Heroes of the Crystal Star (Valcoria Book 1)

by Jason James King

  “Then our army was defeated,” Ashra said.

  Kaiden pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed his eyes before replacing his spectacles. “Not necessarily.” He worked to sound reassuring. “We have days left before we should expect the worst.”

  “How many days?” Ashra asked.

  “Likely only two or three.”

  “And if a messenger has not returned from Hirath by then?”

  Kaiden dropped his gaze to the pages of Rayome’s book. I need to tell her. She has both the right and the need to know. Oh, Tael, why did you leave us? It should be you telling your daughter these things, not me.

  “I see,” Ashra said, taking Kaiden’s silence as a confirmation of the worst.

  “Ashra,” Kaiden said as he continued leafing through the pages of Rayome’s book, “I need you to see something.” He turned the tome around so that Ashra could see a charcoal sketch spanning the fold as it filled two whole pages.

  Ashra’s eyebrows rose in surprise, “That’s―”

  “A Niazeride hand unit, yes.”

  “But this book is old?” she asked, sounding confused.

  Kaiden nodded, “Over twenty years old.” Kaiden turned the book back around.

  “I don’t understand,” Ashra shook her head.

  “The man who made this sketch, who wrote this book, was named Rayome Saetala.” Kaiden leafed to the front pages, stopping at a portrait of a man with slicked back, black hair and a neatly groomed gentleman’s beard. He rotated the book again so Ashra could see the painting right side up. “He was your father’s minister of science over two decades ago.”

  “And he invented the Niazeride technology?”

  “He discovered it. Rayome’s interest and specialty was the culture that existed on Valcoria before the Great Destruction, the people and their technology. The Niazeride weapons were just one of dozens of technological artifacts that he unearthed. He was really quite brilliant.”

  Ashra leaned forward to scrutinize the picture. “So he was able to use the artifacts to make replicas?”

  Kaiden rotated the book back to face him. “No. Even with his keen mind, Rayome wasn’t able to build functional duplicates.”

  “Until now.” Ashra said.

  Vaekra take me, but she’s a clever one. “It would appear so.”

  “Why give them to our enemies? What is it that this man wants?”

  Kaiden met Ashra’s stare. “Vengeance.”

  “Against the kingdom?”

  Kaiden nodded. “And its king.”

  “Why?”

  Kaiden sighed deeply. “Rayome was more than an Amigus statesman. He was a friend to me and your father. Consequently, he enjoyed the full political and monetary support of the government in pursuing his archeological digs and historical research, irrespective of the objections of the Istran clergy that such things belonged to the heathen past.”

  Ashra nodded. “Because the Great Destruction was a judgment sent by the Creator to punish man for his arrogant wickedness.”

  “That was the basis of their opposition to your father, a professed Istran, supporting Rayome’s work. Your father was a reasonable as well as a religious man, however, and so contributed what he could.”

  Ashra took back the journal, rotating it as she began to leaf through it. “And that’s how he found remnants of the ancient’s technology?”

  “They were called the Valakyrian.” Kaiden pointed to a page with a sketched map that’s topography only vaguely resembled Valcoria as he knew it. “Regardless of their sins, they achieved much in their time, many great and wondrous things until they were destroyed by a weapon that they themselves created, something called the Aldor Sokatasa.”

  Ashra looked up. “Sky fortress?”

  “It doesn’t directly translate, but that’s close enough. From what Rayome discovered, a worldwide war broke out, a war that led to one of the five dominant nations building the Aldor, a flying city that was said to possess a gigantic Niazeride cannon.”

  “Dear Creator,” Ashra murmured. “What happened?”

  Kaiden shook his head. “The details remain obscure, but suffice it to say the Aldor laid waste to its builders’ enemies before it inexplicably fell from the sky, crashing into the planet so hard that the result was a worldwide elemental revolt. Floods, quakes, and fires destroyed what little of civilization remained.”

  “So the Creator felled the Aldor?”

  “That is what our faith teaches.”

