Streams to ashes, p.1
Streams to Ashes, page 1
Streams to Ashes
Book 7
Ian’s Realm Saga
Streams to Ashes
Ian's Realm Saga, Volume 7
D.L. Gardner
Published by D.L. Gardner, 2023.
While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.
STREAMS TO ASHES
First edition. October 21, 2023.
Copyright © 2023 D.L. Gardner.
ISBN: 979-8223863595
Written by D.L. Gardner.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Streams to Ashes (Ian's Realm Saga, #7)
Seattle
Hacatine’s Revenge
In Alisubbo
The Call
To Arms
Silvio
The Abducted
Brad in Kaempern
Parade of Jewels
Ian’s Arrival
Boarding of The Felicia.
Search for a Bride
Brad’s Attack from the North
The Healing is Finished.
Reunion
Promise
Elisa finds Stenhjaert.
The Taikan Attack
Breeching of Telamande
On entering Taikus
Abbott and Promise
Taking Back What’s Ours
Just What We Need
What’s Mine
Rescuing the King of Alisubbo
King of Taikus
The Dragon Keepers
The Voyage Home
The Wedding
King of Alcove Forest
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About the Author
D.L. Gardner
Seattle
Brad jumped off the couch when his sister’s car sputtered and came to a halt in the driveway. As the sedan hissed and shut off, he peered out the window and took a long look at it, hoping the timing belt wasn’t going out. He’d rather it was something simple he could fix, like a spark plug misfiring. Still, he was no mechanic and would most likely have to take it to the shop for her before it died for good. With a heavy sigh, he opened the front door and watched Elisa get out of the car.
“Well?” Elisa asked, pulling the grocery bag out of the back seat. “Aren’t you going to help?”
“You said you were coming three hours ago,” he complained, standing on the porch with his hands on his hips.
“I never said that. This afternoon is what I said.” Elisa gave him a dirty look and slammed the door shut with her foot. She stormed up the porch stairs, brushed past him, and hurried inside with her arms loaded.
“I swear, Brad, when are you going to learn to be a gentleman?”
“I’m a gentleman, just not to my sister.”
She set the paper sack on the couch and wiped the wrinkles in her blouse before giving him a scowl.
“What smells?” she asked, scrunching her nose.
“Crispy toast. What did you get?” Brad peeked into the bag.
“Ribeye, chuck steak, and veggie burgers. There’s a timer on your toaster, you know. You don’t always have to burn it.”
“I like it burned. Veggie burgers? Why?”
“I thought we’d try to get him accustomed to eating vegetables. The price of meat is sky-high. If we can get him to eat veggie burgers, I could learn to make them myself. It’d be a budget-friendly and clever option.
Brad shook his head and laughed. “We won’t keep him caged forever, you know. He’ll be able to hunt on his own soon enough.”
Elisa rolled her eyes. “No, Brad.”
“What?”
“Hunt where? He has nowhere to go. Someone would capture him in the Realm, and he can’t come here.”
Brad pulled his sweatshirt from the closet. “Whatever. Let’s go. We’re late.”
“I feel sorry for him,” she continued. “If there were a way—”
“Maybe there is a way. Let’s see what happens.” Brad nodded toward the bag. “Grab it!”
“You can’t carry it?” Elisa sighed, picked up the groceries, and followed him.
Brad kept the key to the back bedroom in his pocket, along with the keys to his new house. Well, the house wasn’t new exactly. It was sixty-years-old, yet new to him. After years of begging, he finally convinced Ian to owner-finance with a down-payment proof. It thrilled him when he discovered Alex’s old computer tucked away in the foundry, hidden beneath a sheet of cobwebs. He worked diligently to resurrect the computer, despite Ian trying to convince him the scientists had fried it when they hacked into the portal. Ian had stashed it away before he moved, and would have thrown it out, but Brad wouldn’t let him.
“Nope! My home, now, my stuff,” Brad had told Ian. “I paid for it.”
“It’s junk,” Ian had argued.
“My junk!”
Ian refused to get involved with portals again, as his daughter was still living at home after her last heart-wrenching experience in the Realm.
Not so with Brad.
Encouraged by his sister, Brad’s fascination with the alternate world beyond the portal stayed with him well into his adult years. The dangerous, yet mesmerizing experiences he encountered in that world left an indelible impression on him. Some unknown force pulled him to return.
“Let’s hurry.” Brad grinned as he opened the door to the den and ushered Elisa in.
“I’m glad we can do this,” Elisa set the bag down on the bed and ripped the meat out of the wrapper, shoving the packaging in the wastebasket. “I’ve worried about that poor creature for how many years now. It seems he’s really coming along, though. A little food, a little kindness!”
“That poor creature will be of use someday, Elisa. He’ll redeem himself. You watch and see.”
Slipping on the pair of thick leather gloves that were kept vigil by the monitor, Brad grabbed a chunk of steak in one hand and the controller in the other. He stepped into the center of the room as Elisa bundled up the rest of the meat in her arms and joined him. With the click of a button on the remote, a blue light flashed, and the two were standing in the dark tunnel that separated two worlds—reality and the Realm.
