Forest of Souls

by Lori M. Lee

  FOREST of SOULS

  Lori M. Lee

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  Table of Contents

  About the Author

  Copyright Page

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  For everyone who’s ever wondered if they were enough.

  GLOSSARY

  THIY (THEE): Continent consisting of three kingdoms: Eveywn, the Nuvalyn Empire, and Kazahyn

  THE DEAD WOOD – An ancient forest of dead trees possessed by vengeful souls

  DRAGULE – Species of drakonys native to Evewyn, reserved only for royalty, nobility, and the Queen’s Guard

  DRAKE – Most common species of drakonys, large and sturdy, used as pack animals and for transportation by humans

  DRAKONYS – Large bipedal lizards. Strong backs and short clawed hands; large heads balanced with long tails. Their sizes and the shapes of their heads differentiate between species. They come in all colors.

  FALCON – Messenger bird trained to deliver short and/or urgent correspondence between various points in Thiy. Managed by a local Scholar of Falconry.

  HUMAN – One of the three dominant races on Thiy, they do not possess the ability to perform magic. It’s said that humans were born from the bones of the fallen sun god, leaving them too solid and making it impossible to access the magic in their souls.

  SHADOWBLESSED – One of the three dominant races on Thiy, with the ability to manipulate shadows. It’s said that the shadowblessed were born from the blood and ichor of the fallen sun god, gifting them magic over the darker elements.

  SHAMAN – One of the three dominant races on Thiy. It’s said that the shamans were born from the fragments of the fallen sun god’s soul, gifting them power over the elements and the ability to touch other souls.

  EVΕWYN (FVΕ-WIN): Kingdom ruled and predominantly populated by humans

  BLADES – Evewyn’s warrior elite

  BYRTH – Major port city on the western coast of Evewyn

  THE DEMON CRONE – The eldest of the Sisters. She is the keeper of the earth. Depicted as extremely old, to reflect the ancient world, and hideous because she grants all her beauty to the earth and keeps none for herself. Brown skin like the trees, with hair fine and pale as spider thread. She is celebrated on the first day of spring.

  THE FALCON WARRIOR – Third eldest of the Sisters. She is the protector. Pilgrims and travelers often pray to her for safe journeys, and soldiers pray to her when they seek victory in battle. She is celebrated on the first day of winter.

  HATCHLET (QUEEN’S COMPANY) – A first-year in the Queen’s Company. Their hair is shorn so that their heads are bare like a newborn hatchlet. They wear yellow sashes.

  MONKS – Keepers of the temples and devout followers of the Sanctuary of the Sisters

  THE MOTHER SERPENT – The second oldest of the Sisters. She is the guardian of the faithful. She nurtures belief and rewards the devout. She is celebrated at midsummer.

  PRINCE’S (PRINCESS’S) COMPANY – Mandatory preparatory school where all children, peasant and noble alike, aged eleven to thirteen live within a restricted compound in Vos Talwyn for three years. They are taught general subjects like history, medicine, and other electives in addition to how to fight and use a weapon. The second child born to the ruling monarch oversees the Company.

  QUEEN’S (KING’S) COMPANY – Voluntary military finishing school for graduates from the Prince’s Company who wish to join the Royal Army or Royal Navy. Four years of training, in addition to history, math, tactics, and other subjects. Each year, they earn a new name: hatchlets, weans, wyrlings, and wyverns.

  QUEEN’S (KING’S) SHADOW – A master spy, employed by the Queen/King of Evewyn, who delivers secrets abroad and within to the queen/king. Sometimes, the Shadow is also an assassin.

  REIWYN – Evewyn’s nobility

  THE SANCTUARY OF THE SISTERS – The dominant religion in Evewyn. Typically shortened to the Sisters: the Demon Crone, the Mother Serpent, the Falcon Warrior, and the Twins.

