“Gor!” Amra cried and waved her hands. “Namitus is awake!”
Gor set the post he was carrying into a hole emptied out for it and turned to face them. A grin split his lips as he strode over to join them. “Good to see you on your feet again!”
Namitus clasped his forearm in a friendly greeting and asked, “How are things going?”
“Repairing and rebuilding,” Gor said. “The splisskin lived and toiled here, but they treated the town as a barracks, not a place for craftsmen. Chased the fish away or ate them all from nearby. It will take years to restore them.”
Namitus nodded. “Conquerors have no love for what they conquer; they only want more.”
Gor nodded. “They never learned the value of the mountains and what lies beneath them, though, and with close to a century of untended growth, there is considerable wealth to be harvested.”
“Wealth?”
“Pearls, shellfish, mushrooms, and many other resources. Enough to restart this island and turn it into a place of growth again.”
“You’ll need to guard it well,” Namitus said. “They surrendered the city but did not agree to never try to retake it.”
Gor nodded. “We needed a score of men of battle with no peers and a half-dragon to lead them.”
“A half-dragon our enemies now have working for them,” he reminded the new king.
“Namitus!”
Namitus turned and saw Allie rushing towards him. She slowed and then threw herself onto him and hugged him. She backed away and smiled. “You had us worried.”
“I’m good at that,” he said. “Mostly I do it for the attention.”
Amra frowned and earned a wink from Namitus.
“How’s your father?”
“Better than I have any right to be.”
Namitus turned and saw Gildor walking with the help of a cane. His hair had been cut and his face shaved free. That and water, soap, and a few filling meals made him look like he was human again. “Thanks to you.”
Namitus shook his head. “Don’t thank me—thank your daughter.”
“I meant that potion.”
“Oh. Thank Saint Leander for that.”
“I heard you fell near dead yourself after you gave that to me. That’s not a debt I’ll let go unpaid.”
Namitus glanced around at the men and women working to breathe new life into the city. He nodded to a nearby building. “Can we move inside? The warmth is nice but the light’s hurting my eyes.”
Gor, Allie, and Gildor shared glances and nodded. The small group made their way to the building and moved around the emptied building. Namitus glanced around and nodded before he pulled the mark out of his pocket. He held it up and flipped it around before passing it around.
“That’s the mark of the Order of the Dragon. That’s what that wizard gave me on his way out.”
“Ever vigilant,” Allie whispered. “I heard him.”
Namitus nodded.
“Was that a warning?” she asked.
“I took it as such,” he said. “They’ll be back. If not here, then elsewhere.”
“Everywhere,” Gor said. “You said it yourself: they’ve been building an army, ready to mobilize. Now they have a general. It won’t be long.”
“A general we handed to them,” Allie muttered. “That snake priest said they knew I would help.”
“We’ve played into their hands,” Namitus agreed. “We need to change things up. We’ve been reacting, not acting.”
“What’s that mean? How do we not react?” Allie asked.
Namitus smiled. “I have a friend who was once told that defense was not the thing for him. He was meant to take the offensive. He was the aggressor.”
“We retook Shathas,” Allie argued. “Isn’t that aggressive?”
“Not until after we searched for Lariki,” he said. He shook his head. “What we’ve done isn’t the point; it’s what we need to do.”
“What’s that?” Amra asked.
“I need to get word to the north…to my friends.”
“King Alto?” Allie whispered.
“It’s true, then?” Gildor asked.
Namitus nodded. “It is. They will know what to do and how to do it.”
“But how? That’s weeks away. Months, even,” Allie said.
“I need a wizard,” he said. “The closest one I know I can trust is in Mira.”
“Mira?” Amra asked. “You mean Arcturia?”
He nodded.
“I know the way,” Gildor said. “I’ll take you.”
“Dad! You can barely walk!” Allie hissed.
He chuckled. “Don’t need to walk. You said Brownie’s in Easton. There’s not a man alive who knows the roads and goat paths around these parts better than me.”
Namitus nodded. “Time matters, but I need a day or two to recover. You could use the same, I bet.”
“I’m coming,” Amra said.
Namitus sighed. “Of course you are.”
Allie opened her mouth but Namitus shook his head. “No, you’ll be needed here. Help Gor. We need an ally down here. A strong one. Rebuild this city. The other cities need to see it and understand what is needed to survive the war that’s coming.”
Jillystria handed him back the mark of the Order. He looked at it and let his eyes narrow. The Order had entrenched its members close to every ruling lord in every city. They had to find a way to win the hearts of the rulers without alerting them.
Or did they?
“Why are you grinning?” Amra asked.
Namitus wiped the smile from his face. Perhaps they could use the network of the Order in their favor, after all. “Just thinking of how I can make a story out of this tale. One that twists our enemies against themselves and makes our victory that much more triumphant.”
