by David Estes
To the south…
In the Burning Sea, Grey Arris and his sister, Shae, sail on The Jewel toward Pirate’s Peril, where they hope to uncover the truth of Shae’s mysterious connection to the pirate king from her dreams. As they approach the island, they are attacked by treacherous sea vampires called Drahma, but manage to survive the attack, though there are numerous casualties. The pirates capture them and they finally meet the pirate king, Erric Clawborn. He also bears a marking, a halfmark, which completes Shae’s marking. Before they can explore their power further, the Drahma attack the island. Their combined forces manage to defeat the vicious sea creatures, driving them back into the ocean. In the aftermath, Shae and Erric learn that they have the power to either destroy all the fatemarked, including themselves, or further strengthen the fatemarked of their choosing. They decide the latter, and the pirates set sail for Phanes…
In Phanes, a rebellion is brewing, with the Black Tears, Jai Jiroux, and Shanti Parthena Laude at its core. They seek to overthrow the Hoza brothers until Shanti learns that the new emperor, Falcon Hoza, is not a bad man. Jai also discovers a slave army, ten-thousand strong, trained from birth to fight for the empire and none else. The efforts of the rebellion come to a head when Falcon’s brothers, Fang and Fox, challenge him for the empire. In the ultimate betrayal, Fang kills Fox and then poisons Falcon. Just before Fang kills Falcon, Jai uses his justicemark to take control of the slave army and kill Fang. The slavers are overthrown, the slaves liberated, leaving the empire in a time of upheaval…
In Calypso, Roan Loren makes his way to Citadel, where he begins to study under the supervision of the scholar, Lady Windy Sandes. His goal: learn of the origins of the fatemarked and their purpose.
Simultaneously, the new empress, Raven Sandes, seeks to fight off the easterners, who continue to attack the Calypsian borders under the command of King Grian Ironclad. Angered, she agrees to a dragon attack on their capital, Ferria in the heart of Ironwood.
Roan tries to dissuade Raven of this course of action, and at the last moment she calls off the war. However, several of her dragonmasters rebel, attacking Raven and her allies and flying for Ferria. Her royal soldiers, the guanero, are killed, but Raven manages to survive. When she tries again to stop the attack, she watches as the ore-based Ferrian defenses wipe out all her dragons, their masters, and her soldiers…
To the east…
While the Calypsian assault continues, the Kings’ Bane appears. The deathmarked one has had his own problems: purposely infected by his friend and ally, Chavos the plaguemarked, he is weakened but not defeated. He pretends to try to kill Gareth Ironclad to gain the attention of Roan Loren, but both Raven and Roan intervene. Bane manages to use his power to transport Raven back to Calypso, where she is taken captive by her aunt, Lady Viper, who has usurped the throne in her absence…
Bane also transports Roan to a place of darkness and silence, where he tries to convince the Peacemaker to join him. Roan rejects him, however, and goes back to Citadel to continue his studies, where he learns the answers he seeks are in the decimated nation of Teragon…
Angry and alone once more, Bane decides the only path to peace is for the Four Kingdoms to be united under one ruler:
Him.
IN DEATHMARKED…
To the north:
After defeating the sellswords known as the Brotherhood and retaking Castle Hill, Queen Annise Gäric decides an ally is exactly what the north needs. That ally is Crimea, but when she receives no response to her letters, she decides to meet with King Streit in person. The journey to Crimea is long and taxing, but that’s not the worst of it: upon arrival, Annise and her comrades are attacked by feral barbarians known as the Horde. Annise’s brother, Archer, is killed in the melee.
Annise soon learns that the Horde isn’t finished. They are sailing for the Four Kingdoms to destroy all things. Still in mourning, the northerners race back to Castle Hill to warn the rest of her people to flee toward the east before it’s too late…
At the same time, the soulmarked, Lisbeth Lorne, and her swordmarked paramour, Sir Dietrich, travel south in pursuit of the ancient army known as the Sleeping Knights. Time and time again, they are thwarted as they try to stop the knights’ killing, but at the penultimate moment in the Bloody Canyons Lisbeth is able to take her powers to a new level with the help of the halfmarked, Shae Arris and Erric Clawborn, killing the ancient army.
