The Xenoworld Saga Box Set

by Kyle West

  I held on tightly with my legs while Shara wrapped her hands around my torso. It reminded me of when I first flew on a dragon, because she held on far too tightly.

  And the dragons backed away, and with a spread of wings, soared off the Tower. It took longer than it should have for them to slow their descent and begin to climb in altitude because of the weight they bore.

  Shara’s grip tightened, her nails digging into my flesh.

  “It’ll be all right,” I said. “They won’t let you fall.”

  I looked back at the broken Tower to see, to my surprise, that a bright light now shone from its spire, marking a straight line up into the dark sky. Wherever we had been before this and after the Hyperfold...it had done something to light that Beacon.

  And it had also killed Isaru.

  Forgive me.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

  BY THE TIME WE REACHED the rim of the Crater, known in the time of Hyperborea as the Ragnawall, the Radaska behind us had turned back, as if barred. Or perhaps even they didn’t want to follow us into the wasted lands of the north.

  It was dark, and the ground below impossible to see. I closed my eyes and fell into a fitful sleep. I was only woken by the pale sunrise, which failed to impart any warmth.

  When I looked at the land below, it was completely obscured in a thick veil of fog. I would have thought we were flying above the clouds, if it weren’t for the fact that I could see the tops of twisted trees every now and again.

  Shara, too, was awake, and was still latched onto me as if she would never let go.

  “You don’t have to hold on so tight,” I said. “You won’t fall.”

  I felt her grip lighten. “Sorry.”

  Her hold loosened, slightly, and there was a soreness on my torso from where she’d grabbed on. I massaged the feeling back into my muscles there.

  Elder Isandru concentrated on the journey ahead. There was nothing to see, however, but more fog. And as the sun rose higher, that fog didn’t dissipate. It merely glowed brighter, looking altogether unnatural. I looked over at Elder Tellor’s dragon. Isa’s eyes were closed, but she still held onto Isaru tightly; a sign that she was awake. Both dragons flapped their wings steadily with no signs of tiring.

  I couldn’t bring myself to speak. The pain of everything was beyond description. He had been alive just minutes ago. If I had just grabbed the Orb before he did, in the beginning, then he would still be alive.

  “It’s all my fault,” I said. “I could have stopped it.”

  Shara hugged me, but that just made me break down even more.

  And to my surprise, Isandru reached a hand back, gripping my arm tightly. I couldn’t have said, but he might have been crying, too.

  “How did you know where to find us, Elder?”

  It was a moment before he spoke. “Isa sent us a letter from Northold, disclosing what you intended to do.”

  “She...did?”

  “It found me late, but it did come. I was unable to track you from Colonia, so I returned to the Sanctum in the hopes of finding news. As soon as I read that letter, Elder Tellor and I were flying dragons north. We had hoped – and expected – to find you west of the mountains. But as we continued to fly, it was clear you had gotten much further.”

  There was a silence after that – a silence that signaled that Isandru was not ready to speak. Not yet.

  I turned to look at Shara. “How are you feeling?”

  “I feel back to normal. I think whatever happened in there...” I realized she wasn’t sure she should mention, in front of Isandru, that we had been in the Hyperfold. “I think I’m cured now. At least, I feel like I am.”

  A bit of good news, then. I needed every bit of that I could get.

  “Do you think it will last?”

  “I...think so. If I can just stay away...” Again, she looked at Isandru. “As long as I keep myself clean, I shouldn’t get sick again.”

  Aether might cause her to go back, then.

  “Even now, I’m thinking about it,” she said. “I feel empty, like everything will be better if I just try it. I know what it will do to me, but still...it’s there, like a promise. A false promise.”

  “Do you have it with you now?”

  Silence. And, then, very quietly: “It’s in my pocket.”

  “Drop it,” I said. “Just let it go entirely.”

  “Withdrawals can kill,” Shara whispered. “Chills, sickness...even death.”

  Part of me wanted to disagree with Shara, but I knew that she was right. Going cold turkey might endanger her.

  “Give it to me, then. If you need it, and it comes to that...I can give it back.”

  I thought Shara was going to protest, but she surprised me by handing me two vials.

  “Here,” Shara said. “Before I change my mind.”

  They were surprisingly small, bright and glowing. I grabbed the vials quickly and pocketed them.

  “Is that everything?”

  “All of it.”

  I nodded. “Good. I’m not letting you go back to the way you were. That’s a promise I intend to keep.”

  I waited for her to respond, but she didn’t say anything. I hoped that silence was agreement.

  “The fog is clearing up ahead,” she said, at last.

  I looked to see that she was right. The fog did seem thinner where three hills rose, shining gold in the morning light. As we neared, a large forest below became visible, covering the ground and the hills ahead in autumnal hues.

  “This has to be it,” I said.

  We flew past the hills until we came to a series of lakes, all shining pink in the morning light. It was more ichor than I had ever seen, and surrounding the lakes was more forest, from which rose Great Silverwoods that basked in the morning light. And ahead was the largest tree I had ever seen, a tree that grew in the center of the three largest lakes, rising for what seemed to be miles into the sky, and from branch to branch flew dragons, small with distance.

