Devan Chronicles Series: Books 1-3

by Mark E. Cooper

  “Go on man, what else?” Athlone said with sudden interest.

  “The girl was raped and tortured, my lord.”

  Jihan gasped in shock and even Athlone paled. Murmurs sprang up all round the hall. How could anyone be so vile as to hurt a woman… Jihan glanced at Athlone remembering his mother.

  “Quiet I say!” Vadin shouted. “Listen to the lord’s judgement!”

  “Hang him!”

  “Foul murderer—”

  “Disgusting animal!”

  Jihan couldn’t help but agree. Women were protected in Deva. They weren’t living in Tanjung with their disgusting brothels or in Japura with their slaves. How could he do it? Why did he do it?

  “Quiet I say! Shall I call the guard?”

  “No—”

  “…see him hang—”

  “…send him to the God—”

  The sound died away to whispers then to nothing as the guardsmen stepped forward in readiness. Athlone was glaring hard, but not at the accused, Jihan was surprised to see. Jihan looked along the wall to where Athlone was staring and found a guardsman. Haiger was the name, he thought. They had never had occasion to speak—Haiger was one of the cronies. Why was Athlone glaring at him?

  Athlone switched the glare to Celek who had tears running down his face. “Step forward.”

  Celek shuffled forward clanking all the while.

  “Did you murder Nerina?”

  “No m’lord,” Celek hiccoughed. “I would never be doing such a thing I swear!”

  Jihan saw the attempt to make the sign of the God, but the chains limited the movement. What resulted was more like a semicircle rather than the full one of the God, but the attempt had been made.

  “Why are you in chains?” Jihan asked.

  Celek looked frightened. “I found her m’lord. I was walking the fence and I found her.”

  “That’s no reason for your council to chain you.”

  “No m’lord. I was drunk… when I found her, yer see? They thought I did it, but I never! I picked her up and took her to the village, but the folk saw me and hit me on the head. When I woke I was like this.”

  There were more murmurs, but they were confused ones this time. If Celek had killed her, why take her home? Surely only an innocent man would do so.

  “I think he’s telling the truth,” Jihan whispered to Athlone. “No one would be stupid enough to do that to a girl then take her home.”

  “He was drunk boy,” Athlone said dismissing Jihan’s words. He turned his attention to Celek. “How did you know to take her to Bluefield inn? If you have never been there you should not have known her or where she lived.”

  “Kelda didn’t know m’lord, but I sneak out to the village sometimes to see my sweetheart.”

  Jihan groaned. The fool should have told Kelda before he testified! Now it looked bad for him. “A sweetheart? Not Nerina?”

  Please make him say no!

  “No m’lord. Her name is Adaira. I’m going to marry her… I was.” He hung his head. “Nerina is her friend. That’s how I knew her.”

  He’s innocent. Jihan felt he was, but he was also a fool. Athlone was leaning toward guilty and he could well be right but for this feeling that said no.

  Athlone decided. “Guilty. Death by hanging and body to be burned the next day.”

  “No!” Celek screamed. “I’m innocent m’lord! I swear by the God I am innocent. Don’t hang me… not the noose.” He sobbed.

  “Take him—” Athlone began.

  “No!” Jihan burst out.

  “What now boy?”

  “I—”

  Celek was begging and pleading and Jihan didn’t think he was guilty, but there was no proof that he wasn’t, and more that he was. Jihan stepped down from the dais and approached Celek who was sobbing his heart out.

  Jihan gritted his teeth. “Look at me.”

  Celek looked up. “M’lord, don’t let them. Please don’t let them—”

  “I can’t save you, Celek, we have no proof. If only you had told Kelda about Adaira it wouldn’t look so bad but—”

  “I know, and I’m sorry, but I’m innocent m’lord!”

  “I know you are,” Jihan said sadly. “I can stop the hanging,” he would whether Athlone agreed or not. “But you will still die. Do you want the grace Celek?”

  Celek braced up and stopped his tears. He nodded jerkily. “I… anything but the rope.”

