Author: JS Groves
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Chapter Forty – In which Khanaarre rides into the desert to face a monster
Perhaps I should not have been so harsh with Derrek Rowan. Perhaps I should have left my mind unspoken and played things out by feel. But in that moment, I kept only what silence I could, and said only what was in my heart. He bowed his head low in apparent acceptance and understanding, and Read more
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Chapter Thirty-Nine – In which Derrek contemplates his return to the Holy Empire of the Rhu Xian
When my companions returned from dinner with the archons, they were exhausted and surly. Come morning, they were in little mood to discuss the night’s events. Before I was able to coax the story out of them, Thieria came to whisk them away, again. Having told the truth of who I was – most of Read more
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Chapter Thirty-Eight – In which Khanaarre endures the courtesy of the sao`ashan
I wanted to hate all of it. I wanted the buildings to be ugly, the food inedible, the hospitality crude and lacking. I wanted the sao`ashan – the rhu xian – to be cruel and snide, the unrepentant villains that my people’s tales made them out to be, the ravening monsters of my childhood night Read more
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Chapter Thirty-Seven – In which Derrek tells his story to Khanaarre and Elana
The Archons of Khrigo City could only grant so much in the very moment of asking, but they could offer heir hospitality, and that was was considerable. We were given lodgings equal to the prince’s dignity: a beautiful massive suite in the private home of the archon Ingmatmar, the priestess of the Flame. The suite Read more
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Chapter Thirty-Six – In which Khanaarre confronts her greatest fear and learns of Derrek’s secret past
The giants put me and Elana in one room, and led Derrek away to another. Not a room, I realized quickly. A suite of four rooms: the antechamber in which we had been left with a lack of ceremony that surprised me almost as much as the lack of security, two bedrooms, and a bathing Read more
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Chapter Thirty-Five – In which Derrek negotiates, again
The scouts who found us on the Lightning Plains made no attempts at conversation, seeming to sense our party’s mood despite the language barrier. Elana’s grief was palpable. So was Khanaarre’s terror. I wish I knew how to reassure them, but I didn’t even know where to begin. And though I was not magically bound, Read more
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Chapter Thirty-Four – In which Khanaarre is forced to practice medicine
In the morning, we all dug through our stores, searching for warmer clothes. Derrek and I, with our wizard’s chests, had the advantage. We all reclaimed our heavy, compact-style boots, and Derrek revealed a truly prodigious stash of heavy socks, which he distributed generously. “I lost three toes to frostbite as a child,” he said. Read more
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Chapter Thirty-Three – In which Derrek enters a depressive spiral
My life was unravelling. Every day, every mile, every step we took northward, another thread pulled loose. Not today, not tomorrow, but sooner rather than later, it would all come undone. It was inevitable. Looking back, it had always been inevitable. The wonder, in retrospect, was that it had held on so long. Three years Read more
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Chapter Thirty-Two – In which Khanaarre recalls her childhood fear and the Vencari tell each other stories
Elana sulked for a few hours, much as she had when Derrek had tried to reassure her that the Usurper’s rise had not been her father’s fault. I had tried to soothe her, then. This time I had no stomach for it. We had been in the wilderness for months. Hunting was plentiful, now, but Read more
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Chapter Thirty-One – In which Derrek leads the party north toward the Lightning Plains
It had been weeks since we had fought Lynqxaemass. That her friends and allies were still waiting for us spoke either of the degree of their enmity, or of their certainty of our survival. I suspected the latter, which meant that they had diviners, which we should have assumed, given Lynqxaemass’ citing the stars. That, Read more