DAWN OF THE PHOENIX (Gods Of The Forever Sea Book 1)

by A. J. STRICKLER

  Siro was holding the queen’s baby, looking into its tiny little eyes. His master said he could make the baby one of his special people, if worst came to worst, and he hoped it would. With the baby and his undead woman, Kara, he could have his very own family. Siro snickered to himself. That would really get the master’s goat. He did wonder why his master would allow him to harm the queen’s child, but not the other child they had stolen. It would be wonderful to have a girl and a boy. He smiled at the possibilities. The master had told him not to lay a finger on the little girl but hadn’t told him why. He would just have to find a female child somewhere else. Kara would be so pleased with a girl child.

  He was daydreaming when the blow came. He never even heard her come up behind him. Isabella caught the baby as Siro collapsed to the stone floor. She smiled down at child and headed towards the roof.

  Kian could not believe the skill the wizard possessed. He was cut in several places and the sorcerer had put two daggers in him: one in the leg and one in his shoulder. None of the wounds were lethal, but they had slowed him down. He would have to be more careful, the wizard was more dangerous than he had thought.

  The Dark One knew he could not win this fight. If Kian had been armed, he would be dead now. It was only his experience and skill at anticipating an opponent’s moves that had kept him alive this far. It was time to end this before someone got killed, most likely him.

  Glancing sideways, the wizard saw Raygan crawling towards the hatch. It was time to make his move.

  “Siro, come up here now. It has been fun, blade master, but it’s time for you to surrender if you wish the child to live.” The Dark One looked at Kian and grinned beneath his mask.

  They both saw Isabella come through the hatch with the baby in her arms. The queen gasped in relief and went straight to the blonde girl.

  The wizard looked at the two women, seemingly confused. It was all the distraction Kian needed. He surged forward and punched the unsuspecting wizard in the chest. The blow hurled the masked man off his feet. As he flew backwards, Kian wrenched one of the shortswords from his hand.

  The wizard rolled to his feet, clutching his chest. Kian pointed the sword at him and advanced, wary of the wizard’s tricks.

  “You might have broken my breast bone. I should have been more wary of your strength.”

  Kian said nothing. He felt the weight of the shortsword, it was lighter and shorter than what he was used to, but it would do. He stalked toward his enemy.

  The wizard backed away, switching his remaining sword to his left hand. “Now, Kian, can’t we talk this over?”

  “No more talking.” Kian lunged smoothly for his foe’s throat. As he did, the Dark One stepped back and pulled his hand back into his sleeve, then flung his right arm forward. A fine powder flew into Kian’s eyes. The swordsman’s eyes immediately began to burn and water. He couldn’t see. The wizard had blinded him.

  “I told you before, I don’t die so easy.” The sorcerer swung his sword at Kian’s leg. The half-elven swordsman blocked the attack on instinct. Another blow came at his side, and again he parried the strike. Many times over the years, Gildor had him train blindfolded. He had to use his hearing to listen for attacks and anticipate his opponent’s moves. He had hated it, but now he thanked the gods that Gildor had been such a thorough teacher.

  He calmed himself and used his heightened hearing to listen for the wizard’s movements, but there was nothing. The attacks had stopped.

  Already his vision was beginning to clear. He rubbed his eyes, trying to bring his sight back.

  “You put up a good fight, Kian, you’re just out classed,” he heard the wizard say. As the vision came back into his right eye, he saw that the Dark One had stepped back away from him. His adversary muttered a word and stomped his foot, a crack appeared in the roof of the tower and advanced quickly towards him. Kian jumped up on the tower battlements, but it was no use. The battlement collapsed along with a large section of the roof. He fell, along with a large part of the top of the wizard’s tower.

  Isabella had gotten the queen down into the tower, away from the fighting. She had put the queen’s baby into its mother’s arms.

  Raygan looked down at her baby boy for the first time. “He’s beautiful, Isabella. I can never thank you enough for helping us. You saved both our lives.”

