Afterward, the midwives called it a safe and easy birth, but Adan saw nothing easy about it at all. They had wrapped the baby girl in a colorful blanket someone had retrieved from Shella’s damaged tent. Penda slumped back on the grass beneath the oak, exhausted yet with a glow of magic about her. And it was magic, Adan thought—the magic of giving new life.
Xar dipped and dove around, performing aerial tricks, looping and trilling as if proud of himself or enthralled with the baby.
Penda reached out and touched the rough bark of the sturdy tree and let her eyes fall closed, as if drawing energy from the forest. “I want to name her Oak,” she said. “Our daughter will be sturdy and majestic, and strong when we need her to be.”
“Oak…” With the child in his arms, he gazed into the sweet, tiny face, and she responded with a twisted and puckered expression. “Yes, Oak is a fine name.” The baby girl let out a high-pitched cry that sounded exuberant and joyous after the violence of the night.
“She is inside our circle, my Starfall.” Penda’s voice sounded like music to him. “The beginning is the end is the beginning.”
The king held his daughter tight. “The beginning…” Penda reached out her arms, and Adan handed the baby to her mother.
Hale Orr strutted about beaming, showing off his front gold tooth. “A perfect child. Cra, absolutely perfect!” He bent close to Penda. “I remember when you were that small, dear heart. And now you have done it yourself.”
“I also had something to do with it,” Adan said.
Hale propped the stump of his left wrist on his hip. “Penda did the important parts.”
She sighed. “I just want to hold my baby and rest.”
The midwives brought more pillows to make her comfortable, then spread blankets over her. The baby instinctively sucked at her breast. Penda tucked the fabric around the delicate head with its fuzz of dark hair. Within moments they were both fast asleep.
Hale Orr turned to look at the Utauk camp. “I had hoped this night would bring only joy, but we must face what just happened. Let us go find our dead, Starfall.”
Most of the fires had been put out, and the Utauks gathered their scattered possessions. At first they were reluctant to build another bonfire, afraid the flames might bring back the dragon, but Shella din Orr told her people to remember who they were, and their community formed a wall against fear. From the wreckage, they created a bright, cheerful blaze.
Four Utauks had been killed during the dragon attack, one man crushed inside his tent, two snapped up in the monster’s jaws, and another died from a deep gash that bled out. The Utauks carried their dead with reverence to the side of the camp. They gathered stones and laid out a large, perfect circle. Soon, they would have a traditional funeral, singing songs around a pyre.
Adan regarded the dead sandwreths with both anger and disgust. Quo’s body was pale, his face drawn, his topaz eyes open but dull.
Seenan and Captain Elcior rode up, issuing their grim report. “All of the injured wreths are dead, as you commanded, Sire. The shadowglass weapons easily dispatched them.” Elcior’s horse snorted and pawed at the ground.
Adan nodded. “What about the augas?”
“The dragon killed most of the beasts and the others scattered and ran off.”
Seenan spoke up, sounding shaken. “Do you want us to chase them down? They are loose in the forest.”
The augas seemed to be stupid beasts, and without the wreths to command them, Adan doubted they would cause problems. “Let them run loose. Queen Voo will not be able to tell what happened.”
“We also found something else,” Captain Elcior said. “A strange creature, not human and not wreth.”
Adan frowned as they led him over to a dead auga. Lashed to its saddle was a small creature, gray skinned and poorly formed, like a sketch of a person. “It was dead before tonight, Sire,” Seenan said. “Long dead.”
“We think the wreths might have been taking it back south,” said Elcior. “Though I don’t know why.”
“King Kollanan told me the frostwreths had new slaves, drones…” Adan studied the creature. “Queen Voo wanted to see one.”
“Well, she’s not going to get this one!” Seenan said.
“No, she won’t.” Adan’s expression hardened as he turned to his Banner guards, then back to his father-in-law. “The sandwreths must never know. We cannot leave any sign of their fallen warriors. Come with me.”
They returned to Quo’s body, where Hale Orr continued to regard it with a queasy expression. Adan explained what he wanted, and his father-in-law agreed, “Cra, we will take care of it.” Hale looked down at the sprawled wreth corpse. “Utauks are good at hiding things.”
