by John Bierce
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Map
CHAPTER ONE Boundary Zone
CHAPTER TWO Lothal
CHAPTER THREE An Entire City of Godricks
CHAPTER FOUR Grovebringer
CHAPTER FIVE The Needle of Leagues
CHAPTER SIX Ampioc
CHAPTER SEVEN Helicote
CHAPTER EIGHT The Rising Cormorant
CHAPTER NINE Old Philosophies
CHAPTER TEN Unfortunate Dietary Choices
CHAPTER ELEVEN Here Be Serpents
CHAPTER TWELVE Destructive Resonance
CHAPTER THIRTEEN Hiding
CHAPTER FOURTEEN The Listener in the Silent Straits
CHAPTER FIFTEEN First Site
CHAPTER SIXTEEN Stormward's Gift
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Sphinx Eyes
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Constellations
CHAPTER NINETEEN Oddly Timed Lightning
CHAPTER TWENTY Storm Armada
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE A Ship Lives Up to Its Name
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO Conspirators
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE Delta
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR Lich-City
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE Tea in the Park
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX The Fallen Moon
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN Upriver
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT Mage-Eater
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE Lake Nelu
CHAPTER THIRTY Shadow Architecture
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE The City of Sunset Without Light
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO Movement in the Dark
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE Exile Splinter
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR Playing Defense
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE Living Siege Tower
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX Perfect Storm
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN Broken Bridges
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT No Ground to Stand On
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE The Right Moment to Strike
CHAPTER FORTY From the Clouds
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE The Scene of the Crime
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO Warm and Safe
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE Setting the Stage
Galvachren's Guide to Anastis
Author’s Note on Tigers
Afterword
Reading Suggestions
Copyright © 2020 John Bierce
All rights reserved.
ISBN:
ISBN-13:
To KRP- I can’t think of a better revenge than dedicating this book to you.
CHAPTER ONE
Boundary Zone
Hugh of Emblin, sometimes known as Hugh Stormward, was staring off into the distance, across the dunes of the Endless Erg. He wasn’t really focusing on anything in particular, just staring.
“Hugh,” Kanderon Crux asked. “Are you listening to me?”
Hugh glanced up at the crystal-winged sphinx— who dwarfed most barns several times over, who had lived for centuries, who had helped bring down the greatest empire to ever exist, and who could destroy him without more than the slightest effort— and grunted.
Kanderon glared down at him, pursed her lips, and blew. Hugh was sent tumbling backwards into the sand.
“You could have just knocked him down with a paw, you didn’t need to cover us all in sand,” Talia complained.
Kanderon glared at her too, and the short red-haired girl subsided promptly, though she muttered to herself as she brushed sand off the blue geometric spellform tattoos that covered her body.
The seven of them stood atop a small sand dune in the south of the Endless Erg, a great sea of rolling dunes. To the east, the mighty Skyreach Range loomed overhead. To the west the Endless Erg stretched uninterrupted for hundreds of leagues.
Or at least five of them stood atop the dune. Kanderon stood at the dune’s base and still loomed over it, while Hugh just lay in the sand moping.
“Up yeh go,” Godrick said, leaning down to haul Hugh to his feet. The massive youth, seven feet if he was an inch, lifted Hugh up as though he were a child.
“Beyond here,” Kanderon continued, “you’re on your own. This is the farthest southern extent of Skyhold’s territory.”
“This is the farthest extent of your territory, you mean,” Sabae said. The tall, scarred girl was spinning gusts of wind around her body to get the sand off. “We’ve already left the extent of the territory Skyhold could hold without you.”
Kanderon arched an eyebrow at Sabae, but continued.
“Beyond this is the buffer zone between Skyhold’s territory and Lothal’s,” Kanderon said. “Try to behave yourselves in Lothal. Relations with Ampioc have been strained enough in recent years, and I really don’t have the time to deal with a diplomatic incident if you irritate him. I have more than enough work repairing the damage Bakori did to Skyhold.”
Hugh found his attention drifting again, only to be nudged gently by Godrick’s father Artur, who stood on Hugh’s other side. The huge battlemage was every inch as tall as Godrick, and weighed even more, most of it muscle.
A gentle nudge from Artur was still almost enough to send Hugh stumbling.
Hugh grimaced, but he focused his attention back on the conversation. Artur and Godrick were from Lothal, so he should be able to go to them for anything he’d missed.
“…mention the increased risks from Lothal’s cults at the moment,” Kanderon said. “It’s best to stay out of the maneuverings of cults whenever possible. A lesson I think you all learned well enough last summer. I’ll never understand why so many other great powers tolerate or encourage them.”
The great sphinx rustled her wings, and the hovering blue crystals chimed against each other musically.
“How many cults are there in Lothal at the moment?” Sabae asked.
“Too many,” Artur said. “Ah wouldn’t bother keepin’ track— they change like clockwork.”
Hugh tuned out again and stared back out over the sand, keeping watch for a familiar set of sails he knew were nowhere near here.
Eventually, the conversation wrapped up, and Hugh turned to head back to their own ship with the others.
“Wait a moment, Hugh,” Kanderon said.