  The young blonde girl gently stroked the baby’s head. “I know you would have helped me if you could, milady, I bear you no ill will. I don’t believe what the Dark One said. I would still like to be your servant, if you’ll have me,”

  The queen shook her head. “No, Isabella, you will never be a servant again.”

  “Have I done something wrong, milady?”

  Raygan gave the girl a smile and stroked her cheek. “Oh no, Bella, you have been a loyal and true friend to me. It’s I that has done the wrong. I will make it up to you if we ever get back to Bandara. You’re a friend to Raygan Albana Blackthorn now, not the queen’s servant, and you will be treated as such.”

  Isabella looked at Raygan awkwardly. “Should I call you Raygan now, milady? I don’t think I could do that.”

  Tears filled the queen’s eyes and she hugged Isabella. “You can call me whatever you like, dear girl.”

  Isabella looked down the stairs. “I know a way out, but we should get the other baby first.”

  Raygan was at a loss. “What other baby?”

  “They had a baby girl older than yours, but still very young.”

  Raygan nodded. “I wouldn’t leave a baby goat with these monsters. Let’s find the girl and get out.”

  They heard a large crash. It sounded like the tower was falling apart. Isabella drew her sword. “Let’s hurry, milady. The child is downstairs.”

  The Dark One sheathed his shortsword and walked over to the edge of the tower, careful to not get too close to where his magic had destroyed the roof. He peered down and saw Kian climbing out of the rubble. The half-elf was limping and looked like he was bleeding from his scalp.

  He watched as Kian walked over and picked up Malice from where it had landed. “Cats truly do have nine lives,” the Dark One whispered to himself.

  Kian had barely had enough time to right himself and land on his feet before he hit the ground. The fall hadn’t injured him, it was all the debris that had fallen with the tower's roof. His vision was fine now except for the blood that ran down his face from the nasty cut on his head. It clouded the vision in one eye, but that was okay. When he got back to the top, the wizard would die. He only needed one eye for that.

  Kian thought he would have to dodge stones, mortar, and magic as he climbed back to the top of the tower, but the wizard had hurled nothing at him. As he hopped over the edge, Kian saw the Dark One standing with his one remaining shortsword in hand. “I must say I am very proud of my work. You are amazing, half-breed. It is a shame I must destroy you.” The wizard took a fighting stance. “So, we finish this now, swordsman?”

  Kian wiped blood from his face and nodded his agreement. The sorcerer untied his cape and threw it down on what remained of the stone roof. “Fitting it should end this way, Kian. You and I are both marked by the Old Gods. I’m sure they are taking an interest in how this all turns out.”

  Kian lunged forward without a word. The wizard only just parried the strike and his counter-attack was far too slow. His creation had reflexes beyond anything human or elven. There was just no way for him to win.

  Their blades clashed over and over. The Dark One knew Kian was toying with him. The half-elf’s skill was unbelievable. When Kian decided to kill him, it would be over. He wasn’t used to losing and it angered him.

  Kian feinted to his left and then spun quickly back to the right. The Dark One had no time to counter, his blade was out of his hand and spinning through the air. The half-elf had disarmed him with ease.

  As he watched his sword fly over the edge of the tower, Kian kicked his bad leg out from under him. He was on his backside with the swordsman’s b
lade at his throat; he had seconds to live. He had the ring, but he would have to get close and that was not going to happen. He did have one other choice. His creation did have a weak spot.

  “Kill me and you will never find out what happened to you family,” he croaked.

  “Lies won’t save you now, bastard.” Malice rose to strike.

  “Your mother was taken by Sidian slavers,” the wizard blurted out.

  Kian slowly lowered his sword. “Tell me and if I think you’re lying, I will kill you.”

  The Dark One struggled back to his feet. “I want your word you won’t kill me until I finish the tale, or what I know of it.”

  “You will live until I hear it all, I swear it on my sword arm. After that, I make no promises.”

