Hearts & Minds: Book Six in the Crown of Blood series

by White, Gwynn

  Hearts & Minds

  Book Six in the Crown of Blood series

  Gwynn White

  4xOverland

  Copyright © 2018 by Gwynn White

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  1. Betrayed

  2. A Battle For Hearts And Minds

  3. Garlands For A Prince

  4. The Conniving Spymaster

  5. The Voices Slithered

  6. An Impossible Demand

  7. Countdown To Crisis

  8. Behind Bars

  9. The Plan That Wasn’t

  10. Bring Me Your Heart

  11. Unlikely Allies

  12. Clean At Last

  13. The Crap Chute

  14. Traitors!

  15. Turf Wars

  16. The Bargain

  17. A Gift

  18. The Wrong Time To Lie

  19. More Bad News

  20. Denied. Again.

  21. Hollow Victory

  22. Not On My Watch

  23. The Slide Into Madness

  24. The Book Of Chenaya

  25. Thwarted

  26. Bright As The Sun

  27. Heartbreak

  28. The Test

  29. The Dragon’s Lair

  30. Forgotten

  31. To Bluff

  32. When The Game Turns Sour

  33. Assault

  34. The Light-Bearer

  35. To Lost Friends

  36. A Throw of the Dice

  About the Author

  One

  Betrayed

  Nicholas hovered in the shadows at the airship’s open hatch. It had just landed in a Pathfinder Alliance hangar inside a mountain in Treven. It took all his self-control not to gape. His chest vibrated as the massive stone door rolled shut across the hangar.

  Below him, a band of minstrels played a haunting melody on pan flutes, drums, and tinkling bells. Their tale of victory, sorrow, loss, and triumph sent chills through him.

  He peeked around the hatch. Beneath a banner he could not read, and swaths of garlands strung across the roof, at least five hundred soldiers waited for him to step out onto the gangplank to greet them. To his color-blind eyes their uniforms were solid black, just like Mom’s.

  He dithered.

  “They all want to welcome you home,” Mom whispered behind him.

  Home. A place he did not know. A home under tons of rock. His chest tightened.

  His ignorance and discomfort didn’t stop there. Unbeknownst to him, thanks to his ice crystal, for the last year every person in the alliance had watched his every move—limited as those had been. Total strangers to him, they knew him intimately. Like a gutted rabbit, nothing in his life had been sacred or private.

  They had heard him mutter to the cockroaches that had kept him company in his first dark prison. In the cell with the harsh light and the screaming woman, they had even watched him defecate. If that wasn’t humiliating enough, they had heard his every thought. They knew he had been ready to give up and die when he had finally convinced himself to call Dmitri.

  Now he had to face them.

  Mom squeezed his hand. “Arriving here for the first time wasn’t easy for me either. I’d been banished to the forest with you and Uncle Tao for sixteen years. He was dead. You had been captured.” She leaned in so close that the feathers braided into her hair tickled his face. “I know it’s far worse for you, but if it’s any consolation, no one here bites.”

  She was right. It was time to take control of this world, just as he had every other situation he had landed in. He wiped his sweaty hands on the leather tunic Xipal had given him and stepped into the open hatch. The musicians stilled. Awe, tempered with fear, limned their faces and those of the soldiers who looked up. It was humbling.

  And more than a little chilling.

  Sadly, it was also all too familiar. His cousins had worn the same expression since he’d joined them on the airship in Atlaca. Even Anna was not immune, despite all they’d been through together in the Blade Furnace. Only the adults and Farith accepted him for what he was—an unsure but committed seventeen-year-old doing his best to fulfill a still largely unclear destiny.

  To everyone else, he was no ordinary human. He was a being of legend, one appointed by a revered seer who lived on beyond death. To him was given the almost impossible task of overthrowing Lukan and his empire. These soldiers, who had fought against the empire for almost two decades, knew better than most how difficult that would be. With the mines protecting their backs, they had valiantly faced seventy thousand of Lukan’s jaspers. In the last week, those seventy-thousand super-human guardsmen had been commanded to converge on the palace. They’d be arriving in Cian about now and would swell the already vast number of almost invincible soldiers guarding Lukan.

  How he and the Pathfinder Alliance would defeat them, he didn’t know.

  Yet these soldiers and musicians gazed at him with absolute trust that he would deliver the long-promised victory. No matter how much the odds stacked against them made his insides quake, they could never know his doubts or fears. He tossed his long, matted hair away from his face so they could see his determination. Voice raised so it carried to every corner of the hangar, he said, “If I’ve learned anything in my life, it’s that the only way to get around some things is to go right through them. Fulfilling my destiny as Dmitri’s Son of Prophecy is one of those things. But it will be so much easier with your support. Can I count on you?”

  A cheer rattled every nut and bolt in the airship’s hull.

  Mom pulled away from Axel to flank him.

