The Eighth Power: Book IV: The Book of the Dead

By Paul Lytle

Linspan Branslin’s revelation has changed everything. He is both the Prophet of the Flame and the Prophet of the Wind, making him the most powerful Wizard in centuries. But with the Prophet of the Dead captured and an enormous ern army coming down upon the Castle of Saparen, will his extraordinary powers be enough?

The ern are on Saparen’s doorstep, and there is no way out. Ayrim Iylin is forced into the very war from which he had been protected his whole life. But he will learn soon enough that no one can hide from the Void; and he will learn that the Void’s power is substantial.

The Eighth Power continues as Vid’s allies mounting against our heroes, leaving only two ways out – by the sword, or by death. The prelude to war is over. The true quest for the eighth power begins here.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paul Lytle
• Release date: Jun 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301754953

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

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

The Book of the Living

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

Ayrim grows up in Aeresan under the protection of the Baron and the watchful eye of his adoptive father, Gerill Hyte. He shows early talent in both theology and swordplay, and he trains himself diligently in both. Father Rignslin Josite becomes his mentor in religion, and Master Hyte with the sword. It is this diligence and self-reflection that causes him to become a follower of Flarow (like Gerill before him), because Flarow’s virtue is purity.

But the ern have not forgotten about him and the other boys in the city born on the eighth of Osilar. The King’s war against Fahlin at the Last Stand castles is preventing another ern army from getting into Aeresan, but a few ern have been snuck in, and they are acting as assassins whenever they are able. They attempt to kill Ayrim, but his skill with the sword and the help of an archer named Dariel Sterwet foil their plans.

A group of ern attacks a man at a Saparian inn, and a mysterious man in a black cloak is seen there at the same time. It is not clear that someone is helping the ern, and Ayrim begins to suspect a Flaran priest named Reman Nigh. Acting on that suspicion, they find a tunnel under the waterline of the lake that leads into the Temple of Flarow. They enter and face Nigh, who Invokes water at the last moment, drowning himself.

The act shakes Ayrim, who knows that no one can Invoke without the blessing of the gods. Did Nigh have such a blessing?

The Book of the Flame

Ayrim is now 20 years aged and is a respected Thane. He has not been sent to the front, since his birthday requires the Baron to protect him. The one-armed Thane Chalan Fryse returns to Saparen with news of the front. The war has gone badly, and King Trosalan has retreated from the Last Stand, thus leaving the area unprotected. The ern are coming.

The ern believe at least one of the Prophets to be in Saparen, and so Ayrim acts on the assumption that they know something he does not. With the help of Father Josite and Sterwet, he searches the catechesis records, thinking that the Prophet, to hide his identity, went through the class before he was old enough to do so. This search leads them to Linspan Branslin, a local illusionist who confesses (and proves) to be the Prophet of the Flame, though he does not believe in nor follows the Six. He had been brought by his parents to Saparen soon after the war against the ern and has been there ever since.

Once revealed to the Baron, the Prophet of the Dead, Trago Aparthnin, comes to the keep to test Branslin. Trago has been in Saparen for many years after receiving credible evidence that a Prophet was there. It had been he, in fact, who inadvertently notified the ern of that fact when he sent a message to the Tower, and it had been him in the black cloak the night of the ern assassination at the inn. He tests Branslin, but is surprised to find that Branslin is the most power Prophet to live in likely many centuries.

They set off to the Tower with Ayrim to help them, hoping to draw the ern forces away from Saparen as they go. But the ern are closer than they thought, and they are ambushed. Linspan is forced to reveal his secret – he is not just the Prophet of the Flame, but the Prophet of the Wind too. The two Prophets died so close together that Linspan had inherited both of their powers.

Trago stays behind to draw off the ern while Ayrim and Linspan return to Saparen to try to protect the town against the coming army.

The Book of the Dead

Chapter 1

It was Tarite’s Day when the ern at last charged against the walls of Saparen, not Tianon’s Day, as Baron Verios had predicted. The day’s reprieve aided the humans to an extent, but such a cloud of death and despair lingered over the city that many would have rather the fight begin than the waiting continue.

The soldiers upon the wall began spotting ern in the very near vicinity on Flarow’s Day, and in the night did the enemy armies move into position, creating a wide arch around the town from the shore of the Tarrit Lake south of the city to its northern bank, and it waxed and waned in strength as it circled around. Yet even at its weakest point did the men see patrols, so there would be no escape. The morning light of Tianon’s Day revealed them to Saparen, and the sight of their numbers made the men speechless. The Baron’s town was nearly surrounded, cut off from the rest of Aeresan save by the lake itself, though everyone knew that the Absencers would prevent escape from that direction as well. Even if reinforcements were to come, they would be separated from the soldiers within, and so separated might they be crushed by the awesome power of the inhuman foe.

And awesome it was, for estimates of the enemy’s strength reached as high as ten thousand, while only five thousand remained in Saparen (a number that included women and children). While such a ratio would normally favor the besieged, if the Absencers were able to destroy the walls, the advantage of the city would be lost to the Saparians.

The ern did not seem worried about the odds. Even so, their camps were made without fire, for, even though several humans were with them, they knew that the Prophet of the Flame resided within the walls, and they would not provide for him fuel within their own camps. And so the human besiegers bundled themselves in clothing for warmth instead of sitting beside flames, or else they would retreat, at night, far enough from the city that Branslin would not be able to see the campfires.

Little noise there was from the enemy, and little sleep. The ern were tireless, patrolling almost without rest. Their ability to fight with few pauses for rest and food would greatly disadvantage the Baron’s soldiers. Verios had ordered double shifts as soon as Ayrim and Linspan had returned, and, while necessary, the work was wearying for the soldiers. They rested when they could, but rest was difficult to find that day.

Nearly everything about the day would be a disadvantage to the humans inside the walls. The cold affected them more than it did the ern; sleep called to them more often; and the numbers were two to one against them, counting even those who would not be able to fight; and most of the people in Saparen were not trained for war, while all of the ern were. Unless they were immediately killed, the enemy Invokers would tear down the walls quickly enough, and so not even the town could be truly counted as an advantage. Only the archers could Dravor count on, for archery was one skill the pale ern did not have.

By morning of Tianon’s Day the enemy was ready, and it seemed that the Baron would be right in his prediction that the attack would come upon that day. But the enemy simply waited once the sun arose, and stared soullessly at the walls. The morning was eerie, with those evil creatures a few hundred yards away, but standing almost motionless. The warriors upon the wall quaked, but could do nothing. No matter how much they wanted to act, they could not. The ern army was outside of a bow’s range, and any flame Linspan Branslin sent was pulled apart by invokers as soon as it arrived, for too far did it have to go before it could slay. He could bat them about for a while with wind, but nothing he could create became strong enough to destroy before it was destroyed. Besides, there was no siege equipment to damage – no catapults. There was only the ern, and Branslin found little good came from his manipulations with the wind.

They are toying with us, Branslin whispered after another failed attempt to strike. They are attempted to drain our resolve.

And it is working, Ayrim sighed. Do not try again. It is a defeat that everyone can see when they destroy your flames. I see our soldiers slump a little more every time it happens.

But the day was not idle, for