EPIC: Fourteen Books of Fantasy (160 page)

I turned my back on the crowd, on Kandek, whom I had forgotten about, and faced Nemison. My heart now confused and broken, I took the only path left in front of me. A path for which I had made my first gut wrenching sacrifice.
 

“Now?” I asked him. “Do we leave now?”

“Are you ready?” he asked.

I looked at Grey and Ella. He was confused, obviously he hadn’t been filled in on all the details.

“Ella will explain everything when I’m gone. I have to leave for…” I turned to Nemison. “How long?”

“As long as it takes.”

I hugged Ella, tightening my arms around her, my true friend. Grey patted me on the back while Ella and I embraced, his hand thumping once and then twice quickly. I glanced up at his tentative smile. He didn’t know where our feelings stood any more than I did. I only knew that the past few months had changed me. Mark had changed me.

Blorn pushed his way up to the dais.

“I thought you said she was going to live with you, Kandek. Now she says she’s leaving with a gifted slave. What in Eloh’s name is going on here? I am your superior and you will explain!”

His chest heaved as he shook his hands in the air. Apparently he had recovered from his brush with death.

Kandek looked at me. He looked at Nemison.

“If my daughter commands my new slave to go with her, then he is allowed to go. I will find another gifted slave. There are many waiting to rise so high.”

Blorn heaved a deep breath again, while rubbing his neck.

“There will be an investigation, Kandek. Of that you can be sure. And King Rafe will hear of this too! We will need to know where your daughter has been hiding all these years and why she chose to come back now. And, most importantly, how she knew about your bride.”

“Ah yes,” Kandek said. “My dear bride. I wonder how she’s enjoying her prison cell.”

I glared at Kandek, not sure whether to hug him or punch him. “I’m sure she hates it. Those cells are so dark and dank. Not what Ivy is used to.”

Ella and Grey slipped off the stage as Blorn continued to yell at Kandek. Ignoring him, I returned to Nemison. Obviously Blorn didn’t recognize me from the girl he was so rude to those months ago. I didn’t have it in me to give him another moment of my time, even if I was playing into the ruse that I was now a noblewoman. Though it wasn’t a ruse, was it? If Kandek was my father, then that made me his only heir. It was a position of power, but one on shaky ground considering my other hidden heritage as the daughter of a Serenian slave.

“He didn’t buy you as a slave, did he?” I whispered to Nemison as we walked away from the dais. He smiled and shook his head.

“Once Tania explained to me who he was when we communicated an hour ago, I went directly to Kandek. Ivy was already off in the far tent.” He pointed to the tent from which she had emerged before walking to the dais, “preparing for her wedding. It didn’t take much for me to convince Kandek to play his part. I told him I knew the secret, a secret which would strip him of all of his rank and wealth. A secret which would condemn him to death. He is my pawn now. Do you still have the coin?”

I reached under my cloth belt into a secret pocket I’d sewn within the folds of fabric. I held the coin in my palm and studied it, much like I did the first time I’d found it after Ivy’s disappearance.

 
“You are both sides of the coin. The baby and the anathema.”

“Johna said anathema means a curse, but she also said it means an offering to Eloh.”

“You are both. You are the offering of the Serenians and a curse to the Malborn. Reychel, you are everything represented by the coin.”

“When was it made?” I asked, fingering the word, my word, on the coin.

“Seven generations ago, these coins were minted by Serenians who had escaped to the mountains in the south. We safeguarded them until the time came to use them. For the last fifteen years we have been liberating slaves and leaving the coins as a warning to the Malborn. Most people had forgotten what they meant and those who knew suppressed the truth,” Nemison said.

“And the baby with the parents?” I asked. “They seem so happy. My parents weren’t happy. Kandek killed my mother.”

Nemison sighed. “It is a tragedy that his fear overcame his love for her. But I think you would be surprised to know that he did love your mother once. And very deeply too. But Kandek is a man ruled by power, not by love, and his true nature took over when he discovered your gift.”

