Blood Metal Bone: An epic new fantasy novel, perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo

by Lindsay Cummings

Cade leaned his head on his fist and looked casually at Friedrich Geisinger, as if he were only mildly interested. “What exactly do you want me to recover?”

  “That’s the only stipulation I have, Cade,” Friedrich said. He removed a small disc from his pocket, set it on the bedside, and tapped it once.

  Light beamed from it, casting a hologram in the air just above.

  There was nothing but a single solid line that snaked to life, a black X criss-crossing just beside it.

  A contract disc. Cade raised a brow.

  “You must agree to the job, and all that it entails, before I show you the manifest.” He then called out for the nurse. She scurried back in, seconds later, her eyes wide and waiting. “Call Mav, over at the ITC. Tell her I’m ready to phone in that favor. The Starfall will be cleared of all charges, and please, get someone to dispose of those drugs. Dreadful side effects, truly. Dispose of them in Jeb Montforth’s skyrise. Make it look convincing.” He looked back to Cade. “And see to it that Karr Kingston and the rest of the Starfall’s crew are given whatever amount they need, to fill their ship with materials, rations… and alcohol, yes?”

  Cade sat frozen in shock and awe.

  This man oozed power, lived it and breathed it, and Jeb?

  Jeb was a slug. His mind was racing so fast, muddled thoughts shooting through him, that he hadn’t noticed the silence. He looked up and saw that both Geisinger and his nurse were watching him.

  It was time to make a choice.

  “The job,” Cade said, finding his wits again. “Will not harm me, my crew, or my brother? And you’ll handle Jeb Montforth for me?”

  “As long as the job is completed, no harm will befall any of you.” Geisinger nodded. “I consider you an investment, Cade. If this goes over well, I’d like to keep you on for quite some time. We’ll dine together on the rooftops of towers. We’ll drink the finest wines from the finest planets, and when your brother comes of age, he’ll drink with us, too.” He smiled, genuine and bright. “Or, with the money you’ll make from delivering the substance to me, he can pay someone to age him up. Age him down. He can become whoever and whatever he wishes. He won’t have to lift a finger if he doesn’t want to. His future will be very, very bright, and you will have been the one to give it to him. You’ll be a hero. The privateer who set out to the ends of the Earth, to recover the cure to send the Reaper away for eternity.”

  It was too good to be true.

  Cade had been in Jeb’s shadow all his life, and Karr’s by default. Would it be so bad, to accept this deal? It didn’t matter what the job was, as long as no harm came to his brother or his crew.

  This job?

  It would be their last.

  The choice was bright and clear. “You’ll cover all expenses for the mission? And I need a few new crew members, to replace the ones that disappeared after we were docked.”

  Jeb had likely already tracked them down, killed them as he’d threatened to kill Cade.

  Geisinger considered, for a moment. “You’re a smart man, Cade. Sign the disc, and what you wish will be yours.”

  “You can truly cure it?” he asked.

  Billions had died because of it. Old Earth was a biohazard now, a quarantined wasteland.

  “I can,” Geisinger said. “And I will, with your help.”

  Cade had hated Beta Earth since they’d landed here, wishing, with every minute of every day, that he could be back on his ship, out among the stars. But Karr…

  Karr was happy. Thriving.

  He deserved a future on solid ground. A future without Jeb.

  “I’ll do it,” he said.

  He traced his finger across the holo, sealing the deal.

  “I’ll be back later, with details.” Geisinger said, and shook his hand. “In the meantime… rest. You’re going to need it. I’ll send over my man, later. Rohtt is… a talented Crossman, to say the least. Creative.”

  Cade smiled, and lay back on the pillows. He realized, before he closed his eyes, that he hadn’t had to play a part to secure this deal. He’d been himself, plain and simple.

  And he was about to become very, very rich.

  Now, Cade Kingston shifted in his seat at the table in the center of the Garden of the Goddess. Dohrsar was beautiful, and the Garden around him…

  So much more wondrous than Geisinger had prepared him for. This valley, these people, the music and laughter. It was alive.

