Sword of Dreams (The Reforged Trilogy)
Read Sword of Dreams (The Reforged Trilogy) Online
Authors: Erica Lindquist,Aron Christensen
Tags: #Fairies, #archeology, #Space Opera, #science fantasy, #bounty hunter, #Science Fiction
Reforged: Book Two
Erica Lindquist and Aron Christensen
- Smashwords ebook edition -
Copyright © 2012
All rights reserved
ISBN: 1467990833
ISBN-13: 9781467990837
eISBN: 9781452489247
Cover art by Rowena Wang
Edited by Sean and Emerson, Lacey Waymire, Tony Lavely, Cedar LaBrie, Kathy Lindquist and Amber Presley
This is a work of fiction. All characters and events in this book are fictitious. All resemblance to persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
________
Books by Erica Lindquist & Aron Christensen:
The Reforged Trilogy:
Anvil of Tears
Sword of Dreams
Hammer of Time
Forged: 4 Reforged short stories
In the House of Five Dragons
The Dead Beat (a short story serial)
volumes 1 - 3
Fireflies (a short story collection)
My Guide to RPG Storytelling (nonfiction)
by Aron Christensen
For a church dedicated to the worship of death, the Cult of Nihil stubbornly refuses to die. When word reaches the bounty hunter who calls himself Logan Coldhand that the Central World Alliance is willing to pay for members of the congregation, he takes the job. Perhaps chasing death will help him recapture the thrill of the hunt, lost ever since the mark that got away.
Halfway across the galaxy, Maeve and the rest of the Blue Phoenix crew are still struggling to rebuild their lives after a devastating encounter with the Nihilists. But when Captain Myles agrees to take on what should be a simple job – flying a team of archeologists to the remote planet of Prianus – they find themselves pitted against old enemies and ancient terrors.
Chapter 21: The Blooming House
Dedicated to my father,
Charles Lindquist,
who taught me how to stand
"Evil perseveres not at the hands of bad men, but at the inaction of good men."
- The Books of Light (23 PA)
Fifty-seven years ago.
Gavriel Euvo stood at the edge of a field of withered, brittle gray grass that rippled in the freezing wind. It was always dark on Zeos; dark and dry as the inside of a coffin. The low sky churned with brown clouds that blotted out the tiny orange suns and turned the moons into invisible monsters that tugged jealously at the muddy Zeon oceans.
"Gavriel? Are you sure about this? What if things don't work out at the university? I don't know where we'll be then. Gavriel? Love, did you hear a word I said?"
"Hm? Yes, I did." Gavriel put an arm around his wife's thin shoulders. He could feel the sharp angles of her bones through her skin and clothes. Jaissa Euvo was only thirty-seven years old, but a hard life on Zeos had lined her face with worry and streaked her hair in gray. Still, she was no less lovely in her husband's eyes.
"Well?" she asked. "What do you think?"
Gavriel pulled Jaissa close and kissed her furrowed brow. "I'm sorry," he said. "I heard you, Jai, but I think you're worrying too much."
"And I don't think you worry enough," she told him, but finally smiled. "Your head's always up in the clouds. You're never down here in the mud with the rest of us."
"I'm a philosopher. That's my job." Another kiss. "And that's why you fell in love with me."
"On the very first day of class, great and wise teacher," Jaissa teased, and then grew serious again. "Do you think they'll approve the transfer this time?"
"I do. The Alliance Education Board likes what they're hearing. It might take some time for the datawork to go through, but then they'll sponsor our move out to Tynerion."
"Tynerion." Now Jaissa was looking up at the sky, too, as though pure desire could pierce the thick Zeon clouds and see through to the bright stars beyond. "God, I can't wait. Zeos is no planet for Sarru."
"And speaking of our tiny devil…"
Gavriel crouched and held out his arms to the little girl running toward him through the dry grass. It was still early in the morning, but her jumper was already covered in colorless dust. She leapt into her father's embrace with a squeal. The eight-year-old had her mother's graceful dancer's build and beautiful sky blue eyes. Sarru waved a streamer of bright, shiny plastic at Gavriel, too close and too fast to read.
