THE IMBUED LOCKBLADE
Sol’s Harvest: Book II
by
M. D. Presley
To Nugget, the latest addition to the crime-fighting duo
Baby and Baby (and baby).
Table of Contents
Maps
Seasons of Ayr
The Story Thus Far
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Maps
For more in-depth maps and info on the culture of Ayr, please visit mdpresley.com.
The West
The East
Lacus & Mynan Nations
Seasons of Ayr
Spring
Marz
Avril
Maia
Summer
Iunius
Iulius
Weodmonad
Autumn
Septembris
Winterfylled
Blotmonad
Winter
Decembris
Jenvier
Solmonad
The Story Thus Far
In the beginning, there was Sol. The divine entity wandered the universe until he found the lifeless planet of Ayr and fell in love with it. Desiring other living beings to inhabit the planet, Sol sacrificed himself, shattering his essence into countless fragments—known as Breath—to create life. As such, all living beings have a piece of Sol within them: plants with one, making up the Body; animals with two, consisting of the Body and Mind; and humans with three—the Body, Mind, and Soul. But a small minority of humans are born with a fourth Breath, marking them as Blessed by Sol and allowing them extraordinary abilities based upon where their fourth Breath resides.
Born into the lap of luxury in the Eastern city of Gatlin, Marta Childress is a member of the Cildra clan, a clandestine network of spies reaching back to the Auld Lands across the ocean. Her father, Norwood Childress, is the head of the Cildra network on the continent of Soltera, his word law among their kin in the nation of Newfield. Though she treasures her little sister, Oleander, Marta is constantly at odds with her older brother, Carmichael—Marta even breaking his nose the day she discovers she is one of the Blessed. Unlike her brother’s Blessed Whispering abilities, which allows him to influence the thoughts of those around him like their mother, Cecelia, Marta is a Shaper and able to construct a spindly Armor around herself with her Breath, giving her inhuman strength. To commemorate the event, her father gifts Marta with a woven ring of three silver strands intertwined with a fourth gold one.
Unlike most Shapers, who construct a single slow-moving Armor, Marta receives instruction in the Cildra style of Shaping by her distant relative Cyrus Livermore. The head of the Cildra in the state of Nahuat and residing outside the city of Broad Baird, Cyrus calls Marta his honorary daughter and teaches her many different Shaper techniques, including how to form a blade, gauntlets for strength, rabbit legs for speed, a torch to light the night, and how to spring locks without a pick, among many other abilities. Above all, he teaches her to hide her Blessed ability from those outside the Cildra clan.
As a teen, Marta continues her Cildra training in the Auld Lands among even more distant relatives. But back home in Newfield, tensions brim between the Renders in the West and the Weavers in the East. Both Blessed orders operate under a different understanding of the will of Sol and argue over the festations, which are inanimate constructs created by Weavers to work their fields that the Renders find heretical. Numerous Eastern states finally declare their independence, christening their new nation the Covenant. This civil war between the West and East, known as the Grand War, calls Marta back to Newfield, where she worms her way into the upper echelons of society in the Western capital of Vrendenburg to spy for the East.
Marta is finally caught and sentenced to a prison specifically designed for Shapers known as the Pit. There, she befriends Abner Schlater, Reid Paxton, Rupert Kelly, Gonzalo Talreja, and Tollie Pryor as she waits for her father to rescue her. But it is her brother, Carmichael, who arrives, telling Marta she must influence her new friends to take part in a Western initiative conscripting Eastern Shaper prisoners to fight against their homeland. Unaware of the cost, Marta agrees, only to be branded on the forehead with the emblem of Newfield, along with the rest of the prisoners who take part in the Western deal.
Marta quickly rises through the Shaper ranks and soon heads the company, which is dubbed the Traitors Brigade, and is particularly hated by their former countrymen. Efficiently deployed by their commander, Absalom Bumgarden, the Traitors Brigade helps turn the tide of the war to the West’s favor, especially after Marta breaks the edict of her clan by teaching her fellow Traitors Brigade soldiers her Cildra Shaping techniques.
Now nearing defeat, the Eastern Weavers create devastating daemons—massive inhuman constructs with hearts of glass—that again shifts the war in their favor. Setting up a last-ditch defense outside of the Western capital of Vrendenburg, Marta and the Traitors Brigade prove instrumental in holding the line long enough for Bumgarden, now elected president of Newfield, to deploy his fleet of airships. These airships strike deep into the heart of the East, decimating their cities until the Eastern Covenant unconditionally surrenders to the West.
Believing she served her family well, Marta is informed by her brother that her father believes her a traitor because Carmichael fooled her into accepting the Western deal. Ready to kill her brother for his treachery, Marta is instead victim to Carmichael’s Whispering talents, which dwarf anything she has experienced before. He mentally dominates her and ensures that she can take no violent action against him as well as informing her of her sister Oleander’s death.
