In "Child of the Ghosts" by Jonathan Moeller, a murderous villain takes everything away from young Caina. Caina made of sterner stuff trains for years to become the weapon she must be. She is earnest and patient in her training in non-weapon combat, knives, espionage, and seduction. Will everythi...
He is Demonsouled, the son of the ancient and cruel Old Demon, and his tainted blood grants him superhuman strength and speed. Yet with the power comes terrible, inhuman rage, and Mazael must struggle to keep the fury from devouring him.But he dare not turn aside from the strength of his blood, f...
To distract herself from the memories that flooded her mind if she was idle for too long. Sometimes she locked herself in her cabin for hours and performed the exercises of open-handed combat she had learned at the Vineyard long ago, working through the unarmed forms over and over again until eve...
He did not trust these Tervingi, not even a little. Adalar knew lords like Earnachar, treacherous and slippery, keeping the letter of their promises while ignoring the spirit. If Earnachar had indeed betrayed Mazael, if he had sided with the Skuldari and the soliphages and whatever mysterious dar...
I said, stomping on the gas. “Hell, hell, hell.” The Charioteer groaned as I pressed the accelerator, but didn’t go much faster. “What is it?” said Russell. “Who are those guys?” The van kept pursuing us. I wondered if its engine had been damaged in the collision. If it hadn’t, the van could outp...
It was a way to pass the time and keep herself from thinking too much. To distract herself from the memories that flooded her mind if she was idle for too long. Sometimes she locked herself in her cabin for hours and performed the exercises of open-handed combat she had learned at the Vineyard lo...
She wondered if Erghulan’s idiocy had finally gotten him killed, and decided that she did not care, save for a faint disappointment that she hadn’t gotten to kill him herself. Six Immortals stood guard at the entrance to the court, though even those hardened killers made sure to stay well away fr...
said Morigna.“There is no way to open the door,” said Brother Caius, his deep voice calm. They kept climbing the stone stairs. The tunnel sloped upward, the sunlight at the end of the stairs growing brighter with every step. “Your damned kindred should have left a way to open it,” said Morigna. U...
Her black magus’s robe was unflattering, and Rania Scorneus would not wear jewelry. Nor would she trouble herself with makeup. The end result made Caina look stark and forbidding, a woman of ice robed in black. Though Caina found she missed the gowns and jewels she wore as Sonya Tornesti. She lik...
The ordeal had left her exhausted, with a headache that would not go away. But her hands still did not shake, and she felt…lightheaded. Surreal. As if this were a dream, perhaps. For so long she had been certain that she would die during the Testing.And, yet, here she was. What would become of he...
The strange, sickly grasses rustled in the endless wind blowing from the west, the misshapen trees jutting from the slopes like the moss-covered fingers of a corpse. From time to time the deformed ravens perched upon the branches, cawing. Something like slime coated their feathers, yet the birds ...
said Maglarion.Sicarion leaned back in his chair, sipped his wine, and grinned. “You’ve changed.”They sat together in the common room of an inn not far from Malarae’s chapterhouse of the Imperial Magisterium. Magi visiting from other cities and provinces of the Empire often stayed here when they ...
He is Demonsouled, the son of the ancient and cruel Old Demon, and his tainted blood grants him superhuman strength and speed. Yet with the power comes terrible, inhuman rage, and Mazael must struggle to keep the fury from devouring him.But he dare not turn aside from the strength of his blood, f...
Shouts and screams and snarls echoed from the surrounding streets, and dark forms raced through the ruins, beastmen hunting for the arachar. Urd Arowyn had fallen into chaos. Gavin wondered if Morwen and his father knew what was happening, if they had yet realized they were under attack. If they ...
said Liam.Arran looked up from the ancient road. The air had gotten colder as they climbed higher into the mountains, and a constant wind whistled from the looming, snow-mantled peaks. The sky looked like hammered steel. Arran grunted and shifted his pack, his rusting armor rattling. “What is it?...
