THE KING’S SONS
Victoria Grefer
Cover Design by Brad Covey
http://designer.bradcovey.com
https://twitter.com/bradcovey
https://www.facebook.com/bradcoveyofficial
Copyright © 2012 Victoria Grefer
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 1481047442
ISBN-13: 978-1481047449
DEDICATION
For Loren and Erin, my dear sisters. Erin, I will never, ever forget reading “Monkey Monkey’s Trick” with you when you were little! You loved that book so much. And Lo, I will always remember how it was you that first got me to read Harry Potter on New Years Day, 2000. That was the first fantasy novel I ever read, and it made me fall in love with the genre. I would never have written this trilogy without you! You both are a wonderful blessing in my life. I don’t know what I would ever do without you.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Greg and Rachel, you have always been great first readers. This time you truly outdid yourselves. Gratitude is not enough for helping me whip this novel into shape with your insightful reactions to early drafts!
Dad and Brenda, thanks for your love and support. You’ve always encouraged me to be who I am and pursue my dreams. I appreciate all you’ve done and continue to do.
Brad, the covers you designed for me are GORGEOUS, and I could neither be more grateful, nor more impressed. Thank you a million times!
Thanks to everyone who’s given me support over at my blog, www.crimsonleague.com. You are all so helpful, and so encouraging. You let me know I am not alone in the world of writing.
Thanks to all the fans and reviewers of “The Crimson League.” Your positive response helped give me the courage to put the rest of the trilogy out there. I appreciate you all!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Kingdoms
Character List
Prologue: Francie Rafe
Chapter One: A Daughter Without Magic
Chapter Two: The King’s Sons
Chapter Three: Partsvale
Chapter Four: Valkin’s New Duties
Chapter Five: Saving Francie
Chapter Six: The Queen and the Sorceress
Chapter Seven: The King Gains a Spy
Chapter Eight: Kora’s Children
Chapter Nine: Terrance Returns
Chapter Ten: Lottie
Chapter Eleven: First Kiss
Chapter Twelve: The King’s Revenge
Chapter Thirteen: Turning the Enemy
Chapter Fourteen: Linstrom’s New Plan
Chapter Fifteen: Preparing Oakdowns
Chapter Sixteen: Leaving Oakdowns
Chapter Seventeen Enter Esclavay
Chapter Eighteen Battle at the Stables
Chapter Nineteen: Battle at the Library
Chapter Twenty: Adage and Trite
Chapter Twenty-One: Laskenay
Epilogue: One Year Later
KINGDOMS
Herezoth: the largest of the three island kingdoms, it is also the most industrialized and known for the magic some of its residents are born with. Natives are pale-skinned.
Traigland: second largest kingdom. Pacifistic, with a booming sea trade. Colonized by Herezoth long ago, it has since adopted a dialect of Herezoth’s language as its own. Natives have darker skin than those of Herezoth.
Esclavay: smallest kingdom. Though its natives are similar in appearance to those of Traigland, it relies on its slave economy to function. Because of its slave trade, both Traigland and Herezoth have had long-standing trade embargoes in place against Esclavay.
(Map available at www.victoriagrefer.com)
CHARACTER LIST
Agatha Abden: member of Evant Linstrom’s band, sorceress
Carson Amison: the late Duke of Yangerton; attacked Vane Unsten and nearly killed him at the founding of the Magic Council
Arbora Anders: foundress of the Enchanted Fist; supported the princes’ kidnappers in their childhood
Gerr Bruan: Herezoth’s foremost general, loyal to the king
Kansten Carder: deceased, grew up with Bendelof in the farmlands west of Podrar. She was in the Crimson League
Kansten Cason: Kora Porteg’s daughter, her oldest child
Kora Cason: married name of Kora Porteg. Sorceress and former member of the Crimson League exiled to Traigland
Laskenay Cason: Kora’s daughter, thirteen years old
Parker Cason: Kora’s husband, a blacksmith from Yangerton residing in Traigland
Tressa Cason: Kora’s youngest child, eleven years old
Walten Cason: the elder of Kora’s two sons, eighteen
Wilhem Cason: the younger of Kora’s two sons, at sixteen years old
Bendelof Esper: former member of the Crimson League, Gratton Welder’s deceased wife
Sedder Foden: deceased. Kora’s childhood friend, Crimson League
Malzin Forzythe: Zalski Forzythe’s wife, killed the day of his fall
Zalski Forzythe: former dictator of Herezoth and Vane Unsten’s uncle, son of the last Duke of Lanceton
Gilbert Greller: eldest son of the Duke of Podrar and Thad’s brother
Mason Greller: Duke of Podrar and Rexson’s Chief Adviser. Father of Gilbert and Thad
Tanya Greller: Duchess of Yangerton. Carson Amison’s sister, married to Gilbert Greller
Thad Greller: youngest son of the Duke of Podrar, Vane Unsten’s best friend
Bidd Grissner: deceased. Hayden’s cousin, was in the Crimson League
Hayden Grissner: the current Duke of Crescenton, though of common birth, and former member of the Crimson League
Alten Grombach: first general of Zalski Forzythe’s army
Hansrelto: ancient sorcerer rebel, crafter of a famous, evil spellbook
August Heathdon: Vane Unsten’s wife, Duchess of Ingleton
Dalen Heathdon: Vane and August’s youngest son, three years old
Esper Heathdon: Vane and August’s oldest child, a twin
Harren Heathdon: Vane and August’s seven-year-old son
Laskenay Heathdon: former Duchess of Ingleton and Zalski Forzythe’s twin. Vane’s mother.
