Storm Raiders: Age Of Magic - A Kurtherian Gambit Series (Storms Of Magic Book 1)

by PT Hylton

  There was one part of her she hadn’t used in this fight.

  She attacked, swiping at his face with her blade. He took a step back, easily dodging her strike.

  He let out another laugh. “I’m sorry, dear. I don’t mean to laugh, but that was just pathetic.”

  She held her sword straight in front of her, gripping it with both hands. Then she concentrated, just like her father had taught her. Her eyes went black.

  “Captain Tor,” she said, “come here.”

  She reached out with her magic and pulled.

  Tor slid forward, his eyes wide in shock, his feet gliding across the blood and rain-slicked stone, and Abbey’s sword went through his chest.

  She let go of her sword and let Tor’s body fall to the ground, where he could lay beside the ones he’d killed.

  Epilogue

  Abbey looked down at the empty wagon. Most of the seawater had drained out by that point. Apparently, the crew of Thunderclap wasn’t as great at water sealing as they claimed to be.

  Something else had disappeared, too: Dahlia.

  Benjamin shook his head. “We tried like hell to find her, but with the fog and fighting she managed to escape. At least a few of her crew made it out as well.”

  Abbey couldn’t help but be angry with herself. She’d gotten the captain, but she’d let the Storm Caller slip away. At the same time, she knew she’d made the right choice. If she hadn’t gone after Tor, she wouldn’t have known about his plans. Or his allies.

  Syd climbed up on the wagon with Abbey. “The crew of Thunderclap rallied a bit after you left. They formed up and gave it one final push. If not for Benjamin, we would have been lost.” She gave the blacksmith an admiring look. “The way he combined his magic and his swordsmanship was a thing of beauty. It’s not surprising Dahlia snuck off during the madness.”

  “She won’t get far,” Captain Roy said. “Every man, woman, and child on the Kaldfell Peninsula will soon be looking for her.”

  Dustin struggled up to the wagon with Syd and Abbey. A knot was already forming on his head from where Randall had clobbered him. The fires in the city were out now, and the poor guy looked bone tired.

  “I’m just glad it’s over,” he said.

  Abbey answered softly. “It’s not.”

  Syd turned to her. “What do you mean?”

  “Tor said he has an army of Barskall Warriors hidden somewhere on the Kaldfell Peninsula. He said he has other allies across the sea. Not only that, but we just lost six Storm Callers. That’s six stormships we can’t send searching for Dahlia.” She looked at Captain Roy. “I know you’re optimistic that we’ll quickly catch her, but I’m not so sure. The way Tor made it sound, they have allies everywhere.”

  Roy nodded. “Perhaps you’re right. We’re going to give it our best damn shot, though. And even if we don’t catch her, we stopped the threat. Tor’s dead. Thanks to you.”

  “No,” Abbey said. She looked at the people around her. Her friends. Her brothers and sisters in arms. “It was all of us. I just happened to be the one holding the sword.”

  ****

  Syd climbed the gangplank to the now empty Thunderclap. The ship was docked, and the few remaining crew members had been hauled off to the already crowded jail.

  She took her time walking the deck, exploring the ship from bow to stern. Then she ventured below deck. She walked through the sleeping area and the cargo hold.

  The scorch marks left by the fire Abbey had started were evident both above and below deck, but the ship was structurally intact. The crew must have done an exceptional job of putting out Abbey’s fires quickly. It wasn’t too surprising. After all, no one had ever accused Thunderclap of having an undisciplined crew.

  Everywhere she walked, Syd thought of her brother, Elliot. He’d lived and worked aboard this ship. Then he’d disappeared. The one man Syd knew could give her the answers about her brother was dead. Tor had been tight-lipped, but as long as he’d been alive, she’d held out hope that he’d eventually relent.