“This is more than just a fairy tale,” Allie attempted to scold him.
“You’re right,” Namitus agreed. “This will be a war that will change the world.”
###
Afterword by the Author
Rise of the Serpent did not go the way I expected it to. I had plans and a rough outline and even a tie in to the third book in the series. I started writing, sure of where I was going. Then the characters spoke to me and the best laid plans fell apart.
Writing a book is like a battle. Factors beyond my control can change the outcome. Anything beyond what is already written is obscured by the fog of war, making the possibilities endless. Namitus, Allie, Amra, Gor, Corian, and even Jillystria worked together and against each other to conspire against me. The end result is a far superior story than anything I could have imagined.
And did I mention Thork? He had to show up at some point. And as my grandfather always warned me, beware a mystical swamp troll bearing gifts. Or something like that. The point is, there's no telling what mischief that troll is up to. Especially now that the stage is set for a war that could rock the very foundations of the world of Kroth.
Rise of the Serpent is book two in the Serpent’s War trilogy. Thank you very much for reading and enjoying it. As much as I love writing, it takes readers to make it possible for me to do it. Leave a review, send me some email / a tweet / a Facebook like. Don’t miss out on a chance to sign up for my newsletter, visit my blog (http://booksbyjason.wordpress.com), check out my website (http://www.booksbyjason.com), and tell your friends! Let’s make the adventures in the world of Kroth a household thing!
Other books by Jason Halstead
Child of Fate (Blades of Leander, book 1)
Victim of Fate (Blades of Leander, book 2)
Silver Dragon (Blades of Leander, book 3)
Blades of Leander (all 3 books in one)
Isle of the Ape (Order of the Dragon, book 1)
Chasing the Dragon (Order of the Dragon, book 2)
Sands of Betrayal (Order of the Dragon, book 3)
Dragonlady (Order of the Dragon, book 4)
Order of the Dragon (all 4 books in one)
Servant o
f the Serpent (Serpent's War, book 1)
Rise of the Serpent (Serpent's War, book 2)
Voidhawk (Voidhawk, book 1)
Voidhawk – The Elder Race (Voidhawk, book 2)
Voidhawk – Redemption (Voidhawk, book 3)
Voidhawk – The White Lady (Voidhawk, book 4)
Voidhawk – Lost Soul (Voidhawk, book 5)
Voidhawk - The Edge of Forever (Voidhawk, book 6)
Voidhawk – Broken Shards (Voidhawk, book 7)
Wanted (Wanted, book 1)
Ice Princess (Wanted, book 2)
Bounty (Wanted, book 3)
Marshal (Book 4)
The Wanted Series (all 4 books in one)
Transcendent (Transcendent, book 1)
Dark Earth (Dark Earth, book 1)
Devil’s Icebox (Dark Earth, book 2)
Soul Mates (Dark Earth, book 3)
Voices (a Dark Earth Book)
Bound (a Dark Earth Book)
The Lost Girls (The Lost Girls, book 1, a Dark Earth novel)
Traitor (The Lost Girls, book 2, a Dark Earth novel)
Wolfgirl (The Lost Girls, book 3, a Dark Earth novel)
Black Widow (The Lost Girls, book 4, a Dark Earth novel)
Guardian (The Lost Girls, book 5, a Dark Earth novel)
Into the Dark (Dark Universe, book 1)
Out of the Dark (Dark Universe, book 2)
New Beginnings (Vitalis, episode 1)
The Colony (Vitalis, episode 2)
Parasites (Vitalis, episode 3)
Screamer (Vitalis, episode 4)
Squatter's Rights (Vitalis, episode 5)
Evolution (Vitalis, episode 6)
Matriarch (Vitalis, episode 7)
Vitalis Omnibus (Vitalis, episodes 1 – 7)
Vitalis: Resurrection (Vitalis, book 2)
Vitalis: Provenance (Vitalis, book 3)
Vitalis: Genesis (Vitalis, book 4)
Vitalis: Invasion (Vitalis, book 5)
Vitalis: Chrysalis (Vitalis, book 6)
Vitalis: Communion (Vitalis, book 7)
Sex Sells
Forbidden Love (Homeland, book 1)
Broken Slipper (Homeland, book 2)
When the Cookie Crumbles (Cookie Cutters, book 1)
Devil's Island (Fallen Angels, book 1)
Devils Rising (Fallen Angels, book 2)
Devil's Dance (Fallen Angels, book 3)
Human Nature
Table of Contents
Other Adventures in the world of Kroth:
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“Dad!”
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Afterword by the Author
Other books by Jason Halstead
Rise of the Serpent (Serpent's War Book 2) Page 21