The Second God

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by Pauline M. Ross




  THE SECOND GOD

  A sequel to

  The Fire Mages

  and

  The Fire Mages’ Daughter

  An epic fantasy

  Part of the Brightmoon Annals

  by Pauline M Ross

  Published by Sutors Publishing

  Copyright © 2016 Pauline M Ross

  ISBN:

  978-0-9928819-7-9 (paperback)

  All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction.

  Cover design: Streetlight Graphics

  Proofreading: Coinlea Services

  Map © Pauline M Ross 2016

  Design by Write.Dream.Repeat Book Design

  Map elements by Ignacio Portilla M.

  In The Fire Mages, Kyra discovered her unusual ability, but it led to confrontation with the rulers of Bennamore. In The Fire Mages’ Daughter, Drina learned about her own unique power over magic, and devised a novel way to subdue the neighbouring Blood Clans’ living god. The story continues in The Second God…

  It’s been five years since war with the fearsome Blood Clans, whose giant bonded beasts almost destroyed Bennamore. Now the tenuous peace is being put to the test. Drina’s prisoner-husband and Blood Clan god, Ly-haam, attends a magical challenge to assert his authority over his people, who think him weak. But then the unthinkable happens – a second living god emerges. Is it a sign that the gods are displeased with Ly-haam, and have sent another leader to supplant him?

  Left behind in Bennamore, Drina’s lover, Arran, is vulnerable to flattery from the ambitious fringes of the ruler’s court, but his weakness could endanger many lives. Meanwhile, on the southern Plains of Kallanash, a new force is arising from the chaos of the Karningplain – a vast golden army, raised in ferocious discipline, and fanatical followers of another kind of god, who is determined to spread his power into an empire, and will let nothing stand in his way.

  To combat the threat to Bennamore and its allies, Drina, Arran and Ly-haam must set aside their personal differences and combine their talents in a uniquely dangerous way, which will test their heroism to its limits. How much will they have to sacrifice to save their country?

  Books published so far in the Brightmoon Annals:

  1: The Plains of Kallanash

  2: The Fire Mages (The Fire Mages Trilogy Book 1)

  3: The Mages of Bennamore

  4: The Magic Mines of Asharim

  5: The Fire Mages’ Daughter (The Fire Mages Trilogy Book 2)

  6: The Dragon’s Egg

  7: The Second God (The Fire Mages Trilogy Book 3)

  Forthcoming books:

  8: Findo Gask’s Apprentice

  9: The Dragon Caller

  10: The Return of the Mages

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  Table of Contents

  The Story So Far…

  Map

  1: Request

  2: Petition

  3: Greenstone Ford

  4: Healing

  5: Magic

  6: Family

  7: Assassin

  8: Lakeside

  9: Challenge

  10: The Second God

  11: Brothers Of The Heart

  12: Blood-Bond

  13: Forest

  14: The Nameless Hills

  15: The Bonding Camp

  16: The Feast

  17: The Black Eagle

  18: The Clan Village

  19: The Castle

  20: Sho-heest

  21: The Cottage

  22: An Oath

  23: Return To Kingswell

  24: An Offer

  25: The Summoning

  26: The Watch Camp

  27: The Dragon God

  28: The Gates

  29: Terms

  30: Hostage

  31: Inside

  32: Hiding

  33: Children

  34: The Scribery

  35: The Lion Guard

  36: Preparations

  37: A Little Chat

  38: The Wild Hunting Clan

  39: The High Commander

  40: Dellonar

  41: Dragon Mountain

  42: Siege

  43: Battle

  44: Aftermath

  Thanks for reading!

  About the Brightmoon Annals

  About the author

  Acknowledgements

  The Story So Far…

  The Fire Mages:

  Kyra was just a village girl, but she’d always been fascinated by magic and she had big ambitions: to become a law scribe, authorised to write spell magic. She turned down a lucrative position as drusse to a minor ruler to travel to the nearest town to train as a scribe. After two years of struggling to pay her way, she was the best scribe in her year and had found a powerful mentor – the volatile mage Cal. He wasn’t very likable, but as one of those able to work spell magic with thought alone, he could teach her so much.

  But then disaster struck. A fake spell written to give her sister some peace of mind turned out to have worked all too well, and Kyra was accused of the illegal use of magic. Unwilling to lie, she accepted her punishment – she was allowed to remain a scribe, but her authority to write spells was revoked. Her career was ruined.

  Kyra now knew she had an unusual power, which made spells more effective, and she was not alone – Drei, the little-regarded son of a local ruler, also had a mysterious power, including the ability to make fire. Kyra accepted his offer to become his drusse and travel to Bennamore’s capital, Kingswell, to try to find out more about their powers. But they had to be careful not to attract attention, since the unregulated use of magic could see them both executed.

  As Drei became more involved in high politics and began courting the daughter of Bennamore’s ruler, Kyra was left to her own devices. When Cal came to Kingswell, she turned to him for comfort. But then she found she was pregnant – Drei had switched her contraceptive herbs for less effective ones. As part of his plan to marry into the ruling family, he needed a child. Kyra refused to extend her drusse contract with him, and he kidnapped her to force her to sign. Kyra used spell power to escape, and made a deal – she would give Drei the child if she could resume her law scribe studies.