To the west…
When the truth of Queen Rhea Loren’s actions comes out, she’s overthrown by her cousin, Sai, and forced to march south into battle. Along the way, Gaia, another cousin, helps her escape so they can rescue Ennis, who is being held prisoner by the Phanecians. Pregnant and frustrated, Rhea eventually manages to escape during the fierce battle in the Bloody Canyons…
To the east…
Gareth soon learns that being king doesn’t mean you have friends. His decision to ally himself with the west turns Gwen against him. Hell-bent on revenge, Gwen travels to Calyp intent on killing every Sandes she can find. However, when she meets Raven Sandes in the fighting pits of Zunes, she has a change of heart, helping her and her sister, Whisper, escape with a little help from the last living dragon, Siri. They fly back to Calypso and fight to retake the empire from Raven’s aunt, Viper.
Meanwhile, Gareth Ironclad marches west and unites with the western army. The alliance pushes south into Phanes, eventually fighting both the Phanecians and Terans in a battle they barely survive…
To the south…
After nearly drowning, Goggin washes up on the Dreadnoughts, a chain of islands known for its rule: spill no blood. Goggin soon learns the value of this rule as he witnesses a monster growing from the earth after a single drop of blood is spilled. It gives him a mad idea, and when he manages to escape the islands, he takes a bag of sand with him, determined to help retake the dragon throne. When he eventually reaches Calypso during Raven’s rebellion, he unleashes the monsters hidden in the sand. The day is eventually won, with the traitors allying themselves with Raven and her friends to defeat both the monsters and Viper Sandes…
Fresh off their defeat of the sea creatures known as the Drahma back in Pirate’s Peril, Grey Arris and his merry band of pirates set sail for Phanes. The journey is without incident until they are attacked by the sea monster known as Wrathos, which Rhea Loren summoned months earlier. Grey Arris manages to kill the creature, but Erric Clawborn loses his leg in the process. Against all odds, they reach Phanes, march across the arid wasteland, and join the battle against the Phanecians, helping Falcon Hoza and his allies defeat the slavers…
In Phanes, Falcon Hoza must keep the peace as tensions between the previous Phanecian slave owners and the Teran ex-slaves grow hot. After Bane attacks and Falcon is saved by the rebel leader, Sonika Vaid, everything changes. The people are united and they march into war.
Jai Jiroux continues to struggle with his own demons as he uses his justicemark to control the Teran army. However, upon reaching the Bloody Canyons, he makes the drastic decision to release them from their burdens, a choice that almost proves to be disastrous. When Jai is defeated in battle by Bane, he offers the ex-slaves one final gift, something they have been deprived of their entire lives: free will. As he dies, the Teran army marches into battle in the nick of time, helping to overcome the Phanecians…
Finally, Roan Loren works with Windy Sandes and the scholar girl, Yela, to track Bear Blackboots, who Roan suspects is the ageless son of the Western Oracle. The trail takes them south, to Teragon, where they discover the shapeshifter digging out a hole which was once worshipped by the Terans before it was filled in by the Phanecians, who then enslaved them. The hole is known as Absence. Roan communes with the god, and finds himself speaking to the Western Oracle herself, who reveals a startling truth:
The Horde that is coming to usher in the Fall of All Things is led by Helmuth Gäric, once known as the Crippled Prince, returning to seek vengeance. And he is fatemarked, his black heart marred by
the mark of pain, given to him by the Western Oracle, who had planned it from the beginning, creating the most insidious threat of all in an attempt to force the Four Kingdoms to come together to survive.
Peace was her goal, but what she has created is the greatest war the land has ever known.