  SHAMANBORN – Shamans from Evewyn; no other distinction from Nuvali shamans

  THE TWINS – The youngest of the Sisters. The Bright Twin (good luck) and the Pale Twin (ill luck). They appear as young girls with skin pale as the moon and hair dark as the night sky, and one can never be sure which is the bearer of ill luck or good luck. But the Bright Twin is most commonly depicted wearing stars in her hair. The Pale Twin is depicted with a silver moon. Her sister keeps her in line, but when the Pale Twin is depicted alone, it’s a bad omen.

  VOS TALWYN (VOHS TAHL-WIN) – Capital of Evewyn

  WEAN (QUEEN’S COMPANY) – A second-year in the Queen’s Company. They wear green sashes.

  WYRLING (QUEEN’S COMPANY) – A third-year in the Queen’s Company. Their hair is long enough to be tied back into a wolf tail. They wear blue sashes.

  WYVERN (QUEEN’S COMPANY) – A fourth-year in the Queen’s Company. Their hair is now long enough to earn the right to be braided with feathers, which flap behind them like the tail of a wyvern. They wear red sashes.

  THE NUVALYN EMPIRE (NEW-VUH-LIN): Kingdom ruled and populated predominantly by shamans

  BREATHSIPHER – A windwender who can suffocate a person by stealing the breath from their lungs. They can also steal a person’s voice, perfectly mimicking it.

  BRUMYS (BROOM-IS) – A windwender who can conjure fog or create creatures out of storm clouds. They can also siphon a magical attack or spell, allowing the magic to pass through them, leaving them unharmed; doesn’t work against physical attacks.

  BURNER – A firewender who can summon and manipulate fire. The most powerful can create creatures of fire and brimstone to fight for them.

  DRAGOKIN – A species of drakonys that lives only in the Nuvalyn Empire. Tamed and ridden by the shamans as life partners. Opalescent scales that vary in shades, four ivory (or black) horns, powerfully fast runners. They are able to spring into the air in battle, clawing down at their enemies while their riders attack with weapons.

  EARTHWENDER – Shaman with one of three earth crafts: forger, terranys, and stoneskin. Eyes the color of emeralds.

  FAMILIAR – The souls of beasts made physical again by the magic of a shaman. They’re sometimes called Little Gods. When a bond is formed, they possess the ability to channel a shaman’s magic, giving them a corporeal form. In exchange, the shaman uses the familiar as a conduit to perform magic.

  FIREWENDER – Shaman with one of three fire crafts: burner, wyrmin, and flame eater. Eyes the color of rubies.

  FLAME EATER – A firewender who can transform into smoke and flame

  FORGER – An earthwender who can shape and bend metals. Expert smiths and craftsmen.

  LIGHTGIVER – A lightwender who can steal the “light,” or life, from one person and transfer it to another person or themselves

  LIGHT STITCHER – A lightwender who can gather and create light even in the darkest of places. They can also use their magic to stitch the light within other people. They’re renowned healers.

  LIGHTWENDER – Shaman with one of four light crafts: light stitcher, lightgiver, soulguide, and soulrender. Eyes the color of topaz or a
mber yellow.

  MIRRIM (MERE-IM) – Capital of the Nuvalyn Empire. Only shamans can enter due to a spell cast about the city.

  SHAMANIC CALLING – The five elements of magic, to which each Nuvali shaman is sorted: fire, earth, wind, water, and light. Each Calling has three (or four) crafts.

  SHAMANIC CRAFT – The specific talent a shaman possesses

  SOULGUIDE – A lightwender who can shepherd souls, guiding them to the afterlife or back to life. There has never been a soulguide in living memory. The only one recorded was the founder of Mirrim, who created the spell allowing only shamans to enter.

  SOULRENDER – A lightwender who can rip the souls from animals; extremely rare that a soulrender can rip the soul from a person

  SOWER – A waterwender who can magically assist in growing plants and helping seeds take root

  STONESKIN – An earthwender who can transform themselves into stone. They can still move while transformed, making their skin nearly indestructible, and they possess super strength. The length of time they can remain transformed is limited.

  SURYAL (SUR-YAHL) – The sun god, from whom it is said all the races were born. Worshipped by the shamans.

  TEMPEST – A windwender who can summon gentle breezes and howling gales. The most powerful can summon tornadoes.