It’s different in other countries. In Russia, it’s on the anniversary of Red October. In the United Kingdom, Conquest Day falls on the anniversary of the Battle of Hastings. It’s on July 4th in the United States because that was the day three hundred odd years ago that the High Queen executed the...
Ridmark grunted, his hand closing around Heartwarden’s hilt, and drew upon the sword’s power. Healing energy filled him, and after a few moments the throbbing agony in his skull subsided to merely a sharp pain.He opened his eyes again and sat up.And to his surprise, he found he was in a library.I...
Or, at least, she thought so. The sand choked off all the light, and it was possible that she was upside down without realizing it. She clawed upwards, forcing her arms through the shifting sand, kicking with her legs as the sand flowed around her. Fortunately, the sand was dry and loose enough t...
Something warm and hard gripped her left hand, and after a moment she realized it was Jager’s hand. Apparently the Gray Knight had not killed her after all.Mara could not imagine why. She heard the soulcatcher’s compelling, moaning hum, just at the edge of her awareness. And new songs, too, melod...
Herds of goats grazed on the grasses clinging to the hillside, watching the visitors with indifference. The village itself could house perhaps three or four hundred people. A fortified manor house and a domed church stood at one side of the village, and a low stone wall encircled the entire top o...
I am not yet thirty, but I feel as if I have lived a dozen different lives. Once I was the daughter of Decius Aberon, First Magus of the Imperial Magisterium. I dreamed of following in my father’s footsteps, of using my sorcery to improve the lives of the people of the Empire. Then I learned that...
Ridmark Arban walked across the hall, his boots clicking against the black and white tiles of the floor. He wore his finest tunic and mantle, both crimson with gold trim. A sword belt of black leather encircled his waist, the soulblade Heartwarden resting in its scabbard there. He felt the sword’...
Ridmark Arban walked across the hall, his boots clicking against the black and white tiles of the floor. He wore his finest tunic and mantle, both crimson with gold trim. A sword belt of black leather encircled his waist, the soulblade Heartwarden resting in its scabbard there. He felt the sword’...
They were something else.She strode through the hallways of her father's villa, her skirt rustling against the polished floors. Caina wore a long blue gown with black embroidery, the sleeves and bodice tight. She liked wearing blue. He said it matched her eyes, made her...She frowned. Who liked i...
The town of Knightport, visited by merchants from across the realm, boasted many fine taverns and inn. This, alas, was not one of them. The air stank of mildew, and the only patrons were four villainous-looking men at the plank table.And Mazael himself, of course. "Deal," said the leader of the m...
“You could use a drink.”Jones kept staring at Goth, his fingers twitching, sweat beading on his face. Goth stared back, his face impassive beneath the black sunglasses and black beard.“William,” said Wycliffe. “You look sick. Make sure you drink something before we arrive. And for God’s sake, smi...
Her gaze could not penetrate the mists more than a few feet in any direction, and she saw no walls, no pillars, no doors, nothing. So she took slow, tentative steps, her hands outstretched before her. Yet it felt as if she covered some vast, unimaginable distance with every step, as if every stri...
said Theodosia. Caina stood alongside Theodosia and Corvalis in Marzhod’s workroom at the Painted Whore. They had withdrawn there at Nadirah’s urging. Mhadun’s death, she insisted, had produced echoes in the netherworld. If any of the magi had been seeking Mhadun, they would have felt those echo...
said Caina Amalas, “what you know about the sorcerer called the Curator.”The man sitting across the booth from her froze, his clay cup of steaming coffee lifted halfway to his lips. He was in early middle age, but looked older thanks to a strenuous life and a year imprisoned in the Widow’s Tower....
And each ship carried hundreds of Legionaries armored in plate and chain, laden with sword and shield and javelin.Rykon’s mind raced. How had the Imperial fleet bypassed the coral mazes guarding the harbor? Or the Kyracian fleet itself? They had been betrayed. Then the first ship bumped against t...