  But he’d signed on that dotted line. He’d taken the necessary steps to be ready for this task.

  He told himself he was prepared. That fear wasn’t already tightening in his chest, beside a pain that had only worsened since the day he’d walked out of Geisinger’s hospital. Cade shifted his position again, ever so slightly, but with the S2 suit on, the pressure on his chest heightened.

  The suit no longer fit the way it was supposed to.

  And so he glanced quickly backwards to distract himself, to where his younger brother stood. Karr’s face was practically lit up from inside, his smile so broad that it was clear as day beyond the tinted S2 visor as he watched the Gathering unfold.

  Cade couldn’t tell him the truth.

  He didn’t have the heart to.

  I’ll give you the world, Karr. No matter the cost.

  Soon, the attack would begin.

  Chapter 13

  Karr

  Karr Kingston did not mind this planet, one bit.

  Most jobs, the crew of the Starfall had simply come and gone in a flash, leaving enough chaos behind to last a lifetime. The guilt of that past, those planets, weighed heavily on him.

  A few of the planets were advanced, with glimmering cities made of glass, and technology the likes of which most non-travelers would never see. On Appona, the Starfall’s crew had had to dance with a cave full of naked, shapeless beings as Karr and Cade snuck away and stole from their private gem stores.

  On Zeprin, Karr and Cade made the mistake of thinking interplanetary relations were peaceful, as per the last time they’d set foot on the planet, only to arrive years later and be chased away by ironclad warriors shooting red bullets that could obliterate an enemy in one shot.

  But here, on Dohrsar?

  It was the first planet where they were treated like equals, even sitting alongside the two Dohrsaran queens. They welcomed them with warriors, then directed them through the crowd.

  The people parted like a river, split down the center. And together, the crew followed the queens and the monstrous king to the center of the valley; in between the towering rocks wrapped with vines, the flowers shifting before his gaze from dark as black silk to a softly glowing moon blue.

  A small table had been placed at the base of the pillars. Warriors in leathers dyed white and blue draped fabric over it, bowing as they backed away.

  And on its center, a dark stone tablet. Etchings were carved into the stone, alien markings Karr could not decipher with his own eyes. But his S2 visor translated the inscriptions.

  It was a treaty of sorts; the kind meant to bind three kingdoms together. And at the bottom, they’d left room for a fourth.

  Karr watched as the two queens spoke with Cade, seated on small stools.

  The King, a man who could have picked up Karr and snapped his body in half with his bare hands, stuffed himself with food and drink, only speaking when he commanded one of his soldiers to bring him more. Always, more.

  “Earth,” Cade was saying, his helmet com relaying the message in the lyrical Dohrsaran language. “Our homeland is… a dying place. But we’ve secured relations with many across the stars. We’ve found other places to survive until we can fix what’s been broken.”

  The blue-haired queen, beautiful and fierce, inclined her head. “What is death, but a passing from one place to another?” She smiled at him, but the light did not reach her eyes. “On Dohrsar we believe nothing ever truly stays dead.”

  The other queen was a willowy woman, with skin and hair so pale she could have been made of snow and ice. She di
d not smile as she said, “We are pleased to re-sign the treaty, to secure once more our peace with the Wanderers. You are… most welcome here.”

  She was not aware that her planet, her kingdom, belonged to a man stars away; that her freedom and her rule were all an illusion in the end.

  The Dohrsaran king only grunted as he took another bite of animal leg, ripping through skin and vein in a way that made Karr’s stomach twist.

  He remained standing behind Cade as he was instructed, but his mind strayed, bored by the conversation. He yawned, breathing in the recycled oxygen pumping through his S2.

  Cade’s smile had been a ghost of itself behind his visor all day. Even now, his gloved hands clenched and unclenched into fists, and though Cade kept a casual, diplomatic conversation with the royals, he was not himself.

  Karr wanted to move. To do something.

  He’d been trained, as he always had done on jobs, to be extra eyes and ears for Cade. But today they had Rohtt for that, who stood a few paces away like a loyal dog, a few of the other gunners beside him.