  “Where did it fall?” Ashra began again to leaf through the book, but Kaiden stopped her by gently laying a hand atop of hers.

  “That is what I need to tell you, my dear.” He hesitated.

  “What is it?”

  Kaiden inhaled. After I tell her, there will be no going back. He loathed to place such a weighty burden on the shoulders of the girl. She had suffered so much in her young life, losing both parents as a child, enduring the constant focus of political sharks, duty preventing her from marrying the man she loved.

  “What, Kaiden?” Ashra asked.

  “The Aldor Sokatasa is here.” He exhaled.

  “Here?” Ashra sounded incredulous, “In Amigus?”

  “Underneath Salatia Taeo, the spire of Aradell is part of it, as is most of the city wall.”

  Ashra dropped her gaze to the side in thought, “Amaeg built our city on top of that monstrosity?”

  Kaiden nodded.

  She shook her head, “I don’t understand. What does that have to do with Rayome seeking vengeance against us?”

  Kaiden stood and turned toward one of the overflowing bookshelves lining the right wall of his chamber. “One of Rayome’s greatest achievements was locating and excavating a piece of the Aldor, not from under the city, but one that he found to the far north, in the Ice Lands. Rayome theorized that it had broken free during the Aldor’s descent and crashed there. Even so, the section was so large that it took a full year to find and uncover an entrance.”

  “And that is where he found the Niazeride technology?” The pages of the book crinkled as Ashra continued to leaf through them.

  “Among other things.” Kaiden folded his hands behind his back. “Everything Rayome learned about the Valakyrian’s technology he learned from the crash site in the north. It was a monumental discovery, a treasure trove of knowledge shedding light on a past that is still shrouded in mystery.”

  “But the Istran clergy objected?” Ashra asked.

  “They publicly denounced the discovery as an affront to the Creator since he brought the Great Destruction because of the very things Rayome had excavated. Brother Haddek, the head of the Istran order at the time, began to put pressure on your father to forbid Rayome to pursue the matter any further.”

  “I don’t remember father being easily influenced by anyone, priest or not.”

  “He was younger then, not yet politically established and more vulnerable to influence.” Kaiden turned back to face the girl, finding her attempting to read one of Rayome’s unintelligible technical descriptions. “That, and he was a believer in the doctrines of the Istran order.”

  “So he capitulated?” Ashra abandoned the page she was reading and returned to searching through the volume.

  “He compromised. Rayome would be allowed to continue his study of those artifacts he had already recovered, but the dig was to be abandoned and Rayome was to cease searching for other sites.”

  “And that caused Rayome to turn against my father?”

  Kaiden returned to his chair, rubbing his temples again before continuing. “Rayome was upset, but he had uncovered so many artifacts that it would take him years just to catalog them all, so he was able to accept the decision for a time. To avoid offending the priests further, your father charged Rayome to keep any forthcoming details of his research inside the circle of the Ruling Council.”

  “And that’s when he wrote this?” Ashra had found a sketch of the arctic excavation site.

  “Among other books.” Kaiden
reached out and took the tome back from Ashra, keeping it facing her while he leafed to find another page. “He discovered the purposes of many Valakyrian devices, one piece becoming of particular interest to him.”

  “Niazeride technology.”

  Kaiden shook his head as he stopped upon finding another sketch, this one of a fist-sized machine with hoses protruding out of valves on its top and bottom. “This.”

  “What is it?”

  “Rayome never could discover a name, but he believed it was a mechanical heart, one that could replace a human one in cases where it was damaged due to injury or disease.”

  Ashra leaned in for a closer look, crinkling her nose as she concentrated. “Diseases like Janier’s syndrome?”

  Kaiden felt a stab of pain at the mention of that disease, one that slowly killed the heart by weakening it until it stopped pumping. “Rayome’s wife, Darcivian, was diagnosed with that very ailment not long after Rayome learned what the device was for.”

  Ashra looked up at him, “Did he try to replicate the device to save his wife?”

