“You can rest assured knowing the crown is turning over every stone. We’ll find them,” Lord Randal said.
Pride nodded. “That’s good Niles. I’m confident Commander Renault will bring the pair to justice.” He picked up a wine glass and drew a sip. “Niles, what progress has The Order made finding the rings?
“For now we still don’t know the location of either ring Your Majesty,” Randal said.
Ronan’s ears pricked, but he hadn’t known of a second ring. His mother had never mentioned it.
“What about the ruins located at the inland swamp? I thought you were looking there.”
“We’ve searched the ruins but found nothing. Besides, Ambassador Finn’s work never pointed to that location,” Randal said.
“Ambassador Finn is one step removed from an animal. Ayralens can’t process information the same way as you and I. They’re brains are incapable of assembling information at that level. Why do you think the ambassador came to Meranthia to begin with? He needed our scholars,” Pride said.
The statement stunned Ronan. In the years he’d known Pride, he’d never said something so racist and inflammatory. How had he fooled his mother?
“I agree Your Majesty, but we shouldn’t discount his work. He may have stumbled upon information made available by ancient Meranthian researchers,” Randal said.
Pride’s brow furrowed, and he scratched his chin. “I suppose that might be possible. Has he given you any new information?” Pride said.
Rika’s hand shot to her mouth suppressing a gasp.
Ronan’s skin tingled with excitement. The news that Rika’s father lived might offer the adrenaline rush she needed to stay on her feet.
“Not yet but we’ll keep up the pressure,” Randal said.
“Did you ever locate his daughter?”
“No Your Majesty. We believe she’s either dead or fled to Ayralen.”
“I see. That’s too bad,” he said. “We could’ve used her as leverage.”
Ronan smiled at Rika and nodded.
Tears streaked her face, and she returned his smile with a crooked one of her own. She reached for his hand and squeezed.
“Niles, what’s the progress with the colonies?” Pride said.
“I’m pleased to report that they’re ready Your Majesty. We await your orders on how you’d like to proceed.”
“How many savages can we fit into each colony?” Pride said
“Ten thousand per colony Your Majesty. The southern colony will house the male of the species. The northern colony is for females and their offspring.”
Time stopped, and Ronan’s blood ran cold. Pride had lost whatever sense he’d once held.
“When are they old enough to breed? I don’t want any more of them running around. Elan knows we have enough of them already.”
Lord Randal cleared his throat. “They follow the same reproductive track as Meranthians Your Majesty. So, about fifteen years old.”
“Make sure you separate them as soon as their old enough. Let’s make it thirteen years. Better safe than sorry.”
“Yes Your Majesty. We do have some complications. As you know, some Meranthians have taken to interbreeding with the Ayralens. How should we handle that situation?”
“Round them up. Meranthian and Ayralen alike. Any Meranthian willing to breed with the savages is not welcome in this realm. Elan has expressed his extreme displeasure on this matter,” Pride said.
“We don’t have enough colonies for that number -”
Pride cut him off with a wave of his hand. “Then stack them together. It makes little difference to me. Maybe cramped conditions will help them find Elan’s light that much sooner. Regardless, you have my permission to proceed. Start with the Ayralen district. It’s time to reclaim our home.”
Ronan clenched his jaw, and he trembled with rage. In his wildest imagination, he’d never considered Pride capable of genocide.
Glassy-eyed, Rika stared straight ahead mouth agape. Blood dripped from her fingertips as her soaked tunic could hold no more blood. A moment later her eyes rolled back, and her legs trembled and gave out.
Ronan channeled his speed and burst toward her lunging to intercept her as she fell.
Rika collapsed, and her body pitched forward smashing into the wall.
His best effort fell short. He’d missed by an inch.
As her legs buckled, she slid down the wall and collapsed near the hidden door leading into the drawing room.
The hidden door exploded in a spray of shattered glass, stone, and wood. Shrapnel flew over Rika missing her by a razor’s margin.
Ronan, still imbued with speed, leaped away from the door, and debris bounced off his shard enhanced skin.