  Axel. On the airship, he had called Axel Dad and Axel had called him son. At the time, it had seemed warranted. Axel had been more of a father to him than Lukan had ever been. That didn’t mean that he fully trusted his stepfather. Until that trust was earned, he had decided to call him Axel. It kept them on an equal footing.

  If Axel’s decision to expose his life to all these people was anything to judge by, they would have very different approaches to many things. It would be all too easy to let Axel’s superior knowledge of life, war, and conquest intimidate him.

  But that wasn’t what Dmitri had had in mind when he’d appointed Nicholas to be the Light-Bearer. Inevitable fights would have to be waged if they were to find a balance between Axel’s do-anything-it-takes approach and Nicholas’s still very vague role as dispenser of justice and mercy. Even the call for vengeance had to be carefully weighed. Oleg’s unnecessary death, largely at his hands, weighed heavily. Never again did he want to be responsible for such mindless, heartless destruction. But he also didn’t want to alienate his stepfather, not when Axel clearly loved him and was so important to Mom.

  What would it help if he freed Chenaya only to destroy his own family?

  Axel’s hand dropped onto his shoulder. He was tall, but Axel was taller. Also, Axel exuded confidence he would love to possess. One glance at Warlord Axel Avanov and you knew he was a leader amongst men. Axel looked out at the troops over his head. From the devotion in the soldiers’ eyes, no one cared that their warlord was dressed in a filthy, tattered uniform that had seen one too many battles.

  Axel spoke. “I promised to bring you Nicholas the Light-Bearer.” His back was as straight as a pine tree and his face grave. “Fulfilling that promise has not been without pain and sacri
fice. We have all lost loved ones. No one is unscathed. Even now, I have to report the loss of our incursion fleet over Cian.” Axel’s voice cracked, and his eyes sparkled too brightly. “To those who had family and friends in those ships, let our silence remind us all that we will never forget them. They will be avenged.” He took a deep breath and thumped his chest.

  Dark-skinned warriors clasped their biceps and bowed. Others kissed their fingertips. Some nudged their foreheads with their fists. Feathers and braids bobbing, Norin punched their chests.

  Profound silence settled over the hangar.

  With no salute to offer, Nicholas stood with his hands at his sides and looked down at his scuffed boots. They had been given to him by Valeria, the dancer he’d met on the road to Cian when he’d first escaped from prison. On her instruction, her brother Yuri had stolen them for him. In their way, Valeria and Yuri were also victims of Felix and Lukan’s tyranny. They deserved to be remembered.

  Through it all, Axel’s hand rested, hot and heavy, on his shoulder. He wasn’t sure if he was drawing strength from Axel, or if it was the other way around.

  It didn’t matter.

  Right now, they were united in their sorrow and appreciation for everyone who had sacrificed so much to bring him here for this, hopefully, final phase in the war against Lukan.

  Axel hitched in a breath. “Bringing Nicholas home didn’t happen as speedily as we all hoped, but despite all our setbacks, he’s here now. He will lead us to victory.”

  Another roof-raising cheer made Nicholas blush.

  Axel lifted his hand off Nicholas’s shoulder and held it up to the crowd.

  They stilled almost immediately.

  “Pathfinder Alliance,” Axel shouted, “prepare yourselves for the final battle. It will happen sooner than you think.”

  Nicholas sucked in a startled breath while the soldiers yelled and danced. At no time since he’d joined Mom and Axel had they suggested that the war would be quick in coming. Relieved to be free and safe for the first time in a year, he hadn’t questioned them on the topic.

  What else had he missed?

  Axel’s firm hand steered him down the gangplank.

  The jubilant crowd parted for them like grass before the wind. Some of the soldiers touched him as if he were a talisman that would bring them luck. Others chanted his name. Everyone beamed at him.

  It was so overwhelming that he was grateful when Mom fell into step with him. She directed him through the people to an archway in the rock face at the far end of the hangar. It opened onto a broad tunnel lit by dim lights. It too was crowded on both sides with soldiers. They saluted him as he passed.

  A middle-aged man shoved a small stone carving into his hand. “Light-Bearer, may the Spirits protect us through you. Always.” The workmanship was fine and the resemblance to himself startling. Unsure what to say, Nicholas merely nodded his thanks and slipped it into his pocket.

  Beyond the light and the people, the tunnel narrowed and darkness gaped.

  Nicholas’s throat locked. “No lights?” he croaked.

  While on the airship, he’d been told that they’d be living in the mine. Somehow, he hadn’t equated “mine” with darkness and cramped spaces. Both were painfully reminiscent of his first cell in the slaughterhouse.

  “We keep the passages close to the entrances dark in case of security breaches,” Axel said. “Makes it hard for invaders to navigate.”

  He cleared his throat to steady his voice. “The Chenayans have gone. So who’s going to break in?”

  “Xipal is still out there,” Axel said grimly. “As it is, our security is compromised because the bastard stole a thousand of my soldiers. Although we’ve changed security protocols, I’m not taking chances on any mischief that rat could be planning.”

