, you say you wandered mindlessly for centuries. That obviously changed. What happened?

I’d reached a very low point in my life. I wandered into an urban metropolis called Yerba City on the tip of a peninsula. Geographically, it’s the equivalent of a place in your world called San Francisco, and there are some similarities. Unfortunately, the urban environment was not suitable for me in my bestial state. Also, I came to the attention of certain agencies of the government that wanted to capture me for the Dragon Lord. I wandered through alleys, eating whatever game I could find: dogs, cats, racoons, amikuks…

Amikuks?

Nasty little critters that swim through the earth. Maybe you have a different name for them. Anyway, I was searching for a meal early one morning when I ran into a strong-willed gentleman named Southerland who was able to resist my nausea spell. I was impressed, and I decided to move into his abode, in part to keep myself from the prying eyes of the Dragon Lord’s agencies. Southerland has a small room he uses sparingly to mechanically launder his linens. I found it an adequate place to pass the days in sleep before my nightly activities, especially after I was able to convince my new host to provide me with regular meals. In return, I keep his living space secure against enemies and thieves. It was, and remains, a suitable arrangement.

Does his place require much security?

Southerland attracts trouble like gold attracts ambition. I’ve fended off a few bullets and feasted on a few intruders over the past couple of years. Southerland rewards me with a delicious troll soup called yonak, which consists of raw meat in a pool of spiced blood. Yum!

Did this Southerland fellow help you regain your mental faculties?

Not directly, although he played a role. In my youth, I entered into a partnership with a spirit called Cizin, one of the lords of Xibalba, the land of the dead. The Dragon Lord Ketz-Alkwat severed our relationship, weakening both of us. Cizin sent one of his chosen on a quest to find me and cure me of my condition, which, eventually, she was able to do. Mostly, anyway. But that’s a long story.

One that’s been told in a book called The Blood Moon Feeds on My Dreams.

[chuckling] Yes, a rather lurid tale, I’m afraid. Someday I may be compelled to produce my autobiography, which I assure you will be a far superior rendering of the history of my fascinating life.

Well, Chivo, I must say that you are far more articulate than I was expecting.

A good lesson for you: never let your judgment be fooled by appearances. And be especially careful how you judge one with the power to render you helpless with a glance before ripping out your throat with his teeth.

Ah, well.… Yes, of course. Getting back to your, er, fascinating story…. You mentioned that the world you come from bears many similarities to our own.

I’m finding that to be true. Technologically our worlds are similar, although I must say that I’ve been out of touch for a few hundred years. Portable remote telephone devices are as popular in my world as they are in yours, as is the vast computerized network of remote communication protocols known as the internet.

What would you say are the biggest differences between our worlds?

First, we have much more access to both earthly and otherworldly spirits and energies, which can be manipulated by those with the natural affinity and training to do so. People like me, although I once possessed far more of this skill than I do at present. I’m recovering my abilities, though my progress is frustratingly slow.

Second, my world includes many more sentient species than yours. Some of these accompanied the Dragon Lords when they emerged from Hell. I’m talking about trolls, gnomes, and dwarves, primarily. Shapeshifters are more common in my world than yours, as are nymphs, witches, and elementalists.

Third, my world has been divided into seven realms, each ruled by a Dragon Lord.

Are these the descendants of the dragons who first arrived from Hell?

No, these are the dragons who first arrived from Hell: seven immortal, magical, hundred-foot long, winged, fire-breathing, killing machines who rule the world with iron clawed fists. They are my enemies, especially the brothers Ketz-Alkwat and Manqu, who, ironically, have been at war with each other for several hundred years, although officially it’s only been a few decades.

What do you mean?

The Dragon Lords are clever. You can’t trust what we’ve been taught about the past. The Dragon Lords have rewritten history to further secure their hold over the present.

Oh? In what way?

In every possible way! For example, when the Dragon Lords arrived in my world, the dominant species were the elves, powerful creatures who rose from the earth before the appearance of humans. Elves took care of the earliest humans, teaching them speech and agriculture and organizing them into communities. The Dragon Lords conquered the elves after a long war. The turning point came when the Dragon Lords talked the humans into abandoning the elves and aiding the dragons, instead. Humans may not be all that powerful individually, but they are remarkably fertile, and the Dragon Lords were able to use their massive numbers to overwhelm the elves. In the aftermath of that war, the Dragon Lords adopted a policy of genocide and attempted to wipe the elves from the face of the earth. In the official histories, dictated by the Dragon Lords and taught in schools and through popular culture, elves were vicious monsters who enslaved humans and drank the blood of human children, and that’s the way we remember elves today. Is it true? Almost certainly not. But the Dragon Lords suppress all stories offering an alternative interpretation of elves, and so their version has become the Truth with a capital T. Also, elves may not, in fact, be extinct. A few may have survived. But elf sightings are written off as hoaxes because the official history of our world tells us that elves no longer exist.