“How do you know?” I asked.

“Know what?”

“That I’m the one you’ve been waiting for? The Prophet?”

Nemison sighed, shaking his head.

“You are the one because we believe it. Your abilities match the prophecy.”

“That doesn’t prove anything,” I said, rubbing my thumb on the coin.

“Haven’t you achieved a victory for your people? Does it matter if it’s true? Let them believe in you as the Prophet. Let them have hope. All you have to do is work on believing in yourself.”

A bank of clouds caught my eyes as they rolled in from the west. My eyes closed as I fell into a trance.

Struggle. A war. A victory. But whose side was I on? Did I stand next to my father or was it Nemison? And who was holding my hand? His face, a blank slate. At the end, peace. A victory. But whose? And confirmation that I was the Prophet? Nothing. But I was willing to try to help my people.

I opened my eyes again, Nemison stood in front of me, presumably waiting for me to come out of my vision. He beckoned to me with one finger. Time to begin training. I looked down at the coin once more. The baby winked at me and I winked back.

-end-

The story continues with…

Oubliette

Cloud Prophet Trilogy, Book Two

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Afterword

Megg Jensen is a bestselling author of high fantasy.

No stranger to top ten lists on many eBook retailers, Megg's novels (Anathema, Oubliette, Severed, Sleepers, Afterlife, The Sundering) have garnered millions of downloads, attracting thousands of fans all over the world. In April of 2014, her compilation ebook, The Song of Eloh Saga, hit #42 overall on one eBook store and #9 on another.

Growing up on the amazing fantasy and scifi of the 1980s, Megg's influences include Madeline L'Engle, Robert Jordan, and Terry Goodkind. She lives in Chicago with her husband, kids, and two miniature schnauzers.

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A L
EGACY
OF
L
IGHT
: T
HE
D
RAGON
W
AR
, B
OOK
O
NE

Daniel Arenson

KAELYN

K
AELYN
RAN
THROUGH
THE
FOREST
, clutching her bow, as above her the dragons shrieked and gave chase.

The night was dark; the treetops hid the moon and stars. Kaelyn could barely see. Her foot slammed into an oak’s root and she tumbled, cursed, and leaped back up. She kept running. Her quiver of arrows bounced across her back. When she looked up, she saw them there, shades of black above the canopy.

Damn it.

Five or more flew above, and they had picked up her scent. Kaelyn snarled and ran on. Branches slapped her face. Her ankle twisted atop a rock, and she cursed and nearly fell again.

Just keep moving, Kaelyn,
she told herself.
They can’t see you through the trees. The cave is near. There is safety there. Just don’t stop running.

Dirt and fallen leaves flew from under her boots. Even in the cold night, sweat soaked her leggings and tunic, and her long golden hair clung damply to her neck and cheeks. A stream of fire blazed above. Kaelyn ducked and rolled. The flames roared, lighting the night, and for an instant Kaelyn saw a thousand black trees, mossy boulders, and a fleeing deer.

“I see the girl!” rose a shriek above. “Right below. I want her alive!”

Then the fire was gone. Wings thudded and air blasted Kaelyn. Claws longer than swords tore at the trees. Wood cracked and branches flew. Two red eyes blazed, their light shining on fangs and black scales.

Kaelyn leaped to her feet. She nocked an arrow. She fired.

The arrow whistled and slammed into the dragon. The beast reared and howled and clawed the sky. Kaelyn turned and ran.

The trees blurred at her sides. Fire blazed behind her. The dragons swooped and claws uprooted trees. A bole slammed down before Kaelyn, showering splinters and broken branches, and she yelped and fell back. A dragon landed upon the fallen oak. Its maw opened, a smelter of molten fire, and light bathed Kaelyn, and heat blasted her.

She fired another arrow, hitting the dragon’s chest. The beast bucked and roared, spewing a fountain of fire. Kaelyn leaped, rolled down a rocky hill, and crashed into a tree. Pain exploded. She yelped, sprang back up, and fired a third arrow. She hit another dragon, then spun and kept running.