Without a home to return to, Marta lives in squalor for the two years following the Grand War until Carmichael, now head of the Newfield spy agency including the feared Home Guard, arrives. Returning Marta’s missing woven ring and displaying a letter from their father written in a codex only Marta can read, Carmichael tasks Marta with transporting the daughter of the airship inventor, Orthoel Hendrix, deep into Eastern territory. It seems Hendrix has turned against his former masters and has now sided with the Eastern revolutionary group known as the Covenant Sons. Marta is meant to deliver him his daughter so as to draw him out for assassination, at which point she will be reunited with her estranged family.
But hidden deep in the codex, Marta’s father has instructed her to ignore Carmichael’s assassination order and leave Hendrix alive so he might help usher a second rebellion against the West. Unsure whose mission she will ultimately obey, Marta breaks Caddie Hendrix out of a sanitarium, only to discover the girl is catatonic and only follows instructions when touched by a female.
Evading Carmichael’s pretense at a pursuit to her kidnapping, Marta’s luck finally runs out when she runs afoul of an arrogant Render in the city of Naddi. Scarring him and shattering his glass saber, Marta and Caddie only escape the town due to the intervention of Luca Dolphus and his mute half-Ingios companion, Isabelle. The two work as freebooters—mercenaries hired by the Covenant Sons to aid Marta.
To escape the soldiers on their tail, the four pass through a tolmen, which is a blighted area where monstrous ghuls prowl. To make matters worse, the relentless Render Graff is now on their trail, a man powerful enough to singlehandedly hold the line in battle during the Grand War. Compounding matters, Bernice Mauch, a powerful glassman, also seeks Caddie for her own mysterious purpose.
They only escape Bernice due to the intervention of a benevolent emet, which fights Bernice to a standstill. The emet takes notice of Caddie, and after its touch, the young girl begins to move on her own and leads them through a system of caverns to safety. Marta then discovers that Luca is a Dobra of the reviled Ikus clan as well as a Listener who does not wear his requisite silver pin. Though Luca reveals that he and Isabelle work at the behest of Carmichael, Marta now trusts the two even less.
The four race east, only for Marta and Caddie to be captured by the disgraced general Underhill, who has deadly plans for Caddie. Though Luca and Isabelle know they should run, Luca instead waits to hear from his true master, Simza, as to what to do next. But it is Carmichael who reaches Luca with a message first, one that he must deliver to the drugged Marta or face Carmichael’s wrath.
Carmichael’s message jolts Marta into action, the three escaping her prison and facing down Underhill. He keeps Caddie hostage, but the formerly catatonic girl calls Marta “mother,” and in that moment, Marta exhibits hitherto unknown Shaper abilities, creating a massive fluid Armor around herself that she uses to kill Underhill and save Caddie.
But as Underhill dies, an unnatural black Breath escapes his body, a Breath Luca swears belongs to the evil entity Waer, a devilish creature that has opposed all of Sol’s creations since the beginning of time. This mystery unanswered, and the Render Graff back on their tail, the four hijack a train to escape.
Marta sacrifices herself to separate the engine and ensure Caddie’s survival after Graff boards the train. Defeated by the Render, Marta expects to die when she again hears Caddie call out to her. And again the mysterious Armor she used to defeat Underhill appears, Marta using it to escape Graff’s clutches.
The four depart the train as soon as they pass over the Mueller Line, which separates the West from the East. Now standing upon Eastern soil for the first time since the Grand War, Marta gifts Caddie with her own woven ring to commemorate the event. The four intend to continue their quest to deliver Caddie to her father in the Eastern city of Ceilminster. But unbeknownst to either Luca or Isabelle, Marta has finally decided Orthoel Hendrix’s fate: she intends on killing the man so as to save the nation of Newfield from more bloodshed. She knows this will shatter her surrogate daughter Caddie’s fragile progress, but Marta also knows this will be the only way to prevent a second civil war.
Prologue
Weodmonad 4, 544 (Twenty-Three Years Ago)
Bernice Mauch Wilkenny deserved better than her lot in life. True, at the age of twenty, she possessed more than she ever dreamed of as a young girl, including a fine residence in a growing town, a wealthy husband who could afford her a maid, and now a firstborn son. But sweltering in the night’s stifling heat, her body still sore from the boy’s birth, she wanted nothing more than more.
More relief remained forefront in her mind, the doctor’s long-gone laudanum barely dulling the edge of her ache. More water, preferably still cool from the well, would also be welcome. But more than anything else, Bernice wanted relief from the child’s constant cries.
The midwife, who arrived before and remained after the doctor departed, assured Bernice her heart would brim with joy when she beheld the boy, this sudden influx of affection drowning out the throbbing pain. Instead, Bernice felt nothing when she saw the mewling creature still pink and wet, his skin glistening like flesh scrubbed raw. Bernice waited expectantly, and for a moment, she believed she felt the love burgeoning. But then another wave of pain crested, and she fell back to her pillow rather than cuddle the crying child. For that she earned a reproachful look from the midwife, who quickly passed the child off to the maid, Ella. A spinster, Ella was as equally ill-equipped to care for the newborn as Bernice, but the midwife did not care as she packed up her things, instructing the two woefully ignorant women as to how to nurse the boy before departing as well.