  TERRANYS (TAIR-RUH-NIS) – An earthwender who can move earth and rocks. The most powerful can create earthquakes or create beings of stone and earth to fight for them.

  TRUTHSEEKER – A waterwender who can use water as a means of divination. They can also divine whether a person is telling the truth.

  VORTYS (VOR-TIS) – A waterwender who can move and manipulate water. The most powerful can create tidal waves or create creatures of water to fight for them.

  WATERWENDER – Shaman with one of three water crafts: sower, vortys, and truthseeker. Eyes the color of blue sapphires.

  WINDWENDER – Shaman with one of three wind crafts: tempest, brumys, and breathsipher. Eyes the color of violet amethyst.

  WYRMIN (WEER-MIN) – A firewender who can increase the temperature of objects, air, and people. Could boil a person’s blood or melt an opponent’s iron weapon.

  KAZAHYN (KAH-ZUH-HEEN): Kingdom predominantly populated by shadowblessed clans

  DOOMBRINGER – A shadowblessed who can summon complete darkness

  ENCHANTER – A shadowblessed who can imbue the properties of a gemstone into a weapon, such as the strength of a diamond and color of a ruby. Can also pass certain qualities, temporarily, into people and animals.

  FIREBORN QUEENS – One of the most powerful clans in Kazahyn. Their High Queen’s magic smells of brimstone and is said to emit heat.

  FLESH WORKER – A shadowblessed who can manipulate flesh and bone. Renowned healers and deadly warriors.

  GATE – A shadowblessed who can create doorways through shadows, moving great distances instantly

  HATCHLET – A newborn wyvern

  HLAU – A Kazan prince

  NECROMANCER – A powerful shadowblessed capable of commanding a dead body to rise (without its soul)

  PENUMBRIA (PE-NUM-BREE-UH) – One of the largest cities in Kazahyn; location is hidden and can only be reached through Shadow magic

  SHADOWMASTER – A shadowblessed who can manipulate shadows

  WEAN – A young wyvern that cannot yet fly

  WYRLING – An adolescent wyvern that has learned to fly but is not yet fully grown

  WYVERN – A winged creature native to the mountains of Kazahyn. Although they are scaled, they have long whiplike tails ending in brilliant feathers. Also feathered around arm/leg joints and sometimes around the head. Strong fliers and fast runners. They are also the companions of the shadowblessed. Among certain clans, it is a rite of passage to catch and tame one. They become companions for life, even going into battle with their riders.

  ONE

  The earth is black with last night’s rain—a perfect morning for shadows.

  When I arrive at my mentor’s tower door, my damp gloves barely brush the heavy wood before it flies open. Its half-dozen locks jangle and clack noisily. For a blind woman whose eyes are always concealed behind a scarf, Kendara’s face can convey an impressive amount of disdain.

  “Sirscha Ashwyn, you thoughtless dolt,” she says, her voice low and gravelly. “Took you long enough.” She used to speak more gently when I was younger. Maybe that’s why the sound of it still makes me smile, even when she’s insulting me.

  “I was only gone for an hour,” I say, shutting the door behind me.

  Kendara snorts as she returns to the chair by the open balcony. There’s a white circle painted into the balcony’s floor, large enough to fit two battling opponents. I’ve earned more wounds than I can count in that circle, but this tower is the ideal place to conduct our training, high away from the watchful eyes of the palace. A dagger lies on the seat of her chair, and she picks it up as smoothly as if she can see. Sitting, she tests the blade’s edge with the thick pad of her thumb.

  To a stranger, she is a woman descending into old age, her hair gone white save for a few stubborn streaks of black. Age spots speckle the deep bronze of her skin, which is a couple of shades darker than my own. But she is far from infirm. The dagger she handles and the weapons that hang from her wall aren’t decorative. She is the queen’s Shadow, and for the past four years, my secret mentor.

  “Would have taken me half the time,” she grumbles, reaching for the whetstone that rests on the floor. “And without the need to show off.”