Luce Heathdon: Esper’s twin sister, daughter of Vane and August
Valkin Heathdon: former Duke of Ingleton and Vane’s father, after whom Vane was officially named
Ryne Howar: baker in Partsvale. Spy for the king, infiltrating Linstrom’s plot
Lanokas: Rexson Phinnean’s alias with the Crimson League
Evant Linstrom: sorcerer who heads a conspiracy to attack Partsvale
Lottie Lare: Linstrom’s lover, one of his supporters
Menikas: the former crown prince, deceased. Rexson’s older brother, Hune Phinnean, used this name as an alias with the Crimson League
Petroc: a sorcerer in the days of Zalski who aided the Crimson League. Evant Linstrom’s father
Gracia Phinnean: Queen of Herezoth
Hune Phinnean: youngest of Herezoth’s three princes
Melinda Phinnean: eleven-year-old princess
Neslan Phinnean: second-born prince of Herezoth
Rexson Phinnean: King of Herezoth
Valkin Phinnean: crown prince
Rexy Plaint: sorcerer graduate of the Carphead Academy
Dorane Polve: a sorcerer, officer of the Enchanted Fist who kidnapped the king’s sons in years past
Ilana Porteg: Zacry and Kora’s mother, grandmother to Kansten and her siblings
Joslyn Porteg: Zacry’s wife, Traiglandian
Zacry Porteg: Kora’s younger brother, sorcerer and academic
Casandra Quin: fire-starter and member of the Magic Council as well as the Ench
anted Fist. Hart’s wife
Hart Quin: member of the Enchanted Fist and Magic Council. He has the power to shape glass with touch
Francie Rafe: Vane’s Unsten’s childhood friend, raised in the village of Fontferry. Member of the Magic Council
Jane Trand: sorcery instructor at the Carphead Academy
Teena Unsten: an innkeeper who raised Vane as her son
Vane Unsten: sorcerer, son of the former Duke and Duchess of Ingleton
Lorence Vierno: Count of Carphead, where the Magic Council’s school is located
Gertrude Vole: Terrance Vole’s cousin and minor seer. Supports Linstrom’s enterprise.
Terrance Vole: sorcerer and Evant Linstrom’s second-in-command. conspirator
Gratton Welder: a royal guardsman stationed in the village of Partsvale
Mick and Mart Wolding: brothers, sorcerer graduates of the Carphead Academy
PROLOGUE
Francie Rafe
Francie Rafe had worked on the king’s Magic Council for ten years now, so the budgets she studied, all for the school the council had founded as its first project, were nothing unfamiliar. If anything, she deemed them mundane. They lay amidst a clutter of dishes, glasses, inkwells mostly empty, and a roll of clean parchment on the only large table she owned. The high summer sun was bright as its warmth filtered through the thin curtains set before the windows.
Francie had lived alone in one of Podrar’s newer lodging houses for some twenty-odd months. She held no affection for the building, and wished such large and impersonal monstrosities had kept to Yangerton where they belonged. Yangerton, Herezoth’s largest city, needed them to house its vast population, but Francie couldn’t deny Podrar’s numbers had been growing, and quickly. Renting an apartment in a lodging house was cheap, was all Francie could afford after paying for one of her school’s poorer students to study at the Carphead Academy.
Her long, strawberry blonde hair, which had dulled as she approached thirty years of age, kept from her face thanks to a thick cloth tie that hit the back of her neck each time she lifted her head. She studied the various budgets with large, dark eyes; she had to determine which proposal to support, and thought the one that cut funds from groundskeeping was probably the best. It used the extra coin to pay teachers a larger salary, which Francie liked. The increase wasn’t as much as they deserved, but it was something, and would show the crown and council did not take their work for granted.
Francie certainly didn’t. She knew how important the Academy was. Many of its students had magic, which wasn’t an easy talent for a child in Herezoth to possess. Francie would know; the sense of touch had always been a problem for her. She was far too sensitive to it. Upon touching an object, any object, she routinely felt overwhelmed by the emotions of the last person to have done the same. She felt what they had felt. Their anger, fear, confidence, or insecurity might well have been her own. Francie loathed the power she could not escape, but it was her qualification for the Magic Council. The king had only appointed empowered individuals, due to the nature of the work and the council’s aim to give a repressed sector of society a voice in his court.
