by Ryan Muree
Several silent seconds passed as both Grier and Adalai pulled back and caught their breaths.
“Is it that bad that the Ingini have grimoires?” Mykel finally asked breaking the silence.
Everyone turned and looked at him.
“Do you not remember mass genocide in the history books or basic training?” Adalai had asked as if it was the dumbest question ever.
Mykel dropped his eyes. “Yeah, I mean—”
“They murdered Casters that went against their ideas,” she added. “They wanted to horde the grimoires and keep certain people from casting. Are you kidding me?”
“They kidnapped and enslaved Scribes to torture them for ether,” Grier said.
“It’s been a really long time, though,” Mykel said with a shrug. “I was only asking.”
Adalai scoffed. “And their Ingineers built a friggin’ cannon on the side of their wall and have started annihilating cities with it! Who knows what they’d do with grimoires, too.”
“They killed Kayson and Tully,” Sonora added meekly.
Mykel conceded after that.
“What if,” Jahree said, cool and even, “what if we went and investigated?”
“Go into Ingini?” Emeryss asked.
“If we were disguised as an Ingini ship, we could do it.” Adalai pointed to him. “We couldn’t take the Zephyr.”
Vaughn raised his hand. “We have that Ingini chick’s ship. I shrunk it, but Mykel could fix it with a few supplies.”
Emeryss looked to Grier.
“It’s not a bad idea,” he said.
“You’re okay with going into Ingini?” she asked him. A couple weeks ago he was losing his mind over leaving Stadhold, and now he was considering investigating the enemy?
“He’s not ready to get married, am I right?” Jahree knocked him with the back of his hand, but Grier didn’t deny it.
“We’re all on the verge of becoming nothing in both Revel and Stadhold,” Adalai said. “If we do this, we’ll have no idea where we’re going, no idea where to start, but we could help our countries. Maybe redeem ourselves.”
Jahree stretched and crossed his arms. “We can get the Ingini, Clove, to help us. She also claims that we attacked first over Marana, but none of us saw it.”
Urla leaned on her stick. “Someone is not being honest in all this.”
“Well?” Vaughn asked, looking to Urla. “Are we really doing this?”
“It’s up to Adalai,” Urla said. “I was the official leader of the Zephyrs, but it looks like we’re not the Zephyrs anymore.”
Adalai lifted her chest and chin. “We’ll need a plan for the stuff we don’t know. Would you rather go home to a humiliating hearing and be told how bad we messed up, or go to Ingini and become heroes?”
They all mumbled “Be heroes” in unison.
“Emeryss? Grier?” she asked. “You in, too?”
Grier turned to Emeryss. “We were going to go to Neeria. What do you want to do?”
She turned to Adalai. “Assuming we survive and don’t get caught, how long do you think we’d be there?”
Adalai shrugged. “We couldn’t be there long. A few days at most? We’d just need to see who’s bringing them in and how.”
“We don’t have to go with them, Emeryss.” Grier’s deep eyes anchored her. He’d meant it. “You’ve not seen your family in a very long time.”
But her family would still be in Neeria waiting for her. She’d waited years; a few more days were nothing. And Grier? Going would mean a few extra days with him, possibly for the last time.
And then, there was Avrist to consider. Avrist had been up to something before he’d been killed. Lerissa was either blind to it or behind it, too. If they went to Neeria, Stadhold would never stop hunting them, and when he went back to Stadhold—whatever they shared was over.
She’d said she was fine with not getting forever with him. She knew one day he’d have to fulfill his expectations, but she wasn’t ready. Going to Ingini was like freezing time for them.
“You have a lot more to lose,” she said. “I can’t make this decision for the both of us.”
“But what would you do if I wasn’t part of it?”
If he wasn’t part of it?
“Well, Ingini wouldn’t recognize us so we’d be safe from Revel and Stadhold, and we might be able to stop more deaths if we can find out how they’re getting grimoires.” And he was part of it. More time with him was definitely a factor. “Is this worth it?” she asked him.
