Skies
Future House Publishing
Skies
Future House Publishing
Text © 2016 Kevin L. Nielsen
Interior illustration © 2016 Jeff Harvey
Cover illustration © 2016 Future House Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of Future House Publishing at
[email protected]
.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.
ISBN: 978-1-944452-52-0 (paperback)
Cover image adaptation by Jeff Harvey
Developmental editing by Mandi Diaz
Substantive editing by Emma Hoggan
Copy editing by Alexa McKaig
Interior design by Kalie Walker
Future
House Beta Reader’s Club!
Hello Reader,
Thanks so much for taking the time to dive into
Skies
by Kevin L. Nielsen. We are thrilled that he picked Future House to publish his book.
Future House Publishing is a small press that creates fantastic YA, sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, and adventure
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Adam,
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the Future House Publishing Team
Acknowledgements
This book would not be what it is were it not for two “purple-loving, dragon-riding twinsies.” Melissa Cox Meibos (aka Lysandra James) and her sister Amber Huddleston. They have provided both the encouragement and the “trash talk” needed to get this book ready by its deadline. They were the first true fans of this series.
My writing group, Team Unleashed, also earned their place here. Though they didn’t get a chance to beta read (or even alpha read) this one, they
did
provide the support and encouragement I needed to keep going when I needed it even when they were secretly thinking “I only wish I had his problems – can he stop talking now?” Luke Peterson, Beth Fewkes, Jessica Allen Winn, Beau Peterson, and Amy Sandbak (aka, “The Quiet One”), you are all mystics in my book. Oh, and you should stay out of Beau’s basement (not really – but I had to say it anyway).
I also want to thank Jeff Harvey for his excellent work in turning my sketches and concept ideas into the art in this book and the game based off
Sands
. He has gone above and beyond. Emma Hoggan, the main editor on this project, is an editing genius and I would be lost without her constant push back – I mean, support - constant support and encouragement. That’s what I meant. And her firm, no-nonsense opinions. I would be remiss to not thank Mandi Diaz. She worked diligently on this project with me as well and the book is far better for it. It will be a cold day in the Sharani Desert before I let the karma deities forget it, Mandi.
And, most important of all, this book is for Kaitlynn, who upholds the flame.
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Chapter 4
-
The Sound of Justice
Chapter 5
-
Meetings in the Night
Chapter 14
-
Beneath Blackened Skies
Smoke and Ashes
Questions
“The Progressions are but seven branches of the same Path walking parallel to one another, all leading to the same eternal goal. They are guides toward salvation. Witnesses to the End.”
—From the Discourses on Knowledge, Volume 17, Year 1171
Lhaurel stared out the back of the wagon, her gaze lingering on the blackened smudge wafting across the horizon which marked where the Sharani Desert used to sit. The smell of char hung heavy in the air, even this far from the smoky remains. The smoke and debris drifted to the west, out over the mountains, but still the stink of it reached her nose, reminding her of the volcano’s destructive power.
She hadn’t seen the eruption—she’d been unconscious at the time—but the aftermath alone made her shudder at the horror her own imagination conjured for her. She hoped the Rahuli had managed to make it out. If not, her sacrifice, her current situation, and her terror was all for naught.
No.
Lhaurel shook her head and turned away from the open upper door at the back of the wagon. She couldn’t think like that. The Rahuli
had
made it out. Gavin, Khari, Shallee, and the others all made it to safety. Lhaurel’s sacrifice had not been in vain. She had saved them again. She
was
their savior.
Lhaurel felt a wetness on her cheek and brushed away the tears before they could drop off her chin. She sat and tried to ignore the relief that washed over her as aching muscles in her legs relaxed. She wasn’t sure she could remember a time when she wasn’t sore and tired anymore. And she couldn’t even call on her powers for help. Part of her welcomed their absence. Another part longed for the strength they provided.
More than a week had passed since she’d woken up from the Sisters’ induced sleep: ten days of travelling in the back of a wagon over rolling hills covered in snow and grass since she’d realized the absence of her powers and abilities. That moment of realization sat like a depressing blanket of terror over her emotions, dampening them and making her efforts at hanging on to some measure of hope seem futile and tenuous at best.
Lhaurel shuddered and pulled the thick cloth garment she’d been given closer about her shoulders. The woman who had given it to her, one of the Sisters, had called it a cloak. It was thick and lined with a strange-smelling fur, but it was warm, far warmer than the Roterralar robes it so closely resembled in cut and style. It kept out the chill that seemed to gnaw at her bones, mirroring the ice that weighed down her heart.
The wagon ground to a halt.
