Skybuilders (Sorcery and Science Book 4)
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Authors: Ella Summers
SKYBUILDERS
Sorcery and Science: Book 4
Ella Summers
SKYBUILDERS
Sorcery and Science: Book 4
Copyright © 2015
Version: 2015.10.13
Cover art by
Rebecca Frank
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Story Summary
Ariella thought she was done with conspiracies. And she definitely thought she was done with mechanical menaces. She was wrong.
An accident hits the floating city of Oasis, and Ariella’s friend Marin goes missing, along with the newly crowned Selpe emperor. The Selpes aren’t lifting a finger to help, so it’s up to her and Silas to save their friends from an elite order of assassins—or her nightmare foresight just might come true.
To avoid a bloody and fractured future, they will go through anyone, even a dozen assassins. They will go anywhere, even floating cities swarming with magical beasts and deadly machines. And they will take any ally they can get, even the person who once betrayed them.
Skybuilders
is Book 4 in the
Sorcery and Science
epic fantasy adventure series.
Chapters
ONE
Pinecone Canopy
TWO
Missing
THREE
Leonidas Chase
FOUR
Secrets and Spies
FIVE
Junkyard
SEVEN
Clues
EIGHT
Unicorns and Dragons
NINE
Hellhounds
ELEVEN
Silver Skies
TWELVE
Field of Giants
THIRTEEN
Falsified Forest
FOURTEEN
Foresights
FIFTEEN
The Chute
SIXTEEN
The Crescent Order
SEVENTEEN
Blizzard’s Point
EIGHTEEN
Twenty-four Levers
NINETEEN
Anecdotes
TWENTY
The Helleans
TWENTY-ONE
Flying
TWENTY-TWO
The Elition Spy
TWENTY-THREE
Gone
CHAPTER ONE
~
Pinecone Canopy ~
526AX August 18, Sundrop Loop
ARIELLA GAPED IN horror as a spiked crown was set upon the head of Aaron Pall. Crafted from platinum and set with enormous blue diamonds, it was the crown of the Selpe emperor. Ariella could nearly see the color through the high contrast black and white that defined her foresights. She could taste the burn of mint and blood on her tongue. Applause broke out from all around her, and the scene dissolved before her eyes.
Her stomach lurched, and she slumped over as a harsh jolt wracked her body. Ariella gritted her teeth and managed to remain standing. Just barely. Her breath heavy and wheezy in her chest, she pushed her trembling fingers off of her thighs, slowly creeping upright.
When her eyes refocused again, the scene had not changed. She was still inside the Orion imperial ballroom. Its walls were draped with long banners and its tables set in lavish style with crystal rose vases. A lush velvet runner stretched out long across the floor and up the stairs, where a hundred Selpe aristocrats stood dressed in their finest formal attire. The ladies wore gowns and jewels, the lords wore suits and slashes, but every single one of them wore an expression of smug superiority. They turned their gazes on Aaron, who stood on the second level, looking down at them.
Still wearing the crown of the emperor, he grinned and extended his hand. Ariella nearly fell over again as the tremors of the foresight smacked her once more. She watched her friend Isis, dressed in a wedding gown, ascend the steps one by one. The tap of her high heels resounded loudly in the voluminous chamber, echoing off the walls like the beats of a war drum. She was marching to her doom: Aaron. The leader of the Diamond Edges stood smugly at the top of the stairs, flanked on either side by his elite soldiers.
As Isis reached him, she set her hand in his, causing the wretched man’s self-satisfied smile to grow even wider. He leaned forward to kiss Isis lightly on the lips.
To Ariella’s shock, her friend did not reward his presumptuous move with a punch to the face. Isis’s lashes simply brushed down softly, and when Aaron stepped back again, she stared at him with intense concentration. It was hardly the stare of love. Rather, it was a look Ariella knew well, the one that glazed Isis’s eyes whenever she was trying to plot her way out of a trap.
She failed.
As Aaron slipped a ring around Isis’s finger, the foresight quaked and shattered. Ariella awoke on the floor beside her bed, tangled amongst a nest of twisted blankets.
* * *
526AX August 18, Sundrop Loop
The sleep ripped from her eyes and the peace torn from her mind, Ariella dressed herself in black leather and strapped on her Serenity sword, a
long and sleek eighty-centimeter blade sharp enough to slice through…well, basically anything.
She knew she was not in real danger here
—
that it was unlikely a band of Diamond Edges would jump out of the shadows and it was completely impossible that any machines would
—
but leather and steel made her feel safer as she wandered the grounds of Sundrop Loop. They made her feel like she could take on anything. And right now, she needed that comfort.
It was at King River’s insistence that Ariella had come to Sundrop Loop, the ruling seat of the Elition kingdom of Zephyr. Elitia’s high king
had decided she could use a break after three months on assignment to unmask the Selpe aristocrat whose betrayal had led to the assassination of their former emperor and abduction of his twin teenage sons. They’d rescued the princes and exposed the Avan collaborator Lady Cassandra
Seadusk, but months of dodging one attempt on her life after another had taken its toll on Ariella. Dealing with the diabolical Selpe aristocracy had been even worse. King River was right. She needed a break. And what better place to rest than at home?
But her foresight had shattered any hope of peaceful sleep. Ariella could think of few worse nightmares than Aaron at the head of the Selpe Empire. He was dangerous enough already as the leader of the Diamond Edges, which dealt out more death and torture than the rest of the Selpe military combined. And Isis as his bride? Ariella shuddered at the thought. What twisted series of events would lead them to this horrific future? How could Aaron rise to the title of emperor? What would possess Isis, who loathed him with a passion, to agree to marry him?
