Bloodflower

by K. J. Harrowick

  Jon brushed a few stray hairs behind her ear. “I plan to be by your side a lot longer than two years.”

  For only a moment her gaze flicked to Braygen and the storm brewing behind his eyes. “I don’t know what the future holds.”

  The Flame’s power flowed between them as ink bled from his tattoo into her skin, the bloodflower pendant warming beneath her bodice. She smiled then lifted her arm, an identical bloodflower inked into her skin. “But this time we stay together until the end.”

  Jon pressed his mouth against hers, soft warmth from his lips whispering into her senses.

  “Doc’s coming,” he said. “Let’s figure out how to open this thing.”

  “Élon to the north, his divided lover Saheva to the south.” She pointed at the female Guardian’s statue, the only woman of the six to have a bonded sun.

  She walked toward Saheva’s statue and laid her palm against the stone. Light zipped out from her hand, pulsing through the statue as gears started grinding.

  The Guardian statues melted into the wall as the section in front of her shifted from telen to transparent glass.

  Kale’s face appeared on the screen. “I knew you’d find your way, baby. Welcome home.”

  Jon slid his arms around her waist as the floor dropped like an elevator. Kale’s face disappeared, along with the wall. Dim lights flickered on over a giant docking bay several stories underground.

  Jon tightened his grip, but she laid her hand over his arm to soothe his unease.

  In the center of the docking bay sat her starship, the one she and Kale had prepped to leave Hàlon. Silver steel glimmered under the bright lights like a cage wrapped around an orange egg.

  “What is that thing?” Jon muttered in her ear.

  “That’s my ship.” Jàden lifted his hand and kissed his palm. “Once I learn how to fly it, I’ll show you the stars.”

  THE END

  IRONSTAR

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  Jàden leaned back in her chair and propped her feet on the console, fatigue pulling at her senses. She’d been up half the night watching the monitors, Hàlon’s empty halls disturbing her more with each passing day.

  “Figured I’d find you here.” Braygen handed her a cup of coffee and sat beside her, a deep shadow in his stormy eyes. “Can’t let it go, can you?”

  She shook her head. “I’ve tried several different emergency beacons, and it’s always the same. AI routes me to the tower and nothing. It’s like everyone just walked off the ship.”

  Or they were spaced out an airlock.

  Kale hadn’t let her down either. Once she pressed her hand against the bunker’s welcome message, some embedded program had given her access to areas of Hàlon she never knew existed. Though she didn’t dare try to exploit that yet, not until she could figure out what had happened on the ship.

  “Someone has to be alive,” she muttered. “If the ship’s a derelict…”

  She sipped her coffee, unable to speak the rest of her thoughts. An empty starship meant it would only be a matter of time before basic functions failed. Then Sandaris would become a ticking bomb until the bionet generators stopped working.

  Braygen laid a hand on her ankle. “Don’t worry. We’ll figure it out.”

  Almost before he stopped speaking, he pulled his hand back. He set down his cup and rubbed his arm as if it ached.

  “Give me your arm.” She sighed and set her coffee aside, pulling her feet off the console.

  Like she’d done with Thomas on the Darius, she rubbed her hand along Braygen’s forearm, massaging his aching muscles. “I didn’t expect you’d be awake yet.”

  “I can’t sleep.” Braygen sighed in relief, unclenching his hand. “Some nights it’s like fire and acid at war in my bones.”

  Jàden dug her fingers into his arm, working the muscles until that familiar tug in her chest became like a stinging hook. They were connected. She knew it as strongly as Braygen did. Perhaps they’d known one another in a past life, like she had with Jon.

  Braygen wrapped his fingers around her arm as she worked. Caressing his thumb across her skin, he glanced at the daggers on her back before meeting her eyes. “Did I ever tell you about Marco?”

  “Don’t.” She let go and swung her chair toward the console. The last thing she needed was Jon walking in here and throwing Braygen through a wall. Jàden pulled up the camera feeds from inside the bunker so they lined up on one side of the glass screen. She should make it very clear to Braygen that Jon is the man she loves, but her tongue couldn’t seem to form the words.

  “I lost Marco many years ago.” Braygen slid one of her daggers free, the obsidian blade reflecting the low bridge light. He traced his thumb over the orb and dangling legs symbol. “He was dead before I could stop that… thing.”

  He sighed and leaned back in his chair again, holding the blade so the symbol on the hilt pointed at her. “This is what killed him.”

  “The symbol?” Jaden asked. “What does it mean?”

  “It means, never go beyond the light.” He laid the blade in her hand and wrapped her fingers around it. “I will follow you anywhere, Jàden Ravenscraft, but we cannot go where darkness rules.”

  She gripped the dagger, the sharp edge of the blade biting into her skin. “Braygen, spit it out. You’re not making any sense. What’s beyond the light?”