  “It exists,” Isandru said, his voice wondering. “It really exists.”

  I was about to respond, when a voice entered my mind.

  Welcome home, Anna. We have waited so long for your return.

  It was an old, yet familiar voice...one which I myself didn’t know, but Anna did.

  Quietus?

  You remember. Come then, into the trees. There is much we have to speak of.

  I don’t know why, but I broke down and wept all over again. It felt like I was hearing the voice of a dear friend for the first time in years, even if I couldn’t exactly remember everything about that friend. So many things that had seemed clear in the Hyperfold were suddenly fading again, although I remembered talking about them. The Radaskim. Xenofall.

  I couldn’t save him, Quietus. It’s just like how I couldn’t save...

  Peace, Shanti, Quietus said. I felt surprise at hearing my own name. The one called Isaru is not dead, but he is in grave danger. He must be brought to me and the Elders without a moment’s delay. I have instructed the Askaleen you fly on where to find us.

  Isaru wasn’t dead?

  But he was so cold, with no heartbeat...how could that be?”

  He must be healed by us. Make no mistake; he very well could die, but do not lose hope.

  Isaru was not dead. I could almost weep for joy, even if Quietus had said he still could die.

  “He’s alive,” I said. “Isaru’s alive!”

  I had practically shouted it, so loud that Isa was now looking at me as if I were crazy.

  “What do you mean, Shanti?” Isandru asked.

  “It’s true! Quietus has just spoken to me. She says he’s alive!”

  “Quietus?” Isandru asked.

  “Just now, in my mind. But she also says that he is still in danger. The dragons are leading us to her now.”

  Elder Isandru’s eyes were questioning, but he soon nodded. “Let us hope, then.”

  Even if Isaru was still in danger. When there was hope, anything wa
s possible. There was a reason to keep going.

  If he died on us now, after everything...I could never forgive myself.

  “Come on,” I said. “Almost there. Please, Isaru...stay alive.”

  FROM THE AUTHOR

  I’d like to take a moment to humbly beseech you for a review. If you enjoyed this bundle, I’d be much obliged if you rated and reviewed it on the website you bought it from.

  Reviews are very important to independent authors like me. It helps me compete with bigger publishers who have much deeper pockets (who often sell their eBooks for $12.99 or more). If you’re reading this, it’s most likely because you stumbled across it by chance, or because someone else left a review. So, if you like my work and you have a free moment, please leave a review!

  Stay tuned for a preview of Xenoworld book 4, Sanctum. But if you’re already feeling generous and are sold on this series, here’s the store link.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Kyle West is the bestselling author of The Wasteland Chronicles and its successor series, The Xenoworld Saga. Each series is composed of seven books and contain altogether more than a million words. The books have entertained thousands of readers worldwide.

  From a young age, Kyle has always been a voracious reader of sci-fi and fantasy. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in Professional Writing. He lives in West Palm Beach, FL, with his wife and two cats, and has been writing full time for over five years.

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  ALSO BY KYLE WEST

  Post-Apocalyptic/Dystopian

  The Wasteland Chronicles

  Lost Angel (Prequel)

  Apocalypse

  Origins

  Evolution

  Revelation

  Darkness

  Extinction

  Xenofall

  Post-Apocalyptic/Fantasy

  The Xenoworld Saga

  Prophecy

  Bastion

  Beacon

  Sanctum

  Kingdom

  Dissolution

  Aberration

  SANCTUM SAMPLE

  CHAPTER ONE

  EVER SINCE WE ARRIVED AT the Hollow, also called by the dragons the True Hyperborea, Isa practically never left Isaru’s side. His condition remained much the same. When I told Quietus about how we had lost him in the transition from the Hyperfold to the real world, she said that she feared that a part of him had been left behind.

  If that was true, it would be difficult to get him back. It might even be impossible.

  For now, Isaru simply rested on a bed of xen in a small cave that opened onto one of the three hills making up the Hollow. Even in this hallowed place, there was little the dragons could do. Since he couldn’t eat, he was lowered into the ichor pool once a day. This normally would have been dangerous, but here in the Hollow, where the Elder Dragons still controlled the land, the ichor was not harmful. This allowed Isaru to get enough sustenance to maintain himself, even if his cheeks had hollowed. Aside from this, and being paler than usual, he had remained physically unchanged in the couple of weeks we had been here.

  While Isaru was in the pool, Quietus and several other Elder Dragons attempted to gain glimpses into his mind, searching for any possibility of healing him. Only, they could find nothing. It was as if his mind were a blank slate, or that his thoughts and dreams were entirely disconnected from the Xenofold. Quietus was greatly worried, and for that matter, so was I.

  She related all this to me while I related it to Elder Isandru and Elder Tellor. I couldn’t bring myself to tell Isa, at least the full truth, because I knew the news would crush her. It was already crushing me, and it was hard to hide that fact from her. My greatest fear was that Isaru couldn’t be healed. If that were the case...I didn’t know what we would do.

