The Fireblade Array: 4-Book Bundle

by H. O. Charles

  that not all quenching is permanent.

  Kanaala are graded according to their ability, with most falling between grades three and five. A kanaala graded ten is considered to be very powerful indeed.

  Kanaala are the only men who can safely sleep with wielders, though this is dependent upon their grading. For example, a kanaala graded four will almost certainly die if he lies with a wielder graded five, and this is due to his limited capacity for her power.

  A kanaala can detect the presence of a wielder. The more powerful either one is, the greater the

  distance at which they can sense one another. Kanaala can only detect other kanaala through skin-to-skin contact.

  Kanaala are born with their full potential already reached, and do not mature into their abilities as wielders do. Prospective parents fear giving birth to kanaala, since the child's arrival will always result in the mother's death, unless she has access to Gialdin’s Cave of Light. The same is not true of wielders unless the child has the potential to be especially powerful. It is thought that this difference has something to do with the child's latent Blaze abilities at birth.

  Blaze abilities are often inherited, but have been known to spontaneously appear in families where it has previously been absent.

  Kefruit – A hand-sized, yellow tree fruit with mottled peel. Its sweet flavour makes it popular in desserts.

  Kusuru Assassins – A group of seven individuals who, at some point before the Era of Floods, were trained in sword fighting, wielding and espionage. They are reputedly the most deadly fighters ever to have lived. Each member was specially selected for their ability with Blaze and each was vanha-sielu. Their training was

  said to be so tough that they would regularly die as a result of it, but were recruited again once they were reborn. It was hoped that they would form a force to protect the world through history, and that one of them would eventually be instrumental in preventing the demise of the known world. Their members were: Artemi (The Fireblade), Dorlunh (The Reader), Khasha (The Puzzler), Mirel (Ice-Kill), Tallyn (The Hunter), Romarr (The Hammer) and Vestuna (The Silent Knife).

  Nalka – The physical pain suffered by lovers upon being separated from each other. It usually

  manifests about ten days after their last engagement in sexual intercourse and is complete within four days of the first pains.

  The affliction is usually fatal to those who suffer it before the age of twenty, and so it is not advised that lovers enter into a sexual relationship before they're old enough to withstand the separation.

  It represents the termination of the bond between partners and their potential to procreate. However, lovers are able to have children subsequently, but only if they are able to maintain a sexual relationship without undergoing

  nalka for nine years.

  In spite of this phenomenon, brothels and whore houses are prevalent across much of the world.

  Partition (Blaze) – A Blaze form that masks wielding from any nearby kanaala or wielders. The construction of most Blaze forms gives off heat, and a partition will impede any further dispersal of that heat.

  Pinh – A black, poisonous liquid which prevents wounds from healing. If enough poison is ingested by an individual they will suffer pinhatar death, where the blood becomes too saturated with the substance to perform its proper function. Scars that result from wounds are generally caused by the presence of pinh.

  Sarkha – A tube-like implement with a plunger and reservoir at either end, used to clean pinh-saturated wounds that are too deep to be washed any other way. One reservoir is filled with water and the flexible, middle section of the tube is inserted into the wound. Once the water reservoir has been emptied into the injury, the second reservoir can be used to withdraw the diluted poison.

  Stasis – The body’s method of preserving itself in times of drought or

  famine. Sufferers will fall into a deathlike, comatose state and will be unrousable. They will wake, on average, once per decade and search for nourishment. If a sufferer is unable to find food or water in order to break the stasis cycle, they will eventually succumb after one-to-two-hundred years have passed.

  Swift – An orange, groundcreeping flower, native to mountainous regions. Its distilled nectar can aid healing when an individual’s ability to recover from wounds is exhausted.

  Tanno – A juicy, purple berry with a slightly acidic taste. It is usually

  skinned, pressed and fermented to make wine.

  Vanha-sielu – An old term for an even older group of people, meaning "repeated life." These individuals are born again within two weeks of their deaths, ad infinitum. In each life they carry an identical appearance and are inevitably given the same name by their parents or guardians.

  Occasionally, their own fame in previous lives causes them to be named after themselves.

  Until the age of 23 they are unaware of their deep past, although several aspects of their character will

  manifest in the same way through childhood. If memories are forced upon a vanha-sielu before their mind is ready to accept them, it can lead to death or madness. However, familiar faces and objects do not seem to trigger this in young vanha-sielu, which implies that a certain set of words are necessary in order to initiate premature recall.

  It is currently unknown how the phenomena of vanha-sielu came about, and new ones do not appear to have been created in recent times.