“Don’t just stand there, light the torch!” Elisa ordered in a hushed voice.
Brad pulled the striker from his sweatshirt pocket and lit the bamboo lamp they kept on the wall near the portal entrance. The smell of lighter fluid interrupted the natural odors of the chamber. Moss, dampness, and a distinct animal smell returned as soon as the tinder ignited. Before Brad could ask where the dragon was, old Stenhjaert grunted affectionately. Elisa hurried to him, set her goods at his feet, and held a chuck steak under his nose.
“There now, Stenhjaert. Dinner’s on,” she said.
Hacatine’s Revenge
On one clear evening, Donis stood atop a butte, her view illuminated by the dancing light of the campfires. It had been three years since she left her sister’s castle in Telamande for the northern point of the island. There she taught the Serpent Whisperers the magic of the sea. The training had been a vigorous ritual of gathering herbs, reciting chants, learning dances and finally summoning sea serpents. Tonight, on the shores outside the capital, and when the full moon rose, the women would call upon the serpents again and this time choose one to enchant and make it their personal slave. After that, vigorous drills with their serpents, taming them and breaking them to ride, would prepare them for Hacatine’s invasion of the Otherworld. After such a lengthy separation, it overwhelmed Donis with enthusiasm at the prospect of highlighting her accomplishments in front of the royal court.
Queen Hacatine’s strategy was brilliant—they would use the serpents to drive the dragon through the portal. There, they would conquer nations and rule both worlds. Donis would be victorious; not the deceased Layla, nor Breilla, nor Cepha. It would be her campaign, and because of that, Hacatine would award her dominion over one of the two realms.
Cepha, her captain, climbed the hill and dusted her hands, settling next to Donis with a sigh. The woman’s smile vanished when Donis scowled.
“Everything is ready,” Cepha said. “Shall we proceed?”
“What do you think, Cepha?” Donis asked, her chin high, her asp-like hair wafting in the night breeze. “Will the sea creatures surrender to our rule and bend to our will?”
“I think Hacatine’s new Savant has more wisdom and cunning than Simbatha ever had, even though the girl is only half her age. The potions she has crafted are unrivaled in quality.”
“Then you think it will work as planned, and the sea slaves will be docile enough to ride?”
“Not only docile, but eager to be ridden.”
“Ridden to the edge of the world. And then on to uncharted lands beyond. If you are right, which you best be,” Donis warned.
The woman nodded, paused, perhaps for conversation. When Donis said nothing more, Cepha mumbled to herself, and slid back down the hill.
Donis was unsympathetic to Cepha. The woman was deceitful, and her ambition was annoying. Yes, Hacatine had appointed her to be Donis’ aide. But the queen had little knowledge of the choices Cepha had made in the past. The last time the woman was on a mission, her decisions had deadly consequences. Donis would have preferred a more subordinate minion.
Dozens of harnesses lay in wait on the beach. Thick elk hide straps that would fit around the serpents’ bellies were spread out on the sand. Bits made from iron would control their heads and guide them, and crops laced with magic would keep them restrained.
All was in order. All was ready.
It was time.
Donis raised her hand as a signal. With the beat of a drum, the Whisperers chanted, while the soldiers worked the billows that would blow the enchantment out to sea. Gold bangles and ankle bells jangled in rhythm to the drums. The women’s silk shalwar glimmered in the firelight. What a romantic sight the lot of them were. Their ritual was a dance of spiritual magnitude. These special Taikan warriors were stunning, with a radiance no one else could equal.
They poured buckets of liquid magic into the trenches—potions made from herbs of the island’s northern desert. These potions had taken the Whisperers three years to gather and blend to perfection. Now Donis watched the fruit of her labor as steam rose and swirled like ghostly hands. Blue and green vapor billowed from the bubbling solution, rising into the atmosphere. From there, it drifted over the rolling breakers, where it coalesced into a spectrum of colorful clouds. A musty fragrance filled the air, the smell which would lure the sea serpents. And if the magic worked, if all went as planned, the creatures would swim to shore already subdued as willing servants.
Donis took a deep breath, a smile on her lips, as she watched the phenomenon unfold. Dark mounds appeared among the whitecaps, rising, and disappearing only to rise again. It worked! The giant eel-like creatures circled under the vapor, gathered in a horde, and swam toward shore. They were hers now and to own the serpents was the same as owning the world. Even Hacatine could not claim such power. Donis held her breath. Her heart thumped with glee as she waited for the moment their heads appeared on shore and she could touch them, caress them, command them.
Farther out to sea, a serpent larger than any she had seen before made its way toward the beach, passing the others and stirring up the surf.
“Cepha, more potion. Send it that way.” Donis pointed at the large intruder. “That one looks dangerous,” she added. With a groan, she skidded down the hillside and hurried to the trench.
“Add more potion and aim your billows toward that large one,” she instructed. The workers obeyed, yet the added magic did not stop the angry creature.
