The Legends of Regia Box Set: The Complete Series. Books 1-7

by Tenaya Jayne

  “The throne is mine! The Onyx Castle is mine! Regia is mine! Stop fighting! You’ve lost. I am King! Bow to me!”

  All of the slaves still fighting threw down their arms and knelt. The soldiers stopped attacking, unsure what to do and unwilling to kill the unarmed people in front of them.

  “Put down your weapons!” Copernicus bellowed. “No one else needs to die. If you bow to me now, I will not unleash the rest of my forces, ready and waiting, into the public to kill anyone and everyone they cross. Save the innocent. Submit to me.”

  The soldiers looked around nervously. Zeren pushed his way into the throne room. Copernicus’ eyes locked on him. “Bow! Show them!”

  Zeren looked pointedly at Redge. He shook his head.

  “It’s a lie! He has no other forces waiting.”

  Copernicus’ head whipped around to Redge, his eyes bulging in shock and rage. His massive fist hit Redge in the chest, the force of it breaking his ribs, knocking him backward. The blow shook his heart off rhythm. Rahaxeris crashed on the floor next to him. Copernicus pulled his sword and raised it over Redge.

  “Journey!” he tried to call out, but he didn’t have the breath to manage any volume.

  Copernicus jumped in alarm as the barrier was pounded and surrounded by slaves, all crazed to get at him. Their hands beat at the force field, but it held them back. He stared at them in disbelief for a second, then he laughed.

  “You can’t touch me! I am part wizard. No one can break through my power.”

  “I can.” Rahaxeris stood, throwing the cuff around his neck to the ground. He lifted one finger to the barrier and traced a line down it. The blue force fractured like ice cracking.

  “No!” Copernicus yelled. “Father, please!”

  Rahaxeris flicked the fracture with his finger. The power fell into shards. Rahaxeris turned on Copernicus, and the crowd rushed forward, but he was gone. A portal closed where he had been standing.

  A cry of despair rose up through the slaves. “He got away! We’re still slaves! We’ll never be free!”

  Rahaxeris reached down and helped Redge to his feet. His skin blanched, and he nearly blacked out as his heart spluttered, off kilter. His knees gave out. Rahaxeris lowered him down again. He looked up into Journey’s face, his head on her lap.

  “I’m sorry,” Redge said weakly. “I failed.”

  Rahaxeris knelt down beside him. “You didn’t fail at all. He’s lost his army. Your woman can keep them under control while we hunt him down. He’s alone and on the run. All of his plans are ruined.”

  “Then he’s more dangerous than ever, because he’s desperate,” Redge said.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Copernicus’ portal was set to take him back to his ship, but instead of landing on the deck, he landed underwater. Water filled his lungs as he yelped in shock. He looked up to the surface of the water over his head, and then he looked down. The ship lay on the bottom just a few feet under his feet. Forest, he thought desperately. He pulled himself down and swam through the door on the deck’s floor, searching for her body. Her cell was empty. He saw the holes in the ship’s hull. His ability to stay under was running out. He stroked out of the sunken ship to the surface.

  When his head broke through, he filled his lungs and exhaled in a guttural roar. He swam toward the closest shore; it would take hours to get there. He could just open another portal, but to where? He needed time to think. There was such sorrow inside him. He pushed it down and allowed wrath to take over. He had to if he was to survive. Had Shreve betrayed him? His diseased and twisted heart broke at the thought. Surely not. Shreve was his family. Someone else had taken Forest and killed Shreve before destroying his ship.

  His fury escalated as his mind settled on Syrus. He’d never felt hate to this level before, and hate was something he was very experienced in. Syrus had found Forest because of his connection to her; it must be that. He should have killed Syrus in the very beginning. He realized that now.

  The water slid over him as a new plan began to form in his mind. And he wouldn’t sit around and wait, calculating the odds of success. He hadn’t done that when he ran free through Regia before. Before he was sent to the wizards. His name was a legend because of that time, but this generation didn’t know him or what he was capable of. If they thought he was ruthless, they had yet to know the half of it. Regia would cower and beg his forgiveness from a pool of blood. No more control.

