by Melle Amade
QUEST FOR SHIFTER MAGIC SERIES 3
JAGGED SWORD
A Dark Urban Fantasy Novella
MELLE AMADE
JAGGED SWORD
Copyright © 2019 by Melle Amade.
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
For information contact:
www.melleamade.com
[email protected]
Book design by Derek Murphy @Creativindie
Cover design by Desiree DeOrto
First Edition: July 2019
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
DOWNLOAD FREE
Dutch born, Matilde, the estranged niece of Lord Van Arend, barters with her scheming mother to spend the summer with the only friends she’s ever had, the Ravensgaard at Castle Brannach. The only problem is what she has offered her mother is information; information that will break her friends’ trust and begin the downfall of the regime that governs them all.
http://bit.ly/2wHcwv6
MELLE AMADE BOOKS
Shifter Chronicle Series
FREE Prequel Novella – HERITAGE
http://bit.ly/2wHcwv6
1 - SANCTUARY
http://amzn.to/2ngrh53
2 - REMNANTS
http://amzn.to/2kORbsE
3 - HARVEST
https://amzn.to/2QUaIIv
4 – DELUGE
https://amzn.to/31bHglY
Quest for Shifter Magic Series
1 – RAVENSGAARD QUEEN
https://amzn.to/31k8LK2
2 - IRON CAGE
http://amzn.to/2mzePZv
3 – JAGGED SWORD
http://amzn.to/2mzePZv
4. GILDED CHAIN
https://amzn.to/2WyxADh
5. BROKEN CHALICE
October 2019
1
The shadows stirred as the glowing embers pulsed on the cold walls of the ancient castle. I stood still in the shadows of Muiderslot’s great hall, where I had been for most of the night. A chill ran through my bones. It didn’t matter how long I was in this country I was never going to get used to the gray skies and the cold. It was the exact opposite of my native home with its deep blue skies, turquoise seas and damp heat that sat on your shoulders like a comforting blanket.
I swallowed. Now was not the time to think about how I longed to return to Java and my family. There was a job to do and tonight was the night. Once it was complete, the shifter world would be safe, and I could leave this place.
It was simple, really. Just execute El Oso, the vicious bear shifter who lead the Berzerken and was going to destroy the Order. That is, if he got his hands on what he needed to invoke the ancient magic that would give his people ultimate power.
My fingers tightened around the hilt of my kris, the jagged sword handed down through my family for centuries. Surya warmed beneath my hand. She was a pusaka, an object sanctified by my ancestors and imbued with shadow magic by a dukun, a Javanese witch, long dead. It was ironic she was named for the Hindu sungod. But I didn’t question such things. I had learned better.
Surya was the most powerful object in our part of the world and one of the reasons my family ruled Muiderkring East. If anything would give me the strength and power to kill El Oso, it would be her.
It was one of the reasons my family had allowed me to bring it with me. I was entrusted to not let it fall into El Oso’s hands.
That was never going to happen.
In moments I would raise the alarm to bring discord to the sleeping castle. The girl, Agi had left. The beautiful daughter of the Eagle shifter clan. She hadn’t just left. She’d run away. Fled the safety of her castle and her people because the heir to Muiderkring West, Willem, was in love with her. He was the most eligible bachelor in the west, but El Oso had decree he marry Agi’s younger sister. I’d hidden in the shadows as Willem pleaded with Agi to stay, but she had refused. She would not go against the Order or break her sister’s heart by stealing her betrothed.
Agi had been raised in gauze and kept from the world. She had no idea what was waiting for her out there in the real world where hunters stalked us; killing us where they could. They believed we were abominations of the devil. The girl was a fool, but damn, I liked her spirit.
I shook my head quietly. No one in our Muiderkring would dare tell me who to marry. I mean, not really. There were laws, like I would have to marry another Javanese leopard, but I would choose my mate.
That’s why El Oso didn’t like us, the shifters of Muiderkring East; we didn’t bow to him. We knew, unlike these pandering westerners, he wanted absolute power for his clan.
We couldn’t let that happen.
I took a deep, silent breath. I’d been training for this night for two years. For all their Ravensgaard sentries, the eagle castle had been easy to infiltrate. The shade magic of my kris had let me drift along the shadows of the ground and hide in the corners, unheard, unsensed. In an enclave of shifters with their heightened senses, that was powerful magic.
It would have been easier if they had invited a representative from Muiderkring East, perhaps a member of the royal family like me. But we weren’t invited to such things.
Not anymore.
There was no way I could just slip in and go unnoticed. It wasn’t my bleached white hair. It was the color of skin and black almond eyes that would have made me stand out from the European shifter crowd who graced the elegant lawns these past few days. Well, there was a raven with dyed red hair and punk clothes. She didn’t exactly fit in either, but at least she wasn’t Indonesian. She was accepted here, especially since she was betrothed to the Ravensgaard Lord’s son, that pretentious dick Riordan.