  “Is Xipal even alive?” Nicholas asked doubtfully. It seemed unlikely, given the Chenayan invasion of Xipal’s capital. The last he had seen of Atlaca, it had been on fire.

  “He was seen leaving the city by dhow,” Axel said in a clipped tone.

  He frowned; no one had mentioned to him that Xipal had survived. Had that been by design? If so, why? Did Axel and Mom want to give him much-needed time to recuperate in a stress-free environment? Or, more troubling, had they decided to exclude him from things? “His Blades took a hammering. I doubt he’s in any position to attack anyone.”

  Axel’s hard eyes flashed at him. “He still has his child army stashed in the desert.” His tone didn’t invite further discussion.

  Mom ruffled his hair. “Don’t worry about it, Nicks. They will have to get through me first before they’ll ever find you.”

  He didn’t doubt it, even if it made him feel puny that his Mom had to defend him.

  Worse, crushing darkness loomed ahead of him. His mouth dried.

  Mom smiled at him. “I’m not ashamed to admit that one of my major motivations for destroying the empire is so that I can move out of here. The dark has never been home to me.”

  He managed a grin. “Glad I’m not the only one who thinks that facing numberless hordes of jaspers is preferable to living like a mole.”

  Mom squeezed his hand. “We can both take comfort that if Axel has his way, we won’t be here for very long.”

  “Have plans for the final battle already been made?” He kept his voice even—a general inquiry and not a doubtful interrogation. It helped take his mind off the darkness.

  “Dmitri whines that I never stop planning,” Axel said. “I call it strategizing.” The levity in his voice didn’t smooth his crumpled brow. “In typical Trevenite style, Chad has organized a welcome dinner for you tonight—” A flicker of a smile at him. “Careful of the apple cider. It’s a killer.” The smile vanished. “But from tomorrow, we kick our plans into action. We have no time to waste. Not while Lukan digs in.”

  “And I’ll be involved in the planning? I have some ideas to share.”

  “No point in going after Lukan without you in Cian to do your part,” Mom said.

  “And before then?”

  “Things are still… fluid,” Mom said evasively. “We hope we can clarify matters soon.”

  He hoped so, too. If they intended to use him as a puppet to be hauled out to speak and act on command, they were in for a big surprise.

  Two

  A Battle For Hearts And Minds

  Tao floated unseen and unheard above two rows of terraced houses on 24th Street in Zone One in Cian. He watched a pair of guardsmen making their way gingerly down the cobbled street. Both held rifles at the ready. Despite the jaspers neutralizing their sense of self-preservation, they looked around furtively, as if expecting the very building to leap out and grab them.

  He smiled grimly. They were wise to be cautious. Any second now, their worst fears would be realized.

  A few more steps and they reached the middle of the street. The black-and-white houses on either side of them creaked and rumbled.

  They froze.

  The wooden beams and the mortar holding the houses together broke apart with a deafening screech.

  But instead of spilling rubble and dust onto the street, the buildings morphed seamlessly into two rows of run-down shops with windows so grimy it was impossible to see the merchandize.

  “Dreaded!” one of the guardsmen yelled. “They’ll suck us dry.”

  His companion snapped off a volley of rifle shots at the shop windows.

  The bullets passed through the bent light without shattering the glass.

  Eyes wild with panic, rifles at the ready, the men turned full circle. They had been instructed to find the Hive, where Meka and Felix’s other programmers were hidden. Doing anything else short-circuited their brains. The same brains programmed by their jaspers to fear Felix’s Dreaded. Like everyone else in the Heartland, they knew to flee the holograms. They discerned no difference between Cricket’s bent light on this street and the Dreaded that tormented them on any other street in Cian.

  For years, Felix had hidden the Hive b
ehind the Dreaded. No one dropped into his hideout uninvited. And once in the Hive’s impenetrable concrete walls, no one ever left unless Felix willed it.

  Except the dead, of course.

  On Dmitri’s orders, Tao had flitted into the building with Cricket just moments after Lukan had commanded his guardsmen to attack the place four days before.

  It had been Cricket’s idea to copy Felix’s Dreaded to stop the soldiers finding the entrance to the underground facility. Her ever-morphing buildings had worked perfectly to confuse and terrify the handful of guardsmen they had allowed through the shield they’d thrown over 24th Street. Once released, the soldiers reported to their commanders that it was impossible to find the Hive.

  One, two, Tao counted off in his head. Three...

  The shops on either side of the street tumbled apart as if an earthquake had torn through them. When the crashes and creaks stopped, all that remained of 24th Street was churned-up ground riddled with weeds.

  Both men ran for the entrance to 24th Street.

  A flick of Tao’s fingers and the shield shimmered to reveal half a dozen military trucks loaded with guardsmen on the other side. The men dived through the shimmer to join their comrades.

  Tao snapped the shield closed behind them.

  Muffled cries from the soldiers and their captains reached him. Locked on the other side of the shield, all they saw at the entrance to 24th Street was an impenetrable wall.