The Godswar Saga (Omnibus)

by Jennifer Vale

  “He is important to our long-term plans,” Krystia said coolly. “You know this.”

  Ethan paused and measured her for a moment. It had always been a habit of his; he intentionally prodded everyone’s weakest spots in order to see how they reacted.

  “Possessing another watchmen and getting them to authorize an ambush won’t be easy,” he said finally. “Crell security and paranoia continue to increase.”

  “You’ll manage. I’ll leave the details to you, but you won’t have much time to organize.”

  “How do you think your general will respond to the news?”

  She shrugged. “Darius will be angry, of course, but he’ll take it as a sign he’s doing the right thing.”

  Ethan didn’t respond, but Krystia knew what he thought. He and Darius were two men very much alike in many ways, one a younger reflection of the other. Darius wanted to destroy the Crell mostly because of his intense nationalism, but also because he thought them a legitimate evil in the world. Not so long ago, Ethan had started a war for the same reasons. She just hoped this one would end better.

  “The deception will need to be perfect,” Ethan said.

  “Use your discretion,” she replied. “But I expect to be kept apprised. In the meantime, you were supposed to bring me more information on the Asylum.”

  He rolled his eyes. “I assume you’ve managed to sell yourself to the dim-witted headmaster?”

  “Well enough. I’m planning on visiting in a few days.”

  He reached into his cloak and pulled out a scroll case. “That’s everything I have. You’ll have to get the rest on your own.”

  She smiled and took the case. He had managed to set up a contact between her and the Unbound Asylum’s Headmaster, a lonely old man who thought Krystia was a young, rich woman interested in helping the establishment—and she might have suggested a touch of romantic interest as well. She didn’t particularly like lying to an old fool, but this opportunity was too important to pass up. If she could get into the Academy, she could get all the information she could want about its students and wardens. One man’s broken heart was a small price to pay.

  Ethan and Darius had their reasons for hating the Crell, and she had plenty of her own. But in a perverse way, the Imperium was actually kinder to its Unbound than the Alliance. The Sovereigns trained their Unbound as elite soldiers or spies…though not always willingly. She had heard rumors of the Sovereigns’ perverse mind-wiping techniques which twisted all of their servants, Bound and Unbound alike, into virtual slaves.

  Still, the point was that Unbound across Torsia needed help, and she was in a unique position to provide it. For her, the war with the Crell was merely a means to an end—namely, the liberation of her people from the yoke of the Ascendants.

  “I can handle that part,” she told him.

  “I’m sure you will.” Ethan paused a moment. “I really do hope you appreciate the type of risk this is, Krystia. If they do snuff us out, this will all backfire horribly. There’s no way the Council will endorse the resistance then—the Crell will even gain support from the population at-large for fighting off their own little Serogar.”

  “You know the paladins’ capabilities as well as anyone, General,” she pointed out. “You should be able to predict their response.”

  The darkness in his hood faded for a moment, and she could see his hollow blue eyes. “I know how Tevek thinks, but I’m not foolish enough to underestimate him. Many people have made that mistake.”

  “You won’t,” she assured him. “Even if something does go wrong, there are ways to minimize the damage. Plus, the success or failure of the attack isn’t really important—the act itself is what will pull the heartstrings of the Council.” She leaned an arm back on the bed and smiled. “Besides, if you can’t pull off one little ambush, then you don’t have much chance against an entire empire.”

  “It’s the small things that often present the biggest challenge.” The shift in his emotions was subtle, but she could feel him put his mental armor back on. “I’ll make arrangements and leave you to get dressed, if you are even going to bother. Iouna’s meeting probably won’t last all day.”

  “You’re welcome to wait on the other side of the door in case he comes back. I’ll try to make some extra noise for you.”

