School of Swords and Serpents Boxset: Books 1 - 3 (Hollow Core, Eclipse Core, Chaos Core)

by Gage Lee

  “You were saying you had news,” I prodded.

  “Yes.” Hirani’s brows furrowed. She put her coffee on the table and reached out to squeeze my hands. “We’ve found your mother.”

  “When do I get to see her?” It had been more than a year since I’d heard my mother’s voice. The thought of seeing her again brought a lump to my throat.

  “It’s not that easy.” The elder leaned so close to me I could smell the coffee on her breath. “She was in the data you pulled from the heretics. She’s with them, Jace.”

  “No way.” I shook my head. Despite the nonsense that First had told me about my mother and the Eclipse Theory, I didn’t believe she was a mad scientist. It was just one more way the Lost had tried to turn me. “My mother would never side with those lunatics.”

  “The intel is solid, Jace.” Hirani shook her head. “I’m sorry. We’re not sure why she went over. Our hookups say it was last year sometime—”

  “It’s my fault,” I said. “I crossed Tycho, and he threatened my family. I warned her, and she ran.”

  “When?” Hirani’s eyes were calm and comforting. Staring into them eased the knot of tension that had taken root in my gut.

  “It was before the holidays.” I remembered that day like it was yesterday. How angry I’d been. How stupid.

  “Then it wasn’t your fault.” Hirani let out a sigh of relief. “She joined the Machina Project in October. Not long after you started class here.”

  A chill settled over me. My mother, who First claimed had been instrumental in the New Moon resurgence plan. My mother, who was a better fighter than she had any right to be. My mother, a camper who knew at least two of the sacred sages on a first-name basis.

  “What do we do now?” I asked, knuckles whitening around my coffee mug.

  “She’s important to them,” Hirani said. “They’ll have her under close guard. She’s brilliant. The Machina you stole was her work.”

  “What do we do now?” I asked again. I had to know.

  “We have to stop the project,” Hirani said as gently as possible. “The Machina were built to interfere with the Grand Design. They warp jinsei and distort probabilities. The models they have now are unpredictable and as dangerous to them as to their enemies, but they’re getting close to a breakthrough. We can’t let that happen.”

  “You’ll kill her.” The words tasted like acid on my tongue.

  Hirani took my mug and placed it gently on the table. She pulled me into a hug and held me tight.

  “No, no, no,” she whispered. “We’ll save her, Jace. And you’ll help us do it.”

  “When?” My eyes burned and my throat was clogged with emotion. I hadn’t ever really known my mother, and that hurt.

  “Soon.” Hirani kissed the top of my head. A surge of warmth and calm passed through me, and she held me back at arm’s length. “We’ll get her out of there, Jace. I promise you that. And you’ll be there when it happens.”

  I don’t know how long we stayed like that, and I wished it could have gone on forever. Despite Hirani’s incredible power and status, she had a comforting aura that made it easier for me to relax. I’d realized the only time I truly felt safe was with her.

  “I have to go,” she whispered and stroked my hair. “But I have one more piece of news for you. Go to the stacks. An old friend is waiting for you.”

  The Mentor

  SOMEONE HAD REPLACED the bar my Eclipse nature had shattered. The stout wooden beam stood beside the door to the stacks like a silent sentinel. The sight of it raised my hackles and triggered my Borrowed Core technique. I cycled my breathing and filled my aura with bestial aspects before I pulled the door open and crossed its threshold. If there was any trouble waiting on the other side, I’d be able to summon my serpents and attack in the blink of an eye.

  “Hello?” I called when no one tried to kill me. The stacks were still empty, the dust on the floor disturbed only by my footsteps from earlier in the year. “Who’s here?”

  “An old friend,” a familiar voice called from deeper in the chamber. A silver ball of jinsei appeared in the air.

  Tycho Reyes stood on the far side of the room, one hand raised defensively. He looked much worse than he had the last time I’d seen him. Bandages covered the left side of his face, including a bloody bit of gauze over his eye. His robes were very plain, adorned only by scorch marks and what could have been bloodstains. He looked more like a homeless beggar than one of the five sacred sages.

