Sovereigns of bright and.., p.1
Sovereigns of Bright and Shadow, page 1
Sovereigns of Bright and Shadow
Complete Trilogy
C. E. Page
The characters and events in this book are fictional and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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Omnibus First Published 2022 in Australia by Enchanted Castle Press Copyright © Cassandra Erin Page 2022
[DEATHBORN First Published 2020 Copyright © Cassandra Erin Page 2020, BRIGHTLING First Published 2021 Copyright © Cassandra Erin Page 2021, SOVEREIGNS First Published 2021 Copyright © Cassandra Erin Page 2021, A SONG OF SORROW Forthcoming 2023 Copyright © Cassandra Erin Page 2022]
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The moral right of the author has been asserted.
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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
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ISBN: 978-0-6452845-2-2
A CATALOGUE RECORD FOR THIS WORK IS AVAILABLE FROM THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA
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Cover by: Deranged Doctor Designs
Edited by: Creating Ink – Anna Bishop
Author website: www.cepageauthor.com
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V1 091122
Contents
Map
Deathborn
Brightling
Sovereigns
A Song of Sorrow Sneak Peek
Glossary
About the Author
A larger version of this map can be viewed online at
http://www.cepageauthor.com/sobas
Deathborn
To Evan, Seth and Royce, for being patient all those times I said:
“I just need to finish this sentence.”
1
Margot
Margot wasn’t sure what had woken her. The warehouse was quiet save for the sounds of her sleeping companions, but she could feel a small pull of dread deep in her stomach. And when she closed her eyes, Nea’s deep violet gaze flashed across the inky blackness. With a long sigh she sat up and the woman beside her opened one cornflower blue eye to stare blurrily at her.
“It’s alright, Mol. Go back to sleep.”
Molly gave a sleepy murmur in response before rolling over and taking the blanket with her.
No one had seen Nea in the three years since the purge at Kalhanna. No one who actually knew her anyway. There had been rumours from time to time about a wandering necromancer fitting Nea’s description and that was enough for Margot to keep alive the hope that she was alright. But she would have given anything to see her again.
Pressing a palm to her chest to still the thundering ache that thoughts of Nea had dredged up, she slid delicately from the bed, trying not to disturb Molly again. Then, noting the pool of orange light that shone beneath the door, she pulled a faded blue shawl around her shoulders and tiptoed across the room. She carefully opened the door wide enough to slip out, then closed it quietly behind her before turning to take in the main room of the warehouse they were using as a base of operations.
Declan was sitting at the large table in the room’s centre. The light of several candles cast a golden sheen on his black hair and illuminated the steaming teacup balanced precariously on one of the piles of books and scrolls that cluttered the scarred surface before him. As though he’d sensed her watching him, he looked up, his bright green eyes appearing almost yellow in the candlelight, and she bit back a grin as she noted the smear of ink on his cheek.
“Seems like it’s the night for insomniacs.” He gave her a wide, roguish smile.
“Something like that. Mind if I join you?”
“Not at all. Your company is always delightful, my dear Margot.” He took a sip of his tea.
Margot sat across from him and examined some of the pages strewn across the table. Diagrams of plants and notes on their properties were mixed with patient reports and complex calculations. She picked up a drawing of a star-shaped leaf; there were several words crossed out in the smudged notes underneath it, and small water stains made the rest indecipherable.
“Still messing around with mage bane and Mother’s balm?”
“No. I have given up on that avenue.” Declan snatched the page from her and studied it. “I was so close ... but no matter. What is it that has you wandering about in the middle of the night?”
Margot rubbed her arms. “Bad dreams mostly. Did you know that tonight is exactly three years since Kalhanna was purged?”
Declan’s eyebrows rose. “Three years?” He looked at his notes then back at Margot. “You were dreaming about Nea?”
“No … I don’t know. Maybe. It’s just not like her to disappear like this. Three years is a long time for her to be …” She pressed her palm to her chest. “I miss her.”
Declan sipped his tea again. “You don’t believe she was capable of—”
“Of course not!” There was a murmur from the other room and Margot lowered her voice. “Nea may have worked for the king but things between them had become strained, and she would never have condoned what was done at Kalhanna. If anything, she would have forcefully tried to stop it. You saw the aftermath, the way those bodies were laid out. Those mages were her friends. And as for the rumours that she corrupted the entire college and turned it against the king …” She chewed her thumbnail. “Everyone knows that corruption doesn’t work that way.”
“When you say strained what exactly do you mean? I heard a rumour recently that she attacked Evard before running off to Kalhanna.”
Nea had attacked Evard. Margot didn’t know all the details surrounding the incident, but she knew enough. “Evard has always had a fascination with mages, but necromancers in particular pique his curiosity more than others. And Nea … Nea was something of an obsession for him. She’s not like other necromancers. Her relationship to the source is different.”