My jaw clenched. I could possibly get along with these other young shifter women if I’d be given a chance. But El Oso and his Berzerken laws were driving walls between all of shifter kind. If he got away with his plans and stole all the magic, we’d be separated and doomed to answer to his people forever.
It was time.
The eagle girl should have gotten far enough away by now. I couldn’t give her more time, but if she couldn’t escape her own kind, she would never escape the hunters. She was going to have to figure it out for herself.
I had a bear to kill.
2
After hours of staying in one place, I finally moved. Slipped out of the great hall and into the massive hallway that lead to the wing of the Order. Muiderslot, the hereditary home of the eagle clan was built in medieval times but had a modern alarm system. The Eagles had always been a cautious group. And while they prided themselves on upholding tradition, they did not shun modernity. Early on they had implemented an indoor fire alarm system. It wasn’t going to be difficult to cause a distraction, I just had to be in the right place to get where I needed to be.
I knew for a fact the leader of the bear clan would respond to his alarm, but he had two guards. Polaris, the polar bear, and Patch, the black bear. The hunters had done a number on the bear clan over the centuries. The few remaining bears from around the world had banded together to form the Berzerken clan. I’d almost feel sorry for them if their leader wasn’t such a complete asshole.
His guards were brutal and vicious. But El Oso was ferocious enough alone. I knew I couldn’t take on all three of them, so I had to separate El Oso. The eagle girl, Agi, had made that much easier. They would see
the alarm as a non-event. A problem for the eagles to solve. The Berzerken leader would never think a five-foot two Indonesian girl was anything to be afraid of.
He would underestimate me completely.
All I needed was for him to stick his head out of his room long enough to find out what was going on and then go back in. That was my chance.
The magic in my blade was like none other in the shifter world. I knew El Oso wanted it, but I also knew he didn’t know exactly what it could do. He just knew he needed the most the strongest magic object from five clans. I knew what they were, but I wasn’t sure which clans held the other objects. A dark jewel, a jagged sword, an iron cage, a gilded chain and a chalice. Rather than go on a hunt for the other objects, killing El Oso was the more direct solution.
I walked silently in human form down the hallway. El Oso didn’t stay in one of the towers, that was where the family lived, and guests stayed. Every high seat in the shifter world, even mine, kept a suite for the leader of the order. But the Muiderslot suite was well known. They were the first built and were fit for a king. The largest and finest chambers of any, except perhaps the ones built by the eagles in California when they officially moved the high seat of Muiderkring West there.
But I hadn’t seen those, so I didn’t know.
The ones here were legendary and my reconnaissance yesterday had gone slower than it should have because I had been distracted by all the gilt and brocade, the finely carved wood and ornate tapestries. I was raised in a palace, but nothing like this.
We were minimalist and unrestricted in Indonesia. Our palaces were built on the concept of heavy tile roofs to keep out the heat of the sun and open to let in the sea breezes and members of the clan. We had fine pieces of carved furniture and day beds and musical instruments, but we valued people and stories more than ornate, overstuffed rooms.
I moved in the shadows of the Wing of the Order. It was lined with rooms for the leader’s entourage. It was risky, but I had to be close to the doors of El Oso’s room when I sounded the nearest alarm, and it was halfway up the hall. Right before the doors of Polaris and Patch. I had expected those two to go to bed after the copious amounts of mead they’d been drinking during the matching, but apparently these bears didn’t hibernate. They stood outside their doors talking even though we were approaching the wee hours of the morning. I thought one of them would go to sleep at some point, but apparently none of them did.
Time was slipping away from me. I pulled Surya from her sheath and gripped the hilt tightly, twisting its point towards me, I took aim. The bright red fire alarm made an easy target against the grey stone walls. I just had to make sure the Berzerken guard didn’t hear me as I snuck up on it.
I raised the hilt and smashed it deftly into the glass, setting off the alarm. As the loud sirens blared through out the castle, I quickly muttered the words that would make me a shadow. My body began to disipitate and sink. It was nothing like turning into a leopard.
When my I became a leopard, every bone in my body cracked, fell apart and pushed into a different direction. But it came with a surge of energy. Becoming Myst was more like being drained of everything, fading away into nothing. Every molecule drifting into loose black droplets that sank to the ground and surged slowly and gently in the direction of my thoughts. It was crucial I keep my thoughts clear and direct when I was in Myst form. It was the only way I could hold my body together. If you couldn’t be focused, there was a good chance part of you would float away. You could end up anywhere or even losing parts of your body.
I kept my identity, Lady Anin, and my objective, the double oak doors at the end of the hall at the forefront of my being. In this form I had no eyes, no hands. I was fully reliant on awareness and sensation. Patch and Polaris moved through me not even noticing me as I drifted around their legs. They were looking for a threat, for whatever set off the alarm. It was amazing how fast bears could move when they thought there was danger. I would need to get to the end of the hallway fast before I missed my opportunity.
I was still ten feet away when it opened, and El Oso entered the hallway.
“What is it?” His voice was so loud it was almost like an alarm of its own.