  He wordlessly left the room, and the passage closed behind him. She waited for a minute before standing and getting dressed. If there was one universal truth about Ethan Moore, it was that he knew how to test people. Years ago, he had been able to break her down and manipulate her at his whim, but now their positions were reversed. He still thought she was a frivolous child who couldn’t comprehend politics, war, or much of anything else, but he knew that he needed her to get what he wanted—and that she in turn needed him. For now.

  Krystia smiled to herself. At this point, their relationship was far from even, and it burned him each and every time they met. If his attack did indeed backfire, she could cut him loose easily enough. His resistance would die and she would lose a great opportunity, but there would be others. For him, however, she was his one and only chance at revenge.

  Ethan had approached her six months ago with his plan, and initially she had been tempted to just throw him in prison. It wasn’t often that a supposedly deceased man came to your door and spoke treason. And that’s exactly what he was proposing: he wanted her, a young woman with no political experience, to become the queen of the Solarian Alliance.

  At first, she thought he was simply insane. One did not simply become the head of state and religion in the Alliance with a few political favors. The king was selected by the Council during a Rite of Ascension, and she wasn’t even on the list of possible successors. But of course, he hadn’t been suggesting she ascend through conventional means.

  He wanted her to murder King Areekan in cold blood and steal his power directly.

  The plan was both laughable and reprehensible all at once, and it had taken her weeks to treat the idea as anything besides the fevered ramblings of a bitter old man. But eventually she came to realize it wasn’t quite as ludicrous as it first sounded. Ethan knew she was Unbound from the siege of Isen thirteen years ago, and he also knew that sooner or later Crell and Solaria would inevitably fight a third war. During this time, the king would be vulnerable. Ascendants influenced thousands of people on a daily basis, but there was a difference between the day-to-day use of their power and the intensity of battle. Areekan would be so withdrawn in his own mind that he could easily be defeated, and in turn she could claim the spirit of Sol as her own. With that power she could create her own Bound servants and legitimately be queen…

  That was the simplified version, of course. Aside from the logistical problems of assaulting a man with a personal army defending him at all times, there was also the fact that she would have to commit murder. Killing was the antithesis of her life as a priestess, and even during her time on the front lines at Serogar she hadn’t been forced to harm anyone. She was a healer, not a killer, and despite Areekan’s bigoted policies towards the Unbound, he didn’t deserve death. He was a good and noble man.

  Still, Ethan had yet to let go of his master plan, and he stayed close to her now in the hopes she would come around. Krystia valued the efforts of his resistance against the Crell, and of course she also wanted access to the Academy. He was helping her greatly, and right now she wasn’t really giving him much in return. But ultimately, he knew she was his only hope. He was an ailing man whose body was withering from the drain of his demonic rituals, and he knew that once she was queen, she could restore his lost channeling ability. He could give up his demons and lead his rebellion with real power.

  Ethan was nothing if not resolved, and at times she found herself pitying him. He had lost everything he cared about, and revenge was the only thing that sustained him. But it also made him dangerous, and she couldn’t afford to forget it. Not now, not ever.

  Shaking her head, Krystia finished slipping on her shoes. For now
, she just wanted to focus on learning what she could about this Asylum and the other Unbound within it. Perhaps they could teach her new things. Perhaps she could even lessen their plight somehow. Or perhaps seeing their misery would just convince her to go along with Ethan’s plan.

  With that dark thought burning in her mind, she sat down and began to read.

  Chapter Five

  “If there is a suffering to be endured, the vaeyn have wrought it. If there is a decadence to embrace, the vaeyn have lived it. If there is an evil yet undone, the vaeyn shall commit it. They are the children of demons and men, and we shall purge their darkness from the world.”

  —Anos Kecen, King of Tauros, 1324 AG, shortly before his defeat

  “I hope you’re not planning on going yourself.”

  Tevek Dracian, Highlord of the Last Dawn, smiled at his old friend. “I think you know the answer to that.”

  “I do,” Sir Gabriel Alric murmured. “That’s what scares me.”

  “Celenest is probably the safest place in all of Torsia, and I haven’t visited in far too long.”