Damn it!
she thought as she raced between the trees. Her heart thudded and her lungs ached. Her bruises blazed so badly that she ran with a limp.

They weren’t supposed to be here.

But somehow these beasts knew about the boy in the city. Somehow they knew Kaelyn would try to reach him. She cursed as she sprang between more collapsing trees. If these dragons reached Cadport first, and if they found the boy before she did...

“Then we are lost,” she whispered as she ran. “Then all hope is dead. Then the world will fall.”

She ran up a hill thick with oaks and maples.

So I will have to kill these dragons. And I will have to reach the boy before he’s found.

A howl tore the air above her.

“Kaelyn!” one dragon cried and laughed, a throaty sound like boulders tumbling. “Kaelyn, you little whore. Haven’t you learned you can never hide from me?”

Ice encased Kaelyn’s heart.

So the spies were right,
she thought. Kaelyn had not wanted to believe, but now she saw the beast above her.
It’s her. She knows. She’s here.

Flames roared. Blasting fire, a blue dragon swooped down before her, claws tearing trees and shattering boulders. Flames howled in an inferno. Red eyes burned. The beast’s maw opened wide, and it shot a stream of flame across the forest. Kaelyn ducked and screamed, and the fire blazed over her head.

There was no doubt now. It was her.

My sister.

Kaelyn fired an arrow.

The shard whistled, slammed against the blue dragon, and snapped. The beast only laughed, nostrils flaring and leaking smoke.

Kaelyn had not wanted to use her magic. Not today. If she had learned anything during the long years of resistance, it was this: As a human girl, she was sneaky and silent and could hide in shadows. Dragons were burly, their scales clattered, and their maws leaked fire that could be seen for leagues. Humans survived in the wild; dragons were hunted and died.

And yet no arrows or shadows would help her now. This was no ordinary dragon facing her, a mindless soldier with weak scales. Here before her, atop a pile of charred trees, roared Shari Cadigus herself.

My older sister. Princess of the empire. The most dangerous woman I know.

Kaelyn tightened her lips, narrowed her eyes, and summoned her magic.

Wings burst out from her back with a thud. Green scales flowed across her, clanking like armor. Her body ballooned. Her fingernails grew into claws, fangs sprouted from her mouth, and a tail flailed behind her. As her sister howled, a blue beast roaring fire, Kaelyn flapped her wings and took flight as a green dragon.

She crashed through the treetops. She burst into a burning sky. Three other dragons circled under the clouds; they saw her, roared fire, and dived her way. Below, her sister Shari burst from the trees, smoke wreathing her blue scales.

Oh bloody stars,
Kaelyn thought.

She spewed her flames, raining them down upon Shari. The blue dragon howled as the fire crashed into her. The beast kept rising through the inferno. With a curse, Kaelyn began to fly higher, shooting up in a straight line. Beneath her, her sister and the others blew fire and soared in pursuit.

Kaelyn shot into the clouds. For a moment she could see nothing but the gray mist; she was hidden here.

A pillar of flame rose before her, piercing the sky and nearly roasting her. Kaelyn cursed and spun the other way. Another flaming jet rose there. She ducked and nearly fell from the cloud cover.

“There!” Shari cried below. Her voice rang across the sky, high-pitched and demonic. “I want her alive—grab her.”

Kaelyn flapped her wings. She rose a few feet, then leveled off and began flying south. At least, she thought she was heading south; she could barely tell within these clouds.

Stars save me,
she thought.
None of this should have happened. Oh, stars, none of this should have happened at all. They’ll be heading to Cadport now. They’ll find the boy. They’ll kill him. And it will be over.

Dragons shrieked before her. Jets of flame pierced the clouds like spears. Kaelyn bit down on a yelp. She kept flying, daring not blow her own fire.

They can’t see me,
she thought.
I’ll reach the boy before them. He’s our only hope.

She growled and flew harder.

She had not thought more bad luck possible. As if the world itself conspired against her, the clouds began to thin.