Divine Blood

by Beck Michaels

  “Yes,” she and Zev answered definitively.

  “Azeran’s uprising led to countless deaths,” he shot back. “By the time the war ended, most of Magos was rubble and ash.”

  “The mages fabricated their history,” she said. “The Archmage of the Orbis Age made sure only his account of the war was known.”

  The Prince glared at her across the fire. It crackled and popped, casting a swirl of embers. “Who told you such lies?”

  Dyna hugged the journal to her chest, and it responded in a warm current of energy. It was Azeran’s Essence but a part of her believed it held a piece of his spirit. The embedded magic was so gentle there was no denying what kind of person he was.

  She had only known a general account of the Lunar Mage and what had led him to defy the Magos Empire. It wasn’t until she read his journals that she learned much more about his courage and the cost he paid for freedom.

  “I have a coffer full of his journals chronicling his life during the war,” she said. “Magos is not the place you believe it is, Prince Cassiel. Perhaps now is not the time to speak of it, but Azeran’s deeds were for peace.”

  He was not convinced. The glint in his gaze was much harsher than it had been in Hilos. Dyna sighed. Nothing she said would change his mind. It was her word against an empire.

  “And yet there is a fact that negates your story,” Cassiel said after a pause. “Azeran had sired no children and he died during the war. You cannot be of his bloodline.”

  Zev said, “You witnessed her use of Essence.”

  “That can be explained.”

  “She’s not a witch,” Zev growled. The Prince rested a hand on his silver knife, and Zev’s eyes flashed yellow at the subtle threat.

  “Azeran survived,” Dyna said, drawing their attention back to her. “He and a handful of Lunar Guild Mages escaped Magos and founded North Star. We are their legacy.”

  She sat beside Zev, close enough to remind him he could harm her if he shifted. It was enough to calm his wolf and he settled again.

  “How do you suppose the Shadow has not laid waste to our village and made its way to Hilos?” she asked Cassiel. “It’s untarnished because a village elder cast the shadow demon back to the Netherworld at its first coming. My grandfather did so at its second coming, and then my father at its … third.” The word came out as a breathless utter.

  Zev gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. “They did so with magic, but the cost was their lives. Her father passed away before he could share the spell used to access the Gate.”

  Dyna looked up at the twinkling sky. The night the Shadow came, the village was in chaos as the people ran with their children. Her father told her to run so she did, but she wished she had stayed. She had gone over it in her mind several times, imagining different scenarios, questioning which one could have ended with the destruction of the Shadow instead of her family.

  “The spell would be useless in my hands,” she said. “Magic has nearly diminished in North Star. The first generation of Lunar Mages who founded the village were all in close relation, so their children took humans for life-mates when it came time to marry. As did their children and so on. Within each generation, their magic dwindled.”

  The scowl faded from Cassiel’s face.

  “The preservation of magic within bloodlines is a delicate thing,” she continued. “This is why the Magos Empire forbids mages to marry outside of their race, including outside of their guilds. In my generation, the ability to wield magic and cast spells is nearly gone. However, Essence remains. My family is one of the few remaining in the village who can wield it.”

  The Prince sat against a tree and propped his elbow over his bent knee. “I suppose that is how you revealed the enchanted map?”

  Dyna nodded; glad he was listening at least.

  “And in the forest…” He stared at her intently, his wings tucking close against his back.

  The firelight caught on the plumage at the apex of each one. His feather she’d found had fueled her Essence when she needed to defend herself against Captain Gareel. The green fire was not something she could muster on her own, and not something she would ever experience again by the way Cassiel reacted when she attempted to touch another feather. But it was expected after what his people had suffered.

  “Azeran had many secrets and held a vast knowledge of powerful spells,” Dyna said, breaking eye contact first. “He encrypted the journals for only his descendants to inherit. They are sired to me now.” She patted the journal on her lap. “If I’m separated from this one, the map vanishes. It’s the warding spell he put in place.”

  Cassiel gave Zev a deadpan look. “Am I to believe that you can wield Essence as well?”