Blue spirit energy burst through the space once occupied by the secret door blasting into the stone wall behind Ronan.
Hot rage roared through every cell of his body as Ronan raised his leg and hammered the wall in front of him.
The drawing room’s wall groaned and burst apart. Rock and wood flew outward at blinding speed. Shrapnel collided with the spirit shield surrounding Pride igniting shimmers of blue and white energy. Tiny pieces of splintered wood burned away while stone and glass ricocheted at wild angles. The debris ripped apart furniture, shattered expensive glass vases, and shredded upholstery.
Ronan leaped through twisted wreckage rolling into a crouch in front of Pride. He stood and yanked his knife free of his belt sheath.
Pride’s mouth fell open, and his eyes went wide with shock.
With his knife held high, Ronan soared toward Pride traversing fifteen feet of empty air. He poured his strength into his arm, and plunged the blade into the spirit barrier surrounding the traitorous king.
Pride’s shield blazed in a torrent of light. Smoldering energy poured from the fracture caused by Ronan’s knife, but, unlike a battle knight’s shard blade, Ronan’s dagger melted on impact. Molten steel dripped and flowed across the sphere’s blue surface, and black smoke billowed as the stink of burned metal scorched the air.
Ronan sidestepped right as a wave of spirit magic unloaded from Pride’s outstretched palm.
Pride’s blast burned a hole in the expensive carpet and charred the wooden floor beneath where Ronan stood a moment earlier.
A half-dozen shard knights streamed from the paneled door standing open behind Pride. Shields sprang up surrounding Pride’s guards and Lord Randal.
Ronan gaped at the disaster unfolding around him. How had his plans unraveled so quickly? The dream of avenging his mother’s death died, as she had, by Pride’s hand.
Rika lay unconscious surrounded by a trio of shard knights. A detention shield appeared around her trapping her better than any prison cell.
Three other knights flanked Pride with two wielding shard blades.
“You should’ve used that fire to run away and save yourself.” Pride let out a deep sigh. “It didn’t have to end this way for you Ronan, but you’ve left me no choice. May Elan take mercy on your soul.” He motioned the guards forward. “Kill him.”
The battle knights sent a bright torrent of yellow spirit magic coursing through their shard blades and leaped toward Ronan with murderous intent.
Ronan hung his head and braced himself for the end.
A streaking blur of steel and light leaped across the drawing room’s wreckage. As the first knight closed in, a shard blade flashed, and his head disappeared from his shoulders skittering across the plush carpet. His headless body tipped sideways and dropped as the yellow energy inside his shard blade winked out. Yellow light escaped the corpse and concentrated into a chunk of living glass.
Patron Tyrell paused long enough to intercept the attack of the second battle knight.
The battle knight sliced his shard blade toward Tyrell, but the shard master dodged it and sidestepped in front of Ronan. Tyrell’s weapon hand split the air at inhuman speed slicing the attacking knight’s arm just above the wrist. The knight’s arm, still gripping his shard bl
ade, severed below the elbow and tumbled to the ground.
Ronan froze in shock unsure of what he’d seen.
“Ronan, we have to go right now. Leave through the back passage.” Tyrell dodged incoming energy attacks from Pride and the shield knight next to him.
Ronan shook off his daze and reached for Rika. “I can’t leave her Master Tyrell.”
“We can’t help her right now. We’ll die if we stay here.”
“I promised her. I won’t leave her with this murderer.”
“If we take her with us, she’ll die before we make it to the end of the hall. Now go!”
Three more shard knights entered the room behind Pride.
Ronan’s soul died as he stared with dark incomprehension at Rika’s unmoving body. “No!” He lunged toward her.
Tyrell grabbed Ronan’s collar and tossed him.
Ronan sailed past the shattered mirror and slammed into the stone wall.
Spirit attacks flew from knight’s extended palms as they tried to stop Ronan and Tyrell’s escape.
Tyrell dodged the incoming attacks with speed and quickness unrivaled by any battle knight in Meranthia. He jumped over piles of broken stone and splintered wood, grabbed Ronan by his collar, and pulled.