The school needed more scholarships. That was the real trouble. Luckily, the Magic Council was finding donors: well-to-do merchants from Yangerton, or owners of the flourishing pulp mills north of Podrar. Francie was meeting with a banker in two days; she hoped he might agree to fund a student’s education. People were finally acknowledging the value of educating students with magic powers alongside classmates who had no more magic than a wooden beam, after years of….
Francie jerked her head toward the door. She thought she’d heard something. More precisely, she’d heard someone, a footstep on the wooden floor before the edge of her tattered green rug. She could see no one, though, and her door hadn’t budged.
“Vane?” she called. Her sorcerer coworker. Only sorcerers could turn invisible. She wasn’t expecting him, and he’d never called on her unannounced, let alone transported himself in. Was somebody with her? Francie tensed for one dreadful, prolonged moment.
Utter silence. She must be imagining things. She had hardly slept last night, hardly ever slept as much as her body told her she should. There was so much work to do….
Francie would never know whether the force that struck her hard across the face, like a fist, was actually an invisible, clenched hand or the result of a whispered spell she hadn’t heard. It knocked her sideways, off her chair. When a similar punch slammed into her stomach, pushing the air from her lungs, she banged the back of her head. The worn rug between her and the floor provided little padding. Her mind would have been racing, in a panic, but thinking hurt too much. She groaned, her pounding heart making her chest throb. This wasn’t Vane….
He had auburn hair like Vane, though. And was definitely a sorcerer. He made himself visible with a word that sounded like nonsense to Francie; she studied him as she scooted away, toward her second-hand sofa and the open bedroom. He towered before her, between her and the front door. He was bearded, and one of the tallest men Francie had ever seen. His nose was pointed, majestic, and to judge by his unlined face, he was not much older than she was. The clothing he wore—a cotton shirt and breeches—was worn, artisanal, and unremarkable. Francie had never set eyes on this man in her life, but he glared at her with enough hatred in his face that they could have been lifelong enemies.
Through the tremors of fear that shook her, and then of pain as he kicked her in the side, Francie couldn’t reason a motive for this attack. The man was a sorcerer. The king had created the Magic Council to serve the needs of people like him. Why would he assault a councilor?
Francie couldn’t keep pace with her swift, shallow breaths, each riddled with aches. “Please,” she gasped, “Why are you…? What do you…?”
He wouldn’t tell her what he wanted. His response was another kick, one with enough momentum to turn her to her stomach. Francie reached a hand to her head; she felt a knot and the sticky wetness of blood before he ripped away the cloth that bound her hair, flipped her back over, and gagged her. He held her down with a knee on her gut and made sure she saw him clutching the fabric for a full thirty seconds before he forced it in her mouth. She knew better than to scream, to alert others. He could slay any neighbors who tried to help her with a simple incantation as they opened the door, assuming they progressed that far. Francie had the entrance bolted.
The gagging was when she realized what she was facing. She might not know this man, but he knew her. He could easily have silenced her with a spell. Most any sorcerer would have; that would have been faster than a physical gag, and less risky. This man, though, bore a personal grudge against her, whoever he was. She knew by his vile, triumphant smirk what his intention was in using that cloth to subdue her. He would torment her with her own magic.
With the gag pressing against her swelling face, Francie felt the purity of this man’s hatred like a toxin in her blood. His jealousy numbed her fingers. She hurt too completely to wonder what he might envy about her. Her place on the council? All she knew for certain was the extent of her peril. With those emotions raging he would want to cut her down, to show her she was nothing and meant nothing, her and her piddling magic that was more of a liability than an asset.
The numbness in Francie’s hand spread up her arm. Her gut convulsed, and the sorcerer, whoever he was, removed her gag so she wouldn’t choke on the contents of her stomach but instead spew them across the rug. The saving gesture was no assurance he would not kill her; he just wanted his way with her first.
When she stopped heaving, the man spoke a second incantation. Francie was no sorceress; she had little knowledge of spells, no concept of his magic’s intent, and she cried out in a panic despite her previous determination not to.
No sound issued from her. When gagging failed, he’d resorted to a muting spell to keep her quiet. Now he slammed her head against the floor as she struggled in desperation, which worsened her previous injury and almos
t knocked her unconscious. She resisted no further after that. She had no strength to. He bound her hands behind her back with the cloth he’d removed from her mouth, and a prideful gloating now, in combination with the previous emotions, made her feel feverish as he fell upon her.
CHAPTER ONE
A Daughter Without Magic
Kansten Cason bit down a testy observation, because she knew her leaving home would be difficult for her family, for her parents in particular. Swallowing her sarcastic nature required all the nineteen-year-old’s power of will, because Kora, her mother, kept shooting off questions as quickly as Kansten imagined she once had incantations. The women were in Kansten’s room, where two large travel bags lay open on the bed.
“You packed enough dresses?”
“I’m not leaving a single one.”
“A decent coat? Herezoth’s colder than here.”
“I have two, Mom.”
“The pictures your sisters drew you?”
“Like I’d leave those!”
The King's Sons (The Herezoth Trilogy) Page 1
