The Sixth Strand

by Melissa McPhail

  This is a work of fiction. The events and characters described herein are imaginary and are not intended to refer to specific places or living persons. The opinions expressed in this manuscript are solely the opinions of the author and do not represent the opinions or thoughts of the publisher. The author has represented and warranted full ownership and/or legal right to publish all the materials in this book.

  The Sixth Strand

  A Pattern of Shadow & Light Book 5

  All Rights Reserved.

  Copyright 2019 Melissa McPhail

  v1.0

  This ebook may not be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in whole or in part by any means, including graphic, electronic, or mechanical without the express written consent of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Five Strands Publishing Co. http://www.FiveStrandsPublishing.com

  Five Strands Publishing and the “FSP” logo are trademarks belonging to

  Five Strands Publishing Co.

  ***

  Books by

  Melissa McPhail

  Cephrael’s Hand

  The Dagger of Adendigaeth

  Paths of Alir

  Kingdom Blades

  The Sixth Strand

  Table of Contents

  Author’s Note

  The Strands & Their Associated Adepts

  Prologue

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-one

  Twenty-two

  Twenty-three

  Twenty-four

  Twenty-five

  Twenty-six

  Twenty-seven

  Twenty-eight

  Twenty-nine

  Thirty

  Thirty-one

  Thirty-two

  Thirty-three

  Thirty-four

  Thirty-five

  Thirty-six

  Thirty-seven

  Thirty-eight

  Thirty-nine

  Forty

  Forty-one

  Forty-two

  Forty-three

  Forty-four

  Forty-five

  Forty-six

  Forty-seven

  Forty-eight

  Forty-nine

  Fifty

  Fifty-one

  Fifty-two

  Fifty-three

  Fifty-four

  Fifty-five

  Fifty-six

  Fifty-seven

  Fifty-eight

  Fifty-nine

  Sixty

  Sixty-one

  Sixty-two

  Sixty-three

  Sixty-four

  Sixty-five

  Epilogue

  Appendix

  Glossary of Terms

  Dramatis Personae

  The Sormitáge Ranks

  The Laws of Patterning

  The Esoterics

  Author’s Note

  Sprawl.

  It’s a common human failing. Cities sprawl. Messes sprawl. Sometimes our minds feel like sprawl has overtaken them, with too much information coming in at once and not enough rationality to effectively sort and file it.

  Sprawl is also a failing I think most epic fantasy authors fall prey to at one point or another, especially when they’re writing long series through the eyes of multiple viewpoint characters. It’s character sprawl, or plot sprawl. It gets into the story and multiplies like rabbits.

  It’s very hard to control. Before you know it, the story is completely out of hand, with so many plot lines and character threads that you have to hire a fleet of researchers to keep track of them all.

  Even seeing first-hand the cautionary tales of great authors who’ve struggled with this malady, I still wasn’t prepared for it. As I headed into book five, having somehow advanced from a comfortable seventeen viewpoint characters to a jaw-dropping twenty-six, I still wasn’t prepared for how my plotlines were chomping at the bit to run willy-nilly into a hundred different branches.

  Now, let me assure you, I’ve done my best to rein it in. I’ve issued a moratorium: no more new viewpoint characters! And as we head into the downhill portion of this series towards the finish line, I’m doing everything in my power to leave no dangling plot line unresolved.

  But while I’m working hard not to create new characters and new plot lines just for the fun of it, sometimes the story needs another viewpoint in order to be told properly. So, you will see a few new faces in The Sixth Strand.

  My propensity for adding new characters notwithstanding, we have a lot of them to follow now, and that has made it challenging to weave this book together into a cohesive whole. A coherent whole.

  It’s also made it difficult (if not impossible) to keep every character’s story thread moving forward, even a little bit. I tried my best, but—full disclosure—some of your favorites may not have as much book time as you would like, and there are one or two characters we just won’t get back to in this book at all.

  Don’t fret. We’ll see them again in book six.