His eyes glazed over. “I’m supposed to be protecting Stadhold. I want to either absolve them of this or see it with my own eyes.”
“But your matches—”
“They think they can push it up a few years to force me to do what they want. I’ll call their bluff.”
She slipped her hand in his. “But what if they follow through? This could be your last chance. What if you really do lose everything?”
He squeezed her hand with the slightest smile. “I already made my decision when I left Stadhold. And losing them is not losing everything.”
She grinned and turned to Adalai. “Let’s go, then. Let’s go to Ingini.”
Thank you so much for reading Kingdoms of Ether! If you enjoyed it, please consider leaving a review! It helps me prioritize which series to focus on.
Ready for more from the Kingdoms of Ether series? Architects of Ether (Book 2) will be available Spring 2019, but you can get a sneak peek now by turning the page!
Acknowledgments
Thank you to my husband and daughter for giving me the motivation to not give up. Thank you to my parents for damn near everything. Thank you to Enclave, my friends and fellow writing nerds, for making it all better. Thank you to Fidelis for terrible jokes over DnD and gaming sessions. Thank you, readers, for picking this book up and giving my world a chance.
About the Author
I grew up a military brat, lived in several states, visited parts of Asia, and even lived in Okinawa. When people ask me where I’m from, I just say Earth. Honestly, it’s easier. I was a middle school teacher for nine years—no, really—but now I write, and love doing that even more. It’s usually fantasy. Mostly epic. Always magical. I like determined heroines who answer the call for wild adventures across crazy worlds. And I especially love to write young women who face hardships and consequences with grit and smarts. When I’m not inventing worlds for my characters, I game with my husband and daughter, draw, paint, use too many exclamation points!!!, and sometimes say funny things. Sometimes.
I’m always happy to chat with readers!
<3 Ryan
www.ryanmuree.com | Email
Architects of Ether Preview
Chapter 1
ZEPHYR AIRSHIP — REVEL
Emeryss wiped the sweat from her forehead with the sleeve of her Zephyr uniform.
The darkness on the edges of her vision threatened to pull her from her ethereal trance, to allow her to be caught off guard. She couldn’t afford to mess up. If they were going to sneak into Ingini to learn how grimoires were being stolen, then she had to learn how to be better. She couldn’t be a liability.
She wouldn’t be responsible for another death.
Sonora’s boots scraped against the stone as she sidestepped into a new attack position.
Emeryss could barely see her on her left through the smoky veil of brilliant ether.
Sonora was shifting her weight and readying her hands for another attack against Emeryss, while Urla and Grier watched somewhere in the wings.
Since Kayson and Tully’s memorial, Sonora had set aside her paper hobbies and memory keeping and replaced them with sparring.
Emeryss had wanted to tell her that taking on the Ingini wouldn’t bring her husband back. He was safe, happy, living his next life in the otherworld. But it wouldn’t help. Just like it wouldn’t help to tell her that the Goddess of Death would take her someday to see him again. Revelians were never eager to remember the rites or honor the s
pirits. Most had traded in “old gods” and complex beliefs for grimoires a long time ago.
Emeryss readied the next sigil in her fingers—Fireball. One of her favorites.
Mostly because she’d spent hundreds of hours trying to conjure one in her drab suite at the Great Library in Stadhold. But also because hers never came out orange-yellow as fireballs should. Hers were copper-blue instead.
Whatever color her sigils manifested in, she no longer needed the whispers to help her construct the ones she’d casted before. And in just a few days of training, the number of sigils she hadn’t casted was dwindling.
Her index finger worked the ether floating in the air until the sigil was finished. She pushed it out with a flick of her wrist. Adding the twist would make the fireball spiral in Sonora’s direction.
It zoomed out of her sigil as a blaze of copper light with a blue sparkling tail. Straight for Sonora’s chest.