  I couldn’t stop myself from thinking the worst thoughts. What if he was like this for the rest of his life, nothing more than a body? I thought the dragons would be able to heal him, but so far, they were as much in the dark as the rest of us.

  Though things were quiet, it was hard to feel any sort of relief. While we were able to eat and sleep as much as we wanted, it was against the backdrop of being constantly worried about Isaru. In the Hollow, there were miles upon miles of groves growing any sort of fruit or vegetable imaginable, and there was all the fish we wanted from the plentiful lakes and streams in this paradise. In fact, the fish were so numerous that in the shallower pools, we could grab all the ones we wanted bare-handed after just a few minutes’ work.

  It wasn’t as if I had been completely idle;. Elder Tellor had taken it upon himself to train me in the ways of the sword. At the very least, when I found Silence and was engaged in a duel, I could be free of worry. Elder Tellor accepted who I was; Isandru had told him most of the details while on their own quest to find Isaru and me. Tellor still had a lot of questions, and it took a long time for Isandru and me to explain everything to his satisfaction. Once the story was told in full, he made the choice to fully accept it, even if it seemed incredible. He reasoned that Elder Isandru’s prophecy had come true – that Anna had returned before the Elder died.

  At the same time, though, he wanted me to prove myself with not just words, but action.

  He did this by testing how far Anna’s swordsmanship could go. We began our training with me going through each form and all the sequences I knew. This easily took the better part of the first day. He emphasized that I should do what felt most comfortable or right, the purpose for which he only told me later, once my demonstration was complete. By the time I was finished, he stood and thought for a while, until I asked him why he wanted me to do this. He answered by confirming that most of the forms and sequences had never been seen in actual practice or in text, supporting his theory that the forms Anna and the first Seekers knew were different than the ones used in modern times.

  For Tellor, this was a different kind of evidence. He even mentioned that when he had seen my dueling at the Spring Tournament that he was jarred by my movements, and that many other Champions were similarly thrown off. The fact that my forms were more primitive, yet still in accordance with the basic precepts of each of the eight forms, was another proof to him of my identity, especially considering that no seventeen-year-old Initiate should be able to execute them.

  While one might think that the forms Anna developed were superior simply by virtue of who she was, this was not exactly the case. Tellor, over the next few days, went on to show me how many of my sequences were inefficient, and how they had been improved on over the centuries. Even if Anna developed the forms the Seekers still use today, the Seekers still had several hundred years to perfect them.

  However, when I tried to follow his corrections, they felt unnatural to me. Something told me that Anna had made these forms the way they were for a reason. There were movements that seemed unnecessary on the surface, but they felt right to do anyway for balancing purposes. It took me a week to realize it, but over the centuries, the forms had evolved to become more efficient against human opponents, while the original forms had been designed to work against non-human opponents, namely Radaskim monsters, the most common of which were crawlers. When Elder Tellor mentioned that the old forms made a resurgence during the Mindless Wars over a century ago, those dots finally connected.

  Perhaps I was just feeling a bit of Anna’s ownership over the forms, because when Elder Tellor criticized them, it felt as if he were picking at something that I myself had created.

  Then again, Elder Tellor was probably right, because every time the old forms were pitted against the new, he beat me without breaking a sweat. Even I knew that it wasn’t just a question of old versus new; it was a question of Tellor’s amazing skill, developed over thousands upon thousands of hours of practice over the years.

  And learning from the Elder Champion was an amazing opportunity. He taught me advanced techniques, like how to hold Silence longer without completely burning my
self out. When he noticed how mentally fatigued I became when using more energy-intensive forms, Tellor taught me how to “burn” them more slowly. In fact, that was how the Champions described it. Silence was a mental resource, just as much as physical strength, that burned for as long a Champion was holding it to aid him or her in battle. It could be increased by training, or the rate of burning could be slowed during the lulls of battle, much like ceasing motion in order to catch one’s breath. He said once I’d mastered the control of my burn rate, I could easily use Battletrance for twice as long as before. The more I practiced, the more my connection to the Xenofold would grow, allowing me to last even longer.

  Practicing the sword was only a temporary escape. At least once a day, I tried to convince Isa to leave Isaru’s side and find something else to focus on. Those conversations were more like monologues. She wouldn’t even eat unless I brought her meals, which she would take in silence while leaving plenty of leftovers. It was as if she believed she had no right to see to her own needs when Isaru’s situation was so unclear.

  As far as Shara, she was struggling with the lack of Aether. A few days after getting to the Hollow, she had gotten sick with a terrible fever, complete with hallucinations and violent shaking. The dragons did what they could to ease her transition back to the real world, but she being non-Elekai, they could do little but give her ichor-based medicines that would wean her off her Aether addiction. The medicines seemed to work, because by the time a week had passed, she became lucid, and her craving for Aether had greatly subsided, if not completely vanished. Isandru also taught her a meditation technique that would help curb the cravings.