Emil and Burdon listened as Hale issued instructions. Once the Utauks took care of their own dead, they would burn the wreth bodies and pound any blackened bones into powder. They would keep none of the trinkets or weapons, leave no sign that the people had ever seen the wreth war party.
“Not a trace,” Adan said. “As far as anyone is concerned, Quo and his companions were never here. They must have encountered some mishap as they wandered my kingdom.”
“And why were they wandering the kingdom in the first place?” Hale wanted to know. “Why were they here, this far from the desert?”
“They came searching for Penda,” he said. “And our child.”
“Cra, and they found her!” Hale scowled at Quo’s body again. “I thought we would be safe in the heart camp.”
Adan knew that Queen Voo was so arrogant she would never believe any humans could possibly kill her brother and his sandwreths. It would never occur to her that Adan or the Utauks might have the courage to do so. The secret would be safe.
His heart ached. Was the end of the world truly at hand? If so, what was his best course of survival? What could he do for his people?
He thought of the images within Ari’s mothertear of the desert camp and the enslaved human workers. Although dragons could wreak havoc, Adan knew the sandwreths were the real enemies.
He walked to Shella din Orr’s new tent. The Utauks had raised support logs and stretched the fabric to create a makeshift shelter. The old woman sat on her rumpled rug with the threads of the bloodlines she represented. She picked at the tapestry. “The legacy of humankind is unraveling, King Adan Starfall.”
For a moment, the ominous reality suppressed even his joy over his new daughter. “The only way we can win is if we all fight together, all of humanity. Alas, I doubt that will happen.” He thought of his brother’s impetuous decree, the konag’s outrageous demand for the armies of Suderra to sail off and fight across the sea. Even though the Isharans had killed his uncle Conndur, how could Adan throw all his forces against Ishara when the wreths were at his own doorstep? He, Adan Starfall, was the king of Suderra, and he was bound by the terms of the Commonwealth charter. He wanted to be loyal to Mandan, but how could he do that and save his own kingdom?
The old crone sat impossibly cross-legged, her knobby knees barely covered by her skirts, her legs like bent sticks. She nodded and sent him away, apparently realizing that Adan needed to go back to his wife.
He trudged across the camp and found Penda still dozing with their daughter. He sat beside them and made himself comfortable, resting against his wife and child. If the wreths wanted to bring about the end of the world, then Adan would do anything necessary to save his family and protect his kingdom.
Penda stirred, and the baby woke. Without rousing his wife, he took the child in his arms and planned to save the world for her.
107
STILL hidden in the chamber beneath the empra’s palace, Cemi reeled to hear about the disaster in Serepol. Analera said, “Key Priestlord Klovus is a fool! His workers constructed the Magnifica temple even though Empra Iluris forbade it, and now the godling has grown much too powerful. And he unleashed it!”
“The great godling is our protector,” said Captani Vos.
The old servant scoffed. “The p
eople strengthened and enraged the godling until it became greater than anything we’ve ever seen. The idiot priestlord sent it to attack the Hethrren, and so the thing ripped apart buildings and homes, killed hundreds of innocents on its rampage. The godling didn’t know what it was doing.” Her raspy voice dripped with anger. “Oh yes, a great many Hethrren were killed, but so were many poor citizens. And it consumed the harbor godling! Ripped it to shreds and defeated it!” She moaned. “Hear us, save us! We haven’t even put out all the fires in the city yet.”
Cemi’s words were a low growl. “Now they will listen if we come back.” She felt the strange new godling swelling and swirling nearby, anxious to move forward. It was its own deity anchored to Iluris, even to Cemi herself. “The people need an empra.”
“Ishara needs a leader now more than ever,” Vos said.
Cemi knelt beside the pale woman, who was obviously wasting away. She did not want to admit that her beloved mentor was effectively dead, even though her heart kept beating. The wounds had healed, but her mind remained gone. “Do you think the army is ready? Do we have enough loyalists there? Supporters among the people?”
“The citizens of Serepol are outraged at what Klovus did,” Analera said. “They know he is responsible, but they are still too stunned to grasp what it means.”