Rika’s body, laying still and motionless, grew smaller by the second as the drawing room faded from view.
Ronan’s stomach dropped, and panic gripped him. He fought against Tyrell’s grip but couldn’t muster the strength to overtake his master. He reached out for her and let loose a primal scream. “Rika!” He screamed her name again and again, but she never moved.
Moments later he recognized the bleak surroundings of The Shadow City and, a few minutes after that, Gulley’s tomb.
Tyrell reached behind Gulley’s sarcophagus and pulled a small lever. The massive stone coffin slid to the side revealing a stairway descending into the murky depths of the Shadow City.
Pain washed over Ronan’s brain. After two thousand years, Gulley had one last surprise.
The Heartwood
Danielle Deveaux surveyed the forest canopy from the observatory platform outside Assembly Hall.
The forest floor, hundreds of feet below, disappeared behind fifty-foot limbs bearing leaves as wide as a man’s arm. The rich green canopy extended hundreds of miles in every direction providing a sanctuary for thousands of exotic wildlife species across the Heartwood.
Her stomach churned. She’d found sleeping impossible and picked at her breakfast. Today, she faced the biggest test of her young life and could think of little else.
She ran through her speech for the hundredth time this week making sure she’d memorized every line. Thousands of lives hung on her ability to convince the Assembly to invade Meranthia.
“No matter what happens, I want you to know I’m proud of you.”
Danielle jumped letting loose a high-pitched shriek. “Papa, don't sneak up on me like that.”
The prime guardian of Ayralen, Connal Deveaux, wrapped his arm around his daughter’s shoulder and squeezed. “I waited until your lips stopped moving.”
She stretched on her toes and kissed her father on the cheek. “It’s okay. I’m a bundle of nerves. I’m sorry for snapping at you.”
“How do you feel about your speech?”
“I’d be more confident if I knew you stood with me,” Danielle said.
“Danielle, it’s not so easy. What’s left to say?”
“You still haven’t offered a good explanation.”
“Let’s just enjoy the morning. Can you dote on me like a loving daughter for a few minutes longer?”
A smile brushed Danielle’s face, and she leaned into her father. “I suppose I can do that.”
The sea of amber tinted heartwood trees swayed in time with a light breeze blowing from the eastern morning sky. Lush green treetops wavered with the air’s twisting currents bringing with it a hint of cinnamon unique to the Ayralen forest. In the next moment, the sun kissed the horizon casting a brilliant hue of orange light across the entire valley.
“I love the Heartwood this time of year,” Connal said. His gaze appeared distant and unfocused.
The last five years had aged Connal, but his gloom had deepened during the past few months. Danielle had tried reaching out to him, but he kept his worries bottled up not wanting to burden her with his problems. “Papa, tell me what you’re thinking,” Danielle said.
“Your mother loved the Heartwood Danielle. Did I ever tell you?”
He’d made few mentions of her mother, and less so in recent years. “No. I don’t think you have.”
“She’d rock you to sleep some evenings when the wind blew like this.” He stroked Danielle’s wavy golden hair and smiled. “When you were a newborn, you’d lay awake crying more interested in playing than rest. Your mother would pick you up and bring you out onto the deck. She’d snuggle with you in our old canopy swing and rock you listening to the wind sing in the trees. Then she’d sing while she rocked you, and you’d stop crying and listen to the sound of her voice.” Tears welled in his eyes. “I could listen to her sing for hours. You’d fall asleep, and she’d keep on singing. I never told her how much I loved her singing.” He paused for a moment as his eyes filled with regret. “I don’t know who loved her singing most.” Connal stared bleary-eyed into the swaying heartwood trees. “I think I did.”
Danielle’s chest tightened. She wished she could ease his pain. “I wish I could hear her sing again Papa. I wish I could remember her at all.”
“You look just like her you know.” He wiped the moisture from his eyes. “With your blond hair and blue eyes, and you’re every bit as headstrong.” Connal laughed.
“I wish she could give me some advice. Maybe she could force the assembly to act.”