So the two made do through the sleepless night and into the next broiling day. Although she would not tell the spinster such, Bernice knew Ella did her best. She always appeared right at hand, attending Bernice’s every need. It was just that the new mother still wanted more.
Born across the Saulshish Ocean in the country Anamahn, Bernice Mauch retained no distinct memories of her homeland despite still bearing its accent. Escaping their urban poverty, her parents fled south across the sea to the nation of Newfield. And though Bernice grew up in Newfield, Acwealt remained a second language, her family cleaving close to their Mahnen mother tongue no matter where the winds blew them. Infected with a particular virulent version of wanderlust, her father uprooted the family every few years to once again seek new fortunes in yet another far-flung state.
The child’s cries assaulted Bernice from the next room, and she feared Ella would soon bring him for another frustrating feeding attempt. The midwife’s instructions turned out to be less than useless, the child as ignorant as to the process as Bernice when pressed to her breast. But the little beast still refused to nurse, and so eventually Bernice, sure that hunger would finally overcome his aversion, thrust him back to Ella.
Despite the soreness still gnawing at her nethers, Bernice realized she still could not bring herself to call him by his given name. As the second to his line, her husband, Judson Wilkenny Jr., insisted that if their child was a boy, he would carry on the name to enact a new family tradition. Bernice agreed wholeheartedly at the time, but now that it was only her, Ella and the boy, she considered dubbing him something else entirely out of spite. If her middling husband, who took such pride in his silly name, could not remain home to witness his son’s birth, Bernice saw no reason as to why Judson should have any say in what he was called.
Judson Wilkinny wound up as Bernice’s salvation though, the girl fleeing her family’s homestead at the age of sixteen for the nearest city in the state of Rhea. All her childhood she dreamed of a bustling burg built of brick such as her father reviled in his tales of their homeland, but she instead found the tiny wooden town of Clarksville. At first, the two-story buildings appeared massive, but soon revealed themselves as false facades designed to impress the ignorant. The town was scarcely a decade old, but growing by the day, and Bernice’s lovely blonde plaits drew many stares, particularly from Judson, the brash son of the dry goods store’s owner. Their courtship turned out to be a whirlwind affair, its brevity brought on partially by Bernice’s poverty, with the man proposing within a fortnight and their wedding closing out the month.
The Wilkenny family turned out to be delightfully ambitious, Judson opening a second store on the other side of the expanding town from his father’s. And from the profits, Bernice received all she had ever desired as a child: a home of her own within a proper town. Perhaps because he grew up in a town and not in the wilderness stretching across Newfield, Judson constantly sought to demonstrate his manliness by frequently initiating fisticuffs and bragging about what a fine soldier he would have made. During their courtship, Bernice found his braggadocios quite charming. But now that he had left her to go fight some silly war, Bernice could not think of her dear husband without sneering.
Judson had never stepped outside his home state of Rhea, lest of all to go to the wild Lacus territories to the east belonging to the neighbo
ring Myna nations, so it made not a lick of sense as to why her husband felt duty-bound to defend the settlers there. Separated from Newfield by the Bone Ridge Mountains, the Eastern Myna nations were more of a collection of city-states constantly warring with each other, the Lacus territories a buffer between Newfield and the Mynian city of Tlaplain, which claimed the barren terrain. Seldom sending soldiers through the Cahan Pass, the Mynians of Tlaplain left their Lacus territory fallow, Auld Lands settlers from Ispan, Bance, Acweald, and Anamahn soon sweeping in to occupy it without incident for many decades. And there, the pale settlers mingled their bloodlines with the few Mynian occupants, leaving the local skin tone much duskier than Bernice thought decent.
Eventually, the Auld Land and Newfield settlers began to bristle at belonging to a faraway nation speaking a foreign tongue, and they claimed all territory west of the Bone Ridge Mountains as their own.
Tlaplain sent only a score of their glassmen warriors to quell the rebellion, and although outnumbered ten to one, the glassmen massacred the insurrectioners over the course of a single night. Only twenty survived, one chosen by each of the unscathed glassman victors, to spread the tale of their defeat and stifle any more talk of independence. The survivors were a sorry lot when they arrived in Meskon, the glassmen having shattered their hands to ensure they would never raise a weapon against their masters again. But soon the stories of the survivors reached the nation of Newfield, the newspapers whipping the citizens into a fury as to the treatment of the white settlers by the ruddy Mynians. Within a month, the Newfield armies marshaled, Renders and Weavers marching side by side against a common foreign enemy, their ranks swelled with patriotic volunteers—men and women who were blithering idiots in Bernice’s estimation.
The Imbued Lockblade (Sol's Harvest Book 2) Page 1