  Kian began to bind his wounds as best as he could and still keep an eye on the wizard. He was no Rhys, but he thought he could stop the bleeding. The wizard walked over and put his back to what was left of the tower’s battlements. He closed his eyes a moment, then sighed. “As you know, it started in Thieves Port.”

  Isabella picked the little girl up out of an old wooden crib. Raygan thought she looked to be about two years old. The child had black curly hair and lovely dark eyes. The little girl was very pretty, Raygan thought. “Whose baby is it?” she asked.

  Isabella shrugged. “I don’t know, but the master of the tower was very protective of her. He always reminded Siro not to harm the child.”

  The queen grimaced in pain. She hoped she could get out of here before it became too much for her to bear. “Well, we have to take her with us. I won’t leave any child in the hands of these madmen.”

  Isabella wrapped the child in a heavy blanket. She knew it would be cold outside. “Follow me, milady.”

  She led the queen to a tunnel far in the bowels of the tower.

  Raygan could see the tunnel was made of natural rock. Isabella stopped at a barrel that sat before the tunnel’s entrance and pulled an unlit torch from it. She handed the child to the queen, who sat the little girl down on the cold stone floor and then sat beside her, holding her own baby close.

  “Hurry, Bella, this place scares me.” Raygan looked down the dark tunnel. She wished she didn’t have to go down there. It frightened her just to look into the darkness.

  Within a few minutes, the young woman had the torch lit. “Follow me, Majesty.” Isabella picked up the small girl and headed down the tunnel, holding the torch in front of her.

  Raygan grabbed her abdomen as she stood and followed Isabella. Her own tiny baby felt as if it weighed a hundred pounds. She wanted to stay and sit for a while, but there was no way she would stay inside the tunnel any longer than she had to. The place just felt wrong.

  Isabella was moving much faster than she was and it was hard for Raygan to keep up. From the light of the flickering torch, she could see runes carved on the walls of the tunnel. They were strange and made her feel odd just to look at them. Who would have spent so long cutting those into the solid rock, and why?

  She was getting tired and hurting worse, and was just about at the end of her endurance when they stopped.

  Raygan saw Isabella pull a lever that jutted out of the rock wall. “I followed Siro down here once and found this place,” the girl said.

  Raygan saw a sliver of light. The blonde girl pushed a door open and they stepped out into the daylight.

  Raygan realized that they had come out of a huge old tree. She could see the tower only a short distance away. That was not all she saw. There was a woman standing just off to their right.

  She was dressed in a simple white dress. Her beauty was undeniable, even Raygan was captivated by the woman. Long hair, black as a crow’s wing, fell in beautiful waves well past her shoulders. The white dress she wore was modest but showed the remarkable shape of her body. Raygan noticed the woman was also barefoot, but it was her dark eyes that caught the queen’s attention. They were a bottomless pit that seemed to swallow her with their intense beauty. She smiled at them and Raygan thought if she were a man, she would have just fallen in love.

  “I’m glad to see you ladies have escaped the tower. My name is Octavia, and I have a favor to ask.”

  “A ship call the Witches’ Song sailed into Grey Harbor; it was captained by a man named Nasir Sana, a Sidian. He had come far to the north looking for exotic slaves. Captain and crew came to the Heavenly Hole for a night of drinking and whoring. When this Nasir saw your mother, he had to have her. He ordered her taken aboard his ship. When the other whores tried to stop him, he and his men killed them all. Then the slavers sailed out of Thieves Port under the cover of night.”

  Kian looked away from the wizard. “Then my brother must have been killed by these slavers as well?”

  The Dark One shook his head. “No. Who do you think told me the story?”

  Kian’s head whipped around. “You knew my brother?”

  “Yes, I will get to that. Do you wish me to finish or not?”

  Kian nodded eagerly. He needed to know what happened to his family so greatly that he almost forgot who was telling the tale.

