Blood of the Earth Read online

  Blood of the Earth

  Sovereign of the Seven Isles: Book Four

  by

  David A. Wells

  BLOOD OF THE EARTH

  Copyright © 2012 by David A. Wells

  All rights reserved.

  Edited by Carol L. Wells

  This is a work of fiction. Characters, events and organizations in this novel are creations of the author’s imagination.

  www.SovereignOfTheSevenIsles.com

  Chapter 1

  “Darkness comes, My Love,” Chloe said, spinning into a ball of light.

  Alexander scanned the debris field for any sign of a threat. Rubble lay in every direction. The wreckage was scattered haphazardly within the walls of the ancient city. Piles of

  broken buildings were interspersed with a dozen large craters where Mage Gamaliel’s terrifying weapons of utter destruction had fallen.

  Northport was completely obliterated. The devastation was so thorough that Alexander felt the weight of guilt bear down on him as he surveyed the remains of the once great city.

  Over the generations, countless thousands of people had made this place their home, and in one moment of need Alexander had ordered their homes, shops, and communities destroyed.

  And destroyed they were.

  Little worth salvaging remained. The lumber was reduced to splinters and kindling, useless even as firewood. The stone was pulverized into gravel or dust. Scarcely a stone larger than a man’s head could be seen anywhere within the uneven field of broken homes.

  All that remained intact was the outer wall.

  In the distance a man stepped up on a high place in the field of detritus. His colors screamed out an alarm within Alexander’s psyche that was at once visceral and terrifying. It looked like a man and a creature of the netherworld inhabiting the same space. Alexander knew of only one such creature.

  A shade.

  Alexander drew the Thinblade and pointed toward the advancing enemy with his impossibly sharp sword.

  “Enemy!” He shouted. “I think it’s a shade.”

  Isabel gasped, then tipped her head back and closed her eyes, linking her mind to Slyder.

  “There’re two more,” she said.

  Suddenly, the man mixed with darkness disappeared, leaving just a hint of black smoke where he’d stood.

  A fraction of a moment later, he reappeared about twenty feet closer. Alexander couldn’t quite be sure what he was seeing.

  Then another man appeared on top of another pile of debris. He had the same tortured colors as the first man—like a man possessed by darkness.

  A moment later a third man appeared just as the second man disappeared and reappeared almost instantly about twenty feet closer.

  Alexander had seen magic, but this was something altogether different. He watched, mesmerized, as the three men advanced toward them, taking a few steps, then disappearing and almost instantly reappearing closer. They covered the distance quickly.

  He’d decided to survey the damage done to Northport before returning to Blackstone Keep. The bulk of the army was moving north under his father’s command with only a legion of Rangers held in reserve on the outskirts of Northport.

  Alexander intended to rebuild the vital port city, and quickly. The Rangers would play an important part in organizing the timber crews along the northern edge of the Great Forest. They knew the woods better than anyone, knew which trees to take and how to transport them from the forest to the city.

  Mage Gamaliel had accompanied him to survey the damage, partly to see the results of his weapons and partly to lend his advice concerning the resources that would be necessary to rebuild. Mage Landi and Wizard Sark were there as well, along with Lieutenant Wyatt and the dozen remaining battle-tested Rangers that had served Alexander so well during his voyage to the Reishi Isle and Ithilian.

  Jataan P’Tal and Boaberous Grudge shadowed Alexander, following him wherever he went, whether he asked them to or not. They remained quiet and unobtrusive, in the background, observing and protecting.

  Isabel hadn’t left his side since the terrifying battle with the scourgling. While the weight of the world bore down on him and the war raged throughout the Seven Isles, he occasionally found himself feeling profoundly grateful for the terrible responsibility he’d been given, for the simple reason that it had brought Isabel into his life.

  After having been separated from her for several months, he found that every moment he shared with her was a gift. Her presence soothed his soul and filled him with a deep and abiding joy.

