The Eighth Power: Book II: The Book of the Earth

By Paul Lytle

Several years ago, the city of Saparen fought off an ern attack in order to protect a few children who had done nothing to have earned the wrath of the ern except that they were born on a particular day – a day that made them possible heirs to the power of the Prophets.

Ayrim Iylin, though proven to not be a Prophet, has grown up under the guidance of the Priests and the Thanes, all of whom are on constant guard against the ern. He seeks as normal a life as he can manage – from learning the art of farming, faith, and warfare. But now the ern are using a different and more subtle approach – sneaking into the town as stealthy murderers instead of attacking directly as an invading army. To make things worse, it appears that someone is letting them in.

For the first time, Ayrim must step out of the shadow of the Baron’s protection to face his enemies directly. To protect himself, he must at last join the battle.

The Eighth Power continues as the search for the two new Prophets continues, the war between Aeresan and Fahlin rages, and the power of the Void begins to consume the land.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paul Lytle
• Release date: Apr 23, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301994793

Paul Lytle

Paul Lytle lives and works in Houston, where he lives with his wife, Josie, and his newborn son, Christian. He can be found online at http://www.paullytle.com or on Twitter as @CalvinistNerd. He also writes for and edits the online magazine Primum Mobile at http://www.primum-mobile.net.

Book preview

Maps

What Came Before

The adventure began in The Book of the Living, available for free download for most electronic devices.

There are six gods, and then there is the Absence . . .

On the eighth day of Osilar, in the year 8704, the wicked race of ern, aided by some who have turned their back on the Six and now follow the Void (known as Vid), killed two Prophets – the Prophet of the Flame and the Prophet of the Wind. They had been tortured for some information, but the Prophets had not understood what the ern was seeking. The incredible power of the Prophets, also called Wizards, was passed on to another generation – each Prophet’s power finding a boy born that very day and investing itself into that infant. The five remaining Prophets set out to find the two new Wizards, but so did the vast army of ern, and they left a wake of death and destruction behind them.

Barrin Iylin is a simple farmer from Lanshire who had just lost his wife in the birth of their son, Ayrim. The farmer, oblivious to the events around him, struggles to raise the child on his own. But he soon finds out that the ern are after all boys born that day, and that they will come for Ayrim too.

One of the remaining Prophets makes it to Lanshire and confirms that Ayrim is not one of the new Prophets, but the ern are undeterred. In desperation, Barrin makes his way to Saparen, a walled city, where the Baron, Dravor Verios, is protecting several infants born on the eighth of Osilar. The ern unite and attack, and they come with an unexpected power – the power to Invoke the Absence. While Prophets can use Magic easily, Invocation is much more difficult, but many of the ern and the men who had sided with them can Invoke much more powerfully than anyone thought possible. Saparen is only saved when King Regis Trosalan appears with his forces. Once the victory is secure, Trosalan announces his plan to take over the Last Stand – a series of castles on a river to the west – in order to protect the kingdom. Securing those castles will prevent another ern invasion, but the Kingdom of Fahlin controls them.

Barrin is fatally wounded in the fight, and he dies with his son in his arms – the son he had just saved. Ayrim is adopted by a Thane, Gerill Hyte, and will remain in Saparen under the protection of the Baron.

The ern forces are decimated, but not destroyed, and the new Prophets remain missing.

The Book of the Earth

Chapter 1

It was Tianon’s Day, and the northeastern den was even more quiet than was usual for the people of the hard faith, for their god demanded meditation and prayer on his day. A man in Saparen grew used to the rotating Holy Days, when one section of the city would be suddenly shut up and quiet, even while the other five areas continued with the daily business. Master Gerill Hyte had never known anything different, though he knew that many from smaller towns, with only three (or even two or one!) temples, were accustomed to a common schedule amongst all people in the area. But complexity to someone practiced in complexity often seemed simple, and Hyte often wondered how a city could function with nearly all its citizens taking the same day off. Better that someone somewhere would be working on each day, he thought, even if it meant having to learn a man’s faith along with his name to know when it was appropriate to call upon him.