Lhaurel looked up as the door near the front of the wagon opened and one of the three Sisters who accompanied her walked in. The sunlight glittered off the bejeweled end of a walking stick, or staff, she carried with her, wrapped in the clutches of one pale hand. Lhaurel instinctively pulled away as the woman entered and the wagon door shut behind her. The woman was tall enough that she had to stoop, even in the massive wagon, though she was thin to the point of gauntness. The red nails on her hand stood out in sharp contrast to the whiteness of her skin. Lhaurel recognized her as Sellia, the leader of the Seven Sisters.
“Peace,” Sellia said, taking a seat on the space Lhaurel had been using as a bed. “You should not cringe when you look upon your Sister.”
Lhaurel scooted further away from her, retaining her silence. She hadn’t seen Sellia since she’d first woken up in the wagon. She’d seen the two others from a distance, though Lhaurel hadn’t spent any real time with either. There were marked differences in their appearances, but each had the same air of condescending, oily superiority, and the same features she herself shared in the pale skin, blood red hair, and matching nails.
“I will give you but one warning,” Sellia said, her accented voice not changing tone in the slightest. “You will listen and you will obey. You have a long journey ahead of you before you return to Estrelar. Several months even. Still, that is very little time for you to become what you must be, child. It will go easier on you if you obey.”
“And what must I be?” Lhaurel’s voice was strong, but the small quaver at the end betrayed the emotions running through her.
“One of us, child. A full Sister.”
Lhaurel couldn’t suppress the shudder that ran down her back and caused her fists to clench and then unclench. Sellia muttered something under her breath in another language. The words seemed to tug at Lhaurel, as if she should know them, but she pushed the feeling aside.
“How am I supposed to be one of you without my abilities, without my powers?” Lhaurel asked.
Sellia flashed her a pointed smile and Lhaurel shuddered again. Lhaurel decided at that moment that no matter what else she was required to do, she would
never
file her teeth down like that.
“Close the window, and then come sit here with me. We have much to discuss.”
Lhaurel remained where she was, more out of curiosity about what the Sister would do to her than out of actual defiance. She’d comply eventually, but first she wanted to see if Sellia would make good on her threat. Though her agreement with the Sisters assured her complicity, even
that
had its limits. Lhaurel just needed to figure out what they were.
The Sister’s expression didn’t change, but in the space of half a heartbeat Lhaurel went from calm and curious to feeling as if an invisible hand were clenched around her heart. No sudden ring of red mist formed around her, and Sellia kept her expression in the same emotionless mask, but Lhaurel knew she was using her powers against her. Lhaurel screamed, a sound of the purest agony that tore from her throat with the force of a sand storm. Then the pressure was gone, leaving only a slight burr of pain behind.
“Close the window, child,” Sellia repeated.
Lhaurel got to her feet on shaking legs and stumbled over to the back wall. With more effort than it should have taken, she pulled the thick wooden door closed and fastened the metal clasp to keep it locked. The room inside dimmed, the only illumination a pair of lanterns affixed to the wagon wall behind Sellia. Lhaurel walked back over to the Sister, using the wagon’s wall to give her support, though she kept her back straight and her expression pain free.
Sellia regarded her with intent eyes. “Strength is good,” she said as Lhaurel sat, “but do not test me. That Progression is not yours.”
Lhaurel kept her expression neutral, though curiosity floated through her. Part of her knew she had already assured her complicity, but her stubborn streak came through when pushed, despite Sellia’s rather painful object lesson.
Lhaurel didn’t reply.
“You will respond when spoken to,” Sellia snapped.
“Alright.”
“The correct response is, ‘Yes, Sister.’”
“Yes, Sister.”
Sellia nodded and Lhaurel took a moment to study the woman to distract herself from Sellia’s penetrating gaze. The Sister’s clothes were strange. Thick, yet well cut and formed to the woman’s shape, Lhaurel would have thought them underclothes if she hadn’t seen the other Sisters wearing similar garb. Various metal bracelets and necklaces ornamented Sellia’s thin wrists. Her hands wrapped around the short staff across her lap, the stone at its top the same dark shade as was her nails. Lhaurel found herself drawn to the stone for some reason, as if it were calling to her.
“You will need to learn many things before you can become one of us.” Sellia tapped her staff against the wagon’s floor, which drew Lhaurel’s gaze away from the orb and back to Sellia herself. “Most importantly, child, you’ll need to forget this barbarous tongue you speak. The slave language isn’t fit for one such as us.”
“How do you know it then?” Lhaurel asked.
Sellia tilted her head to one side, as if curious, though her lips formed a thin line. “Watch your tone. My Sister and I will be leaving you soon. The route you and Talha will take is a circuitous one of necessity. Aiam and I will travel more swiftly. We are needed in Estrelar more so than you. It will be a long time before you see me again. It would be well of you to learn during this journey and learn well. The lives of the Rahuli and the return of your powers both hang in the balance.”
