The Chronicles of Lorrek Box Set

by Kelly Blanchard

  When he turned over, Moren saw Caleth standing there, and he groaned again as he picked himself up. “Did I do better?” he asked with bright eyes.

  However, Caleth’s expression never changed. The boy had only begun his training. Of course there would be no significant improvement yet. He jerked his head back to where Moren’s instructor stood. “Continue.” The king of Athorim turned and walked away, pondering the situation.

  His sources had told him that Prince Lorrek spoke the truth of Countess Verddra conquering Nirrorm. He had sent spies to the land only to find it sealed with a powerful spell that prevented any from leaving Nirrorm. It was a curious spell, one Caleth had heard of before yet never practiced. The fact Verddra had not only succeeded in casting the spell but did so over an entire land was impressive. He was tempted to invite her to Athorim for a meal to discuss her accomplishments, but he knew he was partly responsible for bringing Verddra to justice. She was a tainted Athorian and therefore his responsibility, yet Nirrorm was in a delicate state because their king was dead No doubt the people assumed that the princess and prince were dead as well.

  At the thought of the princess, Caleth slowed his step to a halt in the middle of a corridor. Lorrek had said that he had sent Mordora to Cuskelom while he retrieved Moren and brought him here. Caleth suspected the princess also had magical abilities, and he wondered what training she would receive in Cuskelom since Lorrek was otherwise busy. There were other magic users aside from just than Lorrek in Cuskelom, yet none of them were as powerful or resourceful as Lorrek in that land. However, he was otherwise preoccupied.

  “Are you well, Sire?” The voice of Lady Lorentha drew the king out of his thoughts, and he glanced to the garden to find the queen-mother of Cuskelom emerging from the cool of the garden and stepping up the black steps into the palace.

  He straightened his posture and acknowledged her with a nod. “Aye, I am well. I merely contemplate the near future of the kingdoms.” He gestured for her to walk with him, and they fell into step with one another.

  “You ponder the future of all the kingdoms?” She raised her brows then shook her head. “That is quite a feat. I know what it was like when my husband, Sindric, would travel within the magic realm inspecting our borders, and that wore on him. Contemplating the possibilities of the future...” She fixed her soft gaze on him. “I know not how you do it.”

  He tucked his hands behind his back as he walked. “Simply questions, milady. Many questions. And we must be prepared for anything.” He glanced her way. “I charged your son with retrieving my sister. Since she has returned to us without him, I can only assume Prince Lorrek has deemed it necessary to prolong his stay in Serhon rather than return here or to Cuskelom. He may have discovered a way to tame King Roskelem’s unpredictable rage.”

  “And if he succeeds?”

  “Then we shall see what we can do to hold Countess Verddra accountable for her actions. Too long has she run rogue. It is time to rein her in.”

  Lorentha nodded when she heard this. In her opinion, it had been long overdue for Verddra to be called into account for all her actions, yet Caleth had his reasons for waiting. However, she pondered something else and shot him a glance. “And if Lorrek fails?”

  Caleth halted at her words and turned to face her. For a full moment, he merely stared down at her before he finally told her, “If he failed, then your son is dead.” But then he added, “Because King Roskelem would have killed him.” Then Caleth set his gaze ahead once more and resumed a brisk pace, forcing Lorentha to lengthen her strides to stay in step with him. He didn’t like to think about it, but he glanced at Lorentha and slowed his step a bit. “And if that were true, Serhon would soon have a war on its hands.”

  Even as Caleth said this, he mused how it would all play out. He knew Jechorm already threatened Cuskelom, and both those lands were in the northeast. If necessary, Caleth would declare war against Serhon in the east, and he realized that would leave Nirrorm, which was immediately north, unattended. Verddra would like this. Had this been her plan all along? Caleth didn’t like to think she could be that cunning, yet she was always one to take advantage of any situation and turn it to her own use. Oh, and he could only imagine what she could do with that much chaos.

  He shook his head and kept walking.

