Fantasy
Date Published: October 31, 2017
Publisher: ZB Publications
In the chaotic universe, many intelligent species are on the brink of war, but the Guild holds the violence at bay to foster peaceful trade. The most renowned War Ender is Lady Alana of House Eyreid. Alana hopes to train her beloved nephew, Roark, in her vocation.
It was supposed to be a simple training mission aboard an Interrealm slave ship. However, when Alana find her people enslaved, she murders the crew and rescues every slave—whether criminal, dishonored, or stolen. A fleeting vision of Roark's future tells her to offer the newly freed Eohan a War Ender’s education.
For her vision to come true, Alana must rescue Eohan’s young brother who was sold in the last port and lost somewhere in the Realms, but first, they have a war to end.
Excerpt:
Clouds
rolled in, casting the Realm in deep shadows. The last sun dipped into the
ocean. They pushed away from the shore on an unlit boat painted black as pitch.
The sea was calm enough for Alana to steer the rudder and Roark to row without
hindrance until they drifted into the current behind the larger ship.
At
twenty-five paces, they dove into the water with a length of rope. As
instructed, Roark carefully tethered the rowboat to the stern. Alana edged
along the wooden hull. Wearing spiked gloves, she climbed to the upper deck.
Goddess,
it stinks. A horrid
mix of feces, bodily odors, vomit, blood and greasy pottage filled her
nostrils. Over the hatchway stood the overseer holding a scourge of nine
twisted thongs. His ill-fitted, ragged clothes looked as if they might rip any
moment. His white hair was cropped short, but unwashed and ashy patches of skin
flaked off his knees and elbows. She might have felt pity. However, a slave’s
moan sang out into the air; the overseer hit his whip upon the grating. His
eyes expressed eagerness to apply it upon the flesh of his victims.
Alana’s
deceased aunt reminded her conscience, “We don’t kill for vengeance, Alana Mira
Eyreid.” But her mentor was dead; she was the Guild Master now.
Alana
slid to the deck, removed her metal spikes, hid them in a lifeboat and waited
for Roark’s signal. He slipped aft to find the purser. Alana crawled into the
captain’s night compartment — a dank, private room one deck below.
In the
dim twilight, Alana observed an emaciated Fairsinge woman loosely chained to
the wall. Her neck was restrained by a tight iron collar. Her once smooth white
cheek branded and ebony hair cropped to her scalp. Upon closer inspection, her
body did not look as fully formed as a woman’s, but Alana did not know if that
was malnutrition or age. Her eyes were crusted with dried tears, and her
reddened nose had left a trail of snot to her mouth.
Knowing
the sheer stupidity of such an action, Alana knelt before her and pulled off
her face mask and exposed her three-pointed ear.
A hint of
life came back into the girl’s eyes.
“You must
be quiet and hide.”
The girl
mumbled and nodded in agreement.
Alana
picked the lock. Once freed, the girl scampered to the far corner and pressed
her branded face into her hands.
Replacing
her mask, Alana glanced in the dirty mirror to ensure her auburn and silver
hair was still covered.
As her
dossier said was his habit, at eight bells, the captain entered alone. He
undressed. Ribs and knobby joints were stretched across his mottled flesh.
He pulled
at the girl’s chain. Holding the other end, Alana leapt from the shadows.
His last
words were: “What in the devil?”
She
tackled him and clamped his ankle in the iron, then shoved a dirty sock in his
mouth. Alana could have killed him quickly. Instead, she pierced one lung and
let him gasp.
Alana
knelt on his chest and whispered, “You should not brag you don’t pay your
debts, Captain. The Guild does not allow malingerers to engage in Interrealm
travel. It’s bad for business.”
Alana
grabbed his wrist and, using her saber, chopped off his hand which she placed
in a tarred sack on her belt. Bleeding and gasping, the captain clutched his
stump closer to his chest as she stood.
She
opened his desk and found a small box of coin, though not nearly the amount
needed for the debt. She opened the ledger. Damn
me to the lowest Realm!
Her
dossier had suggested the northernmost port in Daouail would be the ship’s
first stop for the arena trade. Unfortunately, the ship landed in Dynion’s Port
Denwort where several children, aged ten to thirteen, had been sold as house
slaves. She pressed her hand to the ledger. Unsure if she would ever be able to
right the wrong, she ripped out the page and shoved it in her emergency sack.
She
unlocked the captain’s sea chest and dug for money and other valuables. She
found a vial of perfume from the Fairhdel province of the same name, but little
else.
“No
wonder they made an early stop. The ne’er do well probably holds a debt in
every Realm.” May he be resurrected as a toad.
Alana
threw the branded girl a linen shirt from the chest and a wool blanket off the
captain’s berth. The girl didn’t respond, even as the fabric landed on her.
Pressing
her finger to the girl’s lips, Alana tried to prod her out of the corner. The
girl was frozen. Alana put the linen shirt over her head and covered her in the
woolen blanket. She still didn’t budge.
Alana
stomped on the captain’s torso. She punctured his other lung and scabbarded her
blade. With the hope his gasping was gratifying to the girl, Alana hoisted her
up in her arms. In seconds, the dead weight aggrieved her aging shoulders, but
she crept up the ladder and sternwards to the first of the four lifeboats
without fail.
“Hide
here until we free the others.”
Shivering,
the girl lay at the bottom of the boat, covered in the woolen blanket.
