by John Corwin
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
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
Demonicus Chapter 1
Demonicus Chapter 2
Conrad Edison Chapter 1
Conrad Edison Chapter 2
Chapter Meet the Author
Ominous Odyssey
Overworld Chronicles
Book Thirteen
John Corwin
Copyright © 2016 by John Corwin.
Digital eBook Edition.
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The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
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To my wonderful support group:
Alana Rock
Karen Stansbury
My amazing editors:
Annetta Ribken
Jennifer Wingard
My awesome cover artist:
Regina Wamba
Thanks so much for all your help and input!
Books by John Corwin:
The Overworld Chronicles:
Sweet Blood of Mine
Dark Light of Mine
Fallen Angel of Mine
Dread Nemesis of Mine
Twisted Sister of Mine
Dearest Mother of Mine
Infernal Father of Mine
Sinister Seraphim of Mine
Wicked War of Mine
Dire Destiny of Ours
Aetherial Annihilation
Baleful Betrayal
Ominous Odyssey
Overworld Underground:
Possessed By You
Demonicus
Overworld Arcanum:
Conrad Edison and the Living Curse
Conrad Edison and the Anchored World
Conrad Edison and the Broken Relic
Stand Alone Novels:
No Darker Fate
The Next Thing I Knew
Outsourced
Seventh
Mars Rising
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A QUESTING WE WILL GO
When Justin enters negotiations with the Brightlings, he hopes peace, unity, and equal rights for all Seraphim are within reach.
But Elyssa smells something fishy and Justin knows better than to ignore her advice. They discover that the mysterious new leader of the Brightling Empire is after a secret weapon hidden in Voltis, a forbidden place where destructive elemental forces destroy anything that tries to get through. If that's not bad enough, the leaders of the last two Darkling legions seem intent on starting a civil war and taking over the government.
Together with Elyssa, Shelton, and Adam, Justin manages to convince the Mzodi to take them to Voltis on a flying ship. It might be a race to their doom, but if they don't find out the secrets of Voltis and keep the weapon out of the hands of the Brightlings, the entire Darkling nation might once again be enslaved.
Chapter 1
I was about to meet with a dead man.
Primarion Arturo was a blast from the past, and not in a good way. I thought I'd killed him in the final boss match on Eden between me and his beloved empress, Daelissa. Apparently, he had roach DNA.
Here on Seraphina, accompanied by a squadron of thirty of his flying archangels, Arturo glided on blazing white wings to a smooth landing atop Mount Ulladon. He wore a dark blue robe over sparkly blue armor, and a golden circlet around his head. He looked so damned magnificent with his thick mane of hair and chiseled jaw, I just wanted to punch him.
Showing no signs of surprise or anger that he was meeting with Justin Slade, the guy who'd killed his empress, Arturo strode across the open ground to the simple white canopy and took a seat at the table beneath it.
How in the hell are you alive? The Brightlings had specifically requested my presence here and I wondered if Arturo had been behind it. What if this entire meeting was a ruse so he could exact revenge on me? If it was, he was in for a hell of a fight even though I was alone.
I gave Arturo a few seconds to speak, but he remained stubbornly silent. It was all the more annoying because the Brightlings had requested the meeting. "Well?" I said. "Shall we get started?"
"Of course," he replied, voice calm and lacking the pomposity that instantly made me hate him the first time we'd met. "As crown ambassador for the Brightling Empire, I am prepared to negotiate peace."
His statement shocked me into silence. It took a few blinks before I could respond. "You want peace?" It was the last thing I'd expected from the Brightlings. If anything, I'd expected a long hard fight just to get them off Pjurnan soil.
If he was truly here to negotiate peace, I had a chance to make Nightliss's dream of a unified Seraphina come true. Her death sat heavy in my heart, but making her wish a reality would do wonders to lighten that load.
Arturo nodded. "I see no reason to continue a bloody war that might consume our entire realm." He clasped his hands and gave me a steady look. "I cannot deny that I despise you for murdering my empress. But after I crawled away from that battle, life barely intact, I was forced to live for a time among mortals. They shed blood without reason, prosecute war without faith, and have spread like a blight throughout Eden."
I raised an eyebrow. "Your point being?"
"Seraphina is paradise." Arturo gestured at the towering mountain peaks crowned with golden clouds. "Seraphim should be as wise as they are ancient and do whatever possible to preserve that."
"I wish Daelissa had believed that."
His gaze sharpened. "My empress would have set Eden to rights." He held up a hand to ward off a response. "Further conversation on this matter would only dampen my enthusiasm for a treaty. Let us move on to the details."
