Crucible of Fortune: An Epic Fantasy Young Adult Adventure (Heirs of Destiny Book 2) Read online

  Nessa, the grey-haired Steward, bustled out of the mansion’s front door. “Come, my lady,” she said in a soothing voice. “Let’s get you in a bath then bed. You’ve had enough to deal with for one—”

  “No.” A hint of iron had returned to Briana’s voice. She brushed away her tears, a spark of defiance shining in her eyes. “I will not lie in bed, not while my father’s murderers are free.”

  “I am told that the Keeper’s Blades slew all of the Gatherers in the palace,” Nessa said.

  “But not all of the Gatherers in Shalandra.” Briana’s face hardened. “Not the ones who ordered the attack, or the ones responsible for the Gatherers in the first place.”

  Nessa’s brow furrowed, and her eyes darted around. “Beware, my lady. The Keeper’s Council has eyes and ears everywhere.”

  “Good!” Briana straightened, her face creased with anger. “Let them hear me! Let them know that I’m going to make them pay for what they did to me, and to my father.”

  Nessa’s expression grew tight. “Anger is a part of the mourning process, Lady Briana, so we will say that this is simply your grief talking. No one, not even your father, was foolish enough to move against the Necroseti. They are more than just the most powerful men in Shalandra—they are the Keeper’s voice and will on Einan.”

  “Then the Long Keeper is served by cowards and fools!” With a snarl, Briana stalked into the house.

  Surprise rooted Kodyn to the spot for an instant. He had seen Briana’s strength before—she had recovered from the traumatic ordeal of captivity by the Gatherers—yet this new display astounded him. The fearful girl he’d met in Praamis had disappeared, replaced by a defiant young woman. Her resilience of spirit spoke of deep reserves of inner strength, but his job of keeping her safe would be much more difficult if she took on the Necroseti.

  He hurried into the mansion a step behind Aisha, and the two of them moved quickly to match Briana’s stride. The Shalandran girl fairly stomped up the stairs toward the second floor.

  “Nessa wasn’t wrong,” Kodyn said. “The Necroseti are too powerful to go after directly. Your father knew that, which is why he didn’t attack them head-on.”

  Briana whirled on him with a glare. “Don’t tell me you’re about to try and convince me not to go after them or the Gatherers that did this!” She gestured around her at the blood that stained the pristine white carpets covering the staircase.

  “No.” Kodyn shook his head. “I came to Shalandra to make sure the Gatherers never came back to Praamis, and this makes it perfectly clear that they need to be dealt with once and for all. But if your father couldn’t find them, even with all the resources at his disposal, I’m not so arrogant to think I’ll miraculously succeed. And I’m not stupid enough to charge at the Necroseti like a mad warrior jousting a windmill. I’m just saying that we need to be smart about what we do. We need to find a way that doesn’t get us all killed.”

  Briana scowled, but Aisha spoke first. “He’s right. We’re exhausted, and it’s going to be nearly impossible to think straight. We need to plan, but first we need food and rest.”

  “You want to sleep now?” Briana’s eyebrows shot up.

  “If we want any hope of making a plan that works, yes.” Aisha’s jaw took on a stubborn set. “And you know I’m right.”

  Briana looked ready to shout, to rage, to attack Aisha, but Kodyn was fairly certain it was more due to the overwhelming flood of emotions. And it was to be expected, given what had just happened.

  “If we’re going to have any chance of taking on the Necroseti,” he told her, “we’re going to need all the help we can get. That means the Secret Keepers, and the Pharus, if we can get in to speak to him. But there’s another place we can look for help.”

  Briana’s brow furrowed, and even Aisha seemed curious.

  Kodyn met their eyes with a firm gaze. “We can use the power of the Serenii.”

  Chapter Two

  Evren’s gut tightened as the deadbolt thunked open. He leapt to his feet and positioned himself between Hailen and the door. “Remember,” he growled, “let me do the talking.”

  Blinding light flooded in as the door swung open. Evren tried to blink away the pain, but his eyes had grown accustomed to the pitch blackness within the storeroom where he and Hailen had been locked away for hours—how many, he didn’t know, but enough that he’d been able to catch a nap—in the darkness.