  Lorentha walked with him but found herself troubled by his answers. “But, Sire, in the meanwhile, what shall we do?

  “What shall we do?” Caleth lifted his brows as he glanced down at her, and then he looked ahead once more. “We wait.”

  Serhon

  Gremina entered the vacant throne room. She tried to be quiet about it and winced when the door creaked open. That sound alone echoed through the chamber, and she shot a glance at the throne, only to sigh in relief that her father remained unmoved in his thoughtful pose on the throne with his chin firmly planted in his hand and eyes narrowed.

  He hadn’t seen her.

  Good.

  Gremina clasped her hands in front of her as she crept forward. “Papa?” Her voice sounded too soft even to her own ears, so she cleared her throat once more and straightened her posture. “Papa?”

  He shot her a fierce glare, and she shrunk back once more. Roskelem saw this, and he frowned. He didn’t like his children being afraid of him. Gremina had only ever done all he had asked her to do—including caring for Prince Lorrek in his...condition.

  At this thought, Roskelem narrowed his eyes and lowered his hand to the armrest of his throne where he clenched his fist. “Has there been a change in the prince’s condition?”

  At the mention of her charge, Gremina pulled her shoulders back and thinned her eyes. She hated Lorrek. She wanted nothing more than to cover his face with a pillow and suffocate him, but her father insisted he had plans for the prince, so she shook her head. “He still sleeps.”

  Roskelem growled. “It’s been five days! Why hasn’t he woken yet?” He shot out a blast of magic, which slammed into the wall and cracked it.

  Gremina didn’t flinch. She used to, but she was accustomed to and tired of these outbursts. Instead, she cleared her throat. “You did take away his memories, and we don’t fully understand magic—”

  “I understand enough of it!” Roskelem bellowed at Gremina, causing her to take a deep breath and try to rephrase her words in a gentler manner.

  “I mean, Papa, we don’t understand magic as well as Lorrek did. We’re not even sure if Princess Anelm was successful in removing his memories. We don’t know what happens to the mind of a magic user...” Gremina trailed off when she saw her father once more becoming defensive in his body language, so she changed tactics. “And by all this, I merely mean, we don’t know what to expect. It can be another day or another week before he wakes—if he wakes. We have no idea. We must simply be patient.”

  “And are you willing to sit there by his bedside and wait for our justice to be fulfilled?” Roskelem set his fiery glare upon his daughter, and then he pushed himself to his feet and made his way down the dais. “No, no, you see, I know how much you want to kill the prince. Oh yes, I want to kill him as well.” He began to circle Gremina. “But you see, we can’t kill him. Why?” He whispered in her ear when he stood behind her. “Because he is like a ghost!” Roskelem stomped away and threw his hands in the air.

  He let out a dry laugh. “I tried to kill him with magic, but I learned the spell wrong and only succeeded in making him immortal! No one can kill him now, so we must take advantage of this situation and make him our slave.”

  As her father spoke, Gremina crossed her arms and glared. She had forgotten Lorrek was not solid to the touch, but she had seen her father’s own magic blasts pass right through him unharmed while Lorrek laughed. She hated that laugh.

  However, her father’s last words paused her thoughts, and Gremina gave him a perplexed look. “You...you seek to make him our slave?” Now she had to let out a dry laugh. “But Papa! There is no way he will do as you command—”

  “Ah,
but he will be given no choice!” Roskelem cackled as he circled her and rubbed his hands together. “He will have no memory of his old self—of his true self! I will promise to help him remember, but first he must accomplish several...shall we say errands for me?” He smiled at Gremina.

  She cocked her head to the side. “There’s always something to be gained for you—a deal that must be struck...”

  And Roskelem grinned at her suspicion. “Right you are! However, you know that, but he does not. When he wakes, he won’t remember me. He won’t remember the deals I require. He will simply do what I ask because he will want to remember.”

  Realizing her father had his mind made up on this plan, Gremina sighed and uncrossed her arms. “When do you intend to set this plan in motion?”

  “As soon as he wakes of course!” Roskelem dismissed her question with a wave of his hand as he went back up the dais to his throne and sat down.