Sellia got to her feet and tapped on the wooden wall. The wagon slowed immediately and soon came to a smooth halt. The door opened, letting in daylight. Lhaurel caught a glimpse of one of the soldiers before Sellia’s tall form blocked her view. Lhaurel didn’t know if she should rise or not, but before she could decide Sellia stepped out into the light and shut the door behind her, plunging the room back into semidarkness.
Lhaurel stared at the closed door for a long, poignant moment, then closed her eyes and sucked in a deep lungful of air. She held the breath inside her for the count of several heartbeats, hands clenching into fists, then let it out in a long stream that became almost a hiss. The wagon remained still, so Lhaurel sucked in another breath and held it, allowing her mind to wander and her frustrations to ebb away. Eventually, her thoughts drifted to the last thing Sellia had said, her threat against Lhaurel’s people.
Lhaurel had feared, those first few days, that dwelling on her people—on Khari, Gavin, Farah, and the others—would bring her nothing but pain and regret. Pain was there, true, along with a good bit of longing, but Lhaurel had been surprised to discover another emotion hidden beneath the pain each time her mind returned to them. Resolve. And beneath that, determination.
What she’d done, she’d done to protect them. They were alive and well because of her sacrifice, not just once, but twice now. She would not think otherwise. She was their savior in many ways, but now, through memory and pain, they became hers. She welcomed the pain because it gave her a chance at peace. She welcomed that pain because it gave her strength. That resolve strengthened her and allowed her fists to unclench at her sides and her breathing to return to normal.
Noises at the door pulled Lhaurel from her thoughts and forced her eyes open. Light flooded back in through the opening door, carrying a damp flurry of a breeze with it, before a silhouette blocked the entrance and another of the Sisters entered. Lhaurel allowed only the briefest grimace to cross her features before she forced a wan smile.
The Sister ignored her.
Lhaurel chewed her bottom lip in confusion as the Sister turned around and bent over, reaching back out the door behind her. With a grunt, the Sister hauled something into the wagon and carefully placed it on the floor beside her.
“The annoying part about carrying books around on a journey such as this is how heavy they all are,” the Sister said, turning back to Lhaurel and reaching behind her again to shut the wagon’s door. “Can you help me out and open that back window, child?”
Lhaurel blinked. “Open it? The other Sister . . .” Lhaurel trailed off and then shrugged.
She walked to the back of the wagon, limping only slightly, and opened the window again. When she turned back around, the Sister was sitting on the bed where Sellia had been earlier. A number of squarish objects lay strewn over the remainder of the bed. The Sister looked up and smiled, flashing pointed teeth. Something about them made Lhaurel pause and peer a little more closely. Unlike Sellia’s, which had been filed down, the points appeared to be made from a blackening around the corners.
“Are your teeth
painted
?”
“Yes, child. So much better than garishly filing them down, wouldn’t you say?” The Sister smiled at her again, then began rummaging through the satchel at her feet. “Thank you for opening the window.” Her voice was slightly muffled as she bent down even further, reaching down deep into the bag. “Now come here, I have a thousand different questions to which I really must have answers. If I could only figure out what I did with that pen . . .”
Lhaurel didn’t know how to respond. The other two Sisters had both been tall, thin, and pristine, at least as far as Lhaurel had observed. This new one, while also tall, was more thickly built, and her clothing far less immaculate. Her hands also had a strange bluish cast to the underside of the palm and along the tips of her fingers. Her deep, blood-red hair was pulled up into a tight circle through which a pair of wooden rods had been thrust. Most interesting of all was the lack of noticeable accent in her voice. That contrast was a stark one, considering Sellia’s earlier comments.
“Ah, here it is,” the Sister said, pulling out a feather quill and a bottle of ink. She looked up. “Come now, child, I really don’t like having to ask more than once.”
The Sister’s tone changed at this, taking on the air of command and utter authority that Sellia had used. Lhaurel started forward.
“Why are you limping?”
Lhaurel opened her mouth and then snapped it shut. She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to speak ill of the other Sisters, but the woman just clicked her tongue and shook her head.
“Right, Sellia was just in here,” she said.
Lhaurel narrowed her eyes as the woman made an odd gesture with one hand. Lhaurel’s eyes widened. Power ran through her, an icy chill that burned away the pain and left a cool balm behind. As before, no red mist surrounded the Sister, nor did Lhaurel feel any answering swell within herself. She only recognized it because it was a power she herself had once held.
In moments all her pains and aches had been washed away. Even her internal, emotional pains seemed somehow lessened, though Lhaurel wasn’t sure if it was any real healing on the Sister’s part or if it was more her own perceptions of the stark contrast stemming from sudden relief. The experience left her longing for the return of her powers for a long moment before she pushed it down to the dormant reaches of her mind.