  Jàden only knew one place apart from space where the darkness was constant: deep within the core of the moon. She shuddered at the memory of that place as an alarm chirped from her console. Thinking it was Jon from somewhere in the bunker, she turned toward her screen and pressed the receive call button. “This is Jàden.”

  Silence came through the speakers until a faint click-plop-thop whispered through.

  “Hello? Jon?” she asked. Jàden set the dagger in her lap and turned up the volume. Or maybe he’d forgotten which button to push again. “Hit the blue one.”

  Click-plop-thop.

  Unease tightened her gut. Was someone injured?

  “Jàden.” An eerie calm whispered through Braygen’s voice. “That call isn’t from inside the bunker.”

  “What?” She leaned over to his viewscreen where a map of the Dark Isle showed a flashing blue dot far to the south. She’d know that place anywhere.

  Ironstar.

  “See if you can pull up the video.” No one outside the bunker should even know she was here, but she pushed that thought aside. Someone was alive.

  Jàden kept the comm channel open. “This is Jàden Ravenscraft, Guild of Bioengineering. Can you hear me?”

  Click-plop-thop.

  A camera flicked on, and the screen illuminated a rippling obsidian goo that reflected light from a set of monitors. The substance solidified into a flat sheet, the orb and trailing legs carved into the black and glowing with bright green light.

  “What is that?” Jàden asked cold settling in the pit of her gut.

  “It’s one of them,” Braygen whispered. “Those from beyond the light.”

  The sound came again. Jàden reached across him, nudging a console button to pan the camera back. The blackness rippled. A pale tentacle touched the camera screen, soft suckers pressing the glass before it pulled away in a click-plop-thop.

  Jàden clutched Braygen’s arm. “Is that what I think it is? The creatures from inside the moon. They’re on the surface?”

  Text flashed on the screen: I see you.

  Braygen laid his hand over hers, palm warm against her skin. “We are so fucked.”

  SANDARIN GLOSSARY

  NORTHMAN SPEECH

  Balé: why?

  Borda: eat.

  Dalan: pl. Dalanath. Sleeping ghosts, specifically denoting the mysterious nature of hypersleep pod illusions of sleepers. In the north, folks use stories of dalanath waking up to scare small children into behaving.

  Ekki: stop.

  Elbren: Religious figures from the Golden City. They are spr
ead throughout the southlands and are the caretakers of the Guardian temples, preaching that one day the Guardians will return to the sky. This is linked to a disaster earlier in Sandarin history where the stars disappeared from the night sky.

  Firemark: see shalir.

  Gensana·darak: the season of leaves. One of six Sandarin seasons.

  Hevkor: a prestigious title given only to tradeship captains.

  Kóna: wife. Used as both a relationship title for those who identify as female, and as an endearment between spouses.

  Kórante: plural kórantéth. A prestigious title given only to the six powerful men of the High Council who rule the northlands.

  Màvon: trees more common on the Northern Isle and in the Borderlands. Their pale trunks faintly glow when the sister moons are full at night. During gensana·darak their leaves turn a deep indigo. At the end of the cold season, the leaves turn to a bright wine color and the trees yield a dark green fruit.

  Melin oné: no magic. An imperative statement warning any magic-wielders that they’re in danger, usually out of self-preservation.

  Nakshirnén: Bond of the Flame. This phrase is one of several types of spouse bonds, with the connotation that those who have forged this connection are bound for life and cannot be separated except by death.

  Níra: relax. Often used to calm anxious people or horses.

  Norshad: northern bred horse. Norshads are a horse/notharen hybrid. They travel in brother-herds, are able to change the color of their fur for camouflage, and always choose their riders.

  Notharen: This unique line of equines has more in common with an octopus than a horse. Able to change the color of their fur to use as camouflage, these horses are stronger and faster than other equines and travel together in brother-herds.

  Oné: a negative/inverse connotation usually meaning ‘never’ though can sometimes have a general no meaning.

  Rakir: northern soldiers who serve the Tower and the will of the High Council. They are branded before training starts, and their brands are used to siphon energy away to feed the six kórantéth.

  Ranasen: a sense of otherness. Outsider. Those who feel like they don’t belong to their Guardians follow the lonely path to Herana, the Guardian of Lost Souls.

  Réva: a tomato-based ale common on both Hàlon and Sandaris.

  Sahira: a spider similar in look to a common tarantula. Native to the warmer jungles, these creatures have bright orange feathers on their abdomen. When hunting for prey, they spiral the feathers open to look like a flower, and spit venom when prey is near. One dose of their venom is enough to knock out a grown man.

  Sahirana: plural sahiranath. Spider-shifter.

  Sanda le/sanda ven: You’re safe/we’re safe.

  Sejhna: poison. Its use is found most often in the north to put humans into a comatose state while the poison eats them from the inside. The victim feels everything but cannot wake up unless healed.