  Gremina merely arched a brow. “What do we do in the meanwhile?”

  At this question, Roskelem narrowed his eyes and through clenched teeth admitted, “I. Don’t. Know.”

  “With all your magic, you know not when a man will wake?”

  Roskelem curled his hand into fists as he glared at his daughter. It took more than his mere self-control not to lash out at her. One promise he had made to himself during all those days in Jechorm as he waited for the infusion of magic to be successful was that he would never use his magic to harm his children. He couldn’t lose them as well.

  However, Gremina was right. He wasn’t as powerful as he had hoped. If he was, then he could make Lorrek wake now. He hadn’t thought of how long Lorrek would remain sleeping once his memories were taken. He supposed he should have asked Princess Anelm to wake Lorrek as soon as she had finished stripping him of his memories, but Lorrek had said tainted magic was needed to remove his memories, and Anelm was only able to do as she did with Lorrek’s guidance. Why would Lorrek do that? Why would he willingly give up his memories? Why would he willingly surrender himself to someone he knew hated him?

  These questions bewildered him, and he didn’t like thinking about it, but he had to muse over them. He had to figure out Lorrek’s motives, but he had yet to decipher them.

  Being faced with his continual failure frustrated Roskelem, and he let out a shout as he blast magic across the room, causing Gremina to flinch.

  “Papa?” She had seen the way his eyes had lost focus in thought. He had completely forgotten she was there.

  Her voice yanked him out of his thoughts, and he blinked and saw her then frowned. “We wait, my dear. All we can do is wait.”

  Neither of them were happy with that.

  Talhon

  In the quiet kingdom of Talhon, Prince Kinnard paced in his chambers. He didn’t know what had possessed him to agree to this. By tradition, Talhon remained neutral from all the actions of the other five kingdoms, and it remained quiet. This had ensured more than three centuries of peace for the kingdom. Self-sufficient, self-contained, Talhon didn’t need the Orbs of Cuskelom, magic of Athorim, art and music of Nirrorm, technology of Jechorm, or the thieves and assassins of Serhon—at least, not until now, and this bothered Kinnard.

  His father, King Damaen, ruled as all former kings of the land had, oblivious to the true condition of the people and the land. Until recently, Kinnard had worked alongside his father completely in agreement with his rulings. However, a little over a month ago, a mysterious female magic user appeared in his chamber one night and woke him from his sleep. At first he wasn’t sure if it was a dream, and when he tried to jest and invite her to his bed, she used her magic to lift him out of bed until he was upright, and then she pinned him to the wall with her magic. When he tried to call for his guards, she informed him she had placed a silencing spell over his chambers, so no one would hear him, but she had no interest in killing him or playing games.

  She released him, letting him collapse to the floor and gasp, and she crouched before him. “I am your half-sister, Radella, and I need your help. We are going to gather as many thieves, hunters, and assassins as we can from all the lands, but especially Serhon.”

  She claimed she didn’t need Talhon’s armies but only needed Kinnard’s signet ring and a few of his abilities as a royal. When Kinnard asked why she didn’t merely forge it since she obviously had the power, Radella smiled at him. “Because, my dear brother, you owe it to our sister, Inecha. Prove to me that Talhon is not obsessed with preserving its male authority at the expense of the influence of the female population.”

  She didn’t leave him much choice, and now he waited for her return. She kept appearing and disappearing without much explanation as to what she was doing while she was gone. Each time she left, he worried that she might reappear in the throne room while he stood in front of his father. How would he explain that he was helping this...sorceress with her secret endeavor?

  He wasn’t sure what she had in mind, and he wasn’t exactly sure what role he played in it. All he knew was that he had to wait—wait until everything was in place, wait to see what this sorceress had in mind and what it held for the future of Talhon and the other kingdoms of the land. Waiting was all there was to do, and he hated the unknown.

  Part II

  I Still Have A Soul

  1

  When he woke he became aware of the blazing headache behind his eyes. With a groan, he reached up and pressed the heels of his palms into his eye sockets.