  “Well, from what I understand, your brother followed the slavers. It took him several years to reach Sidia; apparently he had several misadventures along the way, some nasty business with pirates, and he mentioned a brief encounter with the Circle of Thirteen, but that is another matter and not important. Your brother was very long-winded in telling his tale and a bit on the dramatic side for my taste. Anyway, he reached Sidia and began to search for your mother and Nasir Sana.

  “Late one night while drinking at a tavern in the Sidian city of Bosic, he heard that Nasir had taken a special slave to the city beyond the black gate. Your fool of a brother followed the information he had overheard and passed through the black gate into that dreaded city.

  “If you have never been there, you cannot understand what kind of place it is. There are no words to describe what goes on there. The only one that comes close is evil. The very ground of that city stinks of it.

  “To his credit, your brother survived the dangers of the Beast’s domain. He searched through the place for months. Finally, your brother made the place his home, finding a vocation and settling into a daily routine.

  “He never stopped looking for her, though. He hounded the residents of the city for information, and even got under the skin of some of the local wizards that make the city their home.

  “That is when I first learned of him. I was an assassin and had just become a member of Kabash Sar, the heartless ones. I was instructed to become your brother’s friend and gain his trust. You see, he had found out that his mother was in the temple of the Beast, who the King of Sidia serves. Nasir had taken her there as an offering to the dreaded Lord of Evil. I know not why. Perhaps Nasir wanted to gain favor with the Beast? They say the loathsome god truly dwells there inside his ghastly temple.

  “The temple itself is inside the palace. So I was hired by the king when he found out about the rescue attempt. I was to stop your brother from ever gaining entrance to the palace. I failed.

  “He got inside and attempted to rescue his mother. From what I understand, your brother was captured before he even laid eyes on her.”

  Kian swallowed hard. “What of my mother? Tell me now, you bastard.”

  “Your mother was sacrificed to the Beast.”

  Kian clutched the battlements, trying to steady himself. His mother was dead and she had died horribly. It was a blow that his heart could never fully recover from. “Finish, wizard, I must know the rest.”

  Beautiful or not, Isabella started to draw the blade the Dark One had given her. The woman raised her hand and spread her fingers. She spoke a word, and Isabella found that despite her best efforts she could not pull the sword from its sheath.

  “I mean you no harm. I just wish to see the child. You have my word,” the woman said.

  Isabella looked at Raygan and shrugged. “I don’t think we have much choice, milady.”

  Isabell
a handed the girl child to the woman who called herself Octavia. The woman looked at the girl with sadness. She whispered into the little girl’s ear. Tears spilled down the woman’s cheeks as she handed the child back to Isabella. “Find the girl a good mother, I beg you. She deserves that at least, and never speak of me to her or anyone else. What happened here would put the child at great risk, as well as those who would raise her. It must remain a secret. Wait for the swordsman on the tower, it would be the safest thing for all of you. Farewell.”

  Raygan stepped forward, shifting her baby in her arms. “Wait, who you are? Are you the child’s mother?”

  The woman smiled weakly at the young queen. “I was once all you see around you now. I’m only a sister to death.” She vanished, leaving the queen and Isabella wondering who she was and what she meant.

  “Your brother was tortured beyond human understanding, but he had learned a few tricks and he escaped from the Black Palace. A feat no one else in the world can claim. He wandered the streets of the city for days, chased by bounty hunters, assassins, wizards, and the royal hounds. He knew that he would never leave the city alive. That’s when he found me. Imagine my surprise. The man the whole city was looking for had sought me out. And he asked me for a favor.”

  Kian looked at the Dark One with hope in his eyes. “What did he ask for?”

  “He asked me to kill him and I did.”

  A low growl came from Kian’s throat as he slowly drew Malice from its sheath. “Your story is finished, sorcerer. My family is dead and you killed my brother, it’s time for you to die.”

  The Dark One stood facing his creation. “If that is what you choose, so be it. The story of your family is at an end. Your twin Tavantis died by my hand, that is true, but it was what he asked of me. I showed him mercy. If you want to kill me for that, so be it.”