  Her cousin snorted. “I cannot. There are others in the village who can but not many can wield it like Dyna, and possibly her sister with some training.”

  “Why your family?”

  She shrugged. “I suppose it could be because the Astron bloodline contained significant power or because my family continued to practice with it. Azeran had an affinity for healing magic, which he called Essence Healing. The knowledge of how to perform it has been passed down over the generations. We apply it in our trade as Herb Masters.”

  Zev gave her a half-smile. “Perhaps one day you’ll see it, Cassiel. It’s a wonder.”

  The Prince didn’t dispute their claim to the Astron line any further, but his doubt, however lessened, remained apparent.

  “Essence is the extent of my abilities and it’s not potent,” she said. “This is why I need the Sunstone. My power alone is not enough.”

  Cassiel looked down at his sword, almost thoughtful. “Well, then we must form a plan.” He held out a hand for the journal, beckoning with his fingers.

  She went to him readily, excited to learn what he could share. She tucked her dress around her legs and kneeled beside him. Her arm brushed against the edge of his wing and he flinched away from her.

  “Your pardon,” Dyna mumbled. The silky feathers had left a tingle on her skin. She opened the journal to the section of the map before passing it to him.

  Cassiel’s amazement was barely contained as he studied every detail. “The best way to Mount Ida is through the Xián Jīng Dynasty on the west coast, but not on foot. We must sail. The ships that go directly to Xián Jīng are the merchant ships from Dwarf Shoe.”

  “Dwarf Shoe?” Dyna asked, intrigued.

  “The free state of the dwarves.” He traced the outline of the state on the map, his fingertip shimmering where he touched the page. It did indeed have the shape of a shoe.

  Dwarf Shoe laid northwest, separated from the Azure Kingdom by the Saxe Sea, a strip of water that cut through the eastern continent of Urn like a chip in a cup. It’s what gave the blue kingdom the moniker Urn’s Chip. Azure was connected to the rest of the continent by a thin bridge of land on the north coast.

  “Are we to cross the isthmus?” Zev asked.

  Cassiel smirked. “Not unless you wish to be devoured alive.”

  Dyna’s eyes widened. “What?”

  “The map is outdated in terms of territory. There was once a town on the isthmus called Azurite, but the Azure Kingdom surrendered its dominion there once swamp trolls infested it fifteen years ago. The isthmus is now known as the Troll Bridge.”

  “Oh!” she and Zev replied together. She shuddered at the thought that they wouldn’t have discovered it themselves until it was too late.

  “We will reach Dwarf Shoe by sailing from the Port of Azure.” Cassiel pointed out the seaport city on the map. It lay past the Zafiro Mountains, on the northeast end of the Saxe Sea. “The journey will take a little over a fortnight on foot, should travel go smoothly. Less if we take a caravan from Corron. There are always traders traveling along the central road to the west ports. If we join one of the caravans, it will take us directly to the Port of Azure and save us a week of travel.”

  Dyna nodded eagerly. “I like that plan.”

  “We wi
ll stop in towns along the way to replenish our fares when needed.”

  “Landcaster is the first town we’ll cross,” Zev said. “It’s a small farm town that lies about ninety miles from here.”

  Cassiel snapped the journal closed, dissipating the purple glow of the map. “Right, best get our rest. We leave at first light.”

  He returned to his tree and Zev added more wood to the campfire. Dyna laid out on her bedding with a happy sigh. As much as the Prince was guarded, she was glad for his company on this quest. She didn’t feel so unprepared now that he was with them. Perhaps it meant everything would be all right.

  Chapter 17

  Cassiel

  Cassiel suppressed a groan when Dyna stopped, once again, to pick another measly plant. Balancing on her heels, she crouched by a patch of dark red grass and pulled out a handful of the long stems with the leaves and roots intact. Her deft fingers quickly tied them together with twine before storing them in a burlap pouch. Then she took out a small bound notebook from her satchel and scribbled something down.