It was all fairly simple, as far as Gerill was concerned. It was Tianon’s Day, and so, when evening came, he would simply avoid the Solid Earth Inn, since the Tianans there would sing the dreary hymns of the Earth God rather than their regular songs or love and war. Instead, he would visit the Whispering Wind in Whesler’s Den, or perhaps the Undying Flame near his own home. The proprietors of those inns had their own Holy Days named after their own deities, and Tianon’s Day, to them, held no more importance than Last Day.

Or, if all of his regular common rooms were full, the people at the Dwarf’s Call of Tarite’s Den held that death was only a few years away for anyone, and that they had no time for Holy Days. That was not the official position of Tarite’s Temple, of course, but the people at the tavern needed some sort of hook to get people into the Dark Den, which was the nickname for the northwest section.

The mental debate was likely for naught, however, since the Thane would more than likely stay home that evening. He normally did. He liked the stories of the taverns, and also the songs and company, but the joys of home were greater. It was just that planning for a night in the common room of an inn simply sounded more exciting in his mind than planning for a night at his home, even if the latter was actually the better choice in most cases.

Gerill, said the young boy, whose hand was tiny within the Thane’s. He was Ayrim Iylin, and though he was quite small compared to his adoptive father, Hyte was constantly amazed by the child’s size. Had it really been eleven years since Ayrim had come into his home? It seemed far less, and yet that infant, a year old and small for his age, was now nearly a young man. He was several inches taller than the other boys in his catechism, and a bit taller than the older boys Gerill taught in swordplay. Strange, since as an infant he was quite a bit smaller than normal, but it was so. He didn’t really look much like his father, Barrin, except in his thin mouth, but he was handsome, and so Gerill imagined that his mother must had been a very beautiful woman. Hyte had liked Barrin a great deal, but could not have honestly called the man handsome. As for Ayrim, blond hair laid flat upon his square head, and his eyes were large in wonder. Yes, this boy seemed amazed by everything, and sought knowledge and understanding in all areas. Gerill had to smile. The boy could become a Priest as easily as a warrior, or a farmer without too much more study in any area. Already he knew more in each field than most men of twenty. It was partially due to Gerill’s direction, for the Thane was determined that his son know the ways of all men, though he was heir to a man of privilege, but it was mostly due to Ayrim himself, for the boy was proud of his progress, and determined to achieve more.

No, the child was rather unlike Barrin Iylin, save only for his heart. But then, that was the most important thing he could have inherited.

Ayrim repeated, Gerill, and the Thane shook the random thoughts from his head.

Yes, son? he said. He had claimed to be the boy’s true father, but rather told him everything he knew of the man who had brought him to Saparen so long before. But he still called Ayrim his son, and would for the rest of his days.

I will be asked to choose my faith next week, at the beginning of the Autumn.

Yes, said the elder. Though you are so much farther ahead than most beginning their twelfth year. I think you might have read as many of the Holy Texts as I have.

The boy grinned, but said, I know that is not true!

We will ask Jeslin to be the judge of it. Have you already decided your path?

No. Ayrim looked concerned. It is harder than I thought. They are all good, aren’t they? The gods, I mean.

Of course.

Then why must we choose between good gods?

Gerill knelt down before his son, proud that Ayrim was asking such questions. They were the questions children were supposed to ask during the Choosing of Paths, and yet so few did. Twelve years were children supposed to study their faith, two years for each god, it was said, but very few did. After all, in the first many years the children could only learn the very basics, and catechism itself only lasted the last two years of that process. Few children even thought about the subject before that point. Actually, few children thought about the subject at all, even when they were choosing their faith.

Hyte said, "No, you do not choose between the Virtues. You try to maintain all of the Virtues. What you do in choosing is deciding how you wish to live your life. If you choose Ignar, you still must seek goodness in your own actions, as