The Kingdom of Eternal Sorrow (The Golden Mage Book 1) (26 page)

“This world, Seni created solely for mankind to dwell upon alone beyond
the celestial thrones of His divine kingdom with very little intervention from
Him. Why? It is simply beyond a mortal’s comprehension. Our ancient ancestors
simply did not know that Seni left the fate and affairs of mankind completely
to mankind. They had thought Seni to strike the twins dead. Instead, these men
became His weapon, returning no longer mortal and wielding the powers of Seni,
Himself.

“Together, they confronted the twins and gave them an ultimatum—either
they cease their fighting and rule peacefully together, or by the will of Seni,
they would be destroyed. The brothers laughed at their warning, for they did
not know that the hand of Seni had touched their confronters’ souls, and
refused to yield. Hate and greed had been a resident in their hearts for far
too long for them to forget their differences and make right their wrongs. Instead,
they turned their power onto the six men to rid themselves of what they
believed to be merely a nuisance so that they may return to their power
struggle.

“As you may well imagine, Reznik and Rhan were shocked to discover that
their magic had no effect on the men. In a panic, they attempted to flee, but
they were easily caught and imprisoned within a circle of magic so powerful it
could not be penetrated. This circle drained them of their life-force and
created the first Mage-field of their life energy.

“The Jadwigans, having witnessed this unnatural battle, cowered in
terror in the presence of these men who had been their brothers, husbands,
fathers, and sons only a few days earlier. They were like gods, themselves. The
people fell to their knees in worship, but this dismayed the six. They explained
to the people that they had not been made gods by Seni, but protectors of
mankind. Seni had given them immortality and god-like powers—but at a price. They
must live apart from all mankind, watching over them throughout the ages, and
never would mortal eyes behold them again until mankind once again threatened
to destroy itself.

“Before they departed, a prophecy was revealed to the people, one that
told of the possible ending of mankind, triggered by the actions of a mage who
harbored no love in his soul, only darkness much as the twins had. However,
before this was to come to pass, Seni offered to give mankind a chance to save
itself by uniting as one as Natia had once been to battle the evil this mage
would set free in the world. His only aid would be the sending of five signs to
warn that the time is at hand when the worlds of light and darkness are aligned
on the same plane and demons from all six hells of Ter-ob may be Summoned
simultaneously to walk our lands, demons with the power to Summon the ultimate
dark god, Arioch, onto our plane whose goal is to destroy Seni, Himself.

“Now, four of these signs are first, the coming of mages which possess
powers beyond those of any mage living under the Thrones, the other, the
deciding factor of which fate will most likely befall us. The first three have
already transpired. The first was the birth of twins who wielded the power of
the bardic-mage. The second was the birth of a mage more powerful than had been
seen in ages. The third was the coming of a mage of legends. As for the fourth
sign,” he looked pointedly at Allison, “the downfall of a great kingdom, it
depends solely upon the Golden Mage. As I have said, I cannot Foresee the path
she will take. Whichever kingdom falls, be it Lamia or Mihr, the success of
preventing the destruction of mankind depends upon that fall. I need not voice
which fate will bring mankind the more hope.”

Don’t put any pressure on me or anything
, Allison thought
bitterly.

“And the fifth sign?” Aidric whispered, so softly that
Allison almost didn’t hear him.

Master Kiryl smiled and answered, “Ah yes, the fourth warrior, a name
unknown beyond the boundaries of our abode, and also the fifth sign. Have you not
guessed by all I have revealed within my tale?” Before Aidric could nod or
shake his head, Kiryl plowed on as if he had never asked the question. “The
last sign is, of course, the return of the Natian Six, Seni’s immortal weapons.”

Aidric whistled softly. “It’s no wonder your order has kept the last
sign a secret. The Natian Six are beings that we know little about and through
the ages have been taught to greatly fear because of what they represent. But
tell me, Master Kiryl, why didn’t you reveal this last sign to Keldan, Aren, or
me sooner? Was it not necessary for
us
to know?”

“It was not the right time until now, impatient one,” Kiryl
answered matter-of-factly. “I do as Seni commands, and it was by His will that
I should not reveal the knowledge of the fifth sign until he deemed it to be
the proper time.”

Allison barely heard the conversation between the two men. Her mind was
instead on the names of the three nations that Natia had become, names that
seemed vaguely familiar to her but couldn’t imagine where she had heard of them
before this. A sense of foreboding washed through her as she thought of the
names, trying to put her finger on where she knew them from. The feeling
screamed out to her that these were dangerous thoughts and a path that was best
left unsought.

She immediately cleared her mind of those troubling thoughts to find
that Kiryl was once again staring at her as if he had knowledge of every secret
she harbored even in the dark corners of her soul.

He knows what I was thinking
, she thought suddenly, feeling the
hair behind her neck start to rise as she mutely returned the stare.
God
help me, he knows something about me, some secret that maybe I don’t even know
myself, yet all he does is stare at me with that damned knowing look in his
eyes. What is it? Do I dare ask him?

