Leoht (BloodRunes: Book 3)

Leoht

(BloodRunes: Book 3)

By Laura R Cole

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2011 Laura R Cole

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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PROLOGUE

Things were getting out of hand. When Layna had left her life in the country for the promise of excitement living in the city, she hadn’t realized quite what she had bargained for.

After falling for the noble man her mistress wanted and weathering the woman’s consequent jealous rage, the two of them were drawn into a far larger issue than either of them had ever dreamed possible.

Lord Gryffon, Layna’s love interest, reveals himself to be a spy for the neighboring country of Treymayne which has been cut off from Gelendan for hundreds of years by a magical barrier. After discovering that the mysterious mark that appeared on Layna’s neck when she dabbled in the forbidden art of magic meant she was a descendant of the Dark King, a ruler who was responsible for the Massacre; and that the new King of Gelendan also had this mark and appeared to be following in the evil man’s footsteps, Layna and Gryffon determined that they needed help.

They set off to enlist the aid of Gryffon’s countrymen in Treymayne, but first had to figure out how to get past the magical barrier whose properties had suddenly changed so that not even a message could get through. They meet Aileen, a cryptic but knowledgeable old woman, who helps them dissolve the barrier, allowing them to pass. Aileen has grand ideas of a great slumbering evil which is awakening and against which she believes Layna will be an invaluable asset.

Though Gryffon and Layna are skeptical about her proclamations of doom, they do deliver their warning to the officials in Treymayne that evidence of blood-magic and the new King, King Nathair’s involvement in it in Gelendan. Unfortunately, their claims are discredited by an emissary that the King sends who turns out to be none other than Lady Jezebel, Layna’s former mistress. The lady’s insatiable quest for power and revenge had led her to be torn apart by a pack of hellhounds she had created, but King Nathair saved her and has been magically reconstructing her body and mind for his own uses.

Lady Jezebel can’t remember the reason for her abhorrence of the two, but her hatred has withstood King Nathair’s spells. Therefore, she hatches a scheme to poison Layna, which only partially works. Layna is saved by King Nathair’s intervention as he is drawn to her both because of her magical power and because of their shared mark. Katya, a woman who has been enslaved by Jezebel’s father into a life as his personal assassin learns of Layna’s predicament through King Nathair’s bond to her and shows up to further heal Layna. Unfortunately, she remains in a coma even after her body has healed and Gryffon and Katya are both dedicated to awakening her.

Katya discovered when she escaped the prison of the magical collar that bound her that Layna’s parents held some connection to her past. When she showed up to question them, however, they were both killed. Layna might be the only one who might be able to tell her who she is.

Gryffon, though the tumultuous situations that the two of them have been thrust into has complicated things, loves Layna.

They succeed in waking her by heeding the Word of the Three and bringing her to the source of the river where they have to go through three trials to prove their worthiness to an unknown entity. When she wakes, she does so holding a very real sword and utters the mysterious words, Those who fear the darkness, haven’t seen what the light can do.

Another force, a secret society called the Order, has been directing events behind the scenes and is increasingly involved at every turn…

CHAPTER 1

Ranis looked around the room with unease. There were far too many empty seats around the large table.

She cleared her throat to begin. Our experiments into the use of the control collars have been wildly successful and already the modified bracers for the army have been implemented in several areas and whole garrisons have been converted to our control - unbeknownst to the King, she started, setting the mood with some good news. Unfortunately, we have had, she paused, and then with a sigh continued, other complications.

Lord Telvani chimed in. The nearly twenty years we spent grooming and watching the late King Edward were wasted. As he neared his eighteenth birthday with still no sign of the mark, or indeed any talent at all, we grew suspicious. Our agents pressed the King and Queen for information, but it wasn’t until the Queen uttered her dying words that the truth was revealed. The Queen, in her pain-induced delirium, whispered to the nurse ‘they took my little baby girl.’ The nurse - one of ours - thought quickly enough to delve into her memories and was able to pull forth the image of two people. They have now been identified as two mages on the palace staff at the time, Gerald and Evelyn, both of whom mysteriously vanished afterwards. Obviously, the Hyrdraeden had also realized the significance of the birth and switched the child before anyone was the wiser.

Which explains the suspicious lack of interference we had with Edward, put in Ranis blandly.

Why are you telling us this? We don’t need to know the details of your project.

Ranis took a deep breath, continuing on as though she had not been interrupted. "Though we hadn’t yet identified the real prophesized one after realizing that Edward was not that person, we were finally able to locate the Bloodstone hidden in Treymayne and we smuggled it across the barrier just before its defenses were refortified. The Bloodstone, it is written, was the source of much of the Dark King’s power. According to the prophecy, it had chosen him as a temporary host since there was not yet one born who could bear its power, and therefore he was only able access a tiny portion of its real potential. If one of the chosen ones was to bond with it, the power they would be able to command would be almost unimaginable. As prophesized, the time when there will be one who can command its power is upon us."

What do you mean ‘one of the chosen ones’? Isn’t there only one?