  The minor concussion didn’t help. He’d been struck on the head while trying to slip past the Indomitables guarding the Defender’s Tier. The dizziness and nausea had diminished, though the ache remained.

  The Hunter always said I had a hard head.

  He reached for his daggers, only to remember that Lady Briana’s bodyguard—that tall, pale-skinned Praamian—had taken them. Yet that didn’t stop him from clenching his fists and squaring his shoulders. He’d won enough battles bare-handed not to go down without fighting.

  The moment a hand grabbed his right arm he swung with his left, a quick hook aimed at his opponent’s jaw. Pain flared through his hand as his knuckles slammed into a hard skull. The grip on his arm fell away and the man staggered back with a grunt, but before Evren could lash out at the next blurry figure, two more men seized him.

  “Cease your struggling before you end up dead.”

  Evren recognized the voice—it belonged to Rothin, the captain of Arch-Guardian Suroth’s household guard. The man that had imprisoned him here on Lady Briana’s orders.

  His eyes had adjusted to the light enough to make out the blurry forms of four guards in their bright gold breastplates. Two clung to his arms while a third leaned against the door frame with a hand pressed to the side of his head. Rothin’s broad shoulders and strong-featured face loomed in his vision, and Evren didn’t need his eyes to feel the cold steel resting against his throat.

  “What do you want?” Evren snarled.

  “Lady Briana commands your presence,” Rothin said. “Both of you.” His voice held no anger or malice, only a tone of stern authority. He’d been present when Evren warned of the Gatherers’ attack.

  Let’s just hope that means he doesn’t think I’m a traitor or spy.

  To be fair, he’d likely have come to that same conclusion himself, given how they’d been discovered in Arch-Guardian Suroth’s private office, with one of his most valuable possessions clutched in Hailen’s hand. I’d probably have arrested me, too.

  He relaxed and dropped his hands. “Then let’s go.” No sense fighting, not where Hailen could get hurt. The boy had very nearly been killed the night before by Snarth, one of the Mumblers working for Killian the blacksmith.

  The guards half-led, half-hauled him and Hailen out of the storeroom, down the servant’s corridor, and into the main room of the mansion. The eyes of Suroth’s servants followed their journey up the stairs, and Evren could hear their whispered gossip. Doubtless they were trying to figure out what Evren and Hailen had done to earn the ire of Nessa, Briana, or Suroth himself.

  Evren’s curiosity blazed bright as the guards marched him not into Lady Briana’s private chambers, but into the very same study where he and Hailen had been discovered the previous night, just after the assassination attempt.

  Lady Briana sat behind her father’s vast wooden desk, in the straight-backed leather armchair. Her eyes were red-rimmed, her kohl smeared and faded from crying—Evren had heard of her father’s murder in the palace—but her expression was an unreadable mask of calm composure.

  Her two bodyguards—the pale-skinned Praamian and the fierce woman with skin darker than Evren’s own—hovered behind her like mother hawks guarding a hatchling. Given what had happened, Evren didn’t begrudge them their caution.

  “Thank you, Rothin.” Briana inclined her head to the captain of the guard. “You may leave them with us.”

  “Of course, Lady Briana.” Hesitance echoed in his voice, yet he simply bowed and turned to leave. The guards released Evren and Hailen, then followed their ca
ptain.

  Silence hung thick in the study for long seconds after the door clicked shut behind the departing guards. Three pairs of eyes bored into him, but Evren stood tall, defiant. He hadn’t let fear of anything—not the Lecterns in the Master’s Temple where he’d served as apprentice, not the monsters roaming the Empty Mountains, not even the Hunter of Voramis, the legendary assassin that had become his trainer and mentor—shake him for years. He’d be damned if he showed a Dhukari girl or her bodyguards even a hint of worry.

  “What is your name?”

  Lady Briana’s question caught him off-guard. He’d been expecting threats and accusations, yet she spoke in a tone bordering on civil.

  “She asked for your name,” growled the pale-skinned bodyguard, a scowl on his face as he took a step toward Evren.