Ariella tossed her head, shaking herself free of these thoughts. It would do her no good to speculate. As any Elition Prophet knew, down that path lay only madness. Instead, she tried to ground herself amongst the trees and paths she knew so well—and to wrap herself in fond memories.
To call Sundrop Loop the capital
city
of Zephyr was somewhat of an overstatement. At least compared to a Selpe city. Quietly tucked into the fold of a coastal forest of great, red-barked giants, Sundrop Loop was more an oversized village than anything else. But that was typical for Elitia. Even Laelia, the seat of the high king, was not much more than a glorified villa surrounded by an almost accidental accumulation of smaller houses. And rightly so. Elitions preferred tranquility and closely-knit groups to the hustle and bustle of those unsentimental
monstrosities of sheer flamboyance the Selpes and Avans called cities.
Rather than a single palace, the rulers of Zephyr had decided long ago in favor of a more spread-out design—beautifully architected buildings blended amongst the trees such that they almost appeared to be part of the grove itself. Ariella passed by the Library, a ring of six rectangular houses with an open atrium at the center. The Treasury came next. Shining gold-brown in the torchlight, it resembled an oversized coin. The path to it zigzagged through a natural splattering of trees.
As Ariella paused to stare up at the temple, built in the shape of a sun, her pounding heart rate slowed and her breathing calmed. This was home. But it had not always been so.
Ten years ago, Queen Crystal and King Fathom had taken Ariella in and named her their daughter and heir. She now called them Mother and Father. Her old life was over; she did not dwell on it any longer. Now when she sought inner peace, her mind drifted to the red-barked giants, deliciously salty breeze, and creamy ocean foam of Zephyr.
Ariella had reached the edge of the grove and was about to backtrack along the path, when she sensed someone in the shadows. She couldn’t see him. Nor could she hear or smell him. But her mind told her someone was there, someone with the honed predatory movements of a hunter. Ariella felt herself being watched, which left her with only one sensible response: she drew her sword and braced herself to use it. It had been a few days since she’d drawn it, and she had to admit that the weight of it in her hand felt good. Reassuring. Her eyes scanned the trees, trying to pierce the predawn darkness.
A silvery flash of movement streaked forth from the wall of layered trunks. Ariella spun around, snatching a throwing knife mid-flight. And not a moment too soon. She’d narrowly missed it sinking into her back.
“Getting slow, Ariella,” a deep voice rumbled.
A moment later, an Elition man emerged from the shadows. Towering over a head taller than Ariella, he was built to deal damage. A lot of it. He was as muscular as she was willowy, the tree trunk to her flower stem figure. He wore a sleeveless blood-red leather shirt that showcased his massive muscular arms, and a pair of mahogany knee-high boots over black leather pants. Ariella spotted a few dozen knives strapped to his behemoth form, but she knew there were dozens more hidden away. His tangerine-orange hair spiked up like fiery flames, and as his gaze met hers, his pale blue eyes phased white.
Silas Thorn, Elition Phantom and former bodyguard of the late Emperor Ambrose Selpe.
Ariella threw the knife at the tree trunk behind him. It sank into the bark with a satisfying thump. Silas continued moving forward, unbothered by the blade that had nearly grazed his cheek. He hadn’t even blinked.
“Nice.” He drew two long knives with a grin. “Very cute.”
Perhaps
knives
was a bit of an understatement. Ariella’s eyes widened at the sight of the two Bloodfires, their blades inky black and their hilts blood red. Each of them was nearly as long as her own sword. A sword that could be reasonably wielded two-handed. Silas really was a giant.
“Cute?” she growled.
“Hold on there, kitten. No need to hiss.”
Ariella swung her sword forward but he blocked easily with just one of his knives, sending burning streams of pain down her arm. Ariella bared her teeth. Damn Phantoms. She was not especially strong for an Elition, but she was faster than most. Except Phantoms. They were too strong and too fast to best in a fair fight.
She turned slowly, and Silas mirrored her movements, keeping her in front of him. Step by step, Ariella backed up. He followed, stalking forward with the determination of a starving tiger, his eyes burning white-hot. Fallen pinecones cracked and slipped beneath her boots as she passed under a spiky canopy of dew-dropped needles.
Silas pressed forward, backing her into the forest. They passed the tree that had been on the receiving end of her splendid knife throw. Silas recovered the blade with uncommon ease, like sliding a hot knife through butter. He hardly had to tug. Everything was just too easy for Phantoms. It was so unfair.
As though he’d read her thoughts, Silas arched a brow and a sliver of amusement danced across his lips. Hell, he probably
had
read her thoughts. He was an Extractor, after all—a type of Phantom who could lift images from people’s heads. And that was just downright unsettling.
Well, I have no intention of letting him in there.
She swallowed hard and blanked her mind. Luckily, she was well-practiced at the task. It was a skill drilled into Prophets from an early age. Sometimes an empty mind was a Prophet’s only defense against the onslaught of foresights that would otherwise drive her mad.
“Enough running,” he said as Ariella’s back pressed up against a trunk.
She saw the amused twinkle in his eye a moment before he struck, and even then, she only nearly raised her sword in time. He hit harder this time. How was that even possible? Her sword arm felt like it was on fire. She bit back tears of pain and held onto her weapon for dear life.
When Silas struck again, Ariella opted to forego further punishment. She dodged and slipped through a narrow gap between two tree trunks. Silas’s muscle-ripped torso was too thick to fit through, so he had to go all the way around it. Ha.