  Shàden: a large, nomadic canid with a black leather hide. When it hunts, its body ignites with fire as it catches prey, burning it to nothing and feeding off the ash.

  Shalir: Sandarin name for a firemark, a small glass orb that lights up or dims with a person’s breath.

  VERADORAN LANGUAGE

  Denerada: title of shame intended as punishment for bad behavior. The one who bears such a status must serve in the home of the offended until the debt is paid and the title removed.

  Kóra: giant trees whose rough brown trunk can grow as wide as a house. Veradóra is located in a kóra grove, with many of the trunks hollowed out as homes. The leaves are green all year round, and the flowers do not bear fruit.

  Tahiró: folks who have bound themselves to helping and protecting the Guardian Herana.

  NA’MASHKA SHE (Hàlon Common)

  Bareh ró: she’s awake.

  Kóro: get out!

  Laoné lenä freon và naréa Naréathana freon amshe faríoné San ‘endlan và drér fré Vó e vastana ara zenathar o: Light does not exist without darkness. Darkness cannot breathe without light. Bond them to create shadow, who both divides and unites.

  Nadrér: a military starship built to create a blister and cut into the hull of an enemy ship. An intended attack vessel for quick boarding and escape.

  Naoné óra baría kar freon: Courage cannot awaken without fear.

  Telen: a highly dense manufactured stone created to withstand a millennia of intense storms and deep space vacuum.

  Vamahéa heriakór Jason Kale: my name is Commander Jason Kale.

  Zankata: crow-like bird with bright-colored feathers under each wing.

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  K. J. Harrowick is a fantasy and science fiction author with a strong passion for blending grimdark worlds and futurist technology with threads of romance and revenge. She is the co-creator of Writer In Motion, a recurring WriteHive panelist, and has written articles for Science in Sci-Fi, Rewrite it Club, and Winterviews. With an unhealthy obsession for dragons, tacos, cheese, and beer, she works her gatory ways as a freelance web developer and graphic designer on a broad range of client projects before falling down the occasional rabbit hole. Her debut series, The Hidden Flames Artifact, brings dragons, sex, swords, and spaceships together in an epic mashup adventure.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  What started as a few role-play characters to pass the boredom in my earlier years has since blossomed into an entire fictional universe filled with hope, heartache, and the ideology that humans are connected to one another by much stronger bonds than a one and done cycle of life.

  Bloodflower has been a passion project of mine for more than a decade, so it seems fair to start right at the beginning with the wonderful Heather Davis, Camille Wolfewood, Sherrie Mun, Sam Crossley, Derek Whitten and my HPH crew. Without you guys and the love and dedication you’ve shown in our years together, this book and its characters would not exist.

  From that first draft more than a decade ago, I also want to thank my dearest friends Mirabella Kubinyi and the late Peter Kallay who have become the voices in my head pushing me to do better—to be better. Mira read a first draft of Bloodflower and I’m honestly shocked she didn’t light it on fire right then.

  This story got rewritten many times over the years, and for that I need to thank all the wonderful folks who had a hand it in. Abby Glenn, Ariel Ryan, Christopher T. Woolf, Christy Dirks, Ellen Mulholland, Ellie Doores, Glen Delaney, Jen Davenport, J. P. Midnight, K. S. Watts, Laura Hazan, M. A. Guglielmo, Maha Khalid, Megan Van Dyke, Melody Caraballo, Noreen Mughis, Rachel Brick, R. R. Fryar, Sanyukta Thakare, Sarah J. Sover, Sara T. Bond, S. Kaeth, S. M. Roffey, Stephanie Sauvinet, Talynn Lynn, and Tasha Livingstone. I’d also like to thank all the folks in The Writer’s Craft Room, Rewrite it Club, Winterviews, Ocean’s Eleven, World Flight, Mechanical Dragons, Teacup Dragons, the original Space Bees, Writer In Motion, RevPit, and WriteHive.

  And let’s not forget my wonderful cover illustrator and RevPit sister, Rebecca Wilcox. She is the genius behind the art that binds this story.

  I also want to send a shout out to Marc & Liz Williams at Williams Helde. You both have trusted me with your work for so many years, and that opportunity gave me the space to pull Bloodflower from the gutter to the bookshelves.

  To the t
eam at Portal World Publishing: Jen the Town Crier of House Davenport. Writer of explosions. Not the quiet one. Megan Storyweaver of House Van Dyke, first of her name, writer of twisted tales, lover of magic and kissing, promiser of happily ever afters. Melody Pie of the House of Caraballo, she drinks and writes things. Lady Talynn of the House of Lynn, Lover of Exquisite Vineyards, Chocolate Connoisseur, Teacher of Pleasantries, and Writer of all things fantasy and science fiction in the world of young adult. And to my two wonderful editors, Carly Hayward and Jeni Chappelle. I’d be lost without all of you! Thank you for all the time and dedication (and moral support) you put in for helping me bring this story to life.