  But first things first… Forest. He opened a portal, knowing now where he wanted to go.

  ****

  Rahaxeris personally saw to healing Redge. His entire ribcage was shattered and would cripple him if left to heal on its own, and Rahaxeris doubted anyone else was capable of making sure not one bone sliver was left loose. It only took one to travel through his veins and to his heart to kill him.

  Rahaxeris made sure he was deeply unconscious before moving him from the throne room floor and back to his room. Journey sat beside him and held his limp hand while Rahaxeris worked. She didn’t distract him by speed talking or falling into hysterical tears. She just held still and hummed quietly. Her voice nagged at the edge of his brain lightly.

  “What are you doing?” Rahaxeris asked her.

  “I’m giving him a good dream. Is my voice affecting you? I didn’t think it would, but I can stop.”

  “Go ahead. I can shut it out. It won’t mess with my concentration. I’m almost done anyway.”

  He ran his long, sharp fingers along Redge’s torso, tracing where his ribs should be. His skin glowed red as his bones came back together. Rahaxeris repeated this simple action five times and was satisfied.

  “I’ve got to go now,” he said to Journey. “I have to stop Copernicus before things get worse.”

  “Worse?!”

  “Oh, yes, my dear. Much worse. It’s my sin that brought all of this about. It’s my job to end it.”

  He struck the air with the flat of his hand. A portal opened for him. He looked back at Journey.

  “Stick around, Storyteller. We need you.” Then he was gone.

  Rahaxeris landed in the main room of the Rune-dy headquarters. The smell was horrific. He held perfectly still in his shock as he looked down at the bodies on the floor. The blood was dry, the bodies bloated. They had been there for a few days. He couldn’t deal with his feelings about it at the moment. He stepped carefully over his fellow priests, noting Menjel was not among them. He began searching the place.

  “Menjel? Are you here?” he called.

  Then he found him. Rahaxeris leaned down, looking closely at his body. His throat had been crushed and his skin was burned all over in snaking, lightning-like patterns. He didn’t have to stain his brain to know who had done this. He and Syrus had a bit to discuss. But that would have to wait.

  Rahaxeris closed himself away from the sights and smells in his private chambers. He wasn’t wasting time. If anything, he was saving time. Clearing his mind of everything else, Rahaxeris focused all of himself on Copernicus. Where would he go? What would he do next? What was he feeling?

  From everything Redge had told him and what he had seen and heard, Shreve was gone, or dead. Copernicus thought Forest was still his captive. He would want to cling to her. He had no one left. What would he do when he found her gone? She wasn’t safe.

  Rahaxeris opened another portal. He had to get to Copernicus before he found Forest again.

  Rahaxeris landed in the water. He turned in a circle. No ship was in sight. He dove under the surface and looked down, spotting it on the bottom. He panicked for one second before he reminded himself that Redge told him Syrus had Forest. She wasn’t down there.

  ****

  Copernicus used his elf blood to go invisible as he approached the boundary of Forest’s land. He could feel her. She was here. Why hadn’t Syrus hidden her? Why keep her here? Then he felt the power in the air. He reached out and touched the blood lock. Ah, yes. Very nice work. But not good enough to keep him out. It was the first time he was
thankful for what the wizards had done to him.

  Chapter Twenty

  The shattering sound was deafening. Forest covered her ears with her hands. Syrus grabbed up her glass sword and looked at her, lightning flashing in his eyes.

  “Stay here.”

  “Syrus!” she called after him, but he was already outside.

  Her heart constricted. She closed her eyes tight and held her breath, listening.

  “Forest,” Copernicus’ disembodied voice whispered next to her ear.

  “Show yourself,” she said quietly.

  He materialized next to the bed, soaked, dripping water, and a knife in his hand. Tears ran down her cheeks, and she reached out to him. “I missed you so much,” she said.

