Noble Lies

by Lyneal Jenkins

  RISING PHOENIX BOOK FIVE

  NOBLE LIES

  REVIEW BY SHANE DUNPHY, AUTHOR OF BESTSELLING NOVEL, ‘WEDNESDAYS CHILD’.

  “Written with an energy and imagination that can leave you breathless, the Ana Martin series is a work of supreme fantasy and vision.

  Boasting a likable, strongly realized heroine and a world that is at once fantastic and thrilling yet wholly believable, the Ana Martin series is one of those rare reading experiences that just draws you in and won't let you go until the final page is turned.

  Jenkins's Siis are deftly drawn: fighting, loving and laughing with emotion that leaps from the text, while her Fae are truly chilling: nightmare creations that bring a genuine shiver to the spine. Jenkins crosses genres with a sure touch, compressing mystery, the supernatural, romance and procedural crime into a genuinely compelling narrative.

  Ana Martin is a name that will certainly go down in the annals of not just fantasy literature, but of classic characters in general, and Lyneal Jenkins is, without doubt, a figure to watch in the world of publishing. Read Ana Martin now and find a universe you will want to return to again and again.”

  RISING PHOENIX BOOK FIVE

  NOBLE

  LIES

  LYNEAL JENKINS

  Copyright © Lyneal Jenkins 2020

  Published by Lyneal Jenkins at Smashwords

  Lyneal Jenkins has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted or by any means without the prior written permission of the Author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and with a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

  Acknowledgments

  I would like to thank all my family and friends. I am blessed to have such supportive people in my life. Your on-going support is always appreciated.

  I want to give a special thanks to Cheryl, who has gone above and beyond with her support. I have no idea where I would be now if you hadn’t taken us in and helped keep me sane.

  Last, but in no way least, I would also like to give thanks to all you readers out there. Ana’s story would be nothing without your support.

  About the Author

  Lyneal Jenkins was born in Shrewsbury, England in 1980. In 1996, she left home to become a Medic in the British Army. After three years, she resigned the forces to start a family and begin her work with learning disabilities, which is when she was diagnosed with bipolar depression.

  After a failed marriage, she moved to Spain for eighteen months with her children, taking time to reflect on where she wanted her life to go. Since returning to the UK.

  In February 2011, she sat down at the laptop with one sentence and a basic concept in mind, with no idea that she was embarking on the biggest project of her life. Night of the Fae quickly became a novel and it wasn’t long before detailed notes for the remaining books of Phoenix Rising (originally known as the Ana Martin Series) were drafted – not that they ever go to plan. The characters have a mind of their own.

  To date, Lyneal is currently living in the midlands with her two youngest children. She works as a care assistant and writes in her spare time.

  She is looking forward to writing many more books in the fantasy/sci–fi genre as this is where her passion lies.

  Books also by Lyneal Jenkins

  Night of the Fae – Phoenix Rising Volume 1

  Hidden Light – Phoenix Rising Volume 2

  Frozen Flame – Phoenix Rising Volume 3

  The Last Prophecy – Phoenix Rising Volume 4

  Into the Dark – Phoenix Rising Volume 6 (Due for release in 2020)

  Synergy – Phoenix Rising Volume 7 (Due for release in 2020)

  NOBLE, is the fifth book in the Phoenix Rising Series, which follows Ana as she is drawn into the secret world of the Siis, an ancient race of empathic beings torn apart by war, treachery and the consequences of past actions.

  The Damiq have lost their home, her sister is in hiding, and everything Ana touches seems to turn to dust. Can things really get any worse?

  Unfortunately, they can.

  Whispers about Ana have reached the wrong people, bringing her a new enemy that is more

  powerful than anything she has ever imagined.

  She also attracts the attention of those who claim to be her allies. Unfortunately, they all want something from Ana, and the cost is often too high.

  RISING PHOENIX BOOK five

  Noble

  lies

  LYNEAL JENKINS

  CHAPTER ONE

  ‘If we attempt to rescue them, we will all die.’

  Nicolai spoke the truth. I knew that. But still, adrenaline tore through my tired body, urging me to help. I wanted to storm into the crater and demand the soldiers return our people. I needed to punish them. Not only for the way they led the Damiq towards a fate that could be worse than death, but also for the way they had tortured me during capture, hoping to glean information about the Siis.

  Nicolai gripped my arm, his hold tight for such a small hand. ‘You cannot help them.’ Seeing him for the first time, you would see a child, until you studied his eyes. Wisdom shone through, speaking of a leader who had suffered hundreds of years of hardship, of a soul who had no idea how to save those he called family.

  I hissed through my teeth and lowered my dagger. ‘Can you see who they have?’

  So many Damiq had died in the battle against Seraphine and the Fae. Many more were injured, unable to run when the helicopter had descended upon us, soon followed by the armed soldiers. Adam had managed to crash the chopper, giving many of us the chance to escape. We’d run through tunnels, many of them collapsed in parts, making the journey treacherous, dragging the injured with us, helping as many as we could escape from the fallen rock and earth with no time to investigate the injuries they had sustained. Even now, hours later, shock still had many of us in its grip.

