Savior of Arcadia

by Annathesa Nikola Darksbane

  Jone took over again and lopped off his sword arm a few inches below the shoulder.

  The Drake collapsed, his war banner tattered, his will finally spent.

  “Well...you won...Jone.” He wheezed out the words through broken, bloody breaths. “Congratulations. What...now?”

  Jone frowned down at him. She could see the agony in his eyes, the struggle to retain consciousness.

  The fear.

  “Francis,” she said quietly. “Don’t be afraid. It will be over soon, I promise. You can finally rest; there is nothing in that to fear.”

  “He doesn't deserve our mercy.”

  No, Rote. Jone shook her head. Everyone deserves mercy.

  “You…” Drake choked and wheezed, his body’s accumulated trauma too much for his followers’ wills to overcome. “You try living...three hundred years...and see how attached you become.”

  “That’s...it was the reason behind all of this, wasn’t it?” Jone frowned. “You discovered I was a revenant and that I couldn’t stop until you died, so you let me kill you. You worried Elizabeth would eventually dispose of you, so you had me kill her.” She took a deep breath; the air smelled like blood, smoke, and cinders. “Even the amulet. It wasn’t really about the power, was it? It was about survival.”

  “Maybe…” Drake shrugged, his head wobbling weakly back and forth, “a little of both.”

  “It almost worked,” the Arcadian finished. “You would have won had you faced me alone tonight.”

  “BUT SHE IS NEVER ALONE WHILE I AM HERE.” Rote’s voice rippled out, absorbing Jone’s, making her skin burn briefly and her throat ache.

  She smiled. “And if Elizabeth herself could barely best Rote…”

  “What chance...did I have?” the Drake finished. “But there’s...a problem.”

  “Oh?”

  “You still can’t kill me,” the Drake grinned a bloody grin. “You don’t know…what happened that night. How I died...how I survived.”

  “You’re right,” Jone responded. “I can’t kill you.” Rote swelled within her, close to the surface, eager to boil over. “But she can.”

  Charcoal smoke trickled from her nose and mouth. A flicker of fear shot through the older man’s faded, red-rimmed eyes.

  “After all, the Eye can indeed preserve you through anything,” Jone explained, sheathing her greatsword with a sense of finality. “Unless there’s nothing left to keep alive.”

  Drake drew a thin dagger from his belt and threw himself at her.

  It sunk between her ribs, where his blade had sundered her armor, and into her heart.

  Just like she’d expected.

  Jone calmly reached out, grabbed her old foe’s head, and snapped his neck.

  Then she tugged the stiletto from her side and threw it away. It throbbed, it burned...but it was a small price to pay and quickly healed.

  She looked down at the dead body of Sir Francis Drake, the Butcher of Arcadia, Queen’s Hand and Scourge of the Seven Skies.

  Then she stepped aside.

  Jone had never liked killing defenseless people, even ones such as Sir Francis Drake.

  Rote, on the other hand, didn’t mind at all.

  The powerful spirit pushed free of Jone’s body with a roar that shattered the remaining windows. Smoke poured off of Jone’s skin, seeping through her pores. Her body raised a hand, and the gathered darkness obeyed.

  Shadows swarmed Sir Francis Drake like ravenous hounds.

  And when their feast was done, not a scrap remained, not even his bones.

  7

  Closure

  “I will see you both again, right?” Jone leaned against the wooden railing, enjoying the fresh air and the warm summer Arcadian sunlight, though she enjoyed the sounds of laughter and rebuilding that echoed up from the city most of all.

  “Oh, you know me,” Esmeralda replied. “I’ll be around. I just can’t do the settling down thing, you know? Tried that once; almost died to a golem. It’s just not in me.”

  Jone shook her head. “Just because the war’s over doesn't mean I’m settling down, Esme. It’s only for a couple of weeks. There is still much to do.”

  The pirate shrugged. “We’ll see. Gotta rebuild that treasure and all, you know?”

  Adie leaned in, wrapped both her arms around Jone and rested her head on the shorter Arcadian’s shoulder. “Yeah, well, you better come around! Don't you dare up and abandon her again, or I'll get you.”

  Esmeralda scoffed and ran a hand through her wild black hair, along the side where she was growing it back out to cover her scar. “I told you once I’m not gonna lose to you. Don’t make me repeat myself, girl.”

  Jone snorted. “Again, I’m hardly settling down, guys. Just helping Arcadia get started rebuilding, then it’s off to help Rote free her people. One village at a time, if need be. I made a promise; her people have been left to suffer for too long as it is.”