  Jihan drew his sword and—

  “I forbid you Jihan!” Athlone roared from his throne. “No mercy for this man!”

  —struck Celek’s head from his shoulders.

  Blood fountained high into the air and the women screamed. Jihan stepped back a pace to avoid the blood as Celek’s body fell twitching to the ground. He tried to avoid looking at Celek’s rolling eyes.

  “May the God watch over and comfort you at journey’s end,” Jihan said and closed his eyes.

  I’m a murderer.

  * * *

  5 ~ The Candle

  Julia glanced around the entrance hall hoping to find Brian. He was on guard here sometimes, but not today it seemed. She popped her head through doors of the citadel and found him on the battlement. He was on watch. Keverin and Renard were in the courtyard with a mage in yellow robes. Haliden she thought his name was. He was one of Mathius’ friends. Renard was the senior man among the mages in Athione. It was to him Julia had posed her question about returning home, but Renard had been unable to help her. He explained that although he was the strongest, he wasn’t near as strong as Darius had been and Darius had died of the spell he used to bring her here. Even if he knew how to send her home, which he didn’t, Renard was not strong enough to do it. Frightening as the prospect of leaving Athione was, it might be the only way she would find her way home.

  Booom!

  Julia flinched at the explosion and stepped back, but she reversed the move almost immediately. She wouldn’t let a little noise scare her. The sky was an exquisite blue with not a single cloud to mar it. It felt so good to get out. There was a tang in the air like hot metal. From the fireballs? No, she decided it was the smithy. The steady clang of a hammer on metal continued unaffected by the rhythmic explosions.

  “You should not be here, Lady,” Keverin said marching toward her. “Get back inside!”

  Julia’s face froze. “I was looking for a friend.”

  “You won’t find her out here,” he said sharply and motioned her to step back. “She would have more sense.”

  “I didn’t say my friend was a woman. I came looking for Brian if you must know.”

  Keverin’s lips thinned. “He has his duty to perform.”

  “I can see he’s busy. I’ll come back later.”

  “You’ll not! You will stay inside where it’s safe.”

  “I thought you Devans valued honesty. You told your mother that nowhere in the fortress was safe. Did you lie then?”

  It was a petty accusation, one Julia wished unsaid the instant the words left her lips, but it was too late for that. Keverin’s eyes blazed and Julia fell back a step from the fury she saw in his face.

  “If you were a man...” he took a breath and his face blanked. “You will learn. You will learn what I am if you live long enough. I am lord here and you will obey me like your father. Get inside and stay!”

  “You are not my father, Lord Keverin,” Julia hissed. “I’m not your dog to stay when you say the word! I’ll go back inside because I want to, not because you order it.”

  “Go then.” Keverin said.

  “I will.”

  “Now.”

  “I’m going!”

  Julia glared at the hint of a smirk she saw on Keverin’s face and spun on her heel to stalk back inside the citadel. Impossible man! Why did he go out of his way to rile her so? She made her way up to the second floor of the citadel and stopped to look out of a window. Keverin was on the wall talking with Brian. Whatever he was saying couldn’t be pleasant. Brian stood at attention sil
ently listening to his lord’s words. A moment later he saluted and trotted off toward the gate tower. Julia hoped she hadn’t dropped Brian in hot water.

  Julia leaned against the casement and watched as a fireball arced into the air on its way to strike the wards. Why did they bother? It seemed obvious to her that Renard’s wards were too strong for fireballs. What the sorcerers needed was a nuke! Thinking of the sorcerers made her wonder if they knew of a way to send her home. It didn’t really matter she supposed. Keverin would never let her go down and ask. Not that she would. From all she had managed to learn about the invaders, they were evil incarnate, but then the other side in a war was always evil. Apart from a few strange looks, Julia had learned almost nothing about the reasons for the war. All she could gather was that the Hasian’s ruler wanted to govern the entire continent. Like some kind of empire she supposed. There were six countries in Waipara, but the sorcerers ruled two of them from their island. Those two, Hasa and Bandar, composed fully half of Waipara. She knew that part by heart. Julia’s problem, one of many she now had, was Mortain’s ambition. He had turned his attention eastward making Deva the next kingdom on his list of future conquests. She was about to be in the middle of a war spanning most of the continent. She needed to get home, or out of Deva at least. Maybe there were mages in Tanjung. She would ask Mathius, he would know being one himself.