Thankfully, Commander Borathen had prepared a list of demands just in case. That man really knew how to plan for every eventuality.
"It just so happens I already have the details worked out." I pushed a small blue gem into the middle of the table and charged it with Murk. A holographic list of our terms appeared.
Equal rights for all Seraphim under the law.
Equal representation for all Seraphim in the government.
Free travel and trade between the Darkling Empire and the Brightling Empire.
I'd wanted to add some spiffy graphics and a video of cats cuddling with dogs to get my point across, but Elyssa and her father had nixed the idea.
Arturo read the short list and deactivated the gem. "Our terms are much simpler. Both sides sign a non-aggression treaty and we remove our troops from the Pjurnan borders."
"And continue to treat the Darklings in the Brightling Empire like second-class citizens," I finished. "I think it's time to be wise and unite all Seraphim. I have it on good authority that in the old days, there were no Brightlings or Darklings, only one people."
"Perhaps, but those days are long past." He leaned back and regarded me for a moment. "Why should we dilute our purity? If we allow Darklings the same privileges, then the two species will mate and produce inferior offspring."
"Do you know Fjoeruss?" I asked.
Arturo's lips tightened. "I know of the Trickster, yes."
"Is he powerful?"
The regent paused warily. "Nearly as powerful as Daelissa herself."
"Actually, Fjoeruss is far more powerful than she ever was," I said. "He's an ancient, one of the first Seraphim, and can channel both Murk and Brilliance equally. I believe uniting the Seraphim will once again restore the powers of old."
Arturo shook his head. "I cannot and will not endorse such madness, Minister Slade. My own people would rise up against me."
I wasn't a minister, an ambassador, or even remotely qualified to negotiate a peace treaty, but I was the face of the Eden army that had defeated Daelissa. Now I knew why Arturo had specifically requested to meet with me. He hadn't beaten me in battle, so he wanted to watch me squirm at the negotiating table.
I maintained a stony exterior and looked him dead in the eyes. "Are you willing to risk war over outdated ideals?"
He didn't flinch. "The question you should be asking, Minister Slade, is whether peace in our time is more valuable than a protracted war even you cannot hope to win." He folded his arms across his chest. "Tarissa is naught but rubble, her people scattered to the winds. You have only two legions at full strength, and the Eden army is far weaker than the last time I fought you."
How in the hell does he know all that? My straight face slipped into shock, because, damn it, I just wasn't trained for this sort of thing. "Where did you get that information?"
"We have four full legions, Minister Slade." Arturo produced a gem and projected a flat map of Seraphina. Though the continents bore similarities to their counterparts in Eden, there were enough differences to make it look like an alien world.
Here, North and South America were known as Azoris and Sazoris, their land masses much smaller due to the larger oceans and aether vortexes claiming thousands of square miles. A mountain range occupied the ocean where Florida should have been, and there, a star atop Mount Hein marked the capitol of the Brightling Empire, Zbura.
Across the Altean Ocean sat the land of Goleaad. This version of Europe and Asia had lost the landmass of Russia and half of India to the Frigean and Castigean Oceans. Ijolica neighbored it to the south, its outline bearing a slight resemblance to Africa.
Solid white shaded nearly every continent except for gray Ijolica, while a lonely little continent in the far southwestern corner resembled a deep purple bruise on the world's ass. This place happened to be the same continent whose fate Arturo and I were discussing.
Pjurna resembled Australia, and Tarissa, the capitol city of the Darkling Empire, sat right about where Sydney would be in Eden. It was a small speck of land compared to the Brightling holdings, which was exactly why Arturo showed me this map. He wanted me to feel small, insignificant, and purple compared to the pure glowing white of the Brightling Empire.
I raised an unconcerned eyebrow to let him know I wasn't buying it and wished I could leave a fist-shaped bruise on his face. That was the bad part about being an ambassador. I couldn't just punch people whenever I wanted.
Arturo spread his hands grandly. "As you can see, our empire stretches across most of the globe. What you faced in Eden was but a sample of our true might."
I counted down from three to think of a response, and to resist the mighty urge to shove the gem so far down his throat he'd shoot holographic images out of his ass every time he farted. "If that's true, why didn't you invade Pjurna already?"
"The empire is weary of war." Arturo's voice sounded heavy with regret. "There are those who wish to crush Pjurna and rid the realm of Darklings altogether. Be glad I do not condone such action." He deactivated the gem and the map vanished. "Is it not better to live and let live than force ideals on one another? Is it not grander to start with peace rather than fight a hopeless war?"