  Grey smoke from the crashed helicopter still spiralled into the air, reaching up to join the streak of thick, black soot staining the sky, like an ink smudge. The acrid scent drifted to us, high on the hill.

  Nicolai pressed the small telescope to his eye once more. After a moment, he dropped it with a heavy sigh. ‘They are all covered in dust and blood, making it impossible to determine anything except their size.’

  ‘How many do they have?’ I clenched my hands, fighting the urge to rip the scope from Nicolai and study the crater below. The shock had dissipated from my mind leaving red-hot rage in its place.

  Soldiers led a line of shackled Damiq towards a green truck. My friends trudged forwards, their heads hung in defeat. Did they think that we’d abandoned them? My heart ached with the reality of the situation; for now, we had.

  Some of the Damiq couldn’t walk, their injuries from the battle were too great. They had been strapped to stretchers and carried by the soldiers to a large green tent set back from the crater. The soldiers had arrived less than three hours before. It had taken just over an hour for the tent to be erected and for a command structure to be put in place.

  Could I dare believe that the soldiers would medically treat the Damiq? The idea provoked a spark of hope, a small flame that immediately withered and died. I had been a captive of the government. The Geneva Convention didn’t exist for the Siis. It would be unwise to think that they would treat the Damiq any different.

  ‘They have at least fifteen of our people.’ Nicolai lowered the small scope, his face tight
with grief. ‘More died in the battle than I first realised.’

  ‘I’m sorry.’ They would never have been in danger but for me. I’d been the one to draw Seraphine’s attention, the Siis-witch hybrid who wanted the life spell. If only Maria and I hadn’t tried to save Creed from death. It wasn’t as if we had liked the alcoholic detective who, due to his crazed mind, tripped over a table moments later, killing himself again. The price of prolonging his life by mere minutes had led to the death of so many innocent lives.

  Nicolai shook his head. ‘The whys are not important.’ He frowned. ‘The manner in which you beat the witch is.’

  I looked at the ground, unable to meet his direct stare. Would this be the moment the Damiq banished me? I had drawn on their shi, stealing some of their life force for my own. Would they understand that I had done the only thing I could to defeat Seraphine? Probably not. I saw how the Damiq looked at me now, how they shifted away from me. They no longer saw me as an ally, but a threat they couldn’t control.

  ‘I never meant to.’ I kept my eyes down. I couldn’t see Nicolai’s look of suspicion. Not him. He had been one of the few true allies I had with the Damiq.

  ‘Can you kill the Siis that way?’

  I shrugged, knowing I likely could. The question was, did I want to? Taking shi from a Damiq was one thing. It came with nothing attached to it. But taking it from a Siis brought a whole hoard of problems. Even now, I still yearned for Gabriel. Not in the moonstruck way I once had, but with the vague notion that I missed some vital part of myself, a distracting sensation that never left.

  Then there was Adam. Hadn't I seen his shi being drawn into me? Did that mean we were bonded? I didn’t have the same drag on my psyche as with Gabriel, but I felt something. Then again, hadn’t there always been something, at least since I’d banished Gabriel from my life?

  My touch soft, I traced a neat row of stitches across my back and my finger to my stomach, hovering over the still flat muscles. I shifted my hand to another line of stitches across my hip. I couldn’t think about the baby right now.

  Thank God the doc had had the good sense to collect some medical supplies. It hadn’t even crossed my mind as we stumbled from the crater, our world shattered. If only he’d collected pain medication. I could feel every cut as if they were fresh, the way they throbbed, burned and itched simultaneously.

  ‘Well?’ Nicolai prompted. ‘Will your… err… skill work on the Siis?’

  I shrugged and winced as the motion tugged the fresh stitches on my shoulder. ‘Maybe. But if I attempt it and fail, I will be killed for my effort.’

  Nicolai nodded, his brows furrowed, deep in thought. He opened his mouth to say more, but the leaves rustled from behind us, and Maria stumbled through the trees. Blood still smeared her face and clothes. At least she had fewer injuries than me, though, black cotton, tied in neat stitches, covered both our faces. If only the cuts were confined to my face. I still couldn’t sit comfortably from the deep knife wound on my backside.

  Maria scowled as she rubbed her neck and hissed with fresh pain. ‘When is Eris getting here? I am already sick of hurting.’

  I shook my head. The Kipsu prevented Adam from healing Maria, but as for me, we were at a loss. Maybe it was due to the amount of shi I now contained, or maybe it was the pregnancy. My hand dropped to my stomach, the action noticed by Maria and Nicolai.

  I hadn’t wanted the baby, but something had happened during the battle, something that had given me the strength to kill Seraphine. I had bonded with my child. Not in the Siis sense of a bond, but an emotional connection. The baby would cause many problems, especially with the damn prophecy filtering through the ranks, speaking of a hybrid that will end the war. None of it mattered now. It was my child.