  As Julia made her way through the corridors of the citadel, she suddenly became aware of a feeling of being watched. She stopped and looked back the way she came. There was a guardsman on duty at the last intersection she had past, but he wasn’t looking at her and there was no one else. Julia shivered and hugged her elbows tight to her chest. This wasn’t the first time she had felt like she was being watched. People were always curious about what was strange. She didn’t look like the Devans. Her pale skin marked her as different, let alone her green eyes and short hair. Her pallor was due to spending every waking minute in the gym. Devans had sun darkened skin. Only men wore their hair short and not many of them. The first few times she had put it down to simple curiosity but now she wasn’t so sure.

  Julia chose a corridor at random and turned down it. Whenever she could, she used a different route through the citadel in order to learn her way around. The citadel was hard to navigate. Most of the corridors looked the same, but this one was different. Halfway along she found a pair of beautifully carved doors. On the left-hand panel there were people shown kneeling with one arm raised towards the sky. There was a beggar kneeling next to a King, a lord and lady kneeling next to a farmer. Children played in the field oblivious to the adults. God was depicted as a wise old man in threadbare robe on the right-hand panel. He was carrying a crooked staff and was smiling down at the people kneeling before him.

  A chapel? Julia felt justified in taking a peek inside. Stepping silently through the doors, she didn’t realise that the shadow near the altar stone wasn’t a statue until it spoke.

  “I am Father Gideon, a humble servant of the God. What are you doing here?”

  Gideon didn’t sound very humble to Julia. The way he asked his question made him sound as if he wanted to spit. His cassock glowed pristine white in the darkness. Despite the perfection of his robe, Julia couldn’t help comparing him unfavourably to the carving on the door. A beggar’s robes would better suit the humble priest he had named himself. Gideon appeared to be in his late fifties. He was clean-shaven and his smile was kindly but it did not reach his eyes. They had never met, but already it was obvious he didn’t like her. Julia’s face froze as the familiar walls slid into place protecting her from people’s dislike. She cursed herself for letting her guard down. She had thought the people here would be different—they had been friendly toward her mostly. Not Keverin, but most had welcomed her. Julia had always made it the other person’s problem when she came up against this dislike, but she was living in a new world now! How could she deny there must be something wrong with her and not them?

  “My name’s Ju—”

  “I know who and what you are child.”

  How dare he call her child! He knew nothing about her. How could he know what she was?

  “Oh, is that so? And what am I?” Julia said sarcastically. She was always at her worst when she felt herself under attack.

  “Abomination!” The priest cried fervently. “I asked Mathius about you. You are a mage—I saw you come through the gate. The God willed his power channelled through men, not women! You are against nature, and Him!”

  Julia wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing the hurt his words caused. What right did this priest have to tell her she was an abomination before God? She was what God had made her to be.

  Julia turned and walked silently away.

  That night found Julia slipping stealthily through the fortress. Father Gideon’s attack on her was responsible for setting her on this path, and she grudgingly thanked him now. His words had hurt, but they did remind her of the mage gift that she supposedly had—whatever it was. She’d done nothing since arriving at Athione and then complained when the mages couldn’t send her back. Well, no more of that! She would take control of her life if it killed her.