  “It’s not the city that worries me,” Gabriel replied, leaning back and sighing. “It’s the certainty that Areekan will implore you to stamp out another brush fire somewhere—and that you’ll agree without thinking twice about it.”

  Tevek chuckled. The two men sat across from each other in his chambers, a large and elaborate room filled with decorations from around the globe. He had visited nearly every country on the face of Obsidian in his fifty-three years, and to this day he enjoyed collecting bits of art and local culture. Many of the other senior knights filled their own chambers with reminders of conquest, from the husks of fallen beasts to the weapons and armor of defeated foes. Tevek had done the same in his youth, but over time his taste for grisly trophies had faded. Today he found it more important to remember the good in the people he saved rather than the evil of those he had vanquished.

  The man across the table from him held a more traditional view. Gabriel’s chambers were filled with coats-of-arms and blades from previous generations of knights, all the way back nearly two-thousand years to the original followers of Maeleon, the Dawn’s Immortal patron. Tevek had always admired the display, and he certainly appreciated the sacrifices of the men and women who had come before him…but he preferred to focus on the present

  And most importantly, the many people who still needed them now.

  “His Majesty didn’t officially suggest there was a follow-up,” Tevek said after a moment. “It’s possible he simply wishes to catch up on old times.”

  Gabriel tilted his head. “You know Areekan better than that. He’ll want you to fetch something—he just wants to throw the bone in person.”

  Tevek frowned. Gabriel was his age; both men had joined the Dawn together over three decades earlier. They had fought on battlefields across the globe, from the streets of massive cities to the endless gray dirt of the Wastes outside their door. Gabriel was the best friend Tevek had ever had…and yet sometimes the two men were as opposite as dusk and dawn.

  The differences started with their appearance. Tevek was a massive, barrel-chested man standing almost six-and-a-half feet tall and weighing over two-hundred fifty pounds. His dark brown skin and eyes were common in his homeland of Tauros, the powerful mercantile nation on the eastern shores of Calhara. His hair and neatly-trimmed beard were liberally sprinkled with gray, and within a few years they would probably be completely white.

  Gabriel, by contrast, was quite literally a man from a different side of the world. A native Galvian, he stood just under six feet tall with a lean musculature that had once supported a proud endurance runner and climber. His hair was blond, though it had recently started to turn white, and his dark, piercing gaze had become legendary here in the Dawn Citadel as “the eyes of judgment” among the younger knights and squires.

  Their less superficial differences had grown far more pronounced over the years. Gabriel had been happy for his friend when Tevek had assumed the mantle of Highlord fifteen years ago, but it was no secret he had long coveted the position himself. During the last decade especially, Tevek had been more receptive to the pleas of national leaders, sending his knights to help them deal with domestic problems. It was part of a much more active agenda than the Last Dawn had pursued in generations, and one he believed was integral to preventing full-scale wars like the one that had nearly consumed Torsia not so long ago. Gabriel believed they risked becoming little more than government mercenaries, which, he argued, was not their purpose. The knights existed to protect the innocent and defenseless, to root out lies and injustice, and, first and foremost, to serve the needs of the good people of Obsidian. Tevek sympathized, but he also wasn’t willing to turn his back on old friends in need. And in his time traveling the world, he was proud to say he had made many.

  “I didn’t mean that to sound so…insulting,” Gabriel added when Tevek went silent for a long moment. “I just dislike them treating us as a disposable resource.”

  “Indispensable, not disposable,” Tevek corrected. “Areekan knows we can accomplish many things his people cannot. He’s also an old friend.”

  Gabriel’s lip twisted. “I know that. But given what we’re hearing from the Solarian border, I have a sneaking suspicion he’s going to want you to head into Crell.”

  “Maybe. I’m more inclined to think it has something to do with the Galvian rebels, given what we’ve heard about their recent successes. Either way, I need to hear him out, and I need to do it personally. You know how insular he’s become these last few years. I don’t think anyone besides his Voice has even seen him in months.”