  Her use of spellpages during her escape caused her to be accused once more of the illegal use of magic, and she was arrested, but fled to the ancient and dangerous Imperial City where her magic protected her. She convinced the ruler that she could be useful to him and he allowed her to become a fire mage.

  On a visit to her home, Kyra discovered another wild mage with similar power to her own, but when she brought him to Kingswell, Drei killed him. Drei was now dangerously ambitious. Having taken control of the army, he stirred up a conflict against the Port Holdings, Bennamore’s allies, who quickly surrendered. Drei married the ruler’s daughter, but he began to suspect Kyra of involvement with Cal. Unreasonably jealous, he tried to kill them both, and Kyra’s unborn child, but Cal and Kyra prevailed and Drei was killed. Kyra’s daughter was born safely.

  The Fire Mages’ Daughter:

  Kyra’s daughter Drina had never been well. Bathed in excessive magic even before she was born, she was addicted to magic, drawing it into her to keep herself well. Because she was also the daughter of the disgraced fire mage Drei, his wife Yannassia, now the ruler of all Bennamore, was her legal custodian and summoned Drina to the capital, Kingswell, to see if she might be a suitable heir. Drina tried every trick she could think of to persuade Yannassia that she was unsuited to be heir, so that she would be sent home, but nothing worked. Since the magic all around Kingswell kept her healthy, she agreed to stay on and try to be a mage. But again she failed – she could never use magic, since her unique need for it drained it from her spells. Even the s
eduction of her old childhood friend, Lathran, failed to change Yannassia’s mind.

  Drina was sent on a diplomatic mission to Bennamore’s mysterious neighbours, the Blood Clans, to meet their recently discovered living god, Ly-haam. But things went disastrously wrong when Ly-haam’s blood magic was irresistibly drawn to Drina’s need for magic, resulting in a traumatic coupling. Ly-haam’s seed mingled with Drina’s blood gave her a degree of the clanfolk’s ability to bond mentally with beasts – the minds of rats, bears and eagles were open to her, and she learned to fly an eagle. A visit to the magic-drenched Imperial City strengthened her awareness of magic in others – both natural or contained in vessels – and she learned to extract magic whenever she wanted an extra burst of energy.

  In return for agreeing to be trained as a possible heir, Drina negotiated a deal with Yannassia – a drusse of her own, her former bodyguard, Arran. He’d been sent away from Kingswell in disgrace, losing his place in the elite corps of the army, but he was happy to return and accept a drusse contract as Drina’s lover. But then she discovered that Arran had married and fathered a child while he was away, keeping it secret from her. She sent him away, although she was miserable and lonely without him.

  Since Drina’s diplomatic overtures towards the Blood Clans were unsuccessful, her older half-sister, Zandara, began a war against them in order to harvest the valuable bark from the strange black-bark forests, which grow only on clan land. At first the war went well, but then Ly-haam struck back by kidnapping Drina. Again the force of their opposing magic overwhelmed them, and drew Ly-haam to rape Drina. Horrified, he took her to his island to recover and rest, offering to leave before his magic regrew.

  Drina managed to escape on the eagle, reaching the Bennamore army’s forward camp and safety. At Kingswell, she was reunited with Arran, forgiving him his mistakes because she loved him. With a lull in the war, northern neighbours the Icthari proposed a marriage alliance through Drina. But her ability to understand other languages revealed the truth: a plot to kill all three children of the disgraced fire mage, Drei, that is, Drina, Zandara and Axandor, because of Drei’s Icthari heritage.

  Yannassia sent assassins to kill the perpetrators, and it appeared that the plot had been foiled. But then Icthari assassins broke into the Keep at Kingswell, and Drina’s life was only saved by Arran’s bravery. Later, an attempt was made to poison her, but again Arran intervened and an investigation revealed that Drina’s sister Zandara was to blame, driven by jealousy. Yannassia ordered her execution, but she took her own life.

  Drina was now forced to take on the role of War Leader, and shortly afterwards the forward camp was destroyed and Bennamore itself came under attack by the Blood Clans and their mentally-bonded war-beasts, controlled by the magical power of Ly-haam. At first the Bennamorians drove the clan army back, but they soon regrouped and invaded Bennamore, marching all the way to Kingswell. Neither the Bennamorian army nor the power of their mages could withstand the giant lions and other great beasts now besieging the city.

  In desperation, Drina, together with Kyra and Cal, used their combined powers to seek out Ly-haam’s hiding place. Once they were close enough, Drina was able to take all his magic and bring the war to an end. At Ly-haam’s trial, Drina decided not to kill him, but to keep him as her prisoner and husband, so that she could control his power by withdrawing his magic as it regenerated, and that would also assuage her need for constant infusions of magic. Drina, Arran and Ly cautiously began their life together.

  Map

  The Southern Plains of Kallanash:

  A larger version of this map may be seen on the Brightmoon website.

  1: Request

  Ly looked up at me, his hands still working the pastry. “May I ask a favour of you, Drina?” he said, then ducked his head down again. Still diffident, even after five years of marriage. But then he was still my prisoner, officially.