His dark brows lifted slightly, and he leant forward. “Different?”
“You’ve heard the rumours about what she did at Kalhanna. Let’s just say some of them have a kernel of truth.”
“Really?” He shuffled his notes. “I would love to meet her.”
Margot gave him an appraising stare. Declan and Nea were rather similar in that they both shared curious minds that were ever-searching for answers to seemingly impossible questions. A laugh built low in her stomach at the thought of them in the same room. “I think the pair of you would get along rather well.” She tapped her chin and added, “Perhaps a little too well.”
“Oh?”
“In a purely academic sense. Your minds work in similar ways.” She drummed her fingers on the tabletop and sighed. “I just wish I knew why she disappeared, where she went … It’s … it doesn’t make sense.”
His mouth twisted as he regarded her, before he reached across the table to cover her hand with his and still her tapping. “Are we still talking about Nea?”
She started to nod but then shook her head. “She’s part of it. The whole mess with Kalhanna and corruption and … I don’t know. She warned me something was going to happen, that Evard had become unhinged.”
“Evard has always been mercurial though. Do you think things would have been different if you’d been at Kalhanna instead of Loch Bastien back then?”
“Maybe. Maybe, I could have prevented it … tried to reason with Francesca or … I don’t know. Wishing things were different won’t change the past, but there had to be a better way, didn’t there?”
He downed the last of his tea and sat back, cradling the empty cup. “I admire that you always approach problems from a logical standpoint but have you considered that sometimes there is no logic to be found?”
“That right there is something Nea would say.” She scoffed.
“It’s a hard truth that rational types like you and Garret always have trouble grasping. Take what happened at Kalhanna for instance. I think if you had been there, things would have still ended exactly the same, only it is highly likely you would also be among the dead.” He placed the cup on the table and shrugged. “Nothing about the purge made sense. We were told that the mages had become corrupted. Nearly an entire college, which is ridiculous. You and I, and pretty much anyone with keen-sense, know that corruption doesn’t work that way. But let’s assume it does. You would expect that if an entire college became corrupted, there would be some sign of it other than a vague rumour. None of the reports from survivors mentioned anything about corruption and we saw no signs of it on any of the bodies.” He shuffled some of his papers. “I find it more likely that Evard chose to use Kalhanna as an example of what he could do to mages who were vocal in their dissent of his desire to take the reins of the order. It is no secret that both High Mage Francesca and Warden Commander Adam had been open about their objections to Evard’s plans.”
“And why wouldn’t they object? As soon as the wardens came under the agency of the king, he essentially had control of all mages as well,” Margot said as she played with her shawl pin, a delicate circle of ivy. The deep green enamel had chipped off in places from wear.
“Which is why I have always thought the purge was a political move. The corruption story seemed a little too convenient. Then a rogue necromancer gets thrown into the mix? A perfect scapegoat. Anyone who knows the basics about corruption knows it comes from the Between. And whic
“But the people would never stand by while he ordered the slaughter of the entire college of healers for the sake of a handful of vocal mages.” Although they might have if he’d spun the details the right way. In his younger days, Evard had earned a reputation for being very charismatic.
“Exactly. And that explains the corruption story but not why he thought the entire college needed to be purged. There is something else in play that we are not aware of. Or maybe he finds the Bright Order easier to manipulate and wishes to give them a leg up over mages.”
Margot rolled her eyes. “Those temple charlatans? Offering a new way. Giving blessings for the sick and prayers for the dead.” She scowled. “Blessings will not mend bones or cure plagues. Which is abundantly clear now the population of healers has been decimated.”
The door flew open, slamming against the wall. A chilly gust of late winter air charged into the room sending Declan’s papers flying. A shadow loomed in the doorway for a moment before a man stepped across the threshold, his hand pressed to the bloody stain on his shirt. Margot’s chair rocked as she leapt to her feet and hurried over to close the door before helping the man to a seat.
“Warden Commander Garret said I’d find a healer here.” His words were thick and slurred.
“I’m a healer.” She drew a mage light to life as she spoke. The small orb of pale green light hovered in the air between them as she gently rolled his eyelid open to check his pupils. Then she lifted his shirt to assess the angry slice in his side. As the light bobbed over his skin illuminating the dark spiderwebs of corruption ringing the cut, she recoiled. “Where did you get this wound?”
The man’s head lolled to the side. He grunted and gripped his ears. “Too loud. Too loud. Too hot.”
Declan sucked a breath through his teeth as he bent to inspect the black marks on the man’s side. “Is that corruption? Margot … he’s not a mage.”
Margot frowned and brushed her magic over the man. His essence felt strange, like sound underwater or a touch through cloth. So different to the prickling brightness that was Declan standing beside her, or the soothing warmth of her own magic. “He’s a warden.”