  “Ah, finally—you’re awake.”

  He froze at the sound of the voice and ran it through his memory, searching for a name, only to come up empty. Lowering his hands slowly, he opened his eyes and stared at the woman, who appeared to move from across the room but stopped herself halfway. Her face was youthful but not too young—dark brown eyes had witnessed much, thus aging her soul. She wore a meek but wary presence as if leery of him, but still she took a hesitant step toward him. “How do you feel?”

  He didn’t care about how he felt. He had a headache, and there was nothing she could do about it, but he didn’t recognize her—or this room, now that he took it into consideration. Pushing himself up into a sitting position, he winced and pressed his hand against his temple. “What happened?”

  She drew back—expression closed. “What do you remember?”

  Furrowing his brows, he sought his mind for answers, but he felt as if he were in the middle of the ocean in the darkest night—no land in sight. He could not set his feet on solid ground or grasp a single memory. Bewildered, he pulled his hand away from his head and stared at her. “I…I don’t know.”

  “Do you know who you are?” She edged toward him again—cautious still but gaining confidence.

  Again he dove into the banks of his memories but found them barren—not as if they were stolen, but as if they were simply never there. He looked down at his hands, searching for any familiarity, but found nothing. He shook his head. “I don’t know.” He lifted his gaze to her with hope in his eyes. “Do you know?”

  Her eyes flashed with something dark—something he couldn’t identify or understand. She drew back, crossing her arms as she sneered at him. “You are a criminal—a horrible human, who has done outrageous deeds. You have no soul. You deserve this...and much worse.” With that, she turned to leave, but he reached out to stop her.

  “Wait...” But his hand passed right through her arm, and he pulled it back, staring at it, bewildered. Then he shifted his wide eyes to her. “What...am I?” He tried touching the bed, but his hand passed through it as well.

  Confusion gave way to fear, and he felt his heart begin pounding wildly in his chest. He shot the woman a glare. “What has happened to me?” Then he noticed his hands begin to glow blue, and his breathing quickened as he tried to wipe the blue glow off his hands. “What is happening?!” He shoved back, raising his hands to shield himself, and a blue blast lit the room.

  Slowly and fearful of what he might see, he lowered his hands and saw the woman he was speaking
to had scurried out of the way and now stared at him wide-eyed. However, directly in front of him, the wall smoked with two scorched marks, and he let out a sigh, looking back at the woman.

  He saw the terror in her eyes but also the disdain, and he wanted to apologize, but he remembered what she had said about him. He was a criminal—a monster. He decided to take matters into his own hands, and he rose to his feet with surprising grace.

  He stalked over to this woman, cornering her, and then he snatched out his hand to seize her by her throat, and she gasped. But his hand phased through her.

  Her wide eyes stared at him as she held her breath.

  He scowled at her then moved to punch the wall, only for his hand to pass through that as well. He let out a howl. “What is happening to me?!”

  “Enough!” A sharp voice at the entrance commanded. “Gremina, what do you think you are doing coming here without a guard? Leave. Now.”

  Puzzled by this new arrival, he turned from Gremina to see the man—slight in stature but wearing royal garb and majestic confidence, but there was something sly about him. One name came to his mind. “Roskelem,” he spoke before he realized it, and Gremina and this newcomer looked at him surprised.

  “You know who I am?” Roskelem inquired.

  Did he? He couldn’t say. As he searched his memories, he found nothing, so he shook his head then drew back his shoulders as he looked at this man. “It was the name that came to mind when I first saw you. Are you Roskelem?”

  “I am Sorcerer King Roskelem of Serhon.” Roskelem conjured a flame in his palm. “And the woman you attempted to attack is my daughter, Princess Gremina. You will apologize.”

  He narrowed his eyes at this strange man’s command, and he made note of his magic. He could easily conjure a similar fiery orb, but he decided against it. He needed to fully understand the situation before acting, so he bowed his head to the young woman. “My apologies, Princess.”