  “No argument here.”

  “I’m honestly looking forward to it,” Adie grinned. “Seein’ places, travelin’... A real adventure, you know?”

  Esmeralda raised an eyebrow. “A real adventure? What did you think these last six years were?”

  “War,” Adie’s happy eyes went momentarily bitter. “So I’d prefer my adventure without all the fightin’ an’ dyin’, thank you.”

  Smooth as ever, Bellamy changed the subject. “Do you really think it’ll work, Jone? Spirits and humans, living and working together?”

  “It already has,” Jone smiled.

  In the back of her mind, Rote grinned a toothy grin.

  “What ‘bout you?” Adie looked expectantly at both Samantha and Lady Jane Bellamy. “What’re you two gonna do?”

  “Head back to Elizabethia, of course,” Bellamy replied. “A third of the city is rubble. Almost the entire Council of Lords is dead. It needs help rebuilding, too.”

  “And the fact that there’s no one left with a stronger claim to the throne is just coincidence?” Esmeralda rolled her eyes.

  “Someone has to be queen, after all.” Bellamy slid her glasses back into place and winked.

  “Well, mother is the most experienced, longest lived, and strongest contender for the throne,” Lady Grey commented. “Hopefully, it’ll go much better than last time,” she teased her mother with a grin.

  “Considering what happened last time? Couldn’t go much worse.”

  Shhhhh.

  “Either way…” Bellamy smiled and put an arm around her daughter’s shoulders. “It’s a reason for us to spend a lot of time together. We missed far too many years, you know?”

  “I guess that means we’ll have to come see you, then?” Jone smiled at the pair of noblewomen.

  Bellamy nodded. “Please do. It won’t be easy…” She hesitated. “I don’t look forward to… “She breathed out a sigh. “You know. Separating. After being together all this time.”

  The quiet stretched on a little too long.

  The Lady Bellamy was the first to say goodbye, with a deep kiss for Esmeralda and Jone, and a warm embrace for Adrienne.

  They watched her walk away, chatting with her daughter, with one last look back before she disappeared over the rise.

  “She won’t stay away,” Esmeralda predicted, kicking off the wooden fence with a yawn. “She’ll get bored with being Queen or whatever, catch up with Grey, and come running back to us. She’ll miss the life too much.” The pirate took a deep breath. “You’ll see.”

  The doubt creasing her face didn’t linger long. With a flourish, the emerald-eyed pirate pulled Jone into a deep, passionate kiss before thumping Adrienne on the head and walking away.

  Unlike Bellamy and her daughter, however, she didn’t get far before she stopped.

  “Hey,” she called back. “Just in case…” A wistful look flickered through those rich green eyes. “That adventure you mentioned? That thing with the spirits?” She hesitated. “...Does it have room for one more?”

  Jone glanced at the Adi
e on her arm. They both smiled. “For you?” Jone blew her a kiss. “Always.”

  With a thoughtful nod, the pirate waved and turned away.

  “And Esmeralda!” she shouted at the disappearing pirate’s back. “Watch who you raid and plunder out there! I don’t want to have to come after you next.”

  The pirate threw a wink over her shoulder as she made her way casually toward the docks. “Now wouldn't that be an adventure!”

  Adie and Jone stood there for a long time after she disappeared, leaning on the fence, arm in arm.

  Finally, an excited voice called them away from their thoughts; Louie, in grease-stained royal robes, sprinted across the golden meadow toward them, a sheaf of blueprints in both hands and a grin stretched across his face.

  Jone took in a deep, full breath of perfect Arcadian air and squeezed Adrienne tight.

  New beginnings were always bittersweet, even when it was time for everyone to leave the past behind. Even when it was time to move forward, grow, and forge a new story.

  I love them all. And I always will. Despite the war, the grief, the strife…

  No matter what happens, I will always remember these days.

  “Well, don’t worry too much. You’ve still got me, remember? Forever, and ever, and ever, and ever…”

  Don’t remind me, Jone thought with a smile.

  o o o

  And from the broken shadows of battered Arcadian buildings, an old Prophet watched, still garbed in his tattered street-preacher’s robes.

  With a crooked smile, he turned away and vanished.

  The End

  o o o

  Thank you so much for reading. Please sign up for our newsletter at www.DarksbaneBooks.com/newsletter to receive a free book and to be alerted to all our future releases, updates, and offers!

  If you liked this book, please support our writing by leaving a review on Amazon, telling a friend, or gifting a copy to someone you feel might enjoy our work as well! (Though goodness, start them on the first one, eh?)