  The other crew members were lounging not far off, on the other side of the rocks.

  Nobody was paying attention to him. And Cade said the job wouldn’t begin until dusk, after the treaty had been re-signed.

  So Karr simply took a step backwards, away from the Dohrsaran royals. Then another step, sliding out of Rohtt’s peripherals, until no one could see him. A few more steps had him standing behind the next closest pillar. He followed it upwards with his gaze, where it disappeared beyond the billowing clouds.

  Karr sat with his back against the pillar, pressing close to the thick, flowering vines.

  He couldn’t smell them behind the S2 visor, but he imagined it was luxurious. Beautiful.

  And from here, he could truly watch the Dohrsarans without distraction. It was his favorite part of coming to any planet… sitting back, silent and unseen, to watch life unfold in an entirely different way.

  The Dohrsarans were all humanoid beings, walking on two legs. Their creatures resembled many that Karr had seen on other planets, enormous war horses in armor, sleek muscular cats double the size of Beta Earth tigers, and fearsome wyverns that screeched and tore apart animal legs from their pen. The clawed tips of their wings shone in the sunlight, sparkling like blades.

  The Dohrsarans themselves were a uniquely beautiful blend of people, human in their appearance. It was only subtle differences that set them apart. Some had eyes so dark they had no pupils. There was a glorious mix of all races, as on Beta. Some even had skin that was translucent, as if made of cellophane. Some had wildly bright hair, while others were covered in scales or fur.

  The mash-up of kingdoms was unique, with warriors in three different shades of armor, all hefting sleekly designed swords or spears from their respective territories, the steel in natural shades of gold or black or deep cerulean. Karr peered deeper down the sweeping green valley, the lush grass full of tents that held merchants selling plump blue fruits and enormous spiked vegetables. Other groups, on the outskirts, drank black oil from intricately designed clay mugs. They danced and laughed and had the merry look of musicians and artists, dressed in colorful garb and playing instruments strung together with vines or carved from animal horns.

  Karr grinned as he watched them, imagining the way he’d sketch their smiles, how he’d douse the background in blue, as if they were all emerging from the sea.

  They were a group Karr would have imagined himself drawn towards, in another life. If he had another name. Another family.

  The Garden of the Goddess and its visitors all wove together to make a wondrous nebula of cultures and styles.

  It reminded him, in some ways, of Beta Earth.

  But where Beta was shiny and new—a technological masterpiece that felt plucked from the pages of a fantastical storybook—Dohrsar felt strangely like home, despite the fact that it was a faraway land. He would have wanted to find a quiet corner here, sit down with his tablet and sketch for a while, if he were planning on staying.

  If what Cade said was true, Geisinger believed this planet, this place, held the key to curing the Reaper’s Disease. There were so many planets out there across the galaxy, he’d never be able to visit them all in a thousand lifetimes. And none of them had yet to offer the cure to what had ravaged the—

  “You.”

  Karr turned and found himself face to face with a young woman.

  She looked like she’d marched right out of the pages of an old western novel that he’d once borrowed from Jameson. She wore leather shorts, a torn and dirtied tunic, and a long leather duster coat that waved in the wind, stitches piecing together one of the sleeves. A shimmering blue-and-black sword hung at her hip, and her body was covered in wicked scars.

  A soldier.

  This was a soldier.

  She wasn’t alone. A tall man followed in her wake, a duster billowing behind him, a wide-brimmed leather hat concealing his features from view. By his posture alone, Karr could tell the Dohrsaran could split him in two if he wished it.

  “You,” she said again.

  The girl’s words filtered into his ears, clear as day thanks to his translator chip inside his S2 helmet.

  “Me?” Karr asked, and he felt like an idiot the moment the word left his lips. But what was he to say? Her eyes burned with intensity, her voice harsh and demanding.

  “Your ship. It’s been here before.” She placed her hand on the pommel of her sword, curling her scarred fingers around it. Karr had no doubt she could remove it in an instant, dismember him limb from limb.