  Evren sized up the man before him. Long, dark hair pulled back into a tight tail, high cheekbones, and honey-colored eyes. Yet he was surprised to find they were roughly the same age, though the bodyguard stood a hand or two taller, with broad shoulders and the easy confidence of a warrior trained to use the sword hanging on his belt and the five or six daggers Evren spotted concealed around his armor and clothing. He’d spent enough time around the Hunter to recognize the lethal grace of a killer, yet something about the Praamian reminded Evren of the slimmer, quicker thieves he’d known on the streets of Vothmot.

  An interesting mix of the two, certainly.

  The other one, the woman with braided hair and a fierce scowl on her full lips, was a bit more of a mystery. The breadth of her shoulders almost matched Kodyn’s and thick muscle corded her forearms and biceps. She stood in a slight crouch, expression wary, hand hovering near the short-handled spear on her back. A warrior, for certain, yet up close, something about her seemed different than he’d expected. There was a strange glimmer in her eyes that he didn’t quite understand.

  He didn’t know what to make of these two, but if they were threatening Hailen, they’d find him more than just a simple servant.

  “Why?” He poured all his defiance into the word. “What does it matter?”

  “It matters,” Lady Briana spoke before the tall Praamian could, “because I have to know what sort of person I’m dealing with.”

  Evren’s eyes narrowed. Dealing with? That sounds less like a threat and more like a conversation.

  Understanding dawned when Lady Briana placed a palm-length stone as thick as Evren’s middle finger atop the table. “What he did should be impossible,” she said. “Had I not seen it with my own eyes, I would never have believed it. So I want to know exactly how it happened.”

  Evren’s gut tightened. He’d been dreading this since the moment they’d been caught in Suroth’s study hours earlier.

  “This stone is the handiwork of the Serenii.” Lady Briana’s eyes slid past Evren to Hailen. “My father is…”

  Sorrow twisted her face and she swallowed hard, her eyes dropping. The fierce-looking woman placed a hand on her shoulder.

  A long moment passed before the girl continued in a quiet, tight voice. “My father was studying it and all the other Serenii artifacts in this room in the hopes of unlocking its secrets. He had begun to decipher the runes etched into its surface. However, he never hinted that it would do anything like it did last night.” She narrowed her eyes at Hailen and leaned forward. “So tell me, how did you make it hum and glow like that?”

  Evren heard Hailen draw in a breath but spoke quickly first. “Before I tell you, I will have your word that my brother will not be punished. It was my idea to sneak into your father’s study. The blame lies with me, and the punishment should as well.”

  “Evren—” Hailen began.

  Evren whirled and shot a stern glare at the younger boy. Hailen’s face grew stubborn but he held his tongue.

  “Your brother?” The tall Praamian youth cocked an eyebrow. “Intriguing.”

  Evren met the bodyguard’s gaze without hesitation. Curiosity burned there, and a wary suspicion, but that seemed more innate, the result of hard years of living, rather than personal. It simply served to reinforce Evren’s suspicion that the youth was not the traditional sort of bodyguard. Then again, a Praamian in such a trusted position in a Dhukari household didn’t scream tradition, either.

  “My brother,” Evren emphasized the word, “is special.” He didn’t know how to explain that Hailen was Melechha, a descendant of the ancient Serenii, not without sounding crazy. “Serenii things have a tendency to come to life when he’s around.”

  “Is that so?” Lady Briana inclined her head and turned to Hailen. “What is your name?”

  “Hailen,” Hailen responded before Evren could stop him.

  The young woman beckoned. “Come here, Hailen.”

  Evren made to stop Hailen, but both of the bodyguards tensed, hands dropping to their weapons. Clearly, last night’s attempt on Lady Briana had them on edge. Evren decided against doing anything to raise their suspicion any further.

  “Here.” Lady Briana held out the cylindrical stone. “Take it.”

  Hailen hesitated a moment before reaching for the object. Evren’s gut tightened as the boy’s fingers closed around the cylindrical black stone etched with those strange Serenii runes. The blood on Hailen’s fingers had dried hours ago—the stone required fresh blood to activate.