Sometimes he thought he was still in New Kyre, in his bed in the Tower of Kardamnos with Thalastre curled besides him. Of course, she had always risen before he did. She had taken over the management of the Tower of Kardamnos with aplomb, and had not been flustered in the slightest when Kylon had...
Nightmares flashed through her mind, recollections of deaths she had seen. Again she saw Maglarion cut her father’s throat with his glittering knife. Sicarion’s blade burst from Halfdan’s chest, her mentor’s eyes wide with astonishment. Green fire flashed, and Corvalis fell dead at her feet, slai...
He is Demonsouled, the son of the ancient and cruel Old Demon, and his tainted blood grants him superhuman strength and speed. Yet with the power comes terrible, inhuman rage, and Mazael must struggle to keep the fury from devouring him.But he dare not turn aside from the strength of his blood, f...
He is Demonsouled, the son of the ancient and cruel Old Demon, and his tainted blood grants him superhuman strength and speed. Yet with the power comes terrible, inhuman rage, and Mazael must struggle to keep the fury from devouring him.But he dare not turn aside from the strength of his blood, f...
The shaman flipped the sheep onto its back, opened its belly, and began to sift through the entrails, murmuring incantations as he did so.Kharlacht gripped his spear and watched, taking care to conceal his distaste. He disliked omens, he disliked consulting the spirits, and he hated Narrakhan, th...
I had the sensation of falling, of hurtling through an endless silent void. It seemed as if the world, as if the cosmos itself, blurred and shifted around me, pulling me across an unimaginable distance, across a gulf so vast that the human mind simply could not comprehend it. Perhaps I had failed...
The spinning blade still struck Sinan in the face, and the impact should have opened him from lip to ear.But instead the blade bounced away with a spray of sparks.He had indeed warded himself against steel. Caina saw dozens of militiamen ringing the broken skylights, crossbows in their hands. Cor...
When I was a child, I idolized him, thought him the wisest and the strongest man in the world. I wanted to become one of the high magi and help him in his great duties. So I studied and learned, and became a sister of the Magisterium. I hoped to use my sorcerous powers for the good of the people ...
Litavis and his wife Maria lived in a cottage a few days north of the town of Moraime and the monastery of St. Cassian, alone in the pine forests cloaking the rocky hills. Much later, Morigna realized that her parents were essentially poachers, hunting deer and wolves and warthogs and even the oc...
He is Demonsouled, the son of the ancient and cruel Old Demon, and his tainted blood grants him superhuman strength and speed. Yet with the power comes terrible, inhuman rage, and Mazael must struggle to keep the fury from devouring him.But he dare not turn aside from the strength of his blood, f...
said Coriolus. He made a flipping gesture with one hand. “Oh, go ahead and speak. You can talk, but you cannot move. A useful aspect of this particular spell. It makes interrogations so much easier.”His voice was the same, but the cringing resentment and fear had vanished. The wariness in his fac...
said Halfdan, “disguised as my daughter, and visit Annika’s shop. Take Corvalis and Saddiq with you. Word must have leaked out of Irzaris’s death, and I want to know what the rumors say.” Caina nodded, dressed herself in a simple gown appropriate for travel, and left the palace, Corvalis at her s...
During Caina’s past journeys, the road had been filled with merchant traffic as trade flowed back and forth between Istarinmul and Anshan. Now the caravans had slowed to a trickle, all of them surrounded by scowling, hard-eyed mercenaries. Bands of soldiers moved north and south along the road, s...
The Crimson Hunter raced after them, its legs stabbing at the ground as the creature hurtled forward. The thing was at least as fast a cantering horse. Sigaldra and Adalar dodged around piles of coins and statues and rows of stone tables, but the Crimson Hunter kept on gaining. Sometimes it climb...