“One of the eagle girls left the castle.” A voice came bellowing back. “The one you punished last night.”
I slid as black Myst lazing around his feet drifting into the room. I knew exactly where I needed to go. They Myst only worked well if you had an objective. Otherwise you would just drift away and lose yourself in particles of black Myst.
But despite my distractions yesterday, I knew the best place was at the hed of the four-poster king size bed in the middle of the room. It had large brocade curtains bunched around each pillar. I aimed for the one at the left side front of the bed and let the Myst settle there. I needed the perfect moment to reform so whatever sound I made, even the slightest movement of the tapestry was lost in his own actions.
I sensed him returning to the bed, writing off the disturbance as simply a minor incident. His body sank into the creaking mattress and as he wrestled the duvet back over his hulking body, I willed my body to reform inside the sheath of the brocade curtains. The sound of his body settling in covered any rustling noise I might make becoming solid again. My fingers and arms coming together my hand still clenched around the hilt of my kris. No matter how many times I took on the black Myst, I was always grateful to get back to myself.
Now I had to wait again. Long enough for him to settle into bed and ease into slumber. Unlike his compatriots he seemed pretty quick to be rest and sleep. His body sank into the mattress and his eyes closed quickly as his breath deepened, stirring from his abdomen.
Finally, he was asleep. I flexed my elbow slowly practicing in the move I would have a milli-second to execute. It had to be swift, sure and perfectly aimed.
I watched his chest rise and fall one full minute until I was sure he was asleep
Then I struck.
I held my breath as my hand deftly swung down; the blade perfectly pointed at his eye. The jagged sword was long enough to pierce through his brain and kill him instantly.
I had him, the point of the blade just touching his closed eyelid and about to drive home – but it stopped. I strained and pushed but could not move the kris another inch. It would go no further! My wrist was caught in El Oso’s vice-like grip and he held it perfectly still as he opened his eyes.
“A leopard,” he said, shifting his gaze towards me. The word guttural and deep in his throat made it sound like leopards were nothing more than annoying mosquitos. This was one of the reasons I hated him so much. He had no respect for others.
In one swift movement he brought his hand down wrenching me forward out of the curtain. I fell to my knees by the edge of his bed biting my lip so I didn’t scream out in pain as my arm twisted.
“You brought me the kris,” he smiled as he sat up. His black eyes gleamed at the blade clenched in my hand. He shook my wrist is if the blade would drop from my hand, but there was no way I was letting it go.
“I am the bringer of your death.” I said, with a growl. Despite the awkward angle I brought my feet underneath me into squatting position.
I didn’t hesitate.
Pushing hard off the balls of my feet I thrust myself against his grip as hard as I could, shifting into my leopard farm as I sprang up. His grip tightened but I have never known anyone in human form to be able to hold back someone while they were shifting. Unlike the people of Muiderkring West, my people practiced battling against each other, against shifters. And this was the hardest move to win against.
Even with El Oso’s strength I was going to win. The kris disappeared as did everything connected to my human form body. I became the black leopard. But El Oso didn’t seem surprised at all. In fact, he smiled. The shifter’s natural instinct was to go into their animal form when under threat. But he moved his feet to the floor as I crouched ready to attack.
“You think you can take me, little l
eopard girl?” he said with a smile.
I actually didn’t think I could take him as a leopard, but I wasn’t about to back down now. I’d come too far, and my mission was to kill this bear. I would risk my life to do it. I sprung into the air to attack him, but he shifted into his bear form and I slammed into him. A cracking pain surged through me as my body crumbled against him. It was like hitting a brick wall. I fell flat on my back writhing in pain as he placed both giant paws on my chest. His mouth down down upon me his giant maw growling and snarling and letting out a vicious roar. The oak doors opened, and shifters came pouring in shouting at the threat their leader was facing.
But at this stage, I was no threat. I was about to be killed.
I couldn’t grab the hilt of my kris while I was in leopard form, but I could reach for the energy, which was tied to mine. In my head I said the words and my body dissipitated into the black myst.
It was dangerous.
Not only would they see me and understand the magic that existed, but it would drain my energy. Still, I had no choice I had to get out of there. I slid through a crack in the window as I heard a voice cry. “She disappeared!”
“There. There she is,” a girl’s irish voice rang out. “The black myst, seeping out the window!”
Every shifter in the room surged towards me and I could feel somebody move to slam it shut. I was only halfway through.
I urged the myst forward. Who knows what would happen if I got stuck in two different places? I had to get through. By my energy was waning. Mysting was something that should only be done once a week. Once a day at the very most. The window slammed down just as the last of my myst mad it through and the particles sank to the ground reforming into my body as they tumbled.
I gasped oxygen in desperately as the air was knocked out of me. Rolling over onto my back, I wrenched the kris from it’s sheath and looked up at the window. The shifters had pushed it back opwn and they were pouring out, tumbling down the side of the wall, all intent on killing the would-be murderer of their leader.
