Lifebringer (Pharim War Book 6)

by Gama Ray Martinez

  Lifebringer

  Pharim War Book 6

  GAMA RAY MARTINEZ

  Lifebringeris a work of fiction. All incidents and dialog, and all characters are products of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Cover illustration and design by Christian Bentulan, https://coversbychristian.wordpress.com/

  Copyright © 2017 Gamaliel Martinez

  All rights reserved.

  Contents

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  CHAPTER 34

  CHAPTER 35

  CHAPTER 36

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CHAPTER 1

  Jez stood side by side with the boy whose father he had killed. The basement felt like it should be cold and dank, but the brazier in the center kept the wide room warm, and the high sloped ceiling made it so only the faintest smell of smoke mingled with the musty scent of old earth. Lina stood on Jez’s other side. She had offered to craft a working to light the basement, but for fear of setting off some old trap, they had gone with the more mundane light of a fire.

  Kilos stared at the three glowing runes on the wall for several seconds without answering. For the thousandth time, Jez wondered how he could apologize, not that Kilos blamed him. No one did. Sharim had been on the verge of claiming the power of the Carceri Academy and the Library of Zandra. If he had succeeded, he would have plunged the world into a darkness from which it might have never recovered. Jez had stopped him, but in a last act of vengeance, the human demon had caused Mount Carcer to explode. The high lords of the pharim had saved most of the people, but not all. A small group had been evacuated when Sharim’s forces had claimed the city of Tarcai. They had still been at the base of the mountain when it had exploded. One of those had been Kilos’s father, Lufka, the innkeeper of the Quarter Horse, which Jez and his friends had frequented. Kilos had never mentioned it, but Jez couldn’t shake the weight of the guilt.

  “What do those do?” Lina asked.

  Kilos ran his fingers along the edge of the center one. Lina had uncovered them by taking down the illusions that had been hiding them. Jez recognized their form as that of summoning circles, but he lacked the experience in the dominion of knowledge to understand what the myriad of details inscribed in each circle meant. Kilos, who had switched his focus from protection to knowledge the year before, had remained behind when the other mages had been dispatched to help guard the borders of Korand. Together, they had slowly begun uncovering some of the secrets Dusan had left behind.

  “It’s crafted to interact with the power naturally flowing beneath the manor,” Kilos said. “This one is specifically to summon volins.” He pointed to the one on the left. “Chezamuts, and the last is for sharieks.”

  Jez let out a breath and scanned the empty basement laboratory. Most of the items had been removed years ago, and now, a thick layer of dust covered the room, broken only by their footprints crisscrossing the area. Dusan, the evil mage who had previously inhabited the manor, had left many workings in place after his death. Some had waned over the years, but others had endured, and Kilos seemed to have a knack for working with Dusan’s discarded magic.

  “What else did Dusan leave?” Jez asked under his breath. “Thanks, Kilos.” He eyed the golden sash Kilos wore to indicate the knowledge mage’s new rank as an adjutant of the Carceri Academy, a rank recently granted to Jez and Lina as well. “That suits you.”

  Kilos stiffened and lowered his head. “Thank you. I just wish my father had been alive to see this.”

  There was no accusation in his voice, but that didn’t stop the lump from forming in Jez’s throat.

  “I’m sorry. If I had been faster...”

  Kilos was already shaking his head. “It’s not your fault Sharim blew up the mountain. I’m glad you stopped him.”

  The unshed tears in his eyes gave heed to the lie. Desperate to change the subject, Jez turned to Lina. “Do you sense anything else?”

  She closed her eyes, and a faint aura of violet light sprang up around her. After a few seconds, she sighed and nodded.

  “There’s something,” she said without opening her eyes. Her fingers danced in the air before her. Abruptly, a line of power became visible to Jez’s protection sense. It ran right through the south wall and seemed to be a mix of protection, knowledge, and destruction magic, all three of the dominions Jez had been trained in. Another line sprang to life on the other side of the room, and a third ran right through the circle to summon volins. That one felt like it was the strongest of all.

  “I don’t suppose you can tell me what any of those do,” Jez said.

  Lina glared at him. “I’m not the one that spent months going through the Library of Zandra.”

  Jez shrugged. “I studied protection, not...” he waved his hand at the nearest band of power. It almost seemed to vibrate in response to the movement. “Whatever that is. Kilos?”

  The knowledge mage shook his head. “It looks like it’s a mixture of a bunch of different types of magic. I sense protection, knowledge, and beast, but whatever it’s supposed to do is beyond my ability.”

  “Lina?” Jez asked.

  She nodded. “Shadows and secrets. I sense a little healing too, but I don’t have much more ability there than you have with destruction. That’s there too, isn’t it?”

  Jez nodded, and Kilos met his eyes. “All seven. Dusan really was a genius, wasn’t he?”

  “He summoned a demon lord,” Jez said, “and he clothed another in human flesh. That’s not something a genius would do.”