Hugh stopped, and slowly turned to face Kanderon, who shifted closer to him.
“You,” Kanderon said, “are sulking.”
“I’m not sulking,” Hugh replied quietly.
Kanderon raised one massive eyebrow at that and stared at him for a long, uncomfortable pause, broken only by the gentle chiming of her crystalline wings.
“You miss the Radhan girl,” Kanderon said.
“Her name is Avah,” Hugh said, a little heat creeping into his voice.
Kanderon sighed, making Hugh’s clothes and hair flutter.
“Believe it or not, Hugh” Kanderon said, “I’m not mad at you for sulking, nor even for not paying attention. Irritated, yes, but not angry. I’ve been dealing with adolescent humans for centuries; this is an utterly normal part of your lives. I even factor it into my education plans for students. The only unpredictable part of it is the precise timing, and it’s hardly that unpredictable.”
Hugh, if anything, felt even more irritated at that.
Kanderon reached out a great paw, which vanished into the air. She shifted as she rummaged around whatever extraplanar space she had reached into, her front leg disappearing farther and farther into it. Finally, she grunted in satisfaction and pulled out her leg.
Held delicately between two of her enormous claws was a book, which she tossed on the sand in front of Hugh. He immediately recognized it, though it was smaller than it should be.
“Why are you giving me an Index Node?” he asked. “And why is it so small?”
“It’s a communications diary— a type of modified Index Node I give out to all Librarians Errant,” Kanderon said. “You’re not a Librarian Errant just yet, but as you’re pacted to me, and are prone to an inordinate amount of trouble, I’ve decided that we need a more convenient way to stay in touch with one another. This node lacks the functionality to search the Index itself, instead only possessing the communication and encryption enchantments. It’s quite mana hungry, so make sure you’re safe before using it. It will, circumstances allowing, enable me to advise you or even come to your rescue in an emergency.”
Hugh slowly picked it up and ran his hand along the spine, feeling his irritation at Kanderon fade away.
“Thank you,” he said quietly.
“I’m merely protecting my investment in you,” Kanderon said. “And we will be conducting lessons through the book as well, so don’t expect this expedition to be a vacation.”
Hugh felt the corner of his mouth twitch a little.
“I didn’t exactly expect a search for an enchanted city-killing weapon to be a particularly relaxing vacation, Master,” he said.
Hugh could swear he saw a hint of a smile in response on Kanderon’s face before she returned to her habitual look of irritation.
She nodded at him, and wings chiming, she launched herself into the sky.
Hugh started trudging back towards the ship, his momentary amusement already forgotten, his thoughts back on the horizon.
When Hugh reached their sandship, The Ox of Indris, there was a loud argument coming from the deck. Hugh sighed, then levitated himself up to the deck, lacking both the energy and inclination to climb the ladder.
The lumbering freighter from Theras Tel was nothing like Avah’s family ship, The Moonless Owl. The Ox was a massive, slow, ungainly beast of a ship that had to steer around dunes of any decent size, rather than climbing them. Its sand-runners were splintered and patched, and its sails were even worse.
Hugh landed on the deck to find the ship’s first mate arguing with Alustin.
“That damn book has been fighting with the ship’s cat again!” the woman shouted.
“Strapping a pair of knitted cat ears to a two-foot long spider really doesn’t make it a cat,” Alustin said.
“Precious likes her ears,” the woman retorted, “and it’s traditional to always call the ship’s rat-catcher a cat, whatever it actually is.”
“That’s absurd,” Alustin said.
Before he could continue, the first mate spotted Hugh.
“Stormward!” the woman snapped. “Call your damn book, and keep it at your side!”
Hugh sighed, then pursed his lips and whistled. He heard a clattering from above, then Hugh’s spellbook leapt from the drake’s nest and flapped its way down to him. The green crystal book didn’t need to flap its pages and cover to fly, it had just picked up the habit from the grimoires in Skyhold’s Grand Library.
The spellbook settled contentedly in Hugh’s arms atop the Index Node. He sighed, plucked the knitted cat ears off the spellbook, and tossed them back to the first mate.
Hugh had no idea how the spellbook had managed to get them on in the first place, nor did he particularly care.
He was glad the first mate wasn’t giving him the usual Theran deference and awkward staring, but the yelling wasn’t any better. He wished it had never been made public that he’d built the ward that had saved the desert city last summer. Hugh would take being ignored over being yelled at or idolized any day of the week.
He turned and walked off before either of them could say anything else to him, and went down the steps into the hallway with the passenger cabins. He was sure Sabae would get irritated at him for not using proper terminology— everything onboard a ship had some weird nautical name— but Hugh honestly couldn’t make himself care at the moment.
Hugh let himself into the cabin he shared with Godrick, crawled into the top bunk, and rolled himself into fetal position facing the wall. Or… bulkhead, maybe?
He hadn’t even bothered taking his boots off, not caring that he was getting sand in his bunk.
Talia scowled at Hugh as she watched him trudge belowdecks.
“How much longer do yeh think he’ll be sulkin’ fer?” Godrick asked.
Talia almost jumped out of her boots, not realizing her oversized friend had snuck up on her.