  As the enemy advanced, Isabel nocked an arrow.

  “Why would all three shades come here?” Jack asked, frowning. “What do they want with us? Aren’t they supposed to be searching for the keystones?”

  He’d been quietly observing from the background, as usual. Until Chloe’s warning they’d all been sharing a somber moment, taking in the utter destruction around them.

  Alexander shook his head. “I don’t know, but all three of those men look like they have a demon inside them.”

  Wizard Sark and Mage Landi started casting spells. Lieutenant Wyatt assembled his Rangers into a firing line; they waited with arrows at the ready. Jataan sauntered out in front of them all and took his position between danger and his charge, hands clasped lightly behind his back.

  Boaberous dropped his war hammer and drew a javelin. Mage Gamaliel took out a slingshot and loaded it with a stone the size of a plum.

  The three men drew nearer, each disappearing, leaving only a wispy hint of black smoke in their wake and then reappearing twenty feet closer, taking half a dozen steps before doing it again.

  “Fire!” Lieutenant Wyatt commanded. His Rangers loosed a dozen arrows, dividing them evenly between the three men. All three took direct hits to the torso.

  Kill shots.

  All three shrieked with a mixture of human agony and demonic glee. Then all three disappeared and reappeared twenty feet closer. The arrows were gone and their wounds were healed.

  “This might be a problem,” Alexander muttered.

  Isabel sent an arrow at the possessed man in the middle and hit him cleanly, but he simply disappeared and then reappeared closer without so much as a trace of injury.

  “I’ve never read an account of a shade wielding such magic,” Mage Gamaliel said, shaking his head. He quickly whipped his slingshot around twice and released the plum-sized stone at the nearest enemy. The stone sailed true and somewhere in midflight grew to the size of a pumpkin. It hit the enemy in the chest, crushing his ribs like a stone hurled from a catapult. He went down for a moment, but Alexander could still see his colors: darkness mingled with the living colors of a man.

  Then he disappeared. Half a heartbeat later he reappeared, only closer, and without any damage from the punishing attack he’d just been dealt.

  They were only a hundred feet away now. Boaberous threw a javelin, but before it found its mark, his target vanished, then reappeared closer.

  Isabel dropped her bow and started casting a spell. Jack tossed his hood up and vanished from sight.

  As one, the three enemy drew long, black daggers. Alexander saw at once that the blades were enchanted with some form of dark magic, though he couldn’t discern its purpose.

  Blink, they vanished.

  Wizard Sark transformed into a whirlwind.

  Blink, they reappeared, only closer.

  Fifty feet now.

  Alexander could see the smug, tight grins they wore … like they knew something he didn’t.

  Chloe spun into a ball of light. “I’m afraid, My Love,” she said in his mind.

  “Be brave, Little One, and stay out of sight,” he replied through the link born of their bonding.

  Ma
ge Landi brought forth a creature like nothing Alexander had ever seen before. A luminescent cloud of white smoke eight or ten feet across. Lightning rippled and crackled within it, occasionally dancing across its surface in impossibly complex patterns. Landi directed it toward the advancing enemy. For a moment the cloud seemed to hesitate but then it moved with terrible speed, elongating into a horizontal column of smoke and shooting toward the nearest enemy like an arrow, engulfing the man mixed with darkness completely.

  The struggle that ensued was a contest between light and dark. The silhouette of the enemy could just be seen within the cloud creature. He struggled to blink away, only to reappear within the cloud. Electricity played across the silhouette, and a distant shrieking could be heard from within.

  The other two ignored the plight of their companion.

  Sark, in the form of a whirlwind, bounded to the nearest one, drawing him up into his vortex, spinning him around and around and then throwing him violently away into the rubble. Before the man crashed into a mound of broken rock and splintered wood, he disappeared and then reappeared not fifteen feet in front of Jataan.

  The man smiled at the battle mage with unrestrained malice.

  “Master sends his love,” he said and then disappeared, leaving only wisps of blackness that quickly faded.