And now, the story continues…
PART I
Annise Helmuth Shanti
Gareth Bane Roan
Rhea Grey Tarin
Lisbeth Falcon Zelda
Christoff
“I shall do what I’ve been born to do. Rule. Protect the north. Improve the lives of our people.”
Archer Gäric, deceased
One
The Northern Kingdom, Gearhärt (Circa 532)
Annise Gäric
The bells had finally stopped tolling, dropping a curtain of eerie silence across the northern castle city of Gearhärt. Outside the city’s walls, hundreds of its citizens hid beneath the thick canopy of the forest.
Somewhere, a baby cried, and Annise prayed to the frozen gods that its parents would find a way to quiet it.
For they were being hunted. All of them.
“We must make our stand,” Tarin said, close by Annise’s side. His nearness, as always, was a comfort. She could see the familiar dark look in his eyes, one that spoke of raw power and unspent violence. She knew he would fight to the last breath if she asked him to. But she wouldn’t ask, at least not yet.
Remaining silent, she watched the city, searching for any indication that their enemy had breached the walls. Our enemy, she thought, extending the idea to all the Four Kingdoms. For the first time in their long history, each kingdom and empire had a common enemy, one that wanted to destroy them all. The Horde. The barbarian mountain tribes hailing from northern Crimea had been united by her very own uncle, Helmuth Gäric, a man she’d never even met. Once, he’d been a crippled prince. And now?
A pale shape appeared on the wall, using all four limbs as it moved with powerful strides. Then another. And another.
Screams arose from within the city bounds, as bright as sunlight on steel. My people, she thought. A knot formed in the pit of her stomach. Her mouth was suddenly dry.
She had tried to evacuate everyone.
But she had failed, just like she had failed Archer. She could not lose anyone else.
There would be a time to fight, she knew, but that time wasn’t now. It wasn’t fear that drove her decision, but the connection she felt to her people. “We must flee,” Annise said, the words tasting bitter in her mouth. They were prepared for this, hiding sufficient supplies for a long journey in the very wood in which they now sheltered.
“Annise—” Tarin started to say, but she cut him off with a steely stare.
“Your Highness,” she corrected. Yes, this was the man she loved, as familiar to her as wind to a bird’s wings, but in this moment she had to treat him like any other. “That was a command. Go!”
She saw the flash of indecision cross his face, but then he nodded and backed into the forest, motioning for several of the soldiers to follow him. She watched him leave, and she was glad to see his leg had finally stopped leaking blood. He still hadn’t told her how he’d injured it, but it was the least of her concerns.
She turned back toward the city, her breath catching at the sight. Amidst the hunch-backed barbarians stood a dark-cloaked man, standing upright, facing the forest. Though she knew she was well-hidden in the shadowy wood, she swore he was staring right at her. Crows wheeled about his head, cawing. Though the day had previously been clear, a dark, unnatural mist swirled about him. He held something aloft with one hand, a body garbed in armor. And Annise knew:
This was the scout from the tower, the one she’d met as he was ringing the bell. He’d stayed until the last. He’d paid the ultimate price for his loyalty.
With a great heave, the man she knew as her uncle, the Lost Son, the one the barbarians called Klar-Ggra, tossed the man from the wall.
Annise refused to turn away, though she desperately wanted to. Instead, she watched the body fall until it hit the ground, bouncing slightly before coming to rest. Broken.
The scout had died to save them. She had to make his sacrifice mean something. Just before she followed Tarin into the woods, she saw her uncle draw his thumb across his throat in a swift motion.
He knows I can see him, she thought, gritting her teeth.
Hundreds of refugees stole through the forest, and Annise hated that it had come to this.
Two
The Northern Kingdom, Gearhärt
Helmuth Gäric
Helmuth watched them go. Though he could not truly see his prey in the shadowy confines of the forest, he could sense the displacement of leaves and branches and air. He could feel their pain and fear too.
Succumb to it, he thought, and you shall be free.