  “I know, but...” Kilos waved his hands at the working. “I’m not sure I can disarm this. It’s too strong, but I can try.”

  Jez considered for a second. There was so much energy trapped in that working that it almost felt like it burned. Jez shook his head.

  “Not until we know what it does. Last time I tried to disarm a working I found, it set off a trap Sharim had woven into the working itself. Dusan could probably do the same thing. We should leave the circles alone too, just in case.”

  “So, your plan is to leave them here for another few weeks until the masters return?” Lina asked.

  Jez shrugged. “They’ve been here at least three years, and they haven’t done anything. I don’t think another few weeks will make a difference.”

  Lina sighed. “There are no more illusions as far as I can tell, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Do you sense anything?”

  Normally, Jez could detect magic that touched on demons or the abyss. He took a deep breath and shook his head. “Ever since the high lords got here, I haven’t been able to smell demonic energy. Their presence overpowers it.”

  “Then, what made you think to look down here in the first place?” Lina asked.

  Jez felt his face heat up, and h
e cleared his throat. “Actually, I didn’t expect to find anything.”

  “What?” Lina asked. “Then, why are we here?”

  He shrugged, feeling a little embarrassed. “Look, if I had to hear King Haziel give another speech about how hard it was going to be to fund the army without the revenue from Hiranta’s gem mines, I would’ve gone insane.” He glanced at Kilos. “Besides, he kept talking about the eruption of Mount Carcer like it was just another inconvenience. I thought we could both use a place to hide.”

  Kilos gave a weak smile. “Thanks.”

  Before Jez had a chance to respond, the door at the top of the stairs swung open, and firelight streamed in. Jez sighed.

  “I guess reality found us.”

  To his surprise, it was Osmund that came barreling down the stairs, sporting a gold sash of his own. He had to duck to avoid banging his head on the ceiling. His eyes glowed faintly orange, and the air around him shimmered with heat. Jez held himself on the verge of summoning his crystal sword.

  “What is it? What happened?”

  “It’s Welb and Galine,” Osmund said.

  “They’re here?”

  Jez had heard rumors that the beast men of Aniel’s valley were on their way, but he hadn’t expected them to arrive so soon. They could be powerful allies, a thing they desperately needed if they were going to stand against Sharim.

  Osmund spoke through clenched teeth. “Haziel ordered them taken prisoner.”

  CHAPTER 2

  In some way Jez didn’t entirely understand, the magic of Korand was bound to him. He had only been able to draw upon it a handful of times, but it now burned within him in full measure, seemingly fueled by his anger. The building shook with every step, and by the time he reached the chambers he’d given to the king and queen, his footsteps left cracks in the ground. The king’s guards stiffened when they saw Jez approaching. One started to stand in his way, but the second put a hand on his companion’s shoulder and shook his head. They had been given their instruction, and Jez had unrestricted access to the king, not that they could have stopped him.

  Jez stormed into the room and stopped. The sunlight streaming through the wide window illuminated the area, and the lanterns hung unlit from the walls. A door on the opposite side of the chamber led to the sleeping quarters, though it was from this room that the military campaign was being planned. Several cushioned chairs had been arranged around a long table, though most were unoccupied. The king and queen looked up from the map they’d been examining.

  King Haziel had aged in the past couple of years. His hair had gone silver, and the single golden band of the crown of Ashtar sat heavily on his head. He had more than a few wrinkles, though he still had the broad-shouldered build of a soldier, and he hadn’t lost his piercing gaze. Villia, the afur who pretended to be mortal, sat on his left, her tanned skin contrasting the pale-skinned monarchs. She blanched at him. A former Veilspeaker, she had a mastery over illusions that dwarfed most humans, but that wouldn’t do her much good here, when he was prepared for them.

  On the other side of the king, Istar, known throughout the kingdom as the queen of swords, had raven black hair and gray eyes that seemed to see everything. A scar ran from the left side of her lip to her chin, the result of a battle she had endured when she was still only the third daughter of the Baron of Nakior. She had been in battles since she had become queen, but she’d never again been wounded, or so the stories said. Rather than the silver crown that was her due, the queen wore only a single decoration on her plain violet dress, a diving eagle token on the right side of her chest, marking her as the supreme commander of the forces of Ashtar.

  “Baron Jezreel.” Istar’s eyes wandered to Osmund, Lina, and Kilos behind him, and she showed just the hint of a scowl. “So good of you and your entourage to join us, considering much of this situation is your fault.”

  “Why have you arrested Galine and the beast men?” Jez asked.

  “Arrested?” the king asked. “They haven’t been arrested.”

  Osmond snorted. “You sent your soldiers to surround them, and you won’t allow them to leave their camp. Even their leader has been denied access to the city.”

  The king glared at Osmund but didn’t even bother to stand. “I am still your king. You will speak to me with respect, or I will have you punished.”

  Osmund rolled his eyes. “Are you going to throw me in the dungeon?” He smirked. “Again?”