Moving
silently, Alana redrew her saber and slid behind the overseer. Seeking a faster
death than the one she gave the captain, she stabbed him in the jugular. Blood sprayed
onto the decking. Below the wretched creatures — elfkin, human, and dwarves —
shouted, clapped their hands, and shook on the metal grating as he collapsed.
Approaching
footsteps. Four sailors raced towards her with clubs and ropes, ready to beat
back any slave uprising. They did not expect a Guild War Ender. Alana’s saber
twirled towards her first opponent, the telchine sailor. She cut towards hir
chest, seeking the earthen heart. She found her mark. The telchine crumbled
back to the clay from which sie was formed. Alana always found the sort of
clean, yet ostentatious death throe of the telchine, gnomes, giants, and
dwarves particularly satisfying.
A rope
slashed across her forearm, ripping the weave away. Ignoring the pain, she drew
her offhand dagger and rotated towards the next sailor, a human. Her first cut
was smooth as it sliced the flesh of his arm, the second hit an artery,
spraying more blood on the deck and his earthen colleagues.
Roark
appeared from the shadows, the head of the purser held high. He threw it to the
surviving sailors who stepped back from the sight.
Alana did
not pity them. Her two blades struck their flesh; the sailors fell quickly.
Blood and earth spread across the decks.
Grabbing
the keys off the overseer, she unlatched the first hold.
A young
man pushed on the grating from below as she undid the chains. His face was
hidden by a long, tangled mane of black hair, but he wore no beard, not even
fuzz. He was at the edge of adulthood, his shoulders still slender, but with
the promise of muscularity. Though he spent months in chains, he was not faded,
his posture was still erect. No doubt bound for the arena.
The
slaves made a wild scramble to the weather deck. They reached towards the sky,
embracing their freedom as if it were a physical entity. Alana noticed the
young man again, searching the crowd. “Ma! Kian!” he called.
She threw
the young man the keys to the lower holds. “There are more below!”
He raced
down the ladder.
Alana
signaled Roark to prepare lifeboats and went below to where weaker slaves were
kept. While those bound for the games were kept healthy, less valuable slaves
were so emaciated they could barely stand.
Many hung
their heads in hopeless dejection; mothers lay unmoving, cradling babes covered
in filth. A closer look revealed these children were already dead or dying.
The young
man she had given the keys wept over a middle-aged woman’s corpse.
“We must
move quickly.”
“My
mother …” He stared at the corpse with red-rimmed eyes.
Alana
took the keys and unlocked the chains. “I’m sorry for your loss, but get those
who still hold life. Once safe, we mourn the dead.”
Withered
women struggled to rise and climb to the upper deck still clutching dead
offspring.
The young
man didn’t move. “I can’t leave her here. I can’t leave my brother.”
“What’s
your name?” Alana asked.
“Eohan,
Son of Aedell.”
“Eohan,
would Aedell want you to die with her corpse when I abandon this ship to the
depths?”
The youth
sniffed. “No.”
“It would
bring your mother honor to know her son saved these other mothers. Get them to
the lifeboats.”
“Lifeboats.”
As if the young man came out of a daze, Eohan leapt to his feet and unchained
the nearest woman who clasped her dead baby. The woman moaned as he cradled her
in his arms and tore out of the hold.
Alana
grabbed another woman unable to walk and carried her to Roark who organized the
five lifeboats and lowered them one by one into the sea.
She was
proud her nephew had the good sense to organize each boat with a mix of healthy
survivors and weakened ones. Some slaves dove into the sea and grasped the
sides of the boats and other survivors, unwilling to be separated from their
families again, clasped each other. Just as well, there wasn’t enough room on
the lifeboats anyway.
Four more
trips to the bowels of the ship, before she and Eohan were able to save all of
the survivors. Every bunk, every corner, every chain, Eohan shouted, “Kian,
Kian!”
Once the
last survivor was out, Alana grabbed his arm before he went below again.
“My
brother…”
“We have
to go!”
“My
brother … He’s a kid!”
“Children
were sold in the last port, if you ever want to see him again we must go!”
He
glanced toward the hatch.
Alana
grabbed an oil lantern off its hook and smashed it across the deck.
“Come
on!”
The boy
didn’t move, but screamed, “Kian!”
Alana
almost left Eohan to the flames, but heard Alana Mira! Somewhere deep in her
mind, through the smoke, she witnessed an adult version of Eohan tossing a
squealing auburn-haired child into the air and catching her.
Damn it.
The boy was destined to become a man. A man with a child.
The
vision of the child turned to face her. The resemblance to Roark was
unmistakable, but she saw something else deep within the blue eyes. Something
wild and violent. She was unsure if her vision was literal or figurative
representations, but somehow Eohan was bound to the future of House Eyreid. Damn me to the lowest Realm!
“Ki–!”
Eohan choked as smoke filled his lungs.
Flames
rolled closer to them, eating the decking.
Alana
rammed her left index and middle finger into a pressure point deep within the
boy’s shoulder and gripped his ear with her right hand. “Move.”
*
About the Author
Much to her chagrin, Elizabeth Guizzetti discovered she was not a cyborg and growing up to be an otter would be impractical, so she began writing stories. Guizzetti currently lives in Seattle with her husband and two dogs. When not writing, she loves hiking and birdwatching.
She is the author and illustrator of independent comics: Faminelands and Lure and Out for Souls&Cookies! Her debut novel, Other Systems, was a 2015 Finalist for the Canopus Award for excellence in Interstellar Fiction. She continues to write science fiction, horror, and fantasy novels. Chronicles of the Martlet is her first novella series.
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