  Syd ran a hand across her bald scalp and looked out at Holdgate. She’d question the remaining Thunderclap crew members, but she didn’t hold out much hope on that front. She’d tried that before. She’d gotten crew members drunk, she’d offered them bribes, and she’d threatened them. No matter the approach, their answers were always the same. Eventually, Syd came to believe that the crew members truly didn’t know what had happened to Elliot.

  With Tor gone, there was only one other option. If Syd wanted answers, she needed to find Dahlia. And that’s exactly what she intended to do.

  ****

  After a day spent cleaning up the city and tending to the wounded, Abbey and Benjamin headed back to the apartment above the blacksmith shop and sat down at the kitchen table.

  “You know,” Benjamin said, “when I asked you to go see Jarvi, I thought he’d help you escape south. I never thought he’d send you north with the stormships.”

  Abbey smiled. “I kinda figured that wasn’t your original plan.”

  Her father looked her in the eyes. “Thank you. For everything. I know you went there to prove my innocence. That sense of justice you have? You get that from your mother.”

  “You’re welcome.” She patted the back of his hand.

  He looked her in the eye. “Abbey, I’m sorry I never told you the truth about my past. And I’m sorry you had to hear about it from Jarvi.”

  “I don’t care about what you did then. I care about the man you are now.”

  “That means a lot. I’m done hiding from that stuff. It’s time to start making up for it.” He rapped a knuckle on the table. “Speaking of the future, what’s next for you? Is this old blacksmith shop going to be enough for you now that you’ve seen the world?”

  “Now that you mention it, I do sort of have a job offer on The Foggy Day. And I did enjoy sailing.”

  Benjamin leaned back and scratched his beard. “Huh. Captain Abbey. I kind of like the sound of that.”

  Abbey laughed. “I hardly think they’ll start me at captain. Roy might have something to say about that.”

  Benjamin waved a hand in the air as if shooing away the notion. “Eh, you’ll work your way up in no time. Wouldn’t it be sweet? You and Dustin, Storm Captain and Storm Caller. Running your own crew. Fighting Barskall.”

  Abbey smiled. “Now that you mention it, that would be pretty sweet.”

  ****

  The Winter Night slid across the calm, glassy ocean, racing northward. The crew was a seasoned collection of mercenaries, stormship sailors thought long dead, and misfits who’d left civilized life behind for something more exciting. Even this strange group of sea-hardened veterans couldn’t believe how fast they were traveling.

  At this rate, they’d reach Bode in a day and a half.

  The woman standing at the prow, clutching her staff as she smoothed their waters and hastened their winds, had only spoken one word to the crew since she’d boarded: “Bode.” She hadn’t needed to say anything else.

  They all knew who she was, and they knew that if she was on their little ship, things had gone very badly for her. As such, no one spoke to her, and everyone kept their distance.

  For Dahlia, that first day aboard The Winter Night was a time of introspection. It wasn’t that she’d lost the battle that bothered her; it was how she’d lost it. Caught off guard by that damned Arcadian girl while she was doing battle with The Foggy’s Day’s young Storm Caller.

  Dahlia had been winning, too. If she’d only had a little longer, she could have broken his mind, she was sure of it.

  Years of planning, all undone by an Arcadian girl and a metal rod.

  Even more disturbingly, the young Storm Caller had used storm magic on dry land. Which was impossible.

  Dahlia allowed herself an hour of moping, and then she decided to move on. There was good that had come from this battle, and she vowed to focus on that.

  First, she was grateful she’d had the foresight to keep
The Winter Night around in case they ever needed to make a fast escape. The ship had followed Thunderclap at a distance for years just in case. Tor had always said it was a waste of money, but Tor had always been shortsighted.

  She didn’t know whether Tor had survived, and, frankly, she didn’t much care. She was done with him either way. He’d served his purpose. Granted, he’d been very handy with a sword, and it had been nice to let someone else be the public face of Thunderclap. And he certainly was easy to manipulate.

  But lately, he’d gotten a bit too full of himself.