  He reappeared behind Commander P’Tal and tried to stab him in the back, but Jataan was too quick. He whirled, catching the enemy’s hand by the wrist and driving his blade to the hilt into the man’s heart. The man’s eyes opened wide and he looked like he was trying to scream, but no sound came from his open mouth … then he disappeared.

  The third enemy walked straight toward the line of Rangers. Lieutenant Wyatt ordered his men to fire; a moment later, the enemy was peppered in the chest with a dozen arrows, any one of them a kill shot, but he simply vanished, only to reappear unharmed behind their line. Alexander caught the look of maleficent glee that ghosted across the man’s face as he plunged his dark blade into the back of the last Ranger in the line. Yet another of Lieutenant Wyatt’s men had fallen defending Alexander.

  The enemy who had tried to stab Jataan reappeared behind Isabel. When Alexander saw him come into existence, he lunged toward his wife but she was too far away. Racing toward her, he saw the look the man gave him as he raised his dagger for a deadly downward stroke into Isabel’s back.

  In that moment, he knew their purpose. These men mixed with darkness weren’t here just to kill him—Phane had sent them to hurt him. These men were here to deliver revenge to Alexander for killing Kludge.

  The man stabbed down toward Isabel’s back. Alexander was helpless to stop him. He watched the blade descend on his love and felt a mixture of unmitigated terror and furious rage tighten around his soul. When Isabel saw the look on his face, she spun to meet her attacker. The blade came down hard but was turned aside when it met the magical shell of her shield spell. She thrust her sword into his belly and twisted it for good measure.

  Alexander felt relief wash over him like a cool breeze. The thought of losing Isabel again was more than he could bear.

  The man on the end of Isabel’s sword disappeared.

  The one who had just killed the Ranger reappeared behind Alexander. But with his all around sight, Alexander saw him come into existence and spun to meet the attack. The man stabbed at him with his dark blade in midturn, but Alexander’s dragon-steel shirt saved him yet again. He completed his turn and brought the Thinblade around in a sweeping arc across the enemy’s body, cutting him cleanly in half—his hands came free at the elbows and his torso toppled off his trunk. But instead of crashing to the ground, he vanished.

  Alexander was dismayed at the seemingly indestructible nature of these men. They wore the stylized R of the Reishi Army Regency on their leather armor and they were men, flesh and blood, yet they were more—much more. Some dark magic had infused them with power beyond Alexander’s understanding.

  The man that Isabel had just run through appeared behind another Ranger and stabbed him in the back, driving his long dagger through his right lung and out the front of his chest, only to disappear before the next Ranger in line could counterattack.

  The one Alexander had just cut in half reappeared behind Jataan, whole and smiling wickedly. The battle mage turned to meet the attack, easily defending against the enemy’s knife and slicing his throat cleanly in one deft and inhumanly quick stroke, when the second man, the one who had just killed a Ranger, appeared behind Jataan and stabbed him in the back.

  Jataan stiffened with a look of shock and surprise. He had killed many men with a blade; this was the first time he had ever been stabbed himself. Always before, he’d been able to avoid injury. These two men, enchanted with darkness, had just bested the battle mage. He slumped to his knees as the two men disappeared, laughing.

  Alexander couldn’t believe it. He’d come to think of Jataan as nearly invincible. Yet he lay bleeding on the battlefield before him. Alexander wanted to rush to his side, to see if he would live. He’d come to value Jataan as a protector and even considered him a friend in spite of past circumstances. He’d forgiven him for sending the assassin who killed Darius, even though the loss of his brother still pained him.

  With a gesture, he ordered Boaberous to tend to Jataan. The giant reached his commander quickly and went to work staunching the flow of blood and assessing his injury.

  Everything was happening so fast. The enemy seemed to be beyond all but the most powerful magic. Only Mage Landi’s conjured cloud of electrical light had any effect on these men and then it was only holding the one enemy in place.