  “You think the Crell smell blood?”

  “I think both sides do,” Tevek said gravely. “That’s what scares me.”

  Gabriel stood and paced a lap around the room, stopping before a Borden tapestry on the east wall. “We’re not ready for another war.”

  “If only war waited for everyone to be prepared,” Tevek murmured. “We both know it’s coming, though. If not now, soon.”

  Gabriel nodded idly. “If you go, you should take two knights with you. And maybe a squire for some field experience.”

  “Elade will be enough.”

  The man’s face instantly hardened. It was the final lingering issue between them, and perhaps the most divisive. “Are you certain that’s wise?”

  “‘Certainty is for fools scared of being wrong,’” he said, quoting the old adage. “Besides, she has a few of her own friends in the city after Serogar. It won’t be as bad as you think.”

  Gabriel didn’t look convinced in the slightest, but he remained silent. He had opposed Elade’s entry into the Dawn four years ago, believing a vaeyn had no place in their organization. He had opposed her official knighting after Serogar for the same reason. The Knight’s Conclave had barely accepted her, and now, with its membership having become increasingly conservative over the past few years, Tevek wasn’t sure he could get majority approval on anything even with his tie-breaking vote.

  One of the most frustrating aspects of the situation, however, was that the Conclave’s obstinacy wasn’t entirely their fault. For all her impressive qualities, Elade had a willful streak that got her in trouble all too often. Paladins were supposed to follow their conscience, but like any military-style organization, the knights had a chain of command. When a Knight of the Conclave gave an order, he or she expected it to be obeyed. Elade followed the orders she believed in when given by individuals she respected. If either was in question, she bucked against authority. Tevek appreciated her conviction. Gabriel and most of the others did not.

  “You remember the battle against those warlocks near Mavarinth a few years ago?” Gabriel asked into the pause.

  Tevek nodded. “Of course.”

  “When we returned to the Citadel afterwards, my wife told me something I’ll never forget. She said there’s going to have to be a time when I’m willing to let other men take the risks for
me, because my body will be a liability.”

  “I can see where this is going,” Tevek said with a grunt.

  “We’re fifty-three, old friend,” Gabriel said. “At some point you’re going to have to let go.”

  “Fifty-three is hardly senile. Avilar is almost seventy-five!”

  “Avilar sits comfortably in his chair in the Conclave and doesn’t gallivant around the world.” Gabriel winced noticeably. “My wife thought I was slowing down when I hit forty.”

  “Perhaps she wasn’t referring to your sword-arm,” Tevek said with a smirk.

  Gabriel returned the smile. “Perhaps not. But you know what I mean. You’re going to have to let others take the risks one day—and sooner than you’d like.”

  Tevek stood and clasped his old friend on the back. “I know, old friend—but not today. I need to go talk to Elade.”

  Gabriel grunted. “Maybe that’s your secret. If you spend enough time hanging around century-old women, you’ll feel reinvigorated.”

  Chuckling, Tevek slipped out into the hall.

  ***

  The swirl of crimson clouds, pierced by the last beams of the day’s sun, were like the center of a giant disembodied eye glaring down at the nothingness that was the God’s Wastes. It was a fitting optical illusion, Elade Devarath mused, for Calhara had seen more war and torment than any continent in Obsidian. Two millennia ago, it had hosted the final battle in the war that almost shattered the world, sundering the mighty Immortals to dust and showering their divine power upon unsuspecting mortals. The struggle led to the age of the mortal god kings, men and women blessed with the power to bind others to their will and forge vast empires with their network of servants.

  This particular spot also marked the first victory for the Knights of the Last Dawn. Here they had first fought and destroyed Krosis, the Immortal Lord of the Void. Shortly afterwards, this mighty fortress, the Dawn Citadel, had been erected as a lasting monument to the Immortal Maeleon and his loyal paladins that guarded the world against evil.