  “You’re no friend of mine,” I spat. Despite his ragged appearance, I couldn’t find any shreds of kindness for Tycho in my heart. He’d conspired to ruin my life and destroy the world. He could burn for all I cared. “How did you convince Elder Hirani to get your message to me?”

  “He didn’t,” Hahen said as he appeared from the shadows. “I did. You need to hear this, Jace.”

  The rat spirit and Tycho advanced toward me, stirring up dust, which billowed up around them like thunderclouds. Tycho’s core was dim, as if badly injured, and the weight of his attention was no greater than a feather against my aura. I doubted he was capable of an attack in his current condition.

  “That’s close enough,” I called when they were a few yards away. I didn’t see any reason to take chances. “Say whatever you have to say and leave me alone.”

  “If being alone is what you want, then I’m sad to say you will be very disappointed in your future,” Tycho said with a chuckle that quickly turned into a ragged cough. “You undid the work of a very many powerful people, Jace, and not all of them will forgive as quickly as I have.”

  “Maybe powerful people should ask people for help instead of trying to force us onto the paths they want for us,” I said. “You’ve got five minutes, and then I’m heading back to the School. I’m sure there are a lot of people who’d like to talk to you here.”

  “I’m sure you’re right,” Tycho said. “Thanks to Sanrin—”

  “Elder Sanrin,” I corrected.

  “Yes, him,” Tycho continued, “I’m a fugitive. As you can see from my current condition, that status has not treated me kindly.”

  “They should have killed you.” I shrugged. “You conspired to bring the Lost back to destroy the world.”

  “Not destroy it,” Tycho sighed. “Save it. The Grand Design is flawed, Jace. It will create ripples in the ether, and those will grow to waves, and they will come crashing back on us. But we can still stop that. If you listen to me—”

  “No,” I snapped. “Not another word out of you. You used me, and it almost ruined my life. You made yourself rich off my pain, and you nearly got me and everyone else killed with your plans. I’m done listening to you. Whatever you’ve got to say will be weighed by the adjudicators when they catch you.”

  Tycho glared at me. For a moment, I wondered if he’d attack me. Then he looked away and sighed.

  “Foolish boy,” he said. “I made you a king, and you threw away the crown. Very well, if you refuse to listen, I cannot afford to waste any more time on you. Come, Hahen—”

  “No,” I snarled. “He’s not your slave anymore. He stays here.”

  Tycho’s left hand flashed out, and a coil of jinsei looped around Hahen’s throat. The rat spirit squeaked in surprise and his feet left the floor as the sage hauled him into the air by his neck.

  “Enough.” My serpents appeared and flashed through the air faster than I could see. The tendrils of beast-aspected jinsei seized Hahen’s noose and drained it away to nothing in the space of a heartbeat. I caught the rat spirit in the coils of my serpent and gently lowered him to the ground.

  “How dare you.” Tycho advanced toward me, his hands raised.

  “I’ll kill you,” I said. My serpents coiled in the air above me, their heads weaving, ready to strike.

  “Such promise, squandered,” Tycho said. He raised his hands and stepped back. “I am too weak to deal with you at the moment, boy. But there will come a time when you will pay for this pathetic victory.�
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  “Get out,” I said. I wasn’t sure I could kill Tycho and didn’t want to risk my life in a fight against a sage. Even weakened as he was, Tycho had centuries of experience and tricks up his sleeve.

  “As you wish.” Tycho bowed and stepped into the shadows.

  “Thank you.” Hahen rubbed his throat. “You’ve made a powerful enemy this day, Jace. That you did it on my behalf puts me deeply into your debt.”

  “No,” I said. “You owe me nothing, honored Spirit. You are my friend, even if my choices disappointed you. And I don’t tally my friend’s debts.”

  “That is a refreshing change.” The rat spirit chuckled. “Then allow me to continue your training. The world is in danger, and it needs you. Now more than ever.”