  He cleared his throat, unsure of what to say. “I haven’t…” His words trailed off as his brows narrowed. Her stance tensed even further. “We haven’t been here before.”

  He looked into the distance, where Cade was still speaking to the three royals, none the wiser that he’d slipped away. Perhaps it had been a bad idea.

  Karr had executed, quite flawlessly, plenty of bad ideas before.

  “Ten years ago,” she said. Her voice was rushed, breathless. As if she’d been waiting on this moment for a long time, or was worried time itself would run out. “You came. And you took something that was not yours to take.”

  “I’m not the captain,” Karr said. “I’m just one of the—”

  She held up a hand.

  It silenced him at once, that strong, demanding motion.

  The young woman reached into her duster, revealing an ancient journal from the deep pockets. A Dohrsaran horse, fierce as it reared up on the front cover. The girl slammed it down on the grass, just before the toes of Karr’s heavy S2 boots.

  “This is your sigil, is it not?”

  She knelt before him, opened the journal, and with practiced finges, flipped to the very first page.

  The sketch was faded, drawn in black. But Karr found himself leaning forward as he recognized it. He knew it like he knew his own sketches in his quarters aboard the ship.

  It was a phoenix, a mythical bird of ancient lore.

  And it was the very same one painted on the bottom of the Starfall.

  Chapter 14

  Sonara

  “Ten years ago,” Sonara said, tapping her fingertip on the worn page as she knelt before the Wanderer. This one was much smaller than the others, a square jaw and plain face barely visible from inside the tinted helmet. She’d seen him step away from the group, then slip quietly away, unnoticed. On instinct, she’d gone after him. “A ship with this insignia came in the night. And yesterday, your ship arrived, bearing the same exact fowl.”

  Her heart was a war drum pounding against her ribs.

  “I saw it with my own eyes. You have been to Dohrsar before, and you did not leave empty-handed.”

  The Wanderer, behind his mask, simply stared at her. As if he hadn’t understood her words.

  “You’re wrong,” he said suddenly. She couldn’t sense his aura beyond the damned suit, couldn’t decipher a truth from a lie, a threat from peace. But she did n
ot miss when his gaze dropped to the sketch again, and narrowed just the slightest before he looked back up at her. “We’ve never been to Dohrsar. I’d remember if we had. But if you want to talk to my captain—” His words trailed off as he glanced back towards the table where the queens and Jira sat, still speaking to their leader. None had made a move, yet, towards this plan Azariah and Thali spoke of.

  But the suns were beginning to dip lower, the sky shifting colors as they did.

  Dusk would arrive soon, and Sonara would lose her chance, when the Wanderers moved.

  On instinct, she reached out and grabbed the Wanderer’s wrist.

  The strange armor he wore was cold. Lifeless. Almost skeletal, like a sand beetle.

  She dropped it at once.

  “You know the truth,” she said. Her hand went back towards Lazaris. “You stole him.”

  Slow down, Sonara, her conscience whispered. But her blood was getting hot.

  She scooped up the journal and held it out again, the pages rippling in the wind. “What did you do with Soahm of Soreia?”

  “Touch me again, and you’ll regret it,” the Wanderer said.

  Inside, Sonara’s curse writhed, trying to escape its cage.

  She hadn’t meant for it to go this way. But he was smaller than the others, and alone, and since they hadn’t arrived with their ship as she’d hoped, she’d taken the chance to seek her answers the easy way first.

  “Sonara. That’s enough.” Behind her, Jaxon stood at the edge of the crowd, eyes pleading. “This is not the time.”

  Oh, but it was. She’d been waiting for it to be so for ten long years. “Back away, Jaxon.”

  He shook his head. “Please.” His eyes flitted towards the Wanderer leader, the queens and the king. Her mother would take notice soon. Jira would take notice, and perhaps recognize the very girl who’d bathed his throne room in blood.

  Sonara turned back to the lone Wanderer. She had only moments.

  “Tell me the truth.”

  Sonara’s grip tightened on Lazaris. She could swing. She could lift her brother’s old sword and swing right now, stab that beautifully honed blade against his armor. Perhaps it would work.