War of Men

by Rhett C. Bruno

  In Sora’s body, Nesilia could have frozen the lake and walked across, but in her new one, she didn’t need to. The world plied to her needs. She had worthy followers now. A wianu’s tentacle bubbled to the surface and held flat for her at the edge of the water. She stepped onto it, then forward, and another rose to take its place in her path.

  “Thank you, my pet,” she said to the wianu. “The fallen ones can’t hold you prisoner any longer. You can finish the task for which you were made.”

  All the way across the lake, the wianu helped her along. She could see the water stirring all around as more arrived from the Far North, free of the broken Citadel and the damnable upyr who’d used her creations for their own sinister means. They were the greatest threat to her in Pantego, and now they were finished, thanks to Whitney Fierstown’s rashness and Kazimir’s softened heart.

  The wianu tentacle slithered up the coast of the Red Tower’s lonely isle and delivered Nesilia to the gate. The oversized hunks of iron remained locked, but the tentacle reached into the space between them, then another, until they pried it open.

  Aihara Na appeared in the entry, electricity crackling at her fingertips. She seemed weaker than ever, barely corporeal, after allowing Kazimir to defeat her. Nesilia could see precisely how it happened now, through Sigrid’s memory.

  Pathetic.

  “You!” the old mystic growled. “I won’t be beaten again!” Electricity seared forward. Nesilia extended a hand, the energy surged in her palm, then faded to a spark.

  Aihara Na’s eyes widened. “Impossible. Only your master could be so strong and he—”

  “Is dead, you imbecile,” Nesilia hissed. “It appears my faith in you was misplaced. You can’t even recognize me, let alone protect my will.”

  The wianu pushed the doors open until they slammed against the inner walls. Nesilia strode in, and Aihara Na’s spectral form soared up beside her.

  “My Lady, Nesilia, it is you,” she said. “Your new body—”

  “Will suffice for now,” Nesilia said.

  “So, the upyr have finally been destroyed. Those meddlesome pests—”

  “Defeated you,” Nesilia finished for her. “The most powerful mystic left. Maybe, the only one left. I think I overestimated your part to play in this. Already, your new order is broken.”

  Aihara Na swooped before her. “I was betrayed. An acolyte under my tutelage opened the Well for them. One I thought was gifted. He’s no longer with us.”

  “Show me.”

  “I’m afraid... there isn’t much left of him to show.”

  “Not him!” Nesilia boomed. She knew the fate of the one named Kai, fed on by the very body she now inhabited. “Show me the Well.”

  “I… Yes, of course. Right this way.”

  Aihara Na led her across the hall, splotches of blood from her battle with Kazimir still staining the floor. Nesilia had trusted Aihara Na’s strength, but it was obvious now she should have left the Ancient One with help. Freydis was a far more worthy second, fighting the upyr without fear or hesitation.

  They descended the stairs, passed the training room. Nesilia peered in. Rows of her slaves stood, younger than the last batch she’d left Aihara Na with before sailing North. Their arms were gashed from blooding, learning how to draw on the magic of Elsewhere. With the last bar guai having shattered in the Citadel, they’d be forced to do so unaidedly.

  “I’ve been training a new generation of mystics,” Aihara Na said. “The intrusion was a minor setback, but these new ones... they are truly gifted. Plucked from their homes throughout the city.”

  “They don’t look it,” Nesilia said. They looked sallow, exhausted. Unworthy.

  “Most mystics train for years. We don’t have the luxury of time or even bar guais, but they will prove worthy of you, I swear it. We are to serve.”

  Nesilia couldn’t manage more than a grunt of acknowledgment. She wasn’t impressed. After the God Feud, the remaining power of the gods was claimed by some mortals, bound within the Well of Wisdom and Elsewhere. But it was clear now, the Mystic Order was useless.

  “I must ask, what happened to your former host?” Aihara Na said.

  “Thanks to you, breaking open the Citadel and freeing my pets cost much. The upyr were waiting, informed because you failed to keep the Well safe. Thanks to you, the bastard princess Sora lives, and I am this.” She spread her arms and gestured to her pale, new body. "Thanks to you—”

  Aihara Na dared to interrupt. “Then let me redeem myself. Let me hunt Sora down. She will join us, or she will perish.”

  “And tell me, Ancient One. What use would I have for you if I had her?”

  “I… You…”

  “It’s no matter,” Nesilia said with a hand wave. “She will fall with the rest. She’s made her choice. Not a soul will ever know what she truly is. She’ll die… forgotten.”

  They stopped in front of the tall stone doors on the bottommost level beyond which harbored the Well of Wisdom. Aihara Na positioned herself before them and spoke an enchantment. The doors shook, inscriptions on them glowing blue, then peeled open.

  “What is it you wish to see?” Aihara Na asked.

  Nesilia ignored her, pushing past. She stepped in, and the plants growing up the entry and around the waters wilted and blackened. An upyr was a corruption of its power, made by mortals long ago who didn’t know how to handle it. Made after Nesilia was buried. When Iam left the mortals to their own devices—to war, and Cullings, and death.

  She almost pitied the mortals. They, too, suffering his neglect when all they needed was a guide.

  “Nesilia, your new body,” Aihara Na said. “Perhaps you shouldn’t be here. Perhaps I can help you see what you must.”

  “I see everything,” Nesilia snapped. “Including your uselessness. The wianu are free. The cursed ones are destroyed. The mortals have weakened themselves beyond repair, and Iam right along with them. It’s time to bring them to their knees.”