  “You may ask,” I said, as I always did.

  He shot me a shy smile, the amber pendant at his throat shimmering. We were sitting in the kitchen of his suite of rooms within my apartment, me at the high table with a glass of wine, Ly sitting on the floor, one leg folded under him, the other knee bent up. His face was intent, as he concentrated on heaping fruit into the pastry circles and folding them. I loved to watch his slender fingers chopping and mixing and shaping. He was an excellent cook and he still liked to prepare food crouching on the floor like that, in the traditional way of his people. The servants had been horrified, and insisted on providing him with a table. It was only a square of slate with legs just a handspan long, but still sufficiently like a table to satisfy their sensibilities.

  Eventually the tray of pastries was filled and he jumped up and slid it into the oven at the far end of the room. “There!” he said, joining me at the regular table and topping up my wineglass. “We have a little time before we eat.”

  “So ask your favour.”

  “I should like to go to the Challenge this year, if you permit.”

  “The Challenge – that’s when the Blood Clans send candidates try to open the door to the scribery, yes?”

  “It is not a scribery to us, but yes, that is about it. This is the first time since the troubles that all the clans will send candidates to the sacred island.”

  The troubles. A slippery euphemism for a war that nearly destroyed us all, Bennamore and Blood Clans alike. Ly was still steeped in guilt over his part in it, but the truth was, Bennamore had started things, and Ly had only retaliated to keep his people safe. It was not his fault that his magic had taken over and turned a minor squabble into something much worse.

  “What about the Blood Ceremony itself? Don’t you want to go to that, too?” I said.

  “No, no. That is very private. Only the candidates and the Blood Elders attend that. But the Challenge is a celebration, open to anyone. It is important for me to be there, I think, to remind them that I am byan shar. To demonstrate my power.”

  “Which means you need to have your power.”

  “Yes.” He spoke in a low tone, watching me anxiously. “But only if you permit, Drina.”

  I understood him. The war had ended because I had found Ly in his hiding place and taken away the magic that allowed him to control his warriors. Although I wasn’t a mage, and had no magical power of my own, I was unique in having a void inside me, a need for magic, that enabled me to reach out to those with innate power and take their magic from them. I had used it to tame Ly and end the war. For five years I had kept Ly powerless by taking his magic from him every few suns. Now he wanted that magic back again.

  “How long would it take, do you think?” I said. “To build up enough power to open the door, I mean.”

  “A moon is enough. That is how it usually works. There is the Blood Ceremony, and then, a moon later, the Challenge.”

  “And you were able to open the door after one moon?”

  He nodded. “Yes. That is the only way to be acknowledged as byan shar. There is only one Challenge. But every year after I succeeded, I went to the Challenge again to prove myself. After the candidates had all failed, then I opened the door.”

  I took a sip of wine, then set down my glass. “To show that you could. Of course. A demonstration of power, to show that you are the chosen one of the gods. We do something similar, when the army marches through Kingswell with the Drashona at its head – a reminder that she is in charge.”

  He smiled, rather sadly. “A little different, I think. The Drashona’s power is obvious to everyone. Look at the scale of this Keep and her grand apartments, all her elaborate gowns and jewels, the number of servants and guards. But my power is invisible. My people already see me as your slave, kept in subjection. They believe I have abandoned them. It is time to remind them that I am still byan shar.” His smile broadened. “I think it is also time to eat – the fish is ready, and by the time we have finished that, the pastries will be cooked.”

  “Excellent. And tomorrow we will talk to Yanassia
about the Challenge.”

  “Thank you, Drina.”

  ~~~~~

  Those evenings with Ly-haam were a precious treat, something I looked forward to immensely. The first year we were married, I had dealt with him very much as the prisoner he was. Although he shared my apartment, he had his own suite of rooms and was guarded every hour. I was never alone with him. He’d never complained about it, but I knew he wanted more from me, and he was my husband, after all. Eventually, I had gone to his bed, but only occasionally, as an obligation. After all, I already had the man I loved, my drusse, Arran. The law gave Ly-haam greater importance as my husband, but my heart would always belong to Arran.

  But gradually those nights with Ly-haam had turned into something special for me. He usually cooked a meal, something traditional to his people, and I liked those simple dishes of baked fish or tender slow-roasted meat better than the elaborate concoctions at the Drashona’s table. In the bedroom, he’d turned out to be a gentle and thoughtful lover, bringing me an intense kind of pleasure that I’d never experienced before without the added stimulus of magic. Sometimes I wished I could blend my two men into one lover, with Arran’s handsome charm and manly body merged with Ly’s skills in bed.

  That night I fell asleep with Ly curled around my back, one arm round my waist, his face buried in my hair as he murmured in his own language. The words were always the same: “Goodnight, sweet Princess. Thank you for saving me.” I wasn’t a princess at all, but he had always called me that and I’d long since given up trying to change the habit.

  When I woke, he was gone. That was usual, too. He slept less than I did, and he was always up with the first bell. I stretched, rolled over, closed my eyes again. Perhaps I could get another hour’s sleep…

 

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