  ‘Has your son left?’ Nicolai asked Maria.

  Her eyes darkened and she shook her head. ‘Madeline has arrived to take him home.’ Her words resonated with anger and heartache. ‘She thinks I'm not going with her, but she is mistaken.’ Maria had given Cameron up at birth, only to have him dragged back into her life by Seraphine, a pawn to use against Maria. It might have worked if Cameron’s own witch ability hadn’t been triggered, the electric-blue energy that shot from his body giving us the chance to set him free.

  I touched her arm, offering comfort. ‘Are you okay?’

  She shrugged me off. ‘Of course, I am. It’s not like he is really my son, not anymore. Madeline is going to explain Cameron’s potential powers to his parents, and she is organising someone to help him through the changes.’

  Cameron would need more help than that. Seraphine kidnapping him, followed by the battle in the cavern, would leave a deep scar on his mental state.

  Nicolai smiled at my friend, his eyes filled with aching sadness. ‘Is there no way you can maintain contact with him?’

  Maria glared into the distance. ‘I signed away those rights at his birth.’ Anger and regret deepened her words, sharp emotion bubbling below the surface. ‘When I spoke to his parents, they said my presence would confuse him.’ She kicked the ground, embedding her toes in the dirt and gazed at the loose dirt as if dreaming of a better life. ‘As if they have any idea about how confused he is right now. And to top it off, when I tried to explain that he needed me, they threatened to have me arrested for kidnapping him. Me? How the hell can they do that?’

  I understood their uneasiness at having Maria on the scene. Their son had been kidnapped and returned with special gifts and the promise that their life would never be the same again. The confusion it would cause in Cameron would worry any parent. The boy had been through enough already. I kept my thoughts to myself, no way inclined to receive a tongue lashing off her. ‘At least he will have help,’ I said.

  She glared at me. ‘By some two-bit witch who knows nothing about my family? How can she help him really, eh? She can teach him about grounding himself, but what does she know about the true power we hold?’

  I wanted to hug her, to take away the agony riding her. ‘He wouldn’t be safe with you.’

  She sighed and her shoulders slumped, the anger draining from her. ‘I know. But it doesn’t mean I have to like it.’ She pointed down at the last of the Damiq as they climbed onto the truck. ‘What’re we going to do about them?’

  Nicolai slipped the scope into his pocket. ‘Nothing for the present. For now, we need a place to rest.’ His whole body sagged as if he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders.

  I re-sheathed my dagger. For now, the soldiers would get away with taking our people. ‘What then? We can’t leave them with the government.’

  Nicolai closed his eyes and took a slow, heavy breath. ‘You believe that we should attack their bases and demand our people back?’

  I nodded, ready to do just that regardless of my exhaustion.

  ‘And how did that confidence work while you were in their captivity?’

  Ouch! He might be right, but it still stung.

  I looked at the ground with a heavy heart. The base would be full of soldiers. Even if I could get Adam interested in mounting a rescue, he would be as disadvantaged as we were. He couldn’t heal from a daku tipped bullet wound any more than me. ‘But we can’t leave them.’ I couldn’t admit defeat. ‘It’s not right.’

  ‘And we can’t save them.’ Nicolai touched my arm, encouraging me to meet his eyes. ‘Ana. If you can come up with a way to get them back, I’m willing to try.’ He studied the crater, his face twisted with pain. ‘They are my family. In the past, we have tried opening communication with the soldiers that hunt us.’ He sighed. ‘They have no care for who we are or the support we can offer them.’

  ‘Eris can help,’ Maria said. ‘She got Ana out.’

  Nicolai laughed, a bitter sound that suggested years of being let down, of fighting for his people alone. ‘The Siis will not help.’

  A twig snapped behind us, followed by rustling leaves as someone approached. I withdrew my dagger by the time Kacie broke into the clearing. A dark bruise sh
adowed her right cheek and temple, and brown crusted blood stained her ear and jaw, but she seemed to have escaped the worst of it.

  She peeked at me through eyelashes, her smile shy. ‘The Siis priestess is here. She wants to see you.’

  ‘It’s about time,’ Maria said. ‘Where is she?’

  I re-sheathed my weapon. Someone would get hurt if I didn’t calm down. It remained hard. I couldn’t shake the feeling that the next enemy hid just around the corner.

  Kacie pointed to the woods. ‘She’s with Adam.’ Her eyes flinched away from me. ‘She knows about the baby.’

  A flash of anger rose in my chest. How dare Adam tell Eris about the baby before speaking to me first!

  Maria shuffled in the direction Kacie pointed, favouring her right leg as she lurched from side to side. Nicolai followed, maybe sensing my increasing rage.

  The rising heat left as quick as it had come. Of course Adam had told Eris. She was his superior and their friendship dated back two thousand years. Did I really expect any different? Did I believe that our ignored feelings for each other would demand his confidence?

  I groaned with dread; Eris could be hard work on a good day. ‘I suppose I’d better get it out of the way then.’