  Read on for a few words from the author and a special offer!

  From the Author

  I'm late again. Surprise, surprise.

  I'm also a little emotional as I sit here and type this tonight. Jone is...over. For those of you who don't know, her journey started over two years ago with the now-defunct Kindle Worlds. At first, she was an idea, a test, a challenge, something I quickly threw out in response to an unexpected invitation.

  But she became so much more.

  Jone, Rote, Adie, Esmeralda, Bellamy... They took on a life of their own. So did their world. It more than grew on me. And after the project finished, and the novellas languished in the depths of Amazon, I was saddened that their story would never be heard and that I hadn't had the time to really give them all the love I wanted. For over two years, they weighed on my mind.

  Then Kindle Worlds died, and the rights reverted.

  And you gave me that chance.

  I don't know how much Jone's story will be seen, how successful it will be. I don't know if I'll ever get a chance to add any more to it; for now, it seems, that book is closed. And even if I did, it wouldn't be the same. But at the moment, I feel a bittersweet peace. I gave her my all, refined the story and poured myself into it. It's as good as I can make it.

  And it's over.

  Now comes the letting go, the moving on. If you've never had characters that were a part of you, that you loved, that were alive, you may not understand.

  But, considering you read books, you probably do.

  Onward, to Ashes. Onward, to other things. To marketing and publishing and outlining and more writing...

  But that's for tomorrow.

  For now...

  Thank you for reading her story.

  If, as a reader, you felt a fraction of what I did writing it, then I'm satisfied.

  Thank you for giving her a chance.

  That’s all for Jone and friends, but if you liked this story, you’ll find more to love in one of our other series below!

  Thank you again for reading my works. If you like vampires, diversity in fiction, or urban fantasy, check out our other two series below, and sign up for our mailing list for release announcements and more. There’s a free book in it for ya! You can also get free stories and more from our Patrons Only Library on Patreon where you can get all the insider details. See ya next time!

  Further Reading from Darksbane Books:

  Dakota Shepherd Novels

  Awakened (#1)

  Hunted (#2)

  Driven (novella #2.5)

  Blooded (#3)

  Dakota Shorts Vol. 1 (#3.5)

  Risen (#4) - SOON!

  Fallen (#5) - TBA

  Dying Ashes series

  Dead Girl’s Ashes (Dying Ashes #1)

  Recommended: Five of Five short (Tales from the Ashes #1)

  Blood Red Ashes (Dying Ashes #2)

  Recommended: Homecoming short (Tales from the Ashes #2)

  Heart of Ashes (Dying Ashes #3)

  Recommended: Trouble on the Green short (Tales from the Ashes #3)

  Dreadful Ashes (Dying Ashes #4)

  Recommended: Haunted Motives short (Tales from the Ashes #4)

  From the Ashes (Working Title - Dying Ashes #5) - Coming 2nd Quarter 2019

  www.DarksbaneBooks.com

  Acknowledgments

  Thank you to Shei and Rune, my little family.

  Thanks to the people that invited me and encouraged me to give this whole thing a try; it escalated from “I don’t think I’ll like this” to “I adore this story” rather quickly. And it also taught me a bit about writing to boot.

  Thanks to our Patreon supporters: David Nields, Abi Grey, BK Dobbs, Cheryl Bowen, Claire Smith, Hans Watts, Paige Abendroth, Ross Grant, Susan Wilson, and everyone else who’s ever supported our dreams, big or small.

  And, as always, thanks to our fans, old and new, email subscribers and most importantly, readers. You make this shit work. Thanks Fam!

  About the Author

  Annathesa Darksbane loves writing books her readers can't put down, which you may or may not have figured out already. As a storyteller with over twenty years experience and quite a few published titles, there's nothing she'd rather be doing, even though she's done everything from engineering to game design and Aikido. When not writing, she loves studying martial arts, philosophy, psychology, and the future of cutting edge science.

  If you want more thrilling, diverse urban fantasy, sci-fi, or fantasy, visit www.DarksbaneBooks.com for our upcoming releases—and nab some free books and short stories!

  Copyright © 2016-2019 by Annathesa Nikola Darksbane.& Shei Darksbane

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

  may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

  without the express written permission of the publisher

  except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Printed in the United States of America.

  First Printing, April 30, 2019.

  Darksbane Books

  DarksbaneBooks.com

  Cover design and illustration: Shei Darksbane

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real people and events are coincidence.