It wasn’t true, he knew, for no one was ever free from the fear. Everyone had demons, and being haunted by them was akin to sleeping with snakes in one’s bed. Ever present, they wriggled and squirmed, and you never knew when they would bite you.
For Helmuth, returning to these lands was like waking up from a long sleep, and he could almost believe he was a boy again. His eyes would flash open, the final memories of a beautiful dream dying before his very eyes as sunlight streamed through his window. He would roll from his bed, ready to dance and run and fight foes by the hundreds, his preordained victory cheered by thousands of adoring citizens, who would throw hope flowers at his feet everywhere he walked.
It was always that first step that got him. The moment of joy would shatter as his knees buckled, his withered legs unable to hold even his miniscule weight. He would cry out as he fell, scraping his palms and bruising his knees. It was usually at that point that one of two things would happen: On a good day, little Zelda would burst through his door, locating his crutches and helping him to his feet before anyone was the wiser to his folly; but on a bad day, one of his brothers, typically Wolfric, would enter the room first, his voice full of scorn, his laughter carrying through the whole of the castle.
It was on the latter days that Helmuth’s demons took up personal residence.
But now his brother, the Dread King of the North, was dead.
And I am not.
He became aware of the gray mist billowing from the spot on his chest where the painmark burned, curling around his legs, his arms, his head. His own army shrank back from him, for they were no strangers to the effects of the smoke.
It was Helmuth’s turn to have the last laugh, even as he stood on two legs, a warrior and commander of the most feared force the world had ever seen. But he didn’t laugh. Did not even smile. No. There was work still to be done, and he would not laugh until he was drowning in the blood of his enemies.
His Horde was impatient, the sounds emanating from the backs of their throats like the snuffles of an entire pen full of hogs. But they would have to wait a while longer. For he had waited his entire life for this, and he would relish every moment, basking in the fear and pain of a world that had turned its back on him long ago. He’d never had a chance. And now, neither would they.
Run little squirrels, he thought. Run.
The Horde would eventually catch their prey. And then they would feast.
Helmuth turned to the south, gazing at the peaked forms of the snowy mountains, the only barrier between the north and the rest of the kingdoms. And cutting between them like a silver throat, the Snake River as it made its way through Raider’s Pass.
Something about it felt like the door to destiny.
He wouldn’t knock. No, he would kick it in.
Three
The Northern Kingdom, Two days later
Annise Gäric
Annise awoke in pieces. There was the child who played Snow Wars, outfighting the boys, ignoring their japes and taunts as she beat them into submission; there was the confused and angry young woman seeking escape and a new life; and there was the queen: strong, confid
ent, fearless. Which of these pieces was the truth?
All of them, she thought. I am all of them.
“It’s time to go,” Tarin whispered in her ear. One of his muscled arms was wrapped tightly around her, his knees pressed to the backs of her legs.
Despite only getting four hours of sleep, Annise was wide awake in an instant. Fear did that to a person. And though she feared not for herself, the fear of failing her people had driven her the last two days. On Annise’s orders, the refugees slept for only half the night to put as much distance between them and those that hunted them.
The Horde had not been spotted since that first day, when they’d left Gearhärt.
Now, Annise craned her head back at the same moment as Tarin leaned forward, their lips meeting in the middle. Stolen kisses, she thought. It was something at least. Their enemy haunted their footsteps, but they couldn’t haunt their hearts, not yet.
“I love you, Annise,” Tarin said, his voice husky. In another time, another place, she would’ve given her entire self to him in this moment.
But reality was a bony bedfellow. “I love you, too,” she murmured against his lips, before breaking away and shoving to her feet. They were already fully dressed, requiring only to step into their boots and then push through the flaps to their tent. Tarin wore makeshift armor pieced together from scraps of plate the blacksmith, Fay, had managed to scrounge up until she could construct a new suit worthy of the largest knight in the realm. The moment the cool night air hit her skin, several soldiers descended upon their tent and broke it down, packing it away for another long march.