  In the meantime, for those of you who read Kingdom Blades a while ago (or just for a refresher because, why not?) here is where everyone left off:

  Ean, Darshan and Tanis

  In the second half of Kingdom Blades, Shail traps both Darshan and Ean in Shadow. They find each other and travel through the worlds of Wylde (that combined universe of Warlock worlds, operating cooperatively beneath the Demon Lord Baelfeir’s starpoints).

  As an Adept of the Realms of Light, Ean cannot survive long in Shadow. To save Ean’s life—and in no small part due to Kjieran’s growing influence—Darshan binds Ean to himself with a benevolent binding. When Ean wakes, he realizes he can work deyjiin and begins exploring what this new ability might mean for the game.

  Soon after, Ean and Darshan are set upon by revenants (the disowned entities of Warlocks; they hunger for energy) and are being overrun when Tanis, along with the Warlocks Sinárr and Rafael, come to their rescue.

  Rather than battling the millions of revenants, which Tanis doesn’t feel is productive, the lad opens a portal into one of his own worlds in Shadow and transports the revenants there.

  Afterwards, while recovering on another of Tanis’s worlds, Ean submits to a Telling from Tanis and regains the last of his memories as Arion Tavestra.

  In those memories, Ean recalls Arion’s last hours, the decisions that resulted in his death, and his final battle with the Enemy, Shailabhanáchtran.

  Ean also realizes that Tanis is Arion’s son, and in that recollection, their binding is restored.

  Franco and Alshiba

  While Franco Rohre is acting as a Deputy Vestal to the Alorin Seat, Alshiba Torinin, he is elected as the Nodefinder Rebellion’s candidate for Vestal—somewhat against his wishes—and becomes an adversary to Niko known as ‘the Admiral.’

  With the help of the Eltanin Seat, Mir Arkadhi, Niko van Amstel learns of Franco’s identity as the Admiral, as well as his allegiance to Björn van Gelderan. Again with Mir’s assistance, Niko rouses the Speaker of the Council of Realms to send a battalion of two hundred and fifty Paladin Knights to T’khendar. Their objective is to retrieve Alorin’s missing Vestals and to bring Björn van Gelderan back for questioning and trial.

  When we last saw Franco, he’d been ordered to take the knights to T’khendar using the Sylus node, which connect
s Illume Belliel directly to the unsanctioned world. Unbeknownst to the leadership in Illume Belliel, Björn had taken precautions against such an eventuality and had tasked Franco with plus-crossing the Sylus node in defense.

  Franco first brings Niko, Mir Arkadhi and five Paladin Knights into T’khendar. These knights steal away into the city of Niyadbakir with the professed intention of stealing Dagmar’s weldmap and bringing it back to Mir.

  When Franco returns to Illume Belliel with Niko and Mir, the Sylus node switches. Thus, when he takes the rest of the two-hundred-plus knights back across it, they arrive at a different destination in T’khendar.

  After Franco returns to Illume Belliel in his third time across the node, Niko stabs him and throws him on the Pattern of the World, bound in goracrosta. Due to Isabel’s foresight, Franco’s fourth and final plus-crossing delivers him directly into Björn’s palace in Niyadbakir, where Isabel is waiting to Heal him.

  Meanwhile, in Illume Belliel, Alshiba has formally withdrawn her nomination of Niko as a candidate Vestal and officially nominated Franco in his stead. Before she can see Niko removed from the cityworld, she is taken hostage by Mir Arkadhi and several Paladin Knights loyal to him.

  Niko orders Alshiba’s death, and Mir takes her, bound in goracrosta, to a high bridge where he drops her over the edge.

  Shortly thereafter, Shailabhanáchtran uses Alshiba’s Vestal ring to travel from Alorin to Illume Belliel, where he opens a portal to Shadow and invites the Warlocks, led by Baelfeir, back into the Realms of Light.

  King Gydryn, Prince Farid and the Sundragons

  In The Dagger of Adendigaeth, Gydryn val Lorian sustained near-fatal wounds during a marauder attack orchestrated by Viernan hal’Jaitar. Prince Farid of the Akkad rescued Gydryn and brought him to Raku Oasis for healing.