  Wielder – A wielder is able to control Blaze Energy and access The Blazes independently. Wielders are

  exclusively female, born with the potential to reach a certain level of ability, but they can only access their powers independently once they reach the age of twenty. Until then they must employ the aid of kanaala to help them wield.

  A wielder can detect the presence of another wielder. The more powerful either one is, the greater the distance at which they can sense one another. Wielders can only detect kanaala through skin-to-skin contact.

  Wielders are graded according to their ability, with most falling between grades two and four. A wielder graded

  ten is considered to be very powerful indeed.

  They were previously banished from Calidell and any discovered in the country, or found to be wielding, were immediately executed. During the reign of King Morghiad of House Jade’an, however, this ban was repealed.

  Wielders must choose their bedfellows carefully, as they have the potential to burn their lovers alive. For this reason, most wielders will marry kanaala or remain celibate.

  The Fireblade Array: Volume 4

  Blazed Union

  by

  H.O. Charles

  Blazed Union copyright H.O.

  Charles 2013

  All illustrations by the author

  Copyright Page Blazed Union. Copyright 2013 by H.O.

  Charles. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination

  or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, events or locales is entirely coincidental. If you find a typographical error in a book published by Idol: a Tree, please email us

  publish@idolatree.com

  The Fireblade Array

  City of Blaze

  Nation of Blaze

  Anomaly of Blaze

  Blazed Union

  Voices of Blaze

  Also by the same author:

  Snowlands

  Follow @ HOCharles on Twitter http://citvofblaze.blogspot. com/ http ://www. facebook. com/Hadleigh. O. ( Contents

  An array of fires; an array of lives. The Fireblade’s array is eternal, but the beginnings and ends of each life

  are ever the same. It must always begin with death and end with death.

  Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2
Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12

  “Can I come in?”

  “What’s your business?”

  Toryn scratched at his chin and eyed the man at the door closely. He

  certainly had a wizened look to him; his clothing was crumpled and his eyes were darkly circled. A baby’s cry came from the shadows of the house, and Toryn felt claws of ice begin to creep up his spine. “I understand you lost your wife to that child. I wanted to offer my condolences and some information.” A rumble of thunder rolled through the air at that moment, and the deep, ireful clouds seemed to sink heavily toward the town. It wasn’t supposed to rain here, and yet the sand beneath his feet was as soaked as any shoreline.

  “I’m not interested.” The man

  began to close the door, but Toryn thumped his palm against the wood to arrest its progress.

  “You will be. She’s Artemi, isn’t she? No other name would do for her.”

  The man blinked.

  “I can help you,” Toryn urged. As he leaned closer to the new father, the similarities between them became increasingly apparent. Although he was dark-haired, there were flecks of red in this man’s overgrown stubble, his eyes were deep set and he had that stubborn angle to his jaw that his daughter – their daughter – seemed to inherit. How curious that providence was always

  able to locate an appropriately credible father in time.

  “Fine. But you leave those swords out here, and if you come within twenty feet of her, I will kill you.”

  Disappointment bubbled up in Toryn’s heart. Clearly this man was already too enamoured with his daughter, and ways of lessening that attachment would have to be sought out.

  As Toryn removed his three blades and set them out of the rain, he examined the house with what subtlety he could muster. The dwelling was

  small, irregular and constructed of mud brick, which suggested that this man was in need of money. Calidell had a great deal of money at present, and words of persuasion had never been Toryn’s forte. And brute force? Artemi’s new father certainly did not look as if he could repel much in the way of physical aggression.

  “Thank you,” Toryn said politely, before stepping into the living area. It reminded him far too much of his old home in Cadra with its bare walls and worn carpets and a single window. A solitary runnel of rainwater had found its way through the leaky

  roof, and was busy making a path toward the grit floor. With luck, Artemi would not have to know this poverty again. Toryn sat down upon a knotted ravenwood chair at his host’s bidding, and tried to resist all temptation to attend to the crying infant. “Where is her wet nurse?”

  The dark-haired man strode to his child and picked her up from a wooden box in the corner. Satisfied that she did not require changing, he placed her against his shoulder and met eyes with Toryn. “She can only visit in the mornings.”

  Blazes! “Babies need more than

  that.”

  “Don’t tell me what I already know. You said you have information.” The man took the only other chair and adjusted himself so that he was not sitting upon his own ponytail.