“Why would I know?” Talia said, trying not to let her voice squeak. “Why are you asking me?”
“You are sort of the expert on Hugh’s moods,” Sabae said from her other side.
Talia actually did jump at that.
Sabae gave her a mildly surprised look. “You must really be worried about Hugh if you didn’t even notice us walk up.”
Talia glowered at her.
“I’m more worried about my stomach once we get moving again,” she lied. “Anyhow, I thought you two were planning to ogle that pretty deckhand more.”
Sabae looked vaguely offended. “We’re not ogling him, we’re just…”
She looked to Godrick for support.
“We’re definitely oglin’ ‘im,” Godrick said. “Especially when he decides he doesn’t need a shirt.”
“Traitor,” Sabae said.
Talia sighed and made her escape as the two started arguing again. It was still weird seeing Sabae expressing romantic interest in others. And she was still vaguely offended that Sabae was turning to Godrick for advice on men rather than to her.
She didn’t notice several deckhands very quickly jumping out of her path, or nervously eying her hand resting on one of her sheathed daggers.
Hugh would be fine. It had only been a short while since Avah had dumped him. He just needed time was all.
She realized, with a start, that she had gone belowdecks without meaning to and was standing in front of Hugh’s door. She reached out to knock, then slowly lowered her hand.
Talia scowled, but before she could make up her mind, she felt the ship lurch, and her stomach lurch with it. She quickly dashed for her room, and the chamber pot in it. Not to mention the enchanted glass sphere Hugh had loaned her that absorbed unwanted smells.
Alustin glanced at the hatch that Talia had gone into, then over at Sabae and Godrick making nuisances of themselves.
“Is it just me,” he said, “or are they acting more dramatic and ridiculous than usual?”
“It’s the stress,” Artur said, cutting open a brightly colored fruit with a knife.
“What stress?” Alustin asked. “There’s no one attacking us; nothing dangerous going on.”
“Exactly,” Artur said. “They spent the entirety a’ last year caught up in tha’ ridiculous business with the Council, not ta mention just survivin’ a battle that killed a lot a’ fully grown mages. With everything tha’s happened ta that lot, ah’m shocked they have’na turned inta shiverin’ wrecks already. They’re just burnin’ off the stress is all.”
He took a bite of the fruit. Its insides, in sharp contrast to the outside, were pure white, dotted with pitch-black seeds.
Alustin grimaced. “I was never that bad when I was their age.”
Artur swallowed, then chuckled. “Ah was one a’ yer teachers, remember? Yeh most certainly were. Stones, yeh’re worse than that still.”
Alustin glared at the bigger man and sniffed to show what he thought of that.
Artur just smirked and took another bite.
He was still amazed that Artur had decided to join them on the ship— the stone mage almost always took the roads through the Skyreach Range when leaving Skyhold, rather than take a ship across the Endless Erg.
Alustin wouldn’t complain about that— they were likely to need all the extra firepower they could get on this trip.
CHAPTER TWO
Lothal
Hugh was lying in his bunk when Sabae barged in.
“This is distressingly familiar,” Sabae said. “Haven’t I had to haul you out of a ship’s cabin due to you sulking before?”
Hugh rolled ov
er to face the wall. “Yeah, and last time you did that pirates attacked.”
“We’re already out of the boundary zone, so that’s not likely this time,” Sabae said. “We’re almost to Lothal.”
“Boundary zone?” Hugh asked, not really caring.
“Were you not listening at all when Kanderon briefed us?” Sabae asked.
Hugh didn’t say anything, though he could feel the bunks shift as Sabae clambered up.
“Most of the great powers other than dragons don’t bother keeping sharp borders with their neighbors,” Sabae said. “They just have a sort of neutral zone between them that both powers stay out of to avoid making their neighbor suspicious. You tend to find more bandits and pirates there.”
Hugh just grunted.
Sabae sighed, and Hugh felt her hands wrap around his arm just below his shoulder, followed by a sharp pull.
Before Hugh could be dragged entirely out of his bunk, he envisioned a quick spellform, and rather than fall to the floor, he fell up to the ceiling, then stuck there on his side. Sabae was still holding onto his arm, her feet just shy of touching the floor.
“Could you let go?” Hugh asked. “This is really quite painful.”
“Not until you come down from there,” Sabae said.
Hugh sighed, and then Sabae fell upwards, crashing into the ceiling as well.
She still didn’t let go.
“Hugh,” Sabae said. “Enough.”
Hugh closed his eyes and flopped his head against the ceiling.
Sabae muttered something, then Hugh felt her moving around. One of her hands moved to his torso, and then Hugh felt himself being lifted up into the air.
Or down into the air? The fact that up and down were relative to the direction of gravity was a growing linguistic concern for Hugh. Not, to be sure, a problem he had ever considered having.
Hugh opened his eyes to see that Sabae had stood up— or maybe down— on the ceiling, and had hefted him over her shoulder.
Hugh’s spellbook shook itself a little, then launched itself off the bed. It fluttered curiously in the air around the two of them.
“Let’s go,” Sabae said irritably. “You’re going to watch our arrival in Lothal if I have to carry you all the way to the deck and hold your eyelids open.”