  Shafts of afternoon light streaming through the branches shone in a scarlet nimbus around her bowed head. Tiny creases formed between her brows as she bit her lip in concentration. The corners of her mouth lifted in a faint smile as it always did when she studied the flora. Whenever she shared her knowledge on their uses with him, her voice spiked an octave with excitement. Plants made her happy for whatever reason.

  “If you were not aware, your constant stopping to pick another weed is delaying our journey by the day,” Cassiel said. “We need to reach Landcaster soon to replenish our fares.”

  He’d been too ambitious to estimate it would only take a fortnight to reach the port. They couldn’t fly like him, and she certainly couldn’t move as fast as her brute of a cousin. This excursion may take twice as long as he thought. And sailing to the island will take weeks if not months. He most certainly won’t return for the better part of a year.

  “Please excuse the inconvenience, Prince Cassiel,” Dyna said as she wrote another line in her notebook. “It is necessary for healers to carry adequate medicine.”

  Medicine for whom? With his regenerative abilities, he never fell ill. The fatal injuries for Celestials were those sustained to the heart or the head.

  “And what, pray tell, is the use for grass?” He asked because she would tell him regardless if he cared to know.

  She stood and put away her items. “Phyllon roots are good for pain and steeping the leaves can induce sleep. I’ll make a soporific for Zev tonight. He’s been having trouble sleeping.”

  At the reminder, Cassiel searched their surroundings for any streak of black among the greenery. “The beast has wandered off again.”

  Dyna frowned. “Zev is patrolling. He’ll find us when it’s time to make camp.”

  Since the night at Lake Nayim, the were-beast had shapeshifted into a wolf and remained that way. He spent most of his time out of sight in the forest as they traveled, coming to check on Dyna throughout the day. At night, Zev waited until she fell asleep before he sauntered off to do whatever animals do. Cassiel hadn’t been able to sleep well knowing he roamed free.

  The were-beast must be going mad. It would explain the strange behavior but Cassiel didn’t know him well enough to say.

  An Other, the Pack had called him. They couldn’t have been referring to his ability to shapeshift at will during the day. Whatever Other meant, the Pack feared him. It was obvious the Alpha had planned to have him killed in the glade because of it. But Zev had arrived at Lake Nayim alive with grave wounds and vague answers.

  How had he survived against so many werewolves? The creatures were massive. Deadly. Survival should have been impossible, and Cassiel doubted the Alpha let Zev go free.

  So, after Dyna and Zev fell asleep that night, he had flown back to the glade to investigate.

  “He’s not right …” Cassiel stopped from saying more. What he had seen was too gruesome to tell Dyna.

  “Your cousin has been a wolf for two days,” Cassiel said instead. “He may have already fallen into the Madness.”

  Dyna shook her head, expression wistful as she gazed at the tree branches swaying in the gentle breeze. It passed over her, fluttering her tresses and ends of her sage dress. “Zev will shift back when he’s ready.”

  Ready to face what he had done went unsaid.

  There was no way for her to know what happened in that glade, but Cassiel suspected she knew. He had thought her a foolish rube with nonsense in her head, but she proved far more intelligent than he assumed. He supposed she had to be intelligent to become a healer.

  Dyna continued onward. “How much longer until we reach Landcaster?”

  Cassiel picked up his pack where he had left it perched by the log and took out the enchanted journal. He flipped to the section of the map but the page was blank. He glowered at her back as she passed through a gathering of ferns. They had tested how far she could be away from the map without it disappearing, and a mere twenty paces was the limit.

  When she had first revealed the map in his father’s study, he hadn’t stopped to think about how she came by it. He had assumed she found it, not that it had been passed down in her family.

  Was there any truth to what she said about her lineage? A human wielding trueborn magic was unbelievable. Though that would explain how she could harness it.

  Cassiel caught up to Dyna, holding out the journal. She said the passphrase and the blank page flashed with light as the map reappeared. It had occurred to him the other night that those words were of the native language of the mages before they became accustomed to speaking Urnian. Tellūs, lūnam, sōlis translated to Earth, moon, and sun—respectively, representing the three Guilds that pillared the Magos Empire.