  He picked her up and held her against his chest. His heart beat so hard it drummed forcefully against her ribs. She could feel the blade flat against her back.

  “I’ve been waiting for you, brother.”

  “You’re actually happy to see me?” he asked.

  “Of course I am. I love you.”

  His wild eyes filled with tears as he smiled, and shivers moved over his skin. “So long, I’ve thought about hearing you say that to me. I have to take you away from here, Forest.”

  “I know.”

  “I have to kill Syrus first. His hold on you must be broken.”

  “I know,” she said again.

  “Think you’ll have better luck this time?” Syrus growled from the doorway.

  Copernicus looked at him, tightening his grip on Forest. “Yes. I think I will… You’re too afraid of what I might do to her. What are you prepared to offer me for her life?”

  He turned Forest around in his arms like a shield over his chest, so she faced Syrus. The knife in his hand now pointed at her stomach. Syrus’ eyes flashed, but the rest of his face remained blank.

  “No, please, brother,” she cried. “Don’t hurt the baby. They need you to be their father.”

  Copernicus laughed mockingly at Syrus. “Did you hear her? She’s betrayed you. She’s mine now, because she wants to be. You have nothing. Perhaps you should just kill yourself and save me the trouble.”

  Syrus looked at the knife still pointing at Forest and raised one eyebrow. “Stop bluffing. You’re not going to hurt her. You want her too much. And since I’ve obviously lost her, she’s worthless to you as something to bargain with. You should stop holding her out like that because I’ve half a mind to kill the two-faced bitch myself.”

  Copernicus’ eyes rounded as Syrus took a step forward. He set Forest on the floor and stood protectively in front of her. He dropped his knife and drew his sword. The metal sparked against the black glass as the two men crashed together in the middle of the small room.

  They both were so tall, their weapons so big, and the space so confined, their strikes lost almost all effectiveness. The blades slid together as they both pushed against the other. Forest grabbed the knife off the floor next to her and crawled forward, slashing Copernicus across his Achilles heel. Blood sprayed over her face as he screamed in pain and stumbled sideways toward her.

  He regained his balance, looking down at her, his sword lifted over her. The sound of something sailing through the air moved past his ear. Forest caught her sword. Syrus pushed him from behind as she reared up, stabbing the blade through Copernicus’ chest.

  Copernicus looked down, disbelieving, at the sword that ran him through. Blood trickled from the side of his mouth. He lifted his arm, still holding his sword. Forest turned the blade sideways, and using both hands, she pulled it upward through his chest to his chin, up the middle of his face until it broke out the top of his skull.

  “That’s for my baby!” Forest said to his split body on the floor.

  Her arms fell, all the adrenaline gone. Syrus caught her as she went down. “Nice performance. Not that it wasn’t painful to hear you say those things.”

  “Two-faced bitch?” she threw back at him.

  He smirked as he carried her out of the room. He looked back at the body and grimaced. “I have to admit I’m a little surprised at your choice there. Rather gory for your taste, isn’t it?”

  “He threatened my baby. I could do worse.”

  He raised one eyebrow at her. “I believe you.”

  Rahaxeris burst into the house.

  “It’s over,” Syrus told him. “Copernicus is dead.”

  “Oh!” he exhaled. “Where?”

  Syrus nodded at the bedroom. Rahaxeris walked over and looked in. He turned back to them, his eyebrows raised, and his eyes rounded.

  “You’d never convince me that wasn’t personal,” Rahaxeris said.

  “That was all Forest. I don’t think I would have cut his head open like that.”

  She scowled at Syrus. “He deserved it.”

  Merick and Netriet looked in the front door.

  “It’s all right,” Syrus told them. “It’s over.”

  Netriet ran in and knelt down next to Forest, placing her hand on her stomach. “Are you okay? Is the baby okay?”

  “Calm down,” Forest assured her. “We’re both fine.”

  “You’re covered in blood,” Netriet argued.

  “Not mine. Really, I’m okay. Not even a scratch.”