I’ll get to that in a moment. Please bear with me, Ranis answered and carried on with her narration, We had to make several adjustments to the original plan since we were not already directing the host as we had hoped, however. Rather than bring the Bloodstone to the chosen one after they were already under our control, the Bloodstone was stolen before we found the one we needed. We identified the person who stole it as none other than Lord Nathair who we helped become King after dispatching Edward. We have now belatedly realized that he is actually one of the chosen ones. Unfortunately, while we had him we didn’t know this and believed him to be another like the Dark King who was just trying to access the surface powers and therefore underestimated him. She gave them all a regretful look, We are still learning just what the Bloodstone is.

But he’s obviously not the heir, you said it was a girl. Was the prophecy wrong?

On the contrary, it was our interpretation of the prophecy that was incorrect. The heir is one of the chosen ones, and Nathair appears to be the other. While we had originally thought the phrases of the prophecy to be describing two sides of the same person, there appears to actually be two different people. When we realized that it was Nathair who had taken the Bloodstone, we extracted him to be subdued and regain control of the situation. Again, this was before we found his true heritage and realized his significance. We had him replaced with another on the throne until such time as we either got him complacent or were able to remove the stone, and were transporting him to the carefully constructed prison to deal with him…when he escaped.

What?!

You mean the man going around telling people he’s a god is NOT under our control?

How did this happen?

Lord Telvani held up his hands for silence. This is only a temporary set-back. The King is amassing a great army of his own accord and plans to use it to attack Treymayne. These are goals we hoped to achieve. Furthermore, we believe that it was not a failing of our contraption that allowed him to escape, but rather that he had outside help to do so. So, while we have lost the element of surprise, we should still be able to accomplish the end outcome of our original plan.

Ranis added with a wry snort, "Other than not having him under our control before presenting him with the Bloodstone, it actually worked out quite fortuitously that the host ended up exactly where we intended him in the first place.

Who helped him escape?

When we discovered the names of the two mages who had spirited away the child in the night, we of course mounted a search for them. At that point we still thought that the prophecy only referred to one person and believed the heir would be the one over whom we needed to gain control. Ranis laughed humorlessly.

I don’t see how this is answering the question.

Patience. Ranis held up her hand to indicate she was getting there. At a recent meeting, the subject of the heir and the missing mages was brought up and a suggestion was made for how to find them. One of our experiments was under the supervision of Karl Alamanni and it was suggested that this particular experiment be allowed to escape after being implanted with the images of the two mages. This would imply to the girl that they were the parents that she never knew. As we have discovered with past subjects who have worn the collar over long periods of time, its removal leads to emotions so intense as to be almost uncontrollable. So these images would be irresistible, and she would be compelled to track them down. The experiment that Karl was overseeing was a very high talent and so it was believed that this combined with the information network she had gathered as Karl’s personal assistant would be sufficient to have her do our work for us.

And it worked too, interjected Lord Telvani, she found them alright, and the assassin was able to take them both out.

Yes, agreed Ranis, But the heir was not present and so far interviews of the neighbors have all come back that there was no young woman living there at all. Now that we have located their whereabouts, however, she will be found.

Why didn’t you keep them alive to interrogate them? asked Lord Farthen, the member who oversaw the experiments with bloodbeasts. Ranis thought him unsavory and found herself scowling at his query.

We expected the girl to be there or at least that the townspeople would know where she had gone. They were too dangerous to keep alive. Regardless, questioning them, even under duress, would have been extremely unlikely to have been fruitful.

But entertaining, Lord Farthen countered.

Ranis decided to ignore him this time. Anyway, she went on, her annoyance clear in her tone, the assassin was supposed to then re-collar the girl, but was overwhelmed. Our people who investigated the scene weren’t able to determine if it was the magical onslaught that killed him, or the knife to his back. But since the girl was standing in front of him and the other two already incapacitated, obviously someone else was present. The insignia of the royal guard on the hilt gave us our first clue. It appears to have been an agent of Nathair who helped the experiment escape. On a side-note; after the incident we discovered that our faith in Karl was misplaced. He had been using the girl as his own assassin instead of a mere informant, effectively honing her skills for a real escape. It appears that his own mistakes came back to bite him. She couldn’t help herself and added, Quite literally.

She was rewarded by a light tinkling of laughter.

But to answer your original question: We believe it may have been Karl’s experiment who helped him. Whether she was working with him before or after finding the renegade mages is unknown, but she is our most likely suspect. She would have reason to trust Nathair if he had helped save her from the assassin and from the reports that were found locked in Karl’s secret safe, she was actually much more talented than he reported so would have the means to break the bonds. Apparently he thought he would be replaced by a better handler if we knew how powerful she really was. And look where that got him.

Examination of the situation with Karl also led us to disturbing information of someone killing and then posing as members of the Order to distribute commands. We believe now that this was Nathair. This is why we have shut down the lower ranks of the Order until further notice, and why we can no longer afford to mask our identities from one another. Telvani cut in once again. We can’t risk having him contaminate our plans. All of the members must be neutralized or tested for inclusion into our inner circle and all those must know the others by face.