  My nose wrinkles as I remove my gloves. Opening my satchel, I dig inside for the banner I appropriated from the city’s southern watchtower. I may have also waved at the tower guards while scaling the walls.

  “I wasn’t showing off.” I’ve learned to stop being surprised—and to stop denying—when Kendara knows things she has no business knowing. “I was just having a bit of fun.”

  “The Shadow does not reveal herself for any reason. What would be the point, then?”

  I hold out the banner. “I’m not the Shadow yet,” I say with an emphasis on yet and the hope that she’ll take the hint.

  “And you won’t be if you keep behaving like a compulsive twit.” The whetstone clatters to the floor as she snatches the banner out of my hand. She stalks across the room, weaving neatly around a table, and flings the silver moon of Evewyn into the flames of her hearth.

  “What are you doing, you daft hag?” I shout, dashing after her.

  The flames take a second to catch, the banner still damp from the rain. But quickly enough, fire sears through the thin fabric, sparking blue from the spidersilk threads of the moon. Dark smoke billows up the chimney. The smell singes my nostrils, and I try to wave it away, toward the open balcony.

  “Idiot girl,” Kendara mumbles as she sets down the dagger. She opens a cupboard that hangs skewed on the wall. “I don’t want that thing in here.” Cursing me under her breath, she rummages through the cupboard’s overflowing contents.

  I glance back at the hearth and the ruined remains of the banner. Grudgingly, I see her point. Once, Evewyn’s banners had flown a white falcon clutching a branch of plum blossoms. But when the queen succeeded the throne eight years ago, she changed the emblem to a silver moon, the symbol of the Pale Twin, harbinger of ill fortune.

  “Then why did you send me to retrieve it?” I ask. Smoke lingers in the room, a dingy haze that stings my eyes and tickles my throat. Kendara is still preoccupied, so I move toward the balcony where the air is clearer.

  From this height, the capital of Vos Talwyn is an enormous sprawl of stone, statues, and curling green rooftops. Beyond the city’s walls, the land extends south like lush brocade stitched with the golden threads of morning. A shadowy ribbon against the horizon draws my eye eastward. Even from this distance, a shiver slithers down my spine. The Dead Wood mars the eastern border like the puckered, blackened edges of burned fabric.

  “I told you to steal the banner from the watchtower,” Kendara says,
drawing my attention again. I return to sit near the hearth as she withdraws something small from the cupboard. “I didn’t tell you to bring it to me.”

  “Well, now I can’t even put it back,” I say, but our bickering is forgotten when she places a bracelet on the table before me. With a quick glance at Kendara, who nods to confirm that I can touch it, I trace my finger along the designs carved into the jewelry. The smooth texture glistens like white jade. “What is it made of?”

  “Troll bone.”

  My finger stills on the bracelet. Intrigued, I lean in closer to examine it. The bracelet can’t be thicker than the width of my little finger. “I would’ve thought troll bone would be bigger.”

  Kendara grunts, a noise I’ve come to recognize as scorn for my imagined ignorance. She has a wide array of such sounds.

  Lifting the bracelet, I turn it toward the sunlight that streams in through the open balcony and diffuses into the smoky air. The polished surface gives off a beautiful sheen, and the color transitions from a warm butter to the burned yellow of old parchment. The jeweler etched a curling design into the bone that lends it an elegant quality. A metal fastener fashioned to look like tiny lotus petals allows a section of the bone to be removed so that the bracelet can be worn. It’s lovely but somewhat grotesque, given its origin.

  “For you,” she says.

  I almost drop the bracelet. But I recover quickly, clutching the troll bone in my fist. “I … um. Thank you. It’s very … thoughtful.” I narrow my eyes. “And unusual. Why are you giving me this?”

  Kendara is many things, but thoughtful is not one of them. It’s part of what I admire about her. She never pretends to be anything other than who she is.

  She turns away, but not before I notice the slight purse of her mouth. It’s not a smile—Kendara does not smile—but sometimes the muscles around her mouth spasm and twitch, like she’s trying to imitate the motions. It’s just as well. An actual smile might break her face.