  Lady Briana and her bodyguards drew in sharp breaths and leaned back as Hailen took the stone. But, when nothing happened, suspicion flashed across their faces. The young Dhukari woman looked confused.

  “Last night, how did you make that work?” she asked Hailen.

  Evren shot Hailen a meaningful look and a slight shake of his head. Don’t do it, Hailen! He couldn’t straight out shout at the boy to hold his tongue, but he had to hope Hailen had the common sense to—

  “It’s my blood.” Hailen said after only a moment of hesitation. “It’s what activated the stone.”

  Evren stifled a curse. Damn it! The boy had an innately trusting nature—a remnant of the Irrsinnon, the madness inherited from the Serenii that had nearly claimed his mind years earlier—which had gotten him in trouble on more than one occasion. Now, he’d just revealed the secret of his Melechha blood to these three perfect strangers.

  “Your blood?” Lady Briana’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

  “What he means,” Evren interjected, “is that his blood can interact with Serenii artifacts.” Hailen had revealed enough for now; better Briana not know that he was the last surviving Melechha on Einan. That knowledge would give her far too much power over Hailen—and, by extension, Evren. Already, they were at the mercy of the Dhukari noblewoman. She had only to order her guards to execute them and Evren would be forced to fight his way to freedom.

  “Interact with the artifacts, how exactly?” For a moment, curiosity pushed back the dark sorrow lingering in Lady Briana’s eyes. “Like what happened last night, with that bright light and loud noise?”

  “Yes.” Evren met the young woman’s gaze. “Or, at least, that’s what that one artifact did. I don’t know about the others, but I know that they will work when they come in contact with Hailen’s blood.”

  “Fascinating!” Excitement sparkled on Lady Briana’s face. “My father dedicated his life to studying these artifacts, and you two unlock more secrets in three minutes than he did in three decades.” Suddenly, questions bubbled from her lips in a torrent almost too fast for Evren to follow. “Is there anything else your blood can do? Can you use all Serenii artifacts or just this one? Do you read the Serenii language? How much do you know about what these things can do? Can you truly wield the power of the Serenii like you said?”

  “Uhh…yes?” Confusion echoed in Hailen’s voice. “I mean…”

  Lady Briana suddenly stood, a look of grim determination in her eyes. “Listen to me, both of you. Last night’s attempt to kidnap or kill me was the work of the Gatherers, a cult of death-worshippers that either work for the Necroseti or rebelled against them. Either way, the K
eeper’s Priests and the members of the Keeper’s Council wanted to eliminate my father. They have their wish, so I shouldn’t have to worry about them coming for me.”

  “You’re certain?” the tall Praamian asked. “Your father had a great deal of influence among the Secret Keepers—”

  The Dhukari girl shook her head. “But the only reason he posed a threat to them was because of his influence with the Pharus and his position on the Keeper’s Council. With him gone, the Necroseti won’t bother with me. Or, at least, they have no reason to. Same for the Gatherers. They wanted me to use as leverage against my father. Now that they don’t need leverage, I should be safe. Safe enough that no one will see it coming when I take down the Gatherers and the Keeper’s Council.”

  Evren raised an eyebrow. An ambitious plan, though one likely to get her killed. He wasn’t certain the two bodyguards could keep her safe from the secret cult or the most powerful priests in Shalandra.

  “But I can’t do it alone, even with all of my father’s connections,” Lady Briana continued. “They are too powerful for just the three of us to take on. Which is where you two come in.”

  “Or him,” Evren said, inclining his head at Hailen. “You want to use the power of the Serenii in your private war for revenge.”

  “Yes.” A simple reply, with no hint of deceit. Lady Briana met his eyes. “In return for his help, I will give you anything that is within my power as the daughter of Arch-Guardian Suroth.”

  Evren’s eyebrows rose. “Anything?” Quite the tempting offer, certainly, though he couldn’t be sure what she would have to give him. He’d come to her father’s household intending to use his position to get into the Palace of Golden Eternity to steal the Blade of Hallar, an ancient relic he believed was one of the Bucelarii Im’tasi weapons—weapons the Hunter needed in his mission to sustain Kharna and protect Einan from the threat of the Devourer of Worlds.