  Toryn frowned and nodded slowly. “She’s very unusual. At the moment she will simply cry and make her messes and eat... when she can, but in a few years you will have one of the world’s most renowned and... troublesome fighters on your hands. She is very important to Calidell, and she is a wielder.”

  “If I’d wanted to hear nursery

  tales, I would have called my grandmother back from the dead. You said you had information. Why did my wife die?”

  “Because your daughter is a wielder.” Your daughter. How that burned his mouth.

  A noise of exasperation from the man caused Artemi to start grumbling again. He ignored her disquiet. “Wielders don’t kill their mothers. Everyone knows that.”

  “She’s an especially powerful one. Now tell me, did you want to call her Artemi?”

  The man hesitated this time, and eventually shook his head. “I wanted to name her after her mother.” There was another growl of thunder in the distance.

  “But you couldn’t.” That hadn’t been much of a problem for Toryn, of course. He’d always wanted a daughter who knew how to stand her ground, with a name to match, but he had never anticipated quite what the reality would be. “Her birth was inevitable and so was your wife’s death. No matter what you do, she will become a swordswoman and warrior. Now, you have a choice. You may remain her father in light of this news, or you may

  decide that the responsibility is too much for you. Which is it to be?”

  “I am not discarding my only daughter for the sake of a name!”

  Artemi started crying again, which was enough to set Toryn’s teeth grinding. Surely this man could see what was good for her?! Toryn D’Avrohan took a deep breath. “She can live in a fine house, with all the wet nurses that you can fit under a single roof.” A roof that worked! “She will want for nothing and she will have guards to protect her. Whether you stay with her or not is up to you.”

  “I’m not leaving her, and you

  can keep your blood money. She and I will be beholden to no one.”

  “It is not blood money. There is no compensation for you if you wish to give her to us. I would advise you to accept the offer of a good life for her. You will both be free to do as you wish, and Calidell will honour a contract to that effect.”

  “This is ridiculous. And if she is a wielder, why are you so interested in her? There are plenty more of them in the world... and she’s not that Artemi... she can’t be.” His eyes darted wildly around the room as he spoke, and his last words ended in a

  whimper.

  “She is that Artemi.”

  “I have heard enough. Please leave.”

  Toryn still recalled that moment of acceptance, and that first visit paid by the man who had made her a benay-gosa. He had found himself so infuriated with Kahr Morghiad’s unapologetic nature and so fearful of Artemi’s future that her legendary status had come as nothing but good news. That she had known other fathers did not cause him upset, because he had always known that she still needed him. No matter how many

  centuries she had seen or battles she had faced, Artemi required someone who knew what was good for her. The man she had chosen for a husband was most definitely not good for her. But what of this new father? “I must see that she is properly cared for. It is of the utmost importance to me.”

  The Sunidaran lost his temper at that moment. “Out! Get out of here! What are you, some sort of child snatcher? Go now!”

  “You think you can raise her?”

  “I’ll do a better job of it without you! Move.”

  “You should let me hold her.”

  “Not a chance!” He placed her onto the seat of his chair and stood squarely before Toryn, his frame suddenly appearing broader and considerably more robust than it had earlier. “For the last time, get out!”

  Toryn sighed and glanced at the wriggling, squalling bundle. At least this man was protective, and blazes knew that would serve her well. He rose slowly and met eyes with his successor. “I will go, but I will find a new nurse and pay her enough to work for you over the next three years. Whether you choose to accept this nurse is up to you, but if I hear that Artemi is not

  thriving or happy here, it won’t just be me knocking at your door.”

  “Take your threats and leave my home, Calidellian.”

  He did leave, but his heart sank further into the ground with each step away from her that he took. He was not sure if it was guilt or loss, but one of the two crushed Toryn’s heart as he considered taking this man’s child. Removing her from a brothel the last time had been easy to justify, yet the more Toryn thought on the situation, the more he saw a part of himself replicated in the new father. Perhaps he would have reacted in a similar way,

  and he surely would have been just as adamant that money was not the guarantee of a happy childh
ood. He had been so looking forward to raising her again after such a long period without children in his household. Her return had been one of very few comforts after her death, and he had deeply hoped that it would give his wife something to think about other than Talia.

  Toryn resolved to stay in the sodden, unseasonably wet and yellow Sunidaran town for a few more weeks to watch over this new father. When he was sure, he would make his final

  decision on what was best for her, but he feared he already knew what his judgement would be and that it would not be an easy one to come to terms with. Taking up his swords, Toryn strode toward the nearest inn. He would have some very difficult answers to prepare for the soldiers who awaited him there, and there was not much time to work on them.