  The Revival

  WHEN THE LAST DAY OF the school year arrived, I still wasn’t sure what I would do over the summer. I didn’t have any home to go back to, and spending three months in this old building with no one but the staff and Hahen to keep me company wasn’t my idea of fun. I could meditate, sure, cycle my jinsei and try to push my core from disciple to artist. Very few people, not even graduates of the School of Swords and Serpents, made it to that level. The majority spent their lives as adepts, much more powerful than your average person, but a far, far cry from the strength of the sages.

  But a whole summer of that? When I was about to turn sixteen?

  No, that didn’t sound like any fun at all.

  To distract myself from that bleak prospect, I rounded up my friends and dragged them out to the beach for one last afternoon of fun. We played volleyball, chased each other through the surf, and cooked hot dogs we’d stolen from the kitchen over a driftwood fire. When the sun was low on the horizon, I called them all over to me.

  “What is it?” Clem asked as they gathered.

  “I’ve been working on something,” I said. Hahen had opened my eyes to new ways of using my abilities. “A new technique. One that builds off what I’ve learned since Kyoto.”

  “Look at Mr. Disciple over here,” Eric said. “Showing off.”

  I pointed at a patch of strange crystallized sand and blackened grass.

  “I did this when I came back to school at the beginning of the year,” I said. “Stripped the aspects and jinsei out of the earth. I nearly lost control.”

  “You’re killing me with the suspense,” Clem said. “What is it you want to show us?”

  “This,” I said.

  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, and a rush of jinsei poured into my core. It brought with it the natural aspects of my surroundings: growth, life, plants, beast, and vitality. There were more, but those five were the most important aspects, and the most dominant. Taking them in this way wasn’t the same as when I stripped them with Borrowed Core. It was like the difference between ripping leaves off a tree and picking up those that had already fallen to the ground.

  I let out a long, slow breath and pushed the aspects out of my aura toward the blighted patch at my feet.

  It was slow at first. I was doing the exact opposite of what my Eclipse core had specialized in, and the effort of creation was far greater than the effort of destruction. Beads of sweat burst from my forehead as I pushed against the fabric of reality. The world didn’t like having its authority challenged.

  And I didn’t care.

  One aspect at a time, I put the jigsaw puzzle back together. The world slowed to a crawl as I forced the aspects to fit where they’d once belonged. And then...

  “By the Flame,” Clem whispered.

  The black was gone. The grass was lush and green and six inches taller than it had been. There was no sign of sand or dead earth anywhere around us.

  “How?” Abi asked, his voice thick with emotion.

  “The Eclipse core could drain jinsei from the environment or people,” I explained. “It’s so powerful it shreds the aspects from wherever it gets the jinsei. That’s why they were so powerful against the Locust Court. They not only drained the power out of the spirits’ cores, they destroyed the aspects that made up their bodies.”

  “That explains how you killed the grass in the first place, not how you fixed it,” Clem said.

  “It’s like cycling.” I took a deep breath of jinsei-laden air. “You pull the energy in, but the aspects get stuck in your aura until you can cleanse them. You exhale, and those aspects go back out into the world, leaving your core with clean, pure jinsei. The only difference is, I can move a lot of aspects out of my aura at the same time. And I can tell them where to go.”

  “That’s incredible,” Eric said, his voice low and shaky. “You just... I can’t believe this. That grass was dead. And now it’s alive. I’d say it was impossible if I hadn’t seen it for myself.”

  “You have to tell someone about this, Jace,” Abi said. “What will you do with such a power?”

  I considered the question for a moment. I’d started my life as a camper with a broken core, the lowest among the low. I’d fought so hard to make my way into the School, only to be treated like dirt. And, now, I’d saved everyone and become a hero.

  There was really only one thing left for me to do.

  “Change the world,” I said quietly.

  Chaos Core (Book 3)

  The dragons have returned from Shambala, and Empyreal society will never be the same.