“Look what it’s doing,” Cepha declared. “It’s rounding up the others and heading them away from shore.”
“More potion!” Donis ordered. “More!” Panic drove her words as the horde of serpents changed course and swirled in the water. A chaos of riptide and swells splashed in complete disorder. The enormous serpent mingled in among the other slimy bodies as if speaking to them and herding them away from shore.
As the cloud of magic grew so thick that even the Whisperers had to step away from its spells, Donis advanced, anger raging like a forge.
“I don’t care how large you are. A sea slave will not foil my mission and make a fool of me. Be gone, you beast!” she cried out, shaking her fist. She had worked too hard for this moment. They had painstakingly gathered the herbs and pressed them for their oils. Time spent perfecting the blend was too valuable, the work of training her recruits, the hours of scheming with the queen—no, she would not give it up. She waded into the water and glared into the fog, shooting flames of magic at the beast. The inferno simply sizzled into steam.
There were no other sea slaves to be seen. They had dispersed—gone back to the deep where they had come, the magic spent, her dreams vaporized. Only two dark eyes staring at her from the ugly head of a gigantic sea monster remained.
“Bring them back!” Donis ordered, sure that the serpent had breathed in some of the spell. How could it not?
The serpent tossed its head in protest and screeched.
“Bring them back!” Donis repeated.
When the creature’s eyes met hers, Donis stepped back. What was this dangerous monster that her spells could not control it? Sea slaves had tongues of poison that could kill on contact. Was this a creature she should take arms against?
“More potions!” Donis ordered her team in hopes they had not all vacated the beach. Another puff of steam from the trenches engulfed both her and the serpent. Donis coughed, dizzy from the magic of the vapor, but she forced herself to remain standing.
The sea slave opened its mouth, and Donis shuddered. Was this her end? Would she die here in the water from the strike of a slave she sought to subjugate?
But instead of a ravenous tongue, words seeped out of its mouth in a deep, coarse voice.
“Avenge me,” the creature said.
Stunned, for she had never heard a serpent speak, she stood thunderstruck for a moment, staring into its eyes.
“Avenge you? Who are you?”
The serpent screeched repeatedly until Donis could not mistake the name.
“Hacatine.”
Donis walked backward until the surf no longer splashed over her feet.
“Hacatine,” she whispered.
The serpent found its tongue and Donis, mesmerized by what it said, remained motionless.
“Three years ago, after you left, I followed a man named Ivar on his quest to find my dagger, thinking I would let him retrieve it from the ice caves of Deception Peak, and then take it from him and bring it home to where it belonged. But just when I thought I had accomplished my mission, he pierced my heart with it. Look what it has done to me! I fell to the depths of the sea in this wretched body. Three years it took to learn to live as a serpent, yet wishing I could rise again as your queen. Oh, I have grown, but not in the physique I had hoped for. It took me all that time to gain my speech. Only now, upon hearing your incantations, I recognized you as my people. I come to you with a command. You must avenge me!”
It was difficult for the serpent to articulate its thoughts as it coughed and sputtered in its attempts. “Declare war against him.”
Paralyzed, the warriors stood in awe as the serpent regarded each of them.
“You ... you are my army. Avenge me. Declare war on those who took up arms against me. Destroy the traitors. Take back the crown.”
With that, the serpent dove back into the sea. Before it disappeared, it herded the other serpents from out of the deep, pushing them toward shore. One by one, the horde slithered onto the sand, docile as if Hacatine herself had commanded them to conjoin. The Whisperers wasted no time going to work, coddling them, and attaching the harnesses and saddles.
Donis retreated to the bluff again, stunned by what she had heard.
“How could it be true?” Cepha asked her as she sat down by her side.
“We’ve been away too long. Someone must return to Telamande and find out if indeed Hacatine no longer sits on the throne. If she’s still there, we need to alert her to this impostor!
“And if it is our queen?”
Donis looked Cepha in the eyes. The woman would not want to go on such a mission, which would be even more reason to send her.
“You must find out.”
“Me?”
“Find out what happened to the queen and who is in the castle, who has committed treason and how large an army they have. We’ll wait outside the city.”
Cepha rose, resentment in her eyes. “That’s a remedial assignment for someone of my station.”
“You will have no station at all if you don’t do it.”
WITH CEPHA ON HER MISSION, Donis kept her troops hidden. She hoped that what they had seen was simply a mirage, a hazy creation of the strong magic the Whisperers had summoned. To believe that a stranger turned her sister into a serpent was absurd. How could anyone overpower the queen? An impossible feat and rare that someone would try. But Donis, ever the prudent sorceress, couldn’t help but investigate a vision of this magnitude.
She sat on a log by the fire, alone, for she had no desire to speak to her troops. Too many of them were speculating. She would wait until Cepha returned before calculating her next step.
Donis stared at the flames of her campfire, recounting the words the serpent had spoken. What if it were true? Sorceresses changed into animals often enough. Goodness, it was a trick often used to fool their enemies. But what kind of magic was so powerful that even Hacatine couldn’t reverse it?