"Come on! We're going to be late!" she shrieked.
"Late for what, honey?" Jaissa asked, full of mock confusion. "I can't remember what we're doing out in this God-forsaken cold. We must have gotten lost! Maybe we should just go home and get warm."
"No!" Sarru cried. She slid out of Gavriel's arms and stomped her foot in the grass. "We're going to the fair! Xiv and Dinna are already inside. We have to go soon or they're going to do all the good rides without me!"
"Well, we wouldn't want that," said Gavriel seriously. He took the plastic advertisement from Sarru and picked her up. "Come on, let's go. I think I have some tickets in one of my pockets."
With his daughter giggling and tugging on his beard, Gavriel led his family out across the field. The fair was too small for the large venue, with brightly striped tents stretched few and far between. Brilliantly lumapainted rides would have been lonely were it not for the long lines of eager children waiting for their turn to be thrilled.
At the gate, Gavriel handed his tickets to a man who winked at the impatiently fidgeting Sarru and made her promise to have a good time.
"I will," she assured him with childish gravity. She wriggled free of Gavriel and hopped down to the ground. "I'm going to find Xiv and Dinna!"
"We're right behind you, sweetheart," Jaissa said.
They followed their daughter until Sarru discovered her friends – a small, silver-skinned Ixthian boy and a taller human girl with Mirran stripes – already in line for the garishly flashing
Whirly-Swirly
. Gavriel put his arms around Jaissa again and watched Sarru bound over to the other children, cheerfully ignoring cries of dismay from the rest of the line when she cut in beside Xiv and Dinna.
"She's going to miss them," Jaissa sighed. "After we move to Tynerion, she's probably never going to see those two again."
"Sarru's a sweet girl. She'll make new friends." Gavriel gave Jaissa a reassuring squeeze. "But it's all the more reason for her to have fun with them now."
Dinna's mother had bought her a huge cone of fluffy lavender cloud-candy, now proudly shown off and shared with Sarru and Xiv. Sarru managed only a few mouthfuls before the spun sugar stuck to her fingers. She giggled and tried to wipe it off in Xiv's fine white hair. The little Ixthian boy dodged Sarru, but Dinna caught on to her friend's game and dropped a clump of candy onto Xiv's head.
"Hey!" he protested. "Stop it!"
"Xiv's a bright boy," Gavriel said contemplatively. "It would be such a waste for him to become a miner like his parents. Maybe when we've been on Tynerion for a while, I can fly Xiv out on a scholarship."
"Really?" Jaissa looked worried again. "You think you could do that? There aren't very many scholarships."
Gavriel smirked. "No, there aren't. But what's the point of power if I can't abuse it a little? Once I've got some clout with the Tynerion universities, I'll see what I can do for Xiv. Dinna, too, if I can. It would be good for Sarru, after all. Like you said, she's going to miss them when we're gone."
Xiv's hair was full of purple candy now. He fought back against the giggling girls, but to no avail. All three children were screeching and covered in dyed sugar.
Jaissa sighed. "Well, I'd better go save Xiv or those girls are going to end him long before college age."
She disentangled herself from Gavriel's arms and went to the children. Sarru and Dinna shrieked and feigned ignorance of their crime, cramming the last of the sweet evidence into innocently smiling mouths. Jaissa just shook her head and picked the candy from Xiv's hair. Her own hands were quickly covered in sugar, too, sticking fingers together and sending all three children off into gales of laughter. Jaissa giggled as she licked her fingers in a vain attempt to clean them. His wife looked no different than the other girls now, Gavriel thought with a grin.
The frozen air shifted as the wind picked up, whipping the low-hanging clouds into sudden motion. They swirled and danced like ink in water. It could almost have been beautiful. Almost. Gavriel squinted up at the sky again. There were stars out there, and worlds better venaformed than Zeos. Worlds like Tynerion, centers of light and learning.
Thank God I can finally take my family there, away from all of this muck and dark.