  AS JACE STRUGGLES TO control his unraveling core, the immortal dragons challenge the Empyreals for control of the world's destiny. Thrust into a competition against the deadliest students from around the world, Jace must lead his team of friends to victory. If he fails, all of humanity will be bound to the will of the Scaled Council.

  And if the dragons don't defeat the Empyreals, dark forces within human society just might.

  The heretics have stepped up their attacks, pushing the Shadow Phoenix clan to the brink of annihilation. A conspiracy of the wealthy and powerful threatens to enslave a very special group of students. And the Inquisition has dark plans for the Eclipse Core.

  And, like his core, Jace is splitting at the seams. Torn between the need to stop the Grand Design from falling into clawed talons and his quest to find his mother and the answers she carries, the young warrior must dig deep within to overcome the forces aligned against him.

  Chaos Core is the third installment of the best-selling School of Swords and Serpents series.

  The Inquisition

  MY HEAD THROBBED AND my thoughts scattered around the inside of my skull like a swarm of bats. It took me a moment to get my bearings, and I was sorry when I did.

  I was back in the Far Horizon, surrounded by the Locust Court.

  With no idea how I’d gotten there.

  Sacred energy flowed out of my core and into my body. My skin hardened into armor that could turn aside most normal blows. My pulse shifted into overdrive and blood flowed along arteries beneath the jinsei channels that carried sacred energy to my arms and legs. Panic’s greasy claws scrabbled at the edges of my thoughts, searching for a foothold. It was hard to hold the fear at bay, because I was so confused about how I’d been spirited away to this battle in the Far Horizon.

  One moment, I’d been on the beach outside the School with my friends. Now, I was far from home with a horde of hungry spirits closing in from every direction. When I tried to bridge the gap between those two points, I found holes in my thoughts where memories were supposed to live. Something had happened, clearly, but I couldn’t remember what. I felt like I was drowning in uncertainty. It was hard to catch my breath, even harder to focus on the enemies all around me.

  The Locust Court clearly didn’t have the same problem.

  A hungry spirit burst away from the circle of its siblings with its mandibles spread wide to snip my head off my shoulders. Its scythe-like claws swept down on either side of my body to hem me in and keep me from running. There was nowhere for me to go but backwards, and that would put me firmly in the clutches of even more of the Locusts. For most people, that was a death sentence.
/>   But I wasn’t most people.

  Not even fear and uncertainty could dampen my martial instincts. My fusion blade sprang to life in my hands. The weapon was light as a feather and sharp as a scalpel, and my disciple core empowered me to wield it at the speed of thought. The crystalline weapon swung up into the charging Locust’s throat, and the tip punched through the chitinous armor there and burst out the back of the monstrosity’s head. Milky blood splashed into my face from the thing’s open mouth and ran down my cheeks in sticky rivulets. The fluid’s rotting stink made my eyes water and my stomach roil. My body wanted to heave up my breakfast, and its rebellion almost got past my self-control.

  Almost.

  I held onto my concentration and kept my blade in a defensive position, ignoring the stink, disregarding everything but the threats that surrounded me.

  The other spirits joined the fight before I could wipe the disgusting goo off my face. They threw themselves at me in a chaotic jumble of slashing limbs and clicking jaws. The ground twisted and boiled beneath their feet as the Far Horizon was bent to their inhuman will. The spirits raised mounds beneath their feet and launched themselves down at me like falling arrows. They burrowed into the amorphous terrain only to burst out of the ground to slash at my legs with their wicked chitin blades. The weakest among them didn’t even bother with tactics; they hurled themselves straight ahead at full speed, arms windmilling in a desperate bid to slide past my defenses.

  Not that there was any way for me to mount a perfect defense against the storm of deadly creatures. Dozens of them attacked me at the same time. Though they were far slower than me, my enhanced speed and strength couldn’t maneuver my blade everywhere at once. I wasn’t getting out of this in one piece, but I wasn’t about to lie down and die. I’d defeated these monstrosities once before. I’d do it again.