Sonora bent back and deflected the rolling flames into the glass dome of the Zephyr’s observation deck with a concentrated burst of sound from her palm.
Emeryss followed it with a second fireball from another direction.
Sonora spun, her dark hair fanning out around her, avoiding the attack and sending her own blast in Emeryss’s direction.
Emeryss ducked before it hit her.
For the most part, the sparring was fun. Just like the Zephyrs had said, casting fed a part of her spirit, and most of her commonly used sigils had become extensions of herself.
She held her next sigil—Air Slice—on the air, waiting for the right moment to strike.
“Attack faster!” Grier commanded. “You’ll get blasted before you know it.”
Sparring was fun when Grier wasn’t the one teaching her combat. No doubt she enjoyed being with him in and out of bed, but he almost took her training more seriously than his own.
To her right, Urla stalked her. Her hair glinted silver, and her weathered hands were deceptively fast. Sparks of electricity, like sparklers on the edge of her blue aura, came through her usually calm facade.
Aura is what Emeryss had started to call their shapes when she was in the ethereal plane. Their auras shimmered with ether, highlighting their strengths and disguising the frailty of their physical forms.
Grier’s dark ether undulated before her, too. It was black in the real world, but here it was tinged with red.
Emeryss had agreed to put off going home to Neeria for a few days to support Grier. She might not have agreed with Stadhold and their treatment of her, but they weren’t traitors to Revel. They couldn’t be. They held to their rules too tightly. Some rules more than others, but especially rules that would cause their entire country to be weaker for war.
Grier cleared his throat. He was leaning on his swordstaff and squinting at her.
She’d said yes to Ingini for more time with him.
Urla’s aura blurred away from its position.
Emeryss gasped as something pierced her in the back of the knees.
She caught herself before she lost her balance and tossed the Air Slice in Urla’s direction. It whizzed through the air at nothing. Urla was already back at her starting point.
Hand to the side, Emeryss pooled violet ether into her palm.
Sonora twisted and shot a piercing sound wave at her.
Emeryss thrust her arm out, hand splayed against the air, and brought up her shield to deflect it.
“Not good enough,” Grier said.
Urla darted behind her again, and Emeryss spun, gripping another Air Slice sigil and shoving it at her. It flew out of her hand, fast at first, but then it slowed to a crawl before eventually hitting the far side of the dome.
No matter how hard she practiced, she never seemed fast enough.
“Too slow,” Urla chirped.
“It’s possible,” Emeryss panted, “that this type of practice is a complete waste of time. I won’t be going up against highly trained Casters in Ingini.” She let the haze of the ethereal float up and away, bringing her back to reality with a few blinks.
The real world was blinding in a different way. The contrasting colors from the beaming autumn sun through the stormstone made for an unsettling warm return.
“No, it’ll be worse.” Grier sauntered forward in his mechanic-like clothes. One hand held the swordstaff, and the other, with his glinting Keeper bracer, rubbed his fuzzy jaw. He acted like a grizzled general disappointed in his troops, except it only made him more adorable. “They’ll be shooting ether from guns at a rate most of us couldn’t dodge. There’s a reason all Keepers learn to make shields first. No need to dodge or avoid bolts of ether coming at your head if you can just hold up a shield.”
Gone were the days where he fawned over her every time she stumbled or fell. No more words about locking her up in rooms where she’d be safe. Instead, he’d been the one to suggest training her.
“So I should make my shields more mobile like yours?”
He nodded. “Yes, but you don’t need one several buildings high like before in Marana. That’s a waste of ether and effort. Ether is a finite source for Keepers. Our weapons and shields are only as strong as we are. As we get tired, weaker, wounded, our weapons and shields deplete in strength. Therefore, every move has to be efficient. Every weapon drawn from our bracers has to be deliberate. You don’t seem to have the same limitation, but it’s more effort than it’s worth. You just need something big enough to cover your torso and head. Though that still doesn’t address how slow you are.”