So many secrets, so much she didn’t understand about this
world, about what she had become, even about Aidric who seemed to carry his own
aura of mystery about him. Would there be an end to it all, or was she cursed
to be the pawn in some preternatural game in which an alien god commanded her every
move, for good or ill, for the rest of her life?

Prophecies, myths, legends—she had once been really
interested in such things. Allison never thought that she would end up as one,
and now as she stared into the eyes of Master Kiryl, she wondered why she had
ever thought they were fun and exciting.

“Truths, child,” Kiryl spoke suddenly. “Only when you find them will
the turmoil within your soul cease to torment you. Aidric Stanisnik will guide
you with his teachings, but it is ultimately
you
who will discover them
and use them to choose which path fate has sent you to walk upon. I know your
mind. You long to be released from that which you have been destined to decide,
but it cannot be so. Seni has
chosen
you. Now go, and remember well what
I have said today. Remember and learn what you must, for the time of decision
is nearly upon us.”

BOOK TWO

Depressed and overwhelmed by learning the true meaning of her destiny as
the Golden Mage as well as the major part she, along with Aidric, Keldan, and
Aren, will play as foretold within the Prophecy of the Six, Allison despairs of
ever picking up the pieces of her shattered life. Then to add insult to injury,
the Temple of Seni sends representatives to Lamia to collect her in order that
she may swear oaths to Seni as is required by divine law. The party is led by
Eban, a Domnae full of an infinite amount of ambition and utterly despised by
Aidric for reasons he refuses to confide to anyone. However, though suspicious
of his motives, Eban’s the least of her worries as going to the Temple means
leaving the protection of Lamia’s Shield with very little mage training under
her belt at a time when hostilities with Mihr are at their highest, and rumors
of a spy planted within the palace by Roderick have begun to arise.

The wheels of fate are turning ever so quickly, and Allison feels the
threads of her life becoming helplessly and dangerously entangled within its
spokes, even more so now as she is exposed to the politics of the Temple,
itself.

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The
Golden Mage Trilogy

The Man Within the Temple (Book Two)

The Last Stone Cast (Book Three)

Old
Souls

Old Souls
(Book One)

The Ties that
Bind the Soul (Book Two)

The Name
Within His Soul (Book Three) *Coming Soon

Issai has had enough. For the past five thousand plus years, he has been
successively reborn hundreds of times with all his previous lives’ memories
intact, all the while relentlessly compelled to wander the earth in pursuit of
an elusive something he has yet to even identify. Over the centuries, whispers
of others similar to him began to surface, and his kind became known as Old
Souls.

Unable to find answers for his seemingly endless existence and no longer
willing to play in what he fears is just a game for the gods’ amusement, Issai
abandons his wanderings and questions and settles in an isolated town in the
kingdom of Sarim, determined to resist the strong urge to be on the move that
has dictated his entire existence. However, he is attacked shortly by the Shi,
hunters of Old Souls that believe they can steal their “immortality” by
consuming parts of an Old Soul through various rituals.

Forced to flee, Issai soon encounters Hahri, a loud-mouthed Old Soul with
the same compulsion and inhuman speed to rival Issai’s own, inadvertently
triggering a painful reaction to each other that is aggravated by the distance
between them. When escaping Hahri proves futile and the other offers him a hint
to the mystery behind their compulsion, Issai not only reluctantly finds
himself once again in pursuit of the very answers he had forsaken, but also
running from a relentless enemy whose unprecedented numbers suggest that
immortality may not be their only goal.

Fractured
Multiverse

The Supreme
Moment

Black
Crimson (Blood Fire Chronicles Book One) *Coming Soon

The moment a bunch of men with guns kicked in
the doors of her house, eighteen-year-old Avery Morgan knew her estranged
father's gambling addiction had finally caught up to her family in the worst
way. On the brink of doing something unspeakable to save her little sister from
being taken, she is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Darrien Stathos, a billionaire
business mogul whose true persona is rumored to be the lord of the criminal
underworld known as Kairos. Darrien announces that he is also there to collect
on a contract with Avery's father—for Avery.

As she struggles with the reality of being
the property of an alleged crime lord and the constant harassment of two FBI
agents, several disturbing observations about Darrien's eyes and the
frightening, inexplicable ways he stops a couple of would-be assassins make
Avery rethink her initial dismissal of some of the more outlandish gossip that
questioned his humanity.

Add to that learning a disturbing and
dangerous truth about herself, and Avery is ready to break, especially when the
truth of Darrien's identity is something that will shatter the very foundation
of her understanding of reality.

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CA
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C.G. Garcia lives in a small West Texas town whose claim to fame is
having the world’s largest Rattlesnake Round-Up. She has a degree in computer
science, but due to life’s twisted sense of humor, ended up working in a
pharmacy before retiring to write full time. A lifelong lover of all things fantasy,
science fiction, and the paranormal, she is also the author of the
Fractured
Multiverse
urban fantasy series and the
Old Souls
epic fantasy trilogy.