He lay naked in a soft bed, the eerie green light from six of the thirteen moons leaking through a window and playing across the beams of the ceiling. Bit by bit Ridmark’s brain caught up to his confusion, and he realized that he was in the keep of Dun Licinia, in a guest chamber at the top level...
She suspected at least one of Rasadda’s magi was involved in the murders, and when Ark had mentioned that the Black Wolves had worked for the Magisterium, her interest had only sharpened. Yet as the coach drew closer to the chapterhouse, black dread settled on her heart. Old memories, dark and ro...
A strange reek brushed her nose, a mixture of chemicals and spoiled meat. She blinked her gummy eyes open. A dark roof of metal girders arched far above her, a few rays of moonlight leaking through a skylight.She turned her head, and a moan of fear slipped from her mouth. She lay spread-eagle on ...
A cheap turban covered her short hair, aiding her disguise and having the pleasant side effect of keeping the sun off her head. Countless caravans passed through Istarinmul, and every single one of those caravans hired guards to ward off bandits and raiders. One more caravan guard would not draw ...
I am a circlemaster of the Ghosts, the eyes and ears of the Emperor of Nighmar, and we hunted a gang of Istarish slavers employed by a renegade necromancer named Maglarion. We tracked Maglarion to a ruined villa in the hills, and found that he had killed his slaves and used their blood to fuel hi...
That was just as well. He had not been lying when he told Calliande they would need their strength for the journey ahead. “Our best route,” he told Mara and the others once they assembled in the Eastern Court, “is to ford the Moradel and then cross the Northerland as quickly as possible. An army ...
He needed a plan. Something clever, something that would get the soulstone back. No, a gambit that would get Mara back, spring her from the Iron Tower and take his vengeance upon Tarrabus and Paul Tallmane. Some brilliant plan worthy of the Master Thief of Cintarra.He came up with nothing. Jager ...
Caina Amalas was the Ghost circlemaster of Istarinmul, the leader of the Emperor’s spies in the city. She had rebuilt the city’s Ghost circle from scratch after the Teskilati, the Padishah of Istarinmul’s secret police, had wiped them out. Consequently Caina had eyes and ears all over Istarinmul ...
Yet he has a dark secret. He is Demonsouled, the son of the ancient and cruel Old Demon, and his tainted blood grants him superhuman strength and speed. Yet with the power comes terrible, inhuman rage, and Mazael must struggle to keep the fury from devouring him. But he dare not turn aside from t...
I had traded my usual widow’s black dress and headscarf for a blue dress with black trim and a matching headscarf, a leather belt with a dagger around my waist, sturdy sandals upon my feet. It felt very odd not to be wearing widow’s black. It almost felt like a betrayal of Bahlar. But it was well...
She looked worse, much worse, than the last time he had seen her. Yet her chest still rose and fell, and from time to time her eyes twitched beneath their lids. Her father stood over the bed, gazing down at her.The Magistrius Alexius looked up as Nicodemus approached. He resembled Julia, with the...
My father betrayed my grandfather, and perished upon the bloody field of Camlann, alongside many of the mightiest knights and kings of Britain. Before that came the war of Sir Lancelot’s treachery and the High Queen’s adultery, a war that slew many noble and valiant knights.Now there is no High K...
She assisted Theodosia with her makeup and costumes and errands, and helped the other maids and footmen wait on the nobles and wealthy merchants who attended the performances. But she was no more a maid than her name was Marina. Five years ago her mother had murdered her father, and the Ghosts, t...
Battle magi in black plate stood scattered among the Imperial Guards. Kylon respected the magi rather less than the men of the Imperial Guard, but he knew enough to be wary of their arcane power. Dozens of noblemen stood behind the Guards.In their midst stood Alexius Naerius, Emperor of Nighmar. ...
He is Demonsouled, the son of the ancient and cruel Old Demon, and his tainted blood grants him superhuman strength and speed. Yet with the power comes terrible, inhuman rage, and Mazael must struggle to keep the fury from devouring him.But he dare not turn aside from the strength of his blood, f...