Heart of the Sun: The Hands of War, #1

By Jennifer Melzer

Fatally wounded in a harrowing battle against Enoch Lousse and the king’s Black Guard, Taven Grimmbane will die without a healer. Commander of the Argonel, Taven is the driving force behind the elven resistance. Without him, the last of the free elves will fall.

A healer’s hands restore life, even to those undeserving–that’s what Helti’s grandmother taught her. Taken captive by the Argonel and forced to heal their dying commander, a human healer holds the life of one of the most brutal killers of men in her hands, just as he holds hers.

Helti wishes she could hate him for the things he’s done to her people, but she embraced Taven’s soul when she brought him back from the veil between life and death, and she knows there is beauty yet within.

A single act of mercy could turn the tides of war. A healer’s compassion could touch the heart of a monster who doesn’t believe he deserves peace or redemption. If the sun could descend from his throne to give his heart to a human girl, surely an elf can find it in himself to love outside his race… even if only for a little while.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dragon's Gold
• Release date: May 25, 2015
• ISBN: 9781507020425

Book preview

Heart

Of the

Sun

The Hands of War

Book One

Jennifer Melzer

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogue therein are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Heart of the Sun

The Hands of War Book One

Copyright © 2015 Jennfer Melzer

All rights reserved.

Cover Design by Jennifer Melzer

Formatting by James Melzer

By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this book. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, compiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced to any information storage and retrieval system, in any form of by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express permission of Jennifer Melzer.

For my beautiful daughter, Devon, whose bright light shines through every darkness in this world.

Prologue

Back when the world was a silent and beautiful place, when men were new and the Shining Children still lived in the trees, the sun fell in love with a human girl who ran through the flowers in her bare feet. She twirled and danced, splashing in the dew and sending bursts of laughter and song to the sky to delight him. The sun, whose name was not known to the girl because he was very old, and had been shining in the heavens since the dawn of time, watched her with wonder, though he never said a word because she was not one of the Shining Children. She was just a simple human girl with little reason to smile or laugh at all, and yet every day when her brothers and father set out for the hills with blades in their hands and war in their hearts, she raced through the fields singing and laughing until her feet were soaked and her heart was light.

Her laughter charmed him. Her beauty enamored him. Each day he came closer and closer to her field to watch her from his place in the sky. A strange and unfamiliar lightness grew inside him, and as he descended, the warmth of his fire reddened her cheeks and freckled her shoulders, but the girl didn’t care. With a crown of flowers in her hair and braided blossoms dangling from her wrists like precious jewels, she sang songs he did not know the words to and tried to ignore the shifting of his own heart.

At night, when the sun’s jealous brother rose and pushed him from his throne, the girl ran home to hide until daybreak when he came to bear once more. One morning, as he ascended the ragged peaks of the mountains, he came off the dais and let his feet touch the stone. They crumbled away with every step, carving a valley as he walked toward the field of flowers where she danced, thinking he would surprise her, but when he arrived she was not there. She was locked away inside her home, cowering beneath the table from the cruel moon.

As the sun approached the cottage, the moon retreated, for his pale brother was weak and cowardly. He called out to his love, but the brilliance of his light blinded the girl, who was already afraid.

Why have you come here? She hid her eyes behind her hands. You do not belong on the ground. Your place is in the sky.

I could no longer watch you from afar, the sun told her. I watched you in the fields. I have seen you dance and heard your songs, and though I know you are not one of the Shining Children, my heart swells with love for you. Even from on high, I’ve seen the way you bat your eyes, and I know you feel the same. Please, do not be afraid. Come out into the field and sing for me, dance in my arms and tell me at last you love me too.

Shy and uncertain, the girl called out from where she hid, How do I know you are the one who watches, and not the pale, angry child of darkness who stares with jealous eyes while I sleep?

Do the moon’s eyes leave their mark upon your skin the way mine do? Look at your face in the glass and you will see that even now my light is like a thousand kisses across your cheeks. I would give to you a thousand more if you would only just come out and dance with me among the flowers and sing the songs of your people so I might know them as well as I know my own.

But you are the sun, she said. Even though I love you more than I have ever loved any other, your place is in the sky and mine is on the ground. I can teach you the songs of my people, but they will never sound right when you sing them.

I would sing them nonetheless because they are yours, and then I would teach you my songs as well. We can share everything if only you will come with me into the field.

The girl only hesitated because she loved him too. She loved him for as long as she could remember, but she knew it was impossible. He was, after all, a god, and she was just a mortal, human girl.

We can never truly be together because the world will suffer if you do not return to your throne.

Then I would take you with me into the sky, if you would come, and make you a queen the likes of which this world has never seen.

But the sky is no place for a girl. She came out of her hiding place. Hand outstretched, she walked into his light and said, Come, I will dance through the fields and sing songs of farewell, and before you go I will kiss you goodbye so you never forget me, but I will not be your queen.

So the sun and the girl walked hand in hand through the flowers, the brightness of his light waning with every step. The girl danced for him, and when he took her in his arms, they swayed together across the lush green carpet of grass, the flowers trembling in their wake. Her laughter broke his heart, even as it filled him with joy. Poppies and violets and buttercups wilted in his heat, and the earth burned beneath his feet, but still they danced, eventually leaving the fields and winding through the valley that would take him back to the mountains where he’d left his throne.

As they finally approached the mountain, the heaviness he felt inside was more painful than anything he’d ever known before. How could his body be expected to return to the sky, when his heart was on the ground? Never had another hand felt so right inside his own. Never had eyes looked so lovingly upon him, and though he knew she was right, they could never be together, the thought of leaving her with nothing more than a kiss made him anxious and sad.

One day another would kiss her, and he would be forced to watch her live as though she’d never loved him at all. She would marry and have children, and on that day she would no longer dance for him.

How could he be expected to sit up on high for the rest of her days, watching her live a life she should have spent with him?

When they reached the mountain, the sun swept her into his arms, and though his touch scorched her skin, she did not protest or cry out, and when he kissed her, she responded eagerly, her lithe form melting into his when she laid her head upon his shoulder.

Come with me, he begged. Even if it’s just for one night, come with me to my palace in the sky, and see how it would feel to be a queen.

I cannot, she said, drawing away. Their hands were still clasped, fingers twined together so it was easy for him to pull her to his chest again. If I come with you, I will never want to leave your side.

All the more reason to come. Look into your heart. I know you feel this, too. We were made for one another.

Even still, my place is here with my people, and yours is in the sky. While we’ve been walking, the world has grown dark and terrible because they believe you’ve left them without light. Crops whither, the cold is so fierce they all fear the end is nigh. Were I to come with you, my people would curse us both, you for abandoning your place in the sky, and me for luring you here. They would declare war eternal against the Shining Children, and though I love you, I love this world, and I would not see it suffer just so I might be happy for a little while.

There was no path to victory. The sun knew she spoke the truth, and so with a weary sigh, for he had never asked to be the sun, he squeezed her fingers inside his and said, "If I must give you back to your world, it will not be without these three gifts. I will take the heart from my breast so that you might always wear it close to yours. It will keep you warm even on the coldest nights, and though we are apart that piece of me will always be with you. Second, I shall plant the most beautiful flower