  “We are not far from Landcaster. We should arrive by tomorrow morning,” Dyna said, studying the glowing page with a soft smile. She looked up and the sunlight graced her eyes, the striking, vibrant green color glimmering with flecks of gold. “Have I astonished you again, Prince Cassiel?”

  He quickly looked away, realizing he was staring. “I’m not quite convinced you’re not a witch.”

  But he had already accepted that she wasn’t. After he had time to think about it, he recalled having already seen her soul, and it was not marred by dark magic. That was proof enough.

  Dyna’s eyebrows lifted in response. “Are you teasing me?”

  He cleared his throat, resuming their hike. “I cannot deny you have use of magic.”

  She followed on his heels. “I don’t have enough power to do much with it, and it’s difficult to use.”

  Cassiel said nothing else as their footsteps crunched over fallen leaves and forest debris. He sensed her invitation to converse, then heard her sigh when he ignored it.

  They reached a steep hill layered in wet moss and stacked rock which he used to climb up. “From what I’ve learned, magic can grow with continuous use,” he commented. “Is it not similar to training your body and mind?”

  Dyna climbed up behind him. “Well, yes. The more it’s used, the stronger you become and the more magic you can wield—” She slipped on a patch of moss, and he caught the back of her dress before she landed on her face.

  He rolled his eyes and hauled her upright. “Watch your step.”

  She muttered her thanks and followed after him, taking his exact path. “Everyone has a limit and using too much magic can deplete it.”

  “Essence regenerates itself,” he countered.

  “True. The elves and the fae draw Essence from nature, but the mages draw it from themselves. It’s their life force.”

  Cassiel remembered that from his lessons. He didn’t care to listen to his teachers when they droned on about boring subjects, but magic had been one of the interesting ones.

  “Therefore, using copious amounts of magic all at once and completely depleting their Essence is fatal,” she said. “Without it, they cannot survive. So, mages train their Essence to grow in
strength and quantity, but that too has its limitations. Not all can wield endless amounts of Essence.”

  He leaped up onto another boulder and glanced over his shoulder to check on Dyna’s progress. She had fallen behind. Her short legs could not make the jump to him, and he wasn’t inclined to take her hand when it meant exposing her soul again.

  When he didn’t offer his help, she searched the hill for another foothold. She grabbed a thick vine and tested to see if it would hold her weight. That made him feel like a lout. He held out his hand, but she ignored it. The vine went taut and held as Dyna hauled herself up the hill, using exposed roots and boulders as footholds. He watched her climb, mildly impressed that she made it to the top without slipping again.

  She disappeared from view for a moment then popped her head over the edge, smiling down at him. “Coming?”

  He smirked. With one flap of his wings, he soared the rest of the way up and landed beside her. “Would it be fatal for you should you expend all of your Essence at once?”

  She shrugged, biting her lip. “Possibly, but I am not a trueborn sorceress.”

  “Sorceress?”

  “A female mage.”

  Cassiel frowned at the odd term. He had not heard it before. As he thought of it, there was no mention of female mages in his studies of the Magos Empire. It was stated that only the men used magic. But she could use magic, so how…

  Eh, he wasn’t in the mood to argue about it. He nodded for them to keep walking. They eventually came upon a brook cutting through the forest. It was shallow, only a couple feet wide.

  Dyna stopped to take a drink and refill their waterskins. “Whenever I use too much Essence, I’m left fatigued, and I may faint. I’ve trained to develop my strength further, but something hinders me, as though I’m running with shackles on my ankles. My power won’t ever be as potent because of my human heredity. It is difficult for me to harness Essence, but I’m grateful that I can do anything with it at all.”

  She held up a hand and her fingertips glowed a faint green before the light faded. From what he remembered the manifestation of Essence took on the color of auras. It fit perfectly that her aura was green. It was a color that represented healing and a connection to nature.