  Haziel’s face reddened, but before he could answer, the queen put her hand on his shoulder. She looked at Jez with a calm expression, but it wasn’t that of someone who had gone unaffected by what had been said. No, she wore the face of a soldier about to go into battle. She spoke as if she were addressing a child.

  “What we did to the beast men was for their own protection. Be thankful this happened now when we had soldiers to spare to guard them and not last week, when half our army was down with the flu. Can you imagine the chaos if they were allowed into town? Half man and half animal? The people would think they were demons.”

  Jez spoke through clenched teeth. “They are our allies.”

  The king gave him a placating smile that made Jez’s blood boil. “Jezreel, for all you’ve accomplished, you’re still not much more than a child. You’ve spent most of your recent years learning how to fight demons, not how to lead men. You’ve little experience with diplomacy and politics. We appreciate your input, but you’re going to have to trust that we know what’s best in this situation.”

  “They are people.” Osmund took a step forward. “You can’t treat them like this.”

  Haziel narrowed his eyes. “You know even less than he does.”

  “And how much do you know, King of Ashtar, about the battling of demons?”

  The voice came from everywhere at once. Almost faster than Jez’s eyes could track, Istar rose with sword in hand. Osmund shrouded his hand in fire, and protective energy welled up within Kilos. Lina held her hands before her, though she didn’t summon her power. Jez held himself on the verge of transformation. Villia put a hand on the king’s shoulder, no doubt prepared to hide him and his wife with an illusion should it become necessary.

  The air in the center of the room shimmered, and a man with pitch black hair and dark brown skin appeared, as if from behind a working of invisibility. He had purple eyes and violet robes that seemed as much shadow as cloth, though Jez wasn’t sure they were actually either. The blood drained from Villia’s face, and she backed up until she was against a wall. Doubtless she would’ve tried to hide, if such a thing would’ve done any good against Daziel, high lord of the pharim and master of the Veilspeakers.

  “Lord Daziel.” Villia’s words tumbled over each other.

  The king and queen exchanged glances and then fell to one knee. The high lords had been in the manor for months, though they had rarely revealed themselves. Jez wondered what could have drawn this one out now. Daziel, for his part, just stared at Haziel and Istar. After a second, Jez let out a breath.

  “Get up,” he said. “The high lords don’t want anyone to bow to them.”

  “You do not know such a simple thing,” Daziel said, “yet you propose to lead men against forces you cannot possibly understand. You are on the verge of turning powerful allies against you simply because you fear how they look. A king, more than any other, should know not to judge things by outer appearance.”

  Haziel was sweating. He nodded so hard Jez half expected his head to roll off of his neck. “Of course, Lord Daziel. Of course. I will send the order to release them at once. I will have their leader escorted to speak to me, if that is what you desire.”

  Daziel gave him a level look. “What I desire is irrelevant. What I wish to know is what you will do when the time for the next decision comes,” he waved at Jezreel, “when one who has fought such creatures for years gives you advice that you find distasteful?”

  “I...” He looked at the queen, but she seemed just as dumbfounded as he was. “I will listen to
him?” Daziel stared at him, and the king swallowed. “I will put him in charge. His authority will be second only to mine and the queen’s.” Daziel cleared his throat, a motion that was purely for show since pharim didn’t actually breathe. Jez tried to hide a grin, but even if he’d smiled openly, he doubted the king would have noticed. Haziel’s attention was locked on the pharim lord. “His authority will be greater than ours in all matters dealing with this demon lord.”

  Daziel gave a half smile but didn’t respond. Once again, the king and queen exchanged glances. Haziel stammered something, though his words were so jumbled Jez couldn't tell what it was. Then, Haziel and Istar scampered out. For a second, Jez just stared at the pharim lord of shadows.

  “Isn’t that interfering?”

  Daziel shrugged. “Not quite. We cannot interfere with mortal affairs unless mortals interfere in ours; however, the rule of kingdoms is one of my affairs, and I am allowed greater freedom with such matters.” He glanced at the door through which the monarchs had left. “I am never far from them. To answer your question, it would normally be considered interfering with Sharim, but he surrendered the right to that protection when he bound us to this world, so I am free to do as I wish in regards to him. Now, shall we go see to your beast men allies?”

  CHAPTER 3

  Aphlel, pharim lord of healing, waited outside the room. As soon as Jez and his friends left the king’s chambers, the orange-robed pharim fell into step beside them.

  “May I walk with you?”

  The healer had a kindly voice, one that Jez instinctively wanted to appease, though there was no magic to his words. Jez was nodding before the strangeness of the request struck him. To have two high lords of the pharim approach him within a few minutes of each other was beyond suspicious. He eyed the lord of healing as they walked out of the manor.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Aphlel looked around. The sun shone brightly from a clear sky, and the wind carried the faint sound of waves crashing against the shore. They were still on the manor grounds, so no one was nearby aside from a few guards. Still, through the bars of the iron gate, Jez could see the city of Randak bustling with afternoon activity.