I’m still confused, said Lady Margarette. If we know that it is Nathair who we need, why are you even bothering to look for the heir?

Ranis smiled. When it became evident that Nathair was the one through which the power of the Bloodstone would be available, that left us with the need to reinterpret the meaning of the prophecy. Think back to the wording. If it is actually describing two different people - which we have found that it must be as both the heir and Nathair were found to fulfill the requirements of the chosen one - than we are presented with a problem. Once we took this approach to deciphering it, we realized that it meant that instead of there being one person capable of either using or destroying the stone that we could sway to our cause, it indicates that there is one person who would use it, she paused so that her words would sink in, and another who could destroy it.

After the murmuring died down, Lord Telvani said, So now we find our attention divided and our forces diminished. Hence, this meeting and the need to take a vote. Do we divert all our efforts towards finding the girl and extinguishing the threat of her destroying the Bloodstone, which would leave Nathair time to gather strength and be harder to control? Or, do we concentrate all our efforts on bringing Nathair under our thumb, leaving open the possibility that the mystery girl will swoop in and destroy this immense source of power we’ve been seeking for hundreds of years.

Ranis waited a moment for them all to gather their thoughts before asking for a show of hands.

The vote was unanimous.

*

Gryffon stood staring slack-jawed at the sight before him. Layna had just stepped out of the mists suddenly holding a very real sword, apparently emerging from her weeks in a coma unscathed. Her eyes had shone a brilliant white for a moment, giving her an extremely unnerving look, before settling into their normal color.

Now they were fixed intently upon him.

Um, he started lamely, suddenly at a loss for words. He had spent hours during the weeks she had been in her coma thinking about all of the things that he wanted to say to her. To explain that he did not have feelings for Aria as Katya had hinted that Layna might be thinking, that he didn’t want her to go around telling people that they were only friends, about the stolen kisses they had had and how much they had meant to him, and so much more. But staring back into those intense eyes, all of the words that had been on the tip of his tongue suddenly evaporated. Her demeanor was so alien, so unlike the Layna he knew, that he was speechless.

Luckily, Katya spoke up and Gryffon was freed from the stare.

Are you alright?

Layna shook her head as if to clear it and then scrunched up her forehead at Katya, looking much more like the girl he knew. I think so, then, who are you?

My name is Katya, she responded, It appears that you were ‘accidentally’ poisoned by Lady Aria who erroneously believed you to be responsible for her father’s death and you’ve been in a coma for the last few weeks. I’ve been traveling with Gryffon here to follow the advice of the Word of the Three that if we brought you to the source of the river, you would be cured. Apparently it worked.

Apparently, Layna looked thoughtful for a second, and then seemed to suddenly realize there was a sword in her hand. She raised it up and looked at it, her eyes wide. I think I need to sit down…

Gryffon rushed forward and helped ease her into a sitting position before she fell over. The smile of gratitude she gave him warmed him and he saw the woman he knew emerging from the strange place she was in.

Thank you, she said in an exhausted voice, I think there’s something very important that I’m supposed to remember, but I am too tired to think clearly. Do you think we could rest for a bit?

You’ve been sleeping for the past few weeks, Katya complained, and Gryffon shot her a warning glace. The woman scowled at him. She sighed at his look and amended, But I guess whatever it was that just happened was probably draining, and I know Gryffon and I could use it. We may as well set up camp in here.

Katya set out their sleeping rolls and Gryffon carried Layna over to one. She protested that she could walk, but Gryffon wanted the excuse to hold her and she didn’t seem to mind. Had her arms lingered around his neck a moment longer than necessary, or was it his imagination? As soon as her head hit the blanket, however, she was out. Worry creased his brow, but she moaned softly when he laid a hand on her cheek which was more response than he had gotten in her comatose state.

What do you suppose that was all about, he whispered to Katya as he took a seat next to her.

Which part? Katya asked him with a small snort. The stones talking to us to have us perform their little test in exchange for them helping Layna, the fact that a sword suddenly appeared that very well could be Leoht, the sword that killed the Dark King, or that she appears to be no worse for wear after having been in a coma and dragged around the last few weeks other than a little disoriented and tired.

Gryffon smiled at her. Sometimes her humor, though blunt, was enjoyable. All of it, I guess. He stood and picked up the sword that had been laid next to Layna’s bedroll and returned, holding it out in front of him to Katya. What do you think? You know more about it than I do, think it’s really the same sword?

Katya took it from him and peered at the inscription. Well, it’s certainly marked like the one from the vision. But I don’t know how we would test its authenticity, or for that matter what the significance of it appearing would be if it was indeed the same.

Did Leoht have any special properties?

Katya looked thoughtful, I think there were vague references to it having unique abilities, but what those abilities were wasn’t specified.

And why did it send her with a sword anyway when we were only trying to get her to wake up? Not to mention that line about the darkness and light.

There is obviously more going on here than just them, whoever ‘they’ are, helping her regain her consciousness. Any ideas? Think they’re really the voices of the Three?

Gryffon had forgotten that Katya was unaware of the events of the past few months. "I don’t know how much