  Now, in Kingdom Blades, Gydryn’s health has been restored, and he finally meets the Akkadian Emir. In their discussion, he learns the truth of his son Trell’s survival and comes to understand the depth of the treachery perpetrated by Prince Radov of M’Nador, the Duke of Morwyk and the Prophet Bethamin.

  Soon thereafter, Gydryn reunites with Trell. He tells his son how he secretly ordered his soldiers to rendezvous at the abandoned fortress of Nahavand, behind Akkadian-held lines, and informs Trell of his intention to take his army home to Dannym.

  Only then does Gydryn learn that a thousand of his men were taken captive while in transit to Nahavand, and that they are being held in the fortress of Khor Taran in the province of Abu’dhan.

  Trell volunteers to take a company of Converted to free Dannym’s soldiers and leaves immediately to do so.

  Meanwhile, Radov of M’Nador is preparing an attack to reclaim the oasis city of Raku. As part of this effort, he makes a new pact with Dore Madden and the Prophet Bethamin. In exchange for Radov sending his navy to harry the Dannish coastline (which will aid the Duke of Morwyk’s efforts to claim Calgaryn), Morwyk sends reinforcements from his own army to aid Radov at Raku. As part of the same agreement, Dore sends fifty eidola and promises to give Viernan hal’Jaitar a way to defeat the Sundragons.

  The zanthyr Leyd provides this solution by way of a pattern matrix, which he delivers in simulacra form—a three-dimensional pattern pinned to glass. He warns Viernan that the pattern must only be worked when all six Sundragons are together.

  Gydryn is preparing to leave Raku Oasis with Prince Farid (the Emir’s son and a Nodefinder, who is going to help the king rejoin his men in Nahavand) when Radov’s army attacks the city. Eidola quickly overrun the Emir’s forces, and Farid and Gydryn are caught in the attack. They are both badly injured, and Gydryn falls into a sacred spring.

  Viernan hal’Jaitar’s wielder meanwhile launches the pattern matrix on the drachwyr, failing to notice that only five of them are present. Those five are pitched out of time, far into the distant future. Fortunately, Mithaiya is not with them.

  She wakes from a healing sleep on an airless planet to the desperate calls of her siblings just before they are pushed too far into the future to communicate. Learning what’s happened, Mithaiya hastens back to the battle in Raku in time to save Gydryn and Farid from the eidola attack.

  Trell, Tannour and Loukas

  In the second half of Kingdom Blades, Trell takes command of a company of the Emir’s Converted and orders them to the mountain fortress of Khor Taran in the region of Abu’dhan to rescue his father’s soldiers.

  Unbeknownst to Trell, a spy among their company has been reporting on their movements to Viernan hal’Jaitar. The spy tries several times to eliminate Trell before the company can reach Khor Taran and orchestrate a rescue.

  While in transit, Trell rekindles his friendship with the Avataren combat engineer Loukas n’Abraxis. He also befriends the Vestian prince Tannour Valeri, who Trell learns is an airwalker, and upon whose specialized skillset he comes to greatly depend.

  Tannour in turn discovers that he has regained all of the Adept gifts that were mysteriously taken from him years ago. He realizes that this is because he somehow made a new tether (the binding link that enables his powers) to Trell.

  This puts him in a perilous position. Using his powers anew could rouse the Sorceresy’s notice. Tannour worries they may try to either assassinate him or sever his tether again, like they did before, and once more deny him the use of his powers.

  But when a battling Trell and the al-Amir of Khor Taran, Lazar hal’Hamaadi, are both washed into a waterfall as a result of the flooding fortress, Tannour is forced to help them, despite his fears.

  After Tannour rescues Trell and the al-Amir, all three men return to the scene of the battle and discover that Trell’s Converted have taken the fortress. The Dannish soldiers have just been released when the flooded waters in the fortress become as glass, and the River Goddess Naiadithine speaks.

  In her water-mirror, Naiadithine shows everyone the battle ongoing at Raku. Trell and the Dannish soldiers see King Gydryn sinking into the sacred spring, apparently dead. Naiadithine tells Trell and everyone standing witness that they must ‘end this war.’