She lifted an eyebrow, daring him to reconsider his phrasing. That's not what he’d said the night before.
His jawline turned pink. “You know what I meant.”
“Maybe that’s it.” Sonora pulled her hair back into a bun. “What if she’s more like Keepers than we thought? Maybe she’s not meant to cast on demand like we are. Maybe she’s expected to be a little more prepared like you, Grier.”
“I don’t think I’m expected to do anything a certain way,” Emeryss said. “I broke the rules.”
“Well, it takes Grier a whole two seconds to pull weapons from his grimoire, but that’s still a delay. You have to plan before the attack even starts, right?” Sonora asked.
He nodded.
“Whereas Casters can afford to be reactive, Grier really can’t. And maybe you can’t either, Emeryss.”
Urla nodded, too, no sign of sweat on her face. “A ranged-only Caster. You think we’re forcing something that might not need to happen?”
Sonora shrugged a shoulder. “Maybe.”
“Getting stronger and faster at fighting is always a necessity,” Grier said.
“But fighting to your strengths is good, too,” Sonora countered.
Emeryss shook her head. “All Casters are technically ranged attackers.”
“But we don’t have to be.” Urla switched her cane from hand to hand. “I can shoot you with lightning from right here, or I can get in your face. Grier, on the other hand, has to be all in, all the time. Maybe you have to be back at a distance, giving you more time to Scribe what you need. The tradeoff is that Grier can only use his seven weapons, we can only use our attuned ether-type, and you—”
“I can cast anything, but I need time to do it.”
Urla nodded.
“It still helps to train.” Grier lifted his swordstaff and rested it over his right shoulder. “We’re only as strong as our weakest fighter, and that’s you. If we have to keep stopping to protect you, then we can’t be our best.”
Ouch. But he wasn’t wrong. That was the whole point.
When her father took a group out for sea star harvest, even the weakest person had a job they’d be useful at. Everyone had to pull their weight. Putting the weakest man on pulling up the trawls would slow everything down, and that meant people getting hurt or going hungry.
Still. “I don’t want to cast shields all day. It won’t stop the war.”
Urla smiled and disappeared. She reappeared beside Grier, forcing him
to his knees. His swordstaff clattered to the stone, and his face seized in a strained, electrocuted horror. “Sonora!” Urla called out.
Sonora shot out a blast of sound at him, the waves rippling toward his chest.
Second-nature, as natural as breathing, Emeryss drew on the air and encased Grier in a transparent shell. His face relaxed as Urla’s connection severed and Sonora’s blast collided with the shield and vibrated its surface.
Urla laughed as Grier caught his breath. “See? Maybe you do want to cast shields.”
Emeryss gaped. “I never said I didn’t want to protect people! But shielding Ingini to death is not possible, and if it was, it would be extremely boring.”
Grier licked his lips and rose. “Not boring. Life-saving.”
Urla swatted him on the back. “Ah, pfft. You know we would have resuscitated you. It looks like all that sleeping you’ve been doing on this little vacation has made you slower.”
The blush in Grier’s cheeks never quite left these days. Emeryss fought back a smile.
Sonora eyed her. “So what if it’s boring, Emeryss?”
“Please, Sonora. You know what I meant. Shielding isn’t enough. If I need to shield all of you all the time, then we’re already losing, right?”
“Life-saving shields are a good thing,” Sonora said. “And while we’re inside Ingini, it might be the one thing that saves our country—”
“Or mine,” Grier added.
Urla shook her head and aimed the end of her cane at them. “Don’t even start with that.”
“Kayson joined the RCA to protect his country,” Sonora said. “If we don’t find the grimoires, he would’ve died for nothing.”
“You and I both know that’s not true.” Urla went back to leaning on her cane. “No one on this airship gets to act high and mighty about our purpose going into Ingini. Everyone is running from something. Doing this for our countries is conveniently part of it.”