“They must stop building the Magnifica if the godling is already too powerful for the key priestlord to control,” Vos said.
“Klovus will not let them stop, even though he knows what he did.” Disgusted, the old servant gathered the basket of food she had brought. “I continue to serve you, and you know I am loyal to the empra. I have already given most of my life to her, and I would give it all if necessary.” Analera walked to the door and turned back to them. “But you had better decide what to do—and soon. Give them an alternative.”
Cemi did not need the warning. She looked up at Vos, and the handsome captani stared back at her, worried for her, for the empra, and for all of Ishara.
After Analera departed, the formless new godling flowed out of the stone walls and became more tangible, shimmering as it camouflaged the opening. Cemi should have felt safe under its protection, but instead she felt trapped. “Iluris, are you ever coming back to us?”
During their agonizingly quiet days here, she had often held conversations with the silent woman. Vos also talked to his adoptive mother, even though she didn’t respond. Every one of the hawk guards here had confessed to the sleeping empra; they had told her their stories, beseeched her to come back—all to no avail.
“It will have to be you, Cemi,” Vos said, then spoke louder as all the hawk guards listened. “Empra Cemi. We need to make our move.”
The hawk guards gathered close. “Empra Cemi,” they repeated. “That is what our mother would have wanted.”
“We will make it happen,” Cemi said, trying to sound strong.
Vos placed a hand on her shoulder and pulled the young woman against him in an embrace.
Then something changed. Cemi looked down and saw a flicker in Iluris. The old woman’s breathing shifted, and the girl sensed a crackle, a strengthening of the godling that sheltered them in this grim and unlikely sanctuary.
On the pallet, Empra Iluris let out a sigh and her eyes fluttered open.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Writing a big, complicated series with so many characters and story lines is something like one of my characters leading a large army across the landscape. I keep a lot of it in my head, but I also rely on help from many other people. I’d like to thank my editor, Beth Meacham; my agent, John Silbersack; my wife (and first reader and line editor), Rebecca Moesta; as well as Diane Jones, Lauren Moore, Brian Herbert, and all my readers.
GLOSSARY
ADAN—king of Suderra, husband of Penda, son of Conndur the Brave. Also called Adan Starfall.
ALCOCK—one of Kollanan’s vassal lords in Norterra.
ALMEDA—wife of Lord Cade, who attacked and nearly killed Elliel.
ANALERA—old servant of Empra Iluris.
AORON—sandwreth mage.
ARI—blue ska, heart-linked to Glik.
AUGA—reptilian mount ridden by sandwreths.
AXUS—sandwreth mage.
BAHLEN—one of Kollanan’s vassal lords in Norterra. His holding has extensive wreth ruins.
BANNER GUARD—city guard force in Bannriya.
BANNRIYA—capital of Suderra, first city founded by humans after the wreth wars.
BHOSUS—Utauk prospector found dead on the Plain of Black Glass.
BIRCH—Kollanan’s grandson, taken from the frostwreth destruction of Lake Bakal and kept by Queen Onn as a pet.
BLACK EELS—elite Isharan assassins, capable of magic and shape-shifting.
BLUEWATER RIVER—one of the two main rivers in the Commonwealth.
BOLAM—older brother of Conndur and Kollanan, destined to be konag but died of a fever during the Isharan war.
BRAVA—mixed-blood race of wreths and humans, sworn defenders of the Commonwealth.
BURDON DIN ORR—one of Shella din Orr’s grandnephews.
CADE—one of Mandan’s vassal lords in Osterra. He keeps Isharan prisoners in his holding, forcing them to harvest saltpearls. Elliel served him as Brava, and he raped her.
CAPTANI—highest rank in the hawk guard.
CEMI—young street girl chosen by Empra Iluris as her heir apparent.
CERUS—one of Kollanan’s vassal lords in Norterra.
CHETH—Brava woman, prisoner in sandwreth labor camp.
CLEFF—mayor of Yanton.
COMMONWEALTH—the three kingdoms of Osterra, Suderra, and Norterra, ruled overall by the konag, enemy of Ishara.