  Carian, Alyneri and Fynn

  Carian and Fynn have been drawn into working with the Nodefinder Rebellion.

  Niko van Amstel’s recent edict requires Nodefinders to either have gained a Sormitáge ring or to be listed on an ‘approved list.’ Otherwise, they are not eligible to use the nodes held and maintained by the Espial’s Guild.

  The Rebellion is fighting against this edict by establishing their own network of nodes that their allied Nodefinders can use in traveling and trade.

  As part of this effort, Carian and Fynn take Alyneri to the home of a mysterious truthreader named Cassius of Rogue. Cassius is also a Nodefinder by training and controls an expansive network of nodes.

  Carian and Fynn propose that Cassius should allow the Nodefinder Rebellion to use his nodes. Cassius requires Carian and his friends to remain at his manor while he considers their proposal.

  Nadia, Felix and Caspar

  Nadia van Gelderan, Princess Heir of Agasan, is taken hostage by Shailabhanáchtran and later delivered to his brother Darshan as a ‘gift.’ Darshan learns much from Nadia. While he is deliberating over what to do with her, he sends one of his Marquiin, Caspar, to keep her company.

  Nadia takes pity on Caspar and impulsively bonds herself to him to better help him contain the storm in his mind, which comes as a result of the Prophet’s tattoos.

  Caspar is with Nadia when Ean val Lorian unexpectedly arrives, and later Pelas. In the battle that ensues, Pelas escapes with Caspar and Nadia and returns them to Faroqhar.

  Meanwhile, since the Danes’ attack at the quai game (which occurred at the end of Paths of Alir), Felix di Sarcova is being held for questioning in the Order of the Glass Sword’s Tower.

  To Felix’s astonishment, Tanis’s zanthyr appears and takes Felix to the palace to speak with the Empress and tell her what he knows of the Danes’ attack. Felix tells Valentina of his roommate, Malin van Drexel, and how Ma
lin disappeared from the Imperial Archives. He outlines his efforts to hunt down Malin’s kidnapper, explains how Tanis became involved, and details their subsequent investigation into the Literato N’abranaacht (aka Shailabhanáchtran).

  Felix is with the Empress and her Consort, the High Lord Marius di L’Arlesé, when Nadia, Caspar and Pelas return from Tambarré. Nadia is able to corroborate Felix’s explanation, thus exonerating him of any wrongdoing.

  Felix then sails with Phaedor and the High Lord di L'Arlesé on a mission to the land of the Danes to discover if they were actually behind the attack at the quai game and to potentially rescue the Adepts taken captive.

  Nadia meanwhile is trying to get her mother to disclose the secret identity of the Literato N’abranaacht to those who should know, so as to better inform their investigation into his mysterious pattern, which allegedly awoke him to elae.

  Nadia and Valentina both know the literato is actually a Malorin’athgul and thus is able to both cloak his nature as an Adept and work elae’s strands natively, but Valentina refuses to divulge the literato’s secret until she’s had more time to investigate him.

  Nadia is at the Sormitáge with Caspar when they encounter the Endoge, Liam van Gheller. They are discussing Nadia’s safe return after her quai game capture when Pelas and Darshan appear to battle their brother Shail in the middle of the plaza.

  Nadia and the Endoge are caught in that battle and later rescued by Pelas. Nadia subsequently decides to tell the Endoge everything, despite her mother’s dictate.

  Sebastian and Dareios

  Sebastian has been working with Dareios of Kandori to develop weapons that can harm eidola, based on an order from Isabel that ‘they must find a way to defeat entire armies of these creatures.’

  Ean was working with Sebastian and doing most of the testing of patterns on eidola to determine which were the most effective, but after Ean leaves to confront Darshan in Tambarré, the task of testing and advancing the weaponry falls to Sebastian.

  As usual, in the appendix you’ll find a glossary and dramatis personae, the list of Sormitáge rankings, the Laws of Patterning and the Esoterics. Hopefully you’ll find these references helpful as you read.

  Alorin’s Middle Kingdoms

  Map of M’Nador