  He’d begun to actually believe it was his plans they were pursuing, not hers. It was ridiculous! After she’d spent months trying to convince him to lead his first Storm Raid so many years ago. After she’d had to prod him endlessly to seek an alliance with the Barskall. After she’d spent the day before every Storm Raid carefully explaining the plan to him and worried through every Raid just hoping he wouldn’t screw it up.

  She was done with all that.

  Bode was a necessary first stop. She’d need to spend a little time with Eril to assure him their plans were still on track and to convince him of who had really been in charge all along. From there, she’d likely visit Barskall itself. It had been too long since she’d seen her old friend there.

  She glanced over her shoulder at the crew working on the deck. One of the men caught her looking and quickly became fascinated with the rope he was tying. Dahlia shook her head. These men were pathetic. But they could be a useful weapon to her, just as Tor had been. She wouldn’t throw them away because of their simple imperfections.

  Dahlia smiled as she thought about the upcoming voyages she’d make once she claimed a ship worthy of her. It would be nice to rule directly rather than through a proxy.

  Now that she thought about it, it was a silly tradition that a ship needed both a Storm Captain and a Storm Caller. It was more efficient to have one person do both jobs.

  Just one more thing she’d fix when she ruled the Kaldfell Peninsula.

  But she was getting ahead of herself. She needed to keep things simple: get her fleet, get her army, conquer Arcadia, then use the riches of Arcadia to take over wherever she damn well pleased. That had always been the plan, and nothing had changed.

  Certainly not because of some blacksmith’s daughter and a rookie Storm Caller.

  She added one more item to her list: learn the secret to Storm Calling on dry land. If she could figure that out, it would make the invasion of Arcadia that much easier.

  Dahlia looked out over the water and smiled; she had a plan, she just needed to execute it.

  And execution was what she did best.

  END OF BOOK 1

  Author Notes - PT Hylton

  Written June 10, 2017

  I know I’m weird, but I’ve always loved watching storms.

  I come by it naturally—when I was young, we lived at the bottom of a large hill, and when the storm clouds started to gather, my Dad and I would ride our bicycles to the top. We’d wait for the first drop of rain, then we’d race down the hill, trying to beat the storm to our driveway. We made it home dry more often than not, and—safety issues aside—it was a hell of a lot of fun.

  Then my Dad would set up lawn chairs in the garage, and we’d watch the lighting flash through the open door.

  But storms can be destructive, too. Deadly even.

  They’re dangerous. They’re exciting. A bit like Abbey, I guess.

  Thank you so much for reading Storm Raiders.

  When Michael offered me the opportunity to write in the Age of Magic, I was thrilled. The Kurtherian Universe is such a rich world, and it’s freaking astounding how Michael and his co-authors have taken it in so many interesting directions.

  There’s something about the Age of Magic that is especially—sorry, I can’t help myself—magical (Edit - he SHOULD have helped himself…Michael). Because in the Age of Magic, we know something the characters don’t. Us TKG veterans know what’s going on under the proverbial hood of the magic in this world. We know about the etheric.

  Chris Raymond and Lee Barbant play with this idea brilliantly in their Rise of Magic series. If you haven’t read it, go, now, do so! Not only will you get a kick butt story, but you’ll learn a LOT more about Arcadia.

  Justin Sloan took the idea to another land with Shades of Light (again, you should read that book).

  I jumped at the opportunity to tell a tale of how magic had shaped the Nordic lands in the distant future. I knew that it would have Viking influences, but I also knew it would be very different than traditional Viking culture. For one, the ships would be different. If they were harnessing the wind with magic, they’d likely develop something more advanced than a traditional Viking ship.

  The idea spiraled out from there, and after getting lots of great input from Michael, Chris, and Lee, my dreams were soon filled with Storm Callers, Barskall Warriors, and an outsider blacksmith’s daughter with a thirst for adventure and a need for justice.

  If you’re a veteran of The Kurtherian Gambit universe, welcome back! And thanks for giving a new TKG writer a chance.