CONNDUR—former konag of the Commonwealth and king of Osterra, father of Adan and Mandan, murdered on Fulcor Island by Utho, but blamed on the Isharans. Also called Conndur the Brave.
CONVERA—capital city of Osterra and the Commonwealth.
CRICKYETH RIVER—one of the two main rivers in the Commonwealth.
CRONIN—former konag, father of Conndur and Kollanan.
DAKA, EMPRIR—emprir of Ishara, father of Iluris, fell to his death from a high tower window.
DAR—ancient frostwreth warrior who attacked and injured Ossus.
DONNAN RAH—Utauk courier and spy.
DONO—ur-priest in Serepol.
DRAGONSPINE MOUNTAINS—rugged mountain range that separates Osterra from Norterra and Suderra. The dragon Ossus is purported to live deep beneath the peaks.
DRONE—bluntly formed servant creatures created by the frostwreths.
ELCIOR, CAPTAIN—head of the Banner guards in Bannriya.
ELFAS—Suderran military advisor.
ELLIEL—Brava, bonded to King Kollanan, originally stripped of her memories by Utho and left to believe she had committed a great crime.
ELON—frostwreth mage.
EMIL DIN ORR—one of Shella din Orr’s grandnephews.
EMPRA—female ruler of Ishara.
EMPRIR—male ruler of Ishara.
ENNETH—child of Onn, brother to Koru, killed long ago in battle.
ERICAL—priestlord of Prirari.
FELLSTAFF—main city in Norterra.
FINEMAIL—tough, flexible metal armor worn by Bravas.
FRENIK—old manservant of Empra Iluris.
FROSTWRETHS—northern faction of the wreth race, currently ruled by Queen Onn.
FULCOR ISLAND—strategic island between the Commonwealth and Ishara, long contested. The site of a disastrous peace conference, where Konag Conndur was killed and Empra Iluris left severely injured.
GANT—Brava, bonded to Lord Cade.
GLIK—orphan girl among the Utauks, explorer, Penda’s adopted sister.
GLISSAND—Utauk trading ship.
GODLING—entity created from faith and magic by the Isharans.
GORAN—one of Mandan’s vassal lords in Osterra.
GRAO—child of Onn, brother to Koru, killed long ago in battle.
&nbs
p; GURA—frostwreth mage, died in his spellsleep chamber.
HALE ORR—father of Penda, Utauk tribe leader, grandson of Shella din Orr.
HAWK GUARD—elite personal guards of Empra Iluris, adopted by her as surrogate children.
HEADAN—sergeant in the Commonwealth army, part of Captain Rondo’s group of escort soldiers.
HEITH—Utauk navigator on the Glissand.
HETHRREN—barbarian clans from beyond the boundary of Tamburdin.
HOM—squire to King Adan.
IBER—one of Kollanan’s vassal lords in Norterra.
ILURIS—empra of Ishara, in a coma after a severe head injury during the battle on Fulcor Island.
INOD—sandwreth mage.
IRRI—frostwreth warrior, Queen Onn’s lover.
ISHARA—continent ruled by Empra Iluris, enemy of the Commonwealth.
IVUN—sandwreth mage, leader of the human prisoner camp.
JHAQI—daughter of Kollanan and Tafira, mother of the boys Birch and Tomko, killed by frostwreths at Lake Bakal.
KLEA—Brava assigned as new watchman of Fulcor Island.
KLOVUS—key priestlord of Ishara.
KOLLANAN—king of Norterra, brother of Conndur the Brave. Also called Kollanan the Hammer.
KONAG—the high king, leader of the entire Commonwealth.
KORU—daughter of Queen Onn.
KRESCA—early queen of the Commonwealth, credited with bringing the three kingdoms together.
KUR—the god of the wreths and creator of the world, who vanished and left them with the mission to destroy the dragon Ossus.
LAKE BAKAL—mountain lake and village, destroyed by frostwreths to create a site for their own fortress.
LASIS—Brava, bonded to King Kollanan.
LEGACIER—historian and scholar.
LENON—Suderran military commander.
LERAN—frostwreth warrior.
LERO—bully on the streets of Prirari.
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