  Kaiden closed the book and nodded. “The device’s design was much simpler than the Niazeride energy weapons, so Rayome was confident he could produce a working copy. Unfortunately, he had only found one mechanical heart from his dig and it was badly damaged. To have any chance of building his own, he needed a model that was in better condition, and so he began to search for the rest of the Aldor, certain that if he found it he would be able to acquire another mechanical heart.”

  “He found it, didn’t he?” Ashra glanced down at Rayome’s name embossed in gold leaf on the book’s black leather cover. “He found the Aldor.”

  “His keen mind, fueled by the obsession to save his wife, led him to discover that the Aldor was buried beneath the city and that Amaeg had concealed a way to enter its ruins. When he told your father what he found, he was surprised to learn that the king already knew all of this.”

  Ashra’s eyes widened. “Father knew the Aldor was buried here?”

  “And how to find and enter it.” Kaiden rested his arms on the table in front of him, lacing his fingers together and leaning forward. “The Legacy Secret, he called it. A piece of information passed down from Amaeg through the royal line, imparted only to Amigus’ kings or queens and no one else.”

  “Why?” she asked.

  “Tael said that the last Arch Sage, Alnostra Kyrell, bound Amaeg by oath that he would not reveal the secret save to his successor, who in turn would only pass it on to their successor, and so on through the generations. Your father never said why, and I don’t believe he knew the true purpose of the oath. Before Rayome found the ruins in the north, Tael had thought the tradition an empty ceremonial relic of Amigus’ past. That was until he was confronted by Brother Haddek.” Kaiden leaned back. “That’s when your father learned that Kyrell had also given the priests of what is now the Istran order a similar charge, though he did not share Amaeg’s secret knowledge with them. Haddek told your father that Kyrell had done this to check the royal descendants of Amaeg, to make certain each succeeding monarch understood the gravity of the tradition and held to it.”

  “That’s why the priests opposed my father in this. Because they were worried Rayome’s discovery would lead to uncovering the Aldor.”

  Clever indeed. “Which is why your father denied Rayome when he begged Tael to reveal the secret to him.”

  Ashra looked thoughtful, “The only hope Rayome had of saving his wife.”

  “Having no religion to comfort him and still ardently believing that he could have saved Darcivian, he broke when she died, blaming your father and Istran ‘superstition’ for her death. A murder he called it.”

  “What did he do?” Ashra asked, “why was he exiled?”

  Kaiden looked at a painting hanging on the wall behind him. It was a depiction of Ashra’s father sitting on his throne surrounded by the Amigus Ruling Council of the day, younger versions of himself and Rayome standing to the left of the king.

  “When Rayome discovered that the Aldor was buried beneath Salatia Taeo, your father swore him to secrecy, an oath Rayome accepted until Tael refused to reveal to him the Legacy Secret. Two months after his wife’s death, Rayome called the council together and broke his oath by revealing to everyone in the room what lay beneath the city. He then accused your father of maliciously withholding the secret of how to gain access to the Aldor which he had come to believe caused the death of his wife.”

  “How sad,” Ashra said, flipping the book open again to re-examine the author’s photo.

  “Yes, it was,” Kaiden whispered, twenty-year-old pain feeling fresh. “Your father could have had Rayome executed for his betrayal, but he loved him and knew that the man was broken. So, he banished him from the kingdom, giving him a short time to gather his things. The next day our old friend took his only son, a boy of four, and was gone. We never did know what became of him.”

  “Until now.” Ashra closed the book, staring at it as though it were a grave marker.

  Kaiden nodded. “I fear he is coming here with the Aukasian army, coming for you.”

  Ashra snapped her head up. “Me? I wasn’t even born.”

  “By now I am sure Rayome has heard of your father’s passing, and if his madness has grown worse, which I would assume it has, he will still want revenge. With the king dead, you are the next best target for him. In Rayome’s mind, your father took someone that was dear to him. I believe harming or killing you would be justice to him, a life for a life.”

  “He is coming to kill me?”

  Kaiden was proud that her voice sounded strong and steady. And here we come to it. “After he forces you to reveal the Legacy Secret to him.”