  Rahaxeris reached over Netriet and touched Forest’s face. She met her father’s gaze. “I thought I’d never see you again.” He said. “I was sure you were dead.”

  “I’m not that easy to kill. I’m my father’s daughter.”

  He smiled indulgently and shook his head. “You’re full of big talk, girl.” He looked at Syrus. “You’re alive, and so is your child, because of him.”

  She rested her head on Syrus’ shoulder. “I know it. Many times over.”

  Rahaxeris sighed. “Now, I’ve got to take the body to Halussis. The people need to know he’s gone for good.”

  “That shouldn’t be in question,” Forest said. “All the slaves are free now.”

  “I’m still going to take him there. The fear and mystery around him needs to die as well.”

  “Come back soon, Father.”

  He nodded and smiled. They heard him open a portal in the bedroom, and then he was gone with the body.

  Chapter Twenty One

  All of Regia rejoiced and grieved simultaneously. Many lives had been lost in the hit on the castle. Since Copernicus had first come to Regia, until the moment he died, there wasn’t an individual who hadn’t lost something or someone to his evil. Few were lucky enough to have their loved ones returned to them when their slave marks disappeared.

  A terrible shame clouded over those who had been slaves. Most didn’t want to talk about it at all. Guilt, merited or not, pushed the people into a new frame of mind. Regia had a change of heart in the aftermath. The races came together in ways they never had before. Fervent discussions and groups broke out all over in support of Regia’s republic. Forest was held up as a visionary who deserved absolute support.

  But no one in power, nor the few who knew about the wizards, had time to catch their breaths. Journey met with the world leaders in the high council chamber at Fortress the day after the strike.

  “I wish I could offer you more hope,” she said sadly. “All I can tell you for sure is they are coming soon. There may be some power that can stand up to them, but if there is, I do not know it…I am not an ambassador of Illumistice, I’m an outlaw. Even if the governors of my world would listen to me, they would never agree to interfere. We have no power against them or influence anyway. It is only by chance that my world is not on the list along with Regia.”

  “How long do we have?” Zeren asked.

  “The wizards are going after their main enemies first. Regia was not at the top their list. You may have months…if you’re lucky perhaps years, but the clock is ticking.”

  All eyes turned to Rahaxeris.

  “What can we do?” Zeren asked him.

  “I don’t know, yet. I’m working on it…I need everyone’s unwavering support.
If I call on you, you must answer me. If I need your services, time, or whatever else, I must not be refused. I’m going back to Kyhael. The Rune-dy headquarters is the best place for me to work. You must not fear it the way you might have in the past. The place’s only purpose now will be finding an answer to this problem.”

  “Do we tell the people?”

  The vote came back a majority no. It was agreed to keep it classified, at least for the time being. Forest was not at the meeting, still too weak to go anywhere. She was capable of walking from one end of her house to the other, and that was all.

  After the meeting, Redge took Journey to meet Forest for the first time.

  ****

  Syrus touched Forest on the shoulder, waking her gently from her nap. She blinked up at him and rubbed her eyes.

  “Redge and Journey are here.”

  “Oh, okay.” She ran her fingers through her hair and sat up against the pillows he propped behind her. “I want to talk to Redge alone first.”

  “All right. Just don’t wear yourself out.”

  “I’m fine. Stop worrying.”

  He grunted in the back of his throat. “Yeah. I’m right on top of that,” he said sarcastically.

  Syrus left, and Redge came in, shutting the door behind him. Their eyes locked. She understood everything she saw in his face. He opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off.

  “No.” She shook her head forcefully. “Do not ask my forgiveness. You have it. You had it before you ever laid a hand to me…I know what it’s like to be a slave. I suffered under that burden much longer than you did.”

  Redge looked shocked. He opened his mouth, but again, she cut him off.

  “That’s all I will tell you about that. Don’t ask me for more.”

  He nodded and went down on his knees next to the bed and took her hand, his face pained. “I still have to say it, Forest…I’m sorry.”