  The other two appeared on either side of Mage Gamaliel and stabbed at him in unison. His dragon-steel plate armor easily turned their blades aside. Both of the men shrieked inhumanly at seeing their attack so easily thwarted.

  Kelvin didn’t cast a spell or use one of his many enchanted items to counterattack; instead, he unceremoniously slugged the nearest one in the side of the head with his large, gauntleted fist. His attack wasn’t driven by magic but simply by the strength of his arm and the weight of his large frame. The man mixed with darkness fell unconscious to the ground like a sack of beans.

  Alexander seized on the hope that these terrible new enemies could fall. It suddenly occurred to him that he hadn’t even drawn Mindbender. The Thinblade was a sword of unparalleled sharpness and terrible power, but Mindbender gave him an edge that the Thinblade couldn’t match. Through Mindbender, he could see into the thoughts of his enemy during battle. He drew the blade with his left hand, point down, and stretched out with his mind.

  The remaining enemy disappeared, but Alexander knew where he would materialize.

  “Mage Landi! Behind you!” Alexander called out, a moment too late.

  The man mixed with darkness appeared, stabbing in the same moment, driving his blade through the conjurer’s heart. Bright red blood sputtered from Mage Landi’s mouth and the light of his aura faded quickly. As he slumped to the ground, his attacker disappeared and the cloud of light that had been holding the third enemy at bay faded from the world of time and substance.

  The enemy that had been trapped by the cloud of light disappeared. The one that had just killed Mage Landi reappeared behind another Ranger and killed him with a single thrust. Wyatt stabbed the enemy but he simply vanished off the lieutenant’s blade.

  The one who had been in the cloud of light disappeared, then reappeared a moment later behind Alexander, but this time he knew what to expect. He’d heard the enemy’s thoughts as they formed and knew where the enemy would appear. He also knew how to counter the attack. Mage Gamaliel had shown him their weakness.

  Even as the man mixed with darkness materialized behind him Alexander spun. He brought the Thinblade around high and caught the man at the temple, cleaving the top several inches of his head cleanly off with one swift stroke.

  This time the man didn’t disappear.

  Half of his head slipped free and thudded to the ground, spillin
g brain in a bloody jumble. His body followed more slowly as gravity claimed him.

  They could be killed.

  Another Ranger fell.

  Isabel unleashed a blinding ray of light from her outstretched hand that burned a hole through the chest of the last remaining enemy as he stood over the dying Ranger. He looked at her with shock and pain for a moment before disappearing.

  Mage Gamaliel produced a metal collar of polished silver inlaid with magical symbols in burnished gold and fastened it around the neck of the unconscious enemy.

  The last one reappeared behind Isabel but his thrust was again turned aside by her shield. He disappeared again and reappeared half a moment later behind Lieutenant Wyatt. Before he could stab the Ranger in the back, Jack stabbed him instead.

  The man stiffened with a startled shriek and disappeared again, reappearing behind Mage Gamaliel.

  Isabel was ready. She was waiting for a clear shot at the enemy. Instead of her light-lance spell, she unleashed her Maker’s light at the man mixed with darkness. He screamed with such agony that Alexander almost felt sorry for him. The light didn’t kill him or even injure him, but Alexander could see the darkness within him writhing around in shock and pain. He disappeared and reappeared twenty feet away, running from the battlefield. Three steps later he disappeared again, reappearing twenty feet farther away.

  He was headed toward the legion of Rangers encamped outside the walls surrounding the remains of Northport.

  Chapter 2

  Alexander produced a healing draught from his pouch and handed it to Boaberous without a word.

  “Lieutenant Wyatt, transport Jataan and our prisoner to the camp,” Alexander commanded as he turned to Isabel. “Let’s go, we have to stop him before he gets to the Rangers.”

  She nodded, following him at a dead run toward their horses.

  “We’ll never catch him before he gets to our troops,” Isabel said as they mounted up. “He’s almost to the walls already.”