  “Kaiden,” Ashra said, looking stunned. “This is the first I have heard of any of this. Father never passed to me the Legacy Secret.”

  “He did, my dear. He told me so on his deathbed.”

  Ashra shook her head. “He was sick, at times delirious.”

  Kaiden forced a wan smile. “His mind was as clear as it ever was.”

  “I don’t know any secret!” Ashra’s courageous tone was gone.

  “Tael told me that he had originally planned to have this discussion with you when you were of age. He said when he realized he was dying he had told you the secret, but veiled it as he believed you too young to carry the burden.”

  A tear rolled down Ashra’s right cheek. “You have no idea what it could be?”

  Kaiden shook his head, “You are the only person in the world who knows it.”

  “But, I don’t.” Ashra wiped her eyes with the back of her wrist. “Kaiden, I don’t know any secret.”

  “Rayome will assume you do, and any denials you make will seem to him but attempts at resistance.” Kaiden opened a drawer affixed to the underside of his table. “But don’t worry, my dear. If he comes for you, I will tell him that your father passed the secret to me because you were too young at the time of his death. If our army has indeed been defeated and the Aukasian army attacks the city, I will have Gyaden see you to safety by way of the Tayaden passage. While Rayome focuses on me he will not be looking for you, at least not himself, and you will take this to defend yourself.” Kaiden lifted a Niazeride weapon out of the drawer, the one Sitrell had given the council. Ashra gasped as he placed it on the table in front of her.

  “I can’t use that!” Ashra said as tears rolled down her cheeks. “And what will become of you? When Rayome finds out you don’t know the secret, he’ll kill you!”

  “I will have Minister Iayasted train you how to use the weapon. It may also be prudent for Gyaden to be―”

  “I can’t let you sacrifice yourself for me.” she shouted, her face a mixture of terror and defiance. “I am not useless. We can face this threat together.”

  Kaiden smiled at the girl. I am so proud of you. That was something he had wanted to say more often, but hadn’t for fear that Ashra would think he were trying to usurp her father’s place
in her heart. And then there was the awkwardness, Kaiden never feeling comfortable around her. He had no children of his own and wasn’t certain how a father was to act, so he played the part of a stern mentor, something that came easier to him. Yet, in the six years Ashra had been in his custody, he thought he had come to glimpse what it would be like to have a daughter of his own, and though he felt unqualified for the job, he was glad it had fallen to him. Kaiden would protect the girl, even if it cost him his life. As much as he had fought to keep an appropriate emotional distance while raising her, she had succeeded in winning his heart. Though he worked to hide it, he did love Ashra. She was his daughter.

  “My dear,” Kaiden said in faux irritation hoping to sound less worried than he was. “I am simply preparing for the worst. Remember, there are still a couple of days left for a message to arrive. We needn’t panic.”

  Ashra wiped her eyes, nodding.

  “Off to bed with you.” Kaiden motioned for the door. “I still have much work to do.”

  Ashra stood, and to Kaiden’s surprise, leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. “Good night, Kaiden,” she said as she left the room.

  After the door to his office closed, Kaiden traced his fingers over his cheek where Ashra had kissed him.

  His daughter.

  For a madness had overcome all of the leaders of the world, and none of them would be satisfied until they alone ruled.

  Chapter 23

  Dragon’s Chasm

  Rayome strained to hear the Voice, but heard nothing. It was there, he could feel its presence, not like those other times when it had seemed repressed or absent. No, it was there, it just did not have anything to say to him. He wanted to know where Gevan had fled to and exactly how he was planning to try and stop the Aukasian army, but the Voice seemed to no longer be concerned with the matter. It is not alive. A tool, that’s all it is, just a highly advanced tool.

  Where had Gevan gone? What was he planning to do with the four firebombs he smuggled out of camp? The Voice had shown him an image, one that he recognized as the future, of Gevan stealing the bombs. It had also given Rayome the idea of sabotaging the explosives. After that, he did not know anymore.