Try as I might, I couldn't fault his logic. I desperately wanted peace, but I'd made a promise to Nightliss that I would unite Seraphina into a realm with equal rights for all Brightlings and Darklings alike. Right now it was looking like an awfully hard promise to keep.
"Like it or not, Minister Slade, you are trapped in this realm." Arturo leaned forward as if to drive home his next point. "None of the Alabaster Arches are working and there is no return to Eden." His voice softened. "Seraphina is your new home, so I suggest you take some time to get to know her before wounding her with another war."
Arturo had me back on my heels, but I wasn't completely helpless. "Don't tell me you haven't crushed Pjurna simply because you don't want war." I motioned at the Vjartik Mountains. The peaks reached far into sky, making them nearly impossible to traverse by air. "Overcoming the mountains here in the north or the aether vortexes and boiling sea to the east and west while fighting our legions would decimate your army."
"Perhaps." The crown ambassador of the Brightling Empire turned back on the holographic map then stood and turned toward his guards waiting outside the canopy. "Please, think about our offer. I will return at dawn for your answer."
I wanted to grab him, spin him around and slap some sense into his stupid head. "Why do you despise the Darklings? Why do you think they're inferior?"
Without turning around, Arturo answered, "It has always been so." He began walking so I got up and followed.
An imperious-looking archangel in shiny blue armor stepped in front of me as if he thought he could scare me. "You should consider our offer carefully," he said in a cold voice. "Do not squander our good will."
I gave him an equally cool look. "I'll do what I think is best."
"That is enough, Gravuss," Arturo said, and motioned for the other seraph to come with him. "Good day, Minister Slade."
As they walked toward the other archangels, Gravuss leaned in and whispered something urgently. I'd done such a poor job of negotiating, I figured it wasn't beneath me to eavesdrop for an advantage since I had supernatural hearing.
"Urgent…cannot afford to worry…Voltis must come first." Whatever else Gravuss said was lost to the wind. Blazing white wings spread from the backs of the archangels and they launched themselves off the cliff and glided north, probably toward the Brightling encampments on the northern shores of Pjurna.
I hadn't brought anyone with me, as per the agreement with the Brightlings, so I mounted a broom, whirled it around, and flew back toward basecamp in the military base of Kohvalla, named unoriginally for the Legiaros of Victrix Legion. Flying angry and distracted turned out to be a bad idea because I collided with a flock of white eagles and nearly oversteered myself into a cliff.
I shook my fist at the birds. "Watch where you're flying!" I smacked my forehead with my hand. "I'm an idiot. They never should have picked me to do something like this."
I reached the Northern Pass, a crack in the otherwise impassible Vjartik Mountains. Rising from the canyon floor below and into the mists far above, two towers inside the pass guarded the way into Darkling controlled territory.
A shimmering ultraviolet shield guarded against invasion, and massive aether gems embedded into the northern faces of the towers projected enough ill
umination at night to make it look like daytime. There was a nearly identical setup in the Northwestern Pass—the only other north-south route into Kohvalla.
I flew up to the section of the eastern tower where large red symbols strongly suggested I request entrance lest I be shot down immediately. Since I was the only weirdo on a flying broom—the Seraphim preferred flying on cloudlets—the guards knew who I was and deactivated a small section of the magical shield to let me through.
I smiled and waved cheerily, but the guards inside returned the dead looks of those who were either bored out of their minds, or wishing they could shoot me down for target practice. I hurried through the opening and raced down the rest of the pass.
Nestled in a valley of red grass and blue trees, Kohvalla resembled a small town more than a military base. The troops had been stationed here so long, they'd given up on going back to their homes and had made lives for themselves. I wondered if they'd be happy if I told them they could go home within a few days, provided I gave up on my ideals and signed the non-aggression pact.
Nightliss had fought for a unified Seraphina. She'd survived uprisings and the two Eden wars. I'd promised the people of Pjurna that I'd fight the Brightling Empire and bring lasting peace to the realm. Arturo had ruined all that by being a nice guy.
"How can I justify starting a war now?" I slowed the broom and hovered over the valley. People scurried below like ants in the civilian sector while rows of soldiers practiced drills on a wide field. Another group of Darklings took flying lessons so we could match Arturo's archangels if peace didn't work out.
I spotted a lone figure in black looking up at me. From this distance we were mere specks to each other, but I knew who it was and dreaded disappointing her with the news. I drifted down and landed atop the command and control center, a squat square building in the northern quadrant of town.
A smile couldn't hide my glum mood. Elyssa's violet eyes narrowed with concern. "Didn't go well?" she asked.