  She raised her head and glanced back at Aihara Na. Her wraithlike face wrinkled in confusion, truly showing her age.

  “How?” she asked. “You said we needed to gather forces and eliminate threats quietly.”

  “My forces are all around us, can’t you see? In the pubs where they drink and screw like rabbits. In the streets where they stew in their own filth. In you.”

  “What?”

  Nesilia sneered. She raised her arm over the water and bit down on the wrist, learning the trick from Sigrid’s memory of her fallen Maker. She opened the veins, feeling the pain but not stopped by it. Sigrid’s consciousness roused and screamed out, but she was far beyond. Lost to Nowhere.

  Her tainted upyr blood poured out into the water, but it wasn’t enough.

  “No, you mustn’t!” Aihara Na cried out. “That much will—”

  Nesilia raised her free hand and smacked the mystic across the face. Her nebulous body couldn’t resist the touch of an upyr, and she flew into the wall.

  Then, Nesilia bit into the other wrist, tearing more flesh and muscle and draining into the Well before she immersed herself fully. The power of the waters kept her wounds from healing, and the cursed blood continued to flow. The waters went red, then black.

  “We damned you all to Elsewhere, but it was Iam who deceived,” she spoke. “Deceived me! Join me and my pets, and we’ll take back what was once ours.”

  She raised a bloody fist into the air, then drove it down, displacing the waters, and cracking open the bottom of the Well.

  “No!” Aihara Na shouted again, but the shockwave held her back. “You promised me!”

  “You shouldn’t have failed me,” Nesilia said. “You won’t again.”

  She closed her eyes. She peered into Elsewhere.

  “Elsewhere is empty.”

  She heard Kazimir's words echo in Sigrid’s memory, but he was wrong. They were there but waiting.

  She threw her arms open, and the water and her blood became one, circling her, flowing back
into her veins as they healed. The ground beneath the Well continued to rupture, deep into the earth. Ages-old stone throughout the chamber shifted and freed.

  “Damned men. Fallen gods. Be free,” Nesilia said. “Serve me and the realm that was yours shall be ours again.”

  Spirits teemed forth from the rupture, beings trapped in Elsewhere. They weren’t physical in this realm, but that didn’t matter. As Aihara Na protested, one dove into her chest, her arms and legs twisting in unnatural ways as she was possessed.

  Nesilia moved with the others, back to the gates of the Red Tower. She watched as they swarmed out over the city, laughing and screeching with glee. Free of the realm Iam built to contain them—the floodgates of Elsewhere were broken.

  The wianu shook the lake’s water in approval. Dakel un Ghastrin, Kazimir's rival extended up from the waters and wrapped its tentacles up the tower. Using them as a ramp, Nesilia climbed to the top of the structure where she could see all.

  Horrified screams rang out across Yaolin as the spirits found unwilling hosts. They took over warriors, farmers, peddlers, everyone who, under Nesilia, wouldn’t need to claw for a living. Cultists, hiding or locked away in Glass prisons howled with glee as possession came for them.

  With her upyr eyes, she could see it all clearly: even Governor Philippi Nantby on the terrace of his mansion, fleeing a spirit of Elsewhere, only to trip and fall to his death. His wife wasn’t so lucky.

  “Now what?” a voice spoke behind her. It was reminiscent of Aihara Na but was deeper, more resonant, lilting with rage. Her eyes were milky white; her ethereal form, brighter and refreshed.

  “Will you now kill me, too?” the spirit inhabiting Aihara Na asked.

  “No, Bliss,” Nesilia said. “Iam’s lies corrupted you as it did many. It’s time we buried our squabbles, and see this realm to its former glory.”

  “I’ll settle for destroying the ones who took my forest from me.”

  Nesilia didn’t answer. She just turned to look to the west, toward Yarrington and the seat of Iam, the screams of terror continuing to echo, and she grinned.

  Thank You!

  Thank you for reading War of Men, book five in The Buried Goddess Saga.

  Thank you so much for reading War of Men by Rhett C. Bruno and Jaime Castle. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. We just wanted to take a moment to encourage you to review the book on Amazon and Goodreads. Every review helps further the author’s reach and, ultimately, helps them continue writing fantastic books for us all to enjoy.

  If you liked War of Men, check out the rest of our catalogue at www.aethonbooks.com. To sign up to receive updates regarding all new releases, If you liked this book, check out the rest of our catalogue at www.aethonbooks.com. To sign up to receive a FREE collection from some of our best authors as well as updates regarding all new releases, visit www.subscribepage.com/AethonReadersGroup.

  ALSO IN THE SERIES

  Web of Eyes

  Winds of War

  Will of Fire

  Way of Gods

  War of Men

  The Saga So Far

  Coming soon, the finale, Word of Truth

  ABOUT THE AUTHORS

  Jaime lives in Texas with his wife and two kids. He enjoys anything creative, from graphic arts to painting. His office looks like the Avengers threw up on the walls.

  Jaime has been writing since elementary school and is a bit of a grammar officer—here to correct and serve.

  Rhett is a Sci-fi/Fantasy author currently living in Stamford, Connecticut. His published works include books in the USA Today Bestselling CIRCUIT SERIES (Published by Diversion Books and Podium Audio), THE BURIED GODDESS SAGA and the THE CHILDREN OF TITAN SERIES (Aethon Books, Audible Studios). He is also one of the founders of the popular science fiction platform, Sci-Fi Bridge.