  If this if your first Kurtherian book, wow, you’re in for a treat. Besides the books listed above, I suggest you jump in right at the beginning. Book 01 is called Death Becomes Her, and it’s a GREAT ride.

  I’m hard at work on book two of the Storms of Magic series, and, holy crap, it’s going to be fun. Let’s just say Dahlia’s not going down without a fight, and Abbey’s more than ready to give her one. Also, Benjamin’s about to learn his past may not be done with him yet.

  Finally, Michael and I would love it if you took a minute to leave a review for this book. It doesn’t have to be anything long or eloquent. Just a sentence or two about your thoughts on the book would be plenty. It helps us and our future readers.

  Until next time!

  Best,

  P.T.

  PS:

  If you dug this book, you might want to check out my other stuff.

  The Savage Earth

  It's been over a century since humans lost the war with the vampires. The few thousand survivors live on a massive airship that circles the Earth, moving with the rotation of the planet so it's always in sunlight. But if humans want to take Earth back, they'll need to learn to survive the night.

  Zane Halloway

  The fate of a kingdom rests in the hands of an assassin. Welcome to a world of magic, mystery, and political intrigue.

  The Deadlock Trilogy

  Frank returns to Rook Mountain, Tennessee, to find his hometown beset by deadly creatures. Mysterious Zed is the only one who can control them — but is he a local hero or the source of the trouble?

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  Author Notes - Michael Anderle

  Written June 10, 2017

  Thank you! Not only for reading this book, but also making it all the way through these author notes, as well :-)

  PT Hylton is another author who, for whatever reason, has written intriguing stories, but his ability to crack the marketing side of the business has been… challenging for him.

  Now, those who know Justin Sloan, know that he is a collaboration fanatic. I actually asked him about that one time, and the short-short answer is he worked in a company where the collaboration was part of the job. He loves doing it, and so he continues doing it to this day.

  So, fast forward to when Justin learns that we are opening up The Age of Magic to a few new authors, and he suggests we need to take a look at one of his collaborators. Now, I’ve never read anything by PT Hylton.

  Before PT, I kinda knew everyone who had been writing in the Universe. Now, I’m getting pitched with someone I don’t know.

  At all.

  So, I did what any self-respecting publishing mogul (HA! I crack myself up) would do, and I go work on something else and don’t do a damned thing on the request.

  Because, busy and all.

  Then
, Justin comes around to ask once more and I agree that I’ll ‘go do it real soon.’ But, lawn fairies and releasing a book happens…

  You get the picture, right?

  FINALLY, I get another poke from Justin and I go immediately to review one of PT’s books (by now, I’m feeling like an ass for not having done it earlier) only to find out I should have done this shit a long time ago.

  It took only like three pages to figure out..this author knows his story.

  So, we act all cool and stuff (being the aforementioned publishing mogul…Hahahahaha… (wipes tears of laughter from his eyes) Sorry! I can’t keep typing that without losing it.) For the record, I think what I did was immediately get ahold of Justin and ask how do I connect w/ PT to see if he wants to join?

  Now, there was actually another group involved, which is CM Raymond and LE Barbant (the beard) because they are the caretakers of the Age of Magic. So, they had to agree as well. I remember one conversation in Slack where CM Raymond was effusive towards Justin for pushing so hard for PT. So, getting their agreement wasn’t a picnic, either.

  Needless to say, all of us owe Justin a beer in the future for sticking to his guns, and making sure we gave PT a shot.

  So, raising a Coke to Justin (because I don’t drink beer) for pushing us so hard and another to PT Hylton for writing such fun characters that fit so well into the Age of Magic.

  I’m off to publish this book, and continue writing Forever Defend as we travel from Roma to Venice tomorrow.

  Ciao!

  Michael Anderle

  P.S. PT Hylton’s website for all things “PT” is - http://www.pthylton.com

  PT Hylton

  For a chance to see ALL of PT’s different Book Series

  Check out his website below!

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