What would happen if an elf made himself known by, let’s say, appearing on television?

That would undoubtedly create quite a stir! My guess is that most people would regard the appearance as fake. The Dragon Lords so thoroughly control the flow of information to the public that if an elf walked down the streets of a large city in full view of everyone, few people would believe what they were seeing with their own eyes.

Your Dragon Lords sound like tyrants. Why do your people tolerate them?

Most humans have very short life spans, and they’ve never experienced anything different than what they see in the present. With the Dragon Lords carefully controlling knowledge of the past, people know only what the Dragon Lords want them to know. As a result, people see their absolute rule as protective rather than oppressive. They’ve been conditioned to interpret freedom of thought as a threat to social order and personal security, and to accept the status quo as the only safe alternative to chaos and destruction.

Does it work? Is your world safer and more orderly than ours?

Hardly. Crime and corruption are as rampant in my world as in yours. Perhaps it is more accepted in my world, though that is a debatable point. In my short exposure to your world, I’ve seen far more public opposition to political and socioeconomic issues than I see in mine. You folks are noisier, that’s for sure. But does anything ever come of it? In my short experience here, I get the feeling you are all numbed by the overwhelming quantity of the protesting voices, that the ubiquitous shouts have become mere background noise. Therefore, little gets done. Say what you want about the Dragon Lords, but they clamp down on the noise. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still tear out their throats when I get the opportunity. But I might adapt some of their ruling tactics if I ever regain my kingdom.

But you admit that those oppressive tactics don’t make your world any safer or more orderly. They just, in your words, “suppress the noise.”

True, but there’s something to be said for peace and quiet. Still, I’ve seen a few threats to that quiet lately. People are tired of the endless war between Ketz-Alkwat and Manqu over the Borderland, a strip of land that both Lords claim as their own. Lately some people have been taking to the streets and holding protests. Nothing major, and I have it on good authority that a criminal syndicate may be staging them as a front to sell non-sanctioned narcotics. But the protests are increasing in frequency, and it will be interesting to see how the government responds. I plan to keep a close eye on this phenomenon, you know, as a learning experience.

And as a way of hastening the day when you can help overthrow the Dragon Lords and revive your own kingdom?

Possibly. But don’t tell anyone.

It’s been great having you with us today, Chivo. How long will you be staying in our world?

I’ll be needing to return to Tolanica soon. If I’m reading the signs right, several threads that have been unwinding over the past few years are due to come together in the near future. It appears that Southerland is going to find himself in the center of a world-shaking conspiracy, and he’s going to be needing assistance if he’s going to survive. As it happens, his interests align with my own, so it will behoove me to come to his aid. Besides, I owe him for his hospitality, and, where I come from, paying off one’s debts is a moral obligation.

Sounds dangerous. Any hints about what’s about to happen?

I can’t get into specifics, but I can tell you this: Southerland believes he was visited recently by the undead spirit of a woman he met a few years ago, a woman who was very much alive the last time he saw her. That visitation has been troubling him ever since, and he’s been trying to find out what happened to that woman. I have a strong feeling that his investigation is going to turn his world upside down and put him on a road that leads to certain death.

Douglas Lumsden earned a doctorate in medieval European history at the University of California Santa Barbara. He taught world history at a couple of colleges before settling into a private college prep high school in Monterey. Now retired, he writes an urban fantasy series featuring hard-boiled private eye Alexander Southerland as he cruises through the mean streets of Yerba City and interacts with trolls, femme fatales, shape-shifters, witches, and corrupt city officials. Douglas and his wife Rita can be found most days pounding the pavement in our running shoes, or with their cat named Cinderella who is happy to stay indoors.

You can find the Huay Chivo on the pages of the Alexander Southerland P.I. series, starting with A Troll Walks into a Bar, and especially the just released book #6 The Blood Moon Feasts on My Dreams.

We have also previously interviewed the protagonist of the series, Alex Southerland, and his lawyer, Rob Lubank.

Browse our archives for past interviews, or follow the site by email (bottom-right) to know immediately when your new best-book-friend makes an appearance.