At the observation deck’s far end, the door leading into Assembly Hall opened, and a page hurried toward Connal clutching a slip of paper.
“Good morning Arnes. Slow down before you keel over,” Connal said.
“Good morning to you sir.” He paused to catch his breath. “Mistress Colette asked me to bring this straight away.”
Connal’s eyes narrowed. “What’s wrong Arnes? What’s the hurry?”
“I don’t know sir. This note just arrived from a carrier pigeon, and she said you’d want to see it right away.” He handed Connal a sealed note.
“Thank you Arnes.” Connal’s brow furrowed as he examined the seal.
“Shall I wait for a return message sir?”
“No Arnes. Thank you.”
Arnes bowed and left the deck the same way he entered.
Danielle didn’t recognize the seal securing the note. A growling bear etched in red wax.
Connal broke the wax seal, opened the note, and scanned it for a few seconds.
“What’s wrong Papa?”
Connal’s mouth dropped open, and his brow furrowed as he stared with measured intensity at the message’s contents.
A silent alarm went off in Danielle’s head. She’d seen this reaction from her father on few occasions, but it meant the note carried a message of extraordinary importance.
He slumped onto a nearby wooden bench and stared into emptiness wearing a stunned expression.
“What did the note say?”
“He wouldn’t send this message on a whim, but it’s impossible.” Connal mumbled.
Danielle stared at the note clutched in his hand as her curiosity flared. “Who’re you talking about? What’s impossible Papa?”
A wide smile broke over his face. “He’s alive Danielle.” His voice resonated with a deep booming laugh that grew from a place of pure joy. “He’s alive.”
The Assembly doors opened, and a short round man with a thin oiled mustache stepped forward and bowed to Connal. “Monsieur Prime Guardian.” He turned to Danielle and bowed. “Mademoiselle Deveaux.” The assembly awaits your arrival.
“Thank you Julius. Tell Chairwoman Lord we’re on our way.” He tucked the note in his breast p
ocket. “We’ll talk about this later Danielle. It’ll take some explanation before it makes sense.”
Whatever the news, it made him laugh which eased a small part of her tension. Danielle smiled, reached up and fixed his collar. “I won’t let you forget.”
“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” A fresh spark lit the corner of his eye, and a few of the worry lines etched on his face faded before her eyes. Connal stood and strode into Assembly Hall.
Danielle let go a deep breath trying to calm her nerves and followed her father inside the massive heartwood tree.
Wardens carved Assembly Hall, as they did every building in the canopy, out of living heartwood. The tree stood three hundred feet tall, forty feet wide at the base, and had lived through countless generations of Ayralens. The wardens used shard magic to realize such astonishing growth and longevity. The magic inherent in wardens allowed them to form a unique bond that extended to every living plant on earth. Wardens could remove poison and cure disease present in any plant, and they controlled plants and trees of all shapes and sizes commanding them when necessary.
Inside the living hall a buzz of conversation filled the chamber. Skylights formed as living wood moved aside high on each side of the room. Warm light and cool air bathed the room in vibrant yellows and greens.
Danielle wore the mantle of the warden granted her by the Assembly on her fifteenth birthday. She’d taken the third nature shard, a powerful piece near Lora’s Heart, granting her potential rivaling any warden in the valley.
She knelt and touched the heartwood sending energy flows through its trunk. The tree vibrated in return, greeting her with its internal song.
“Good morning Isabelle,” she said with a whisper. Every heartwood tree bore its own unique personality. During her time in Lora’s Guard, Danielle made it habit to bond with every heartwood tree she met.
Danielle ambled through the assembly and found her seat. She ran through her mental notes waiting for the assembly chairwoman to bring the hall to order.
Assembly Chairwoman Diana Lord dropped the gavel on the lectern three times to signal the assembly to order. Hushed silence spread across the hall, and heads turned to face the dais. “Before I call the assembly to order, I’d like to welcome our special guest, Prime Guardian Deveaux. Thank you for joining us on this important day.” She set her gavel on the lectern and led the assembly in applause.
Shard Knight (Echoes Across Time Book 1) Page 11