Declan nodded. “Why do those marks around his wound look like corruption? Corruption is a mages’ disease.”
The man lashed out, grabbing Margot’s arm hard. “Make them stop. They want me to … to …” He squeezed tighter and Margot gasped.
“Let her go,” Declan growled, and the static prickle of his keen built in the air.
The man’s grip tightened and he began to twist Margot’s arm. Her teeth gritted against the pain and she started to gather the source, ready to defend herself.
Wardens, on instinct, usually suppressed the connection between mages and the source when they felt threatened, but this man did not. There was a hollow look in his eyes that suggested whatever bit of his sanity was untainted by the corruption was hiding deep.
Margot pushed out the source she had collected, focusing on the fingers around her arm. They twisted backwards with an audible snap and the man yowled in pain. He fell forward out of the chair and Margot jumped out of the way.
A thud sounded in the other room, and then Emil and Molly came barrelling through the door. Emil had his sword drawn, his long black hair rumpled from sleep and his amber eyes scanning for danger. Close behind him, Molly had her crossbow raised. Her creamy-blonde braid rested over the bare shoulder visible through the skewed neck of her nightgown.
Margot turned back to the man, who was now kneeling on the floor whimpering and supporting his broken fingers. “Now, you need to listen carefully. I can fix your fingers and the wound in your side, but I cannot fix the corruption. The voices you are hearing are tied to that. I’ve never seen corruption on anyone who is not a mage, so I cannot tell you what is going to happen. But my friend, Declan, here might be able to help you. You just need to remain calm. Okay?”
The man nodded.
“Alright. I am sorry, but this is going to hurt.” Margot pulled a thin thread of source and focused it on the man’s fingers. The coil of pale green smoke drifted over his skin and with a loud pop, his fingers wrenched themselves back into place.
He yelled in pain and recoiled. Then relief crossed his features and he slowly tested his fingers by opening and closing his fist. Margot shifted her attention to the wound in his side. His movements had caused blood to flow again but she could fix it quickly enough. She brushed her magic over the cut, using it to draw the edges closed and knit the flesh back together. The man grunted and tensed as the thin green smoke danced lightly over his skin. The black marks of corruption shifted, growing bigger and seeming to consume the thread of Margot’s magic. She pulled back and examined the thick pink scar in the centre of a massive whirl of black that spread like fibrous roots across his stomach and up to his armpit. Margot met the man’s eyes and recoiled as black spiderwebbing consumed his sclera. He started to shake, and she backed away farther.
His weight shifted and he lunged.
“Margot, get down!” Molly yelled.
Margot dove forward. Her arms shielded her head as her stomach slammed against the floor. The man’s footsteps slapped the hard surface, followed by the whoosh-thud of Molly’s bolt finding home. There was a meaty thump as the floor beside her vibrated. She scuttled away from the still-twitching fingers as Molly skidded into her vision.
“Are you alright?” Molly’s blue eyes were full of concern and her hands took a light hold on Margot’s shoulders.
Margot nodded. “I’m okay.”
Relief crossed Molly’s face before she engulfed Margot in a hug and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
Declan clicked his tongue and prodded the corruption marks with his index finger as he crouched beside the body. “How …” he muttered under his breath and looked at Emil. “I really would have liked to study him. I’ve never seen corruption in a non-mage before. To think, a warden can be corrupted.”
Emil’s mouth pulled into a tight line. “His name was Peter. I’ll make sure his wife is notified.” He moved to the table and took a blank piece of parchment and Declan’s quill.
“Margot?” Declan enquired.
She untwined herself from Molly’s arms. “Yes?”
“Have you ever heard of corruption starting in a wound?”
Margot started to shake her head then stopped and turned to Emil, who was watching them, the quill poised above the parchment. He mouthed a word and Margot frowned before looking back at Declan. “You’ve heard of Amelia?”
Declan’s eyebrows nearly disappeared into his hairline. “You don’t think she’s responsible for … this?” He thrust a hand at the body.
“I heard she bit one of the mages who was tasked with imprisoning her and he went mad. He wounded two mages and a warden before they were able to bring him under control,” Emil said.
“Bring him under control? What happened to him?” Declan asked.
“They killed him. They had no choice,” Margot responded.
“So, Amelia’s bite corrupted the mage? Does Garret know about this?” Declan asked Emil.
“Most likely. But the mage may have already been in the early stages of corruption, and accessing the source to bind Amelia would have accelerated its growth, causing the madness to take over.” Emil tapped the end of the quill against his chin. “It is highly unlikely that Amelia biting him had anything to do with it.”
“High Mage Niall wouldn’t have risked taking a mage along for Amelia’s capture who had any signs of corruption though, and even in its early stages, corruption is nearly impossible to hide. Especially from a mind mage as powerful as Niall.” Margot had gotten to her feet and was collecting the papers that had been strewn around the room.