  After her retreat from the chapel, Julia had visited with Jessica for a while and found herself telling Jessica about her home and her hopes of winning Olympic gold for the memory of her parents. That had led to her need for a way home and her mage gift. She told Jessica that she would lose herself if she didn’t find a way back soon. Deva was coming to feel more real than home. She couldn’t let that go on or all trace of a gymnast named Julia Morton would cease to exist. Jessica said that she understood, but she hadn’t really. How could she? A noble lady was expected to support her husband and help rule his lands. It was a life so far removed from Julia’s as to be incomprehensible. Jessica did help in one way, she supplied a hand drawn map of the citadel. With her friend’s blessing, Julia dressed herself in a man’s stolen clothes and set off to save herself.

  Booom... Booom... Booom...

  The noise of the attack was muffled this deep within the walls. Julia was so used to it now that the dull thuds hardly registered on her senses as she puzzled out where she was. The map showed the main highlights of the fortress. The great hall, courtyards, gardens, stables, kitchens, smithy—all were clearly marked, but the most important item now was the quickest way from the woman’s quarter to the library quarter. Julia double checked the map one last time and turned right. If she was right the library should be behind a large double door on the left.

  It was.

  A feeling of quiet calm descended as she entered. It was the familiar hush that all libraries seemed to have no matter where they happened to be. The atmosphere of the room was... expectant might best describe it. Like all libraries, it seemed to whisper of knowledge and secrets to be learned.

  “Use me, and know the world,” it seemed to say.

  The rows of shelves ahead of her held the knowledge Julia needed to get home, at least she hoped they did. No one else seemed willing or able to help. So she would do it herself as she always had. She didn’t need anyone. There were ten long rows of shelves each with five levels. Each shelf had a ladder mounted to it than ran on little wooden wheels fitted into grooves in the floor. Choosing an aisle at random, Julia browsed the shelves running her fingers lightly over the leather bindings of the books. The air smelled pleasantly of leather and paper, and vaguely of dust. She stopped and pulled a thick volume from the middle shelf. Turning the tome toward the meagre light of the lamps, she read the title...

  Houses of Tanjung.

  Julia replaced the book then pulled out another.

  Kings of Deva.

  Julia scowled and replaced the book in its slot. The way the shelves were organised it would take forever to find what she needed. Julia scanned the row for magical sounding titles, but she failed to find even one. Changing aisles, Julia did the same, but again she failed. Stopping for a moment, Julia peered around the library hoping to find an inde
x. She didn’t find one, but she did find something else. Along the back wall almost hidden from view, was an archway leading into another hall. Not expecting to find the index in there but curious nonetheless, Julia stepped through.

  The hall was smaller than the first. The only entrance was the archway through which Julia had just entered. There were tables with comfortable looking chairs tucked neatly under them, and toward the back of the hall were three more rows of shelves. Even from across the room Julia could tell that they were special. They seemed to glow in the dark as if lighted from within. The luminescence reminded her very strongly of the glow that had surrounded Mathius that day in Jessica’s rooms.

  Quickly crossing to the shelves, Julia began reading the titles. Scanning the books, Julia realised that she had chosen the wrong row. With names like: Higher Principles of Power Transmission, and Animation for Sorcerers, Julia guessed that the huge tomes were for advanced study. She doubted that she could even lift some of them, let alone understand what was within their ancient pages! Hoping for a logical layout, Julia skipped the central row and checked the left-hand one. The moment she read the first title, Julia knew that she had found what she needed. Again, the shelves were not of a standard type. Each book was fitted into its own custom made slot. Without an index, it should be easier to find a title this way. No doubt that was the reason for the design.

  I wonder if they even know what an index is?

  Julia shrugged the irrelevant thought aside. She quickly scanned the spines and collected a number of interesting titles. She hoped the authors had used descriptive titles for their work and hadn’t chosen them on a whim. She had nothing but their titles to judge the book’s contents on. She didn’t have time to read each one only to find they were of no interest.

  Before coming to the library, Julia had decided that the first thing she needed to do was verify that Mathius was correct about her mage gift. If she did have it, whatever it really was, she would look for the spell Darius used to bring her here in hopes of reversing it. If she didn’t have it, she would think about leaving Athione for Tanjung. It was the only place outside the Protectorate that had mages. Maybe they could help.