Man of Fire

By David Gearing

Man of Fire, Book 5 of the Shattering Series is the newest and most shocking addition to KD Johnson's The Shattering Series.

After watching the terrible destruction of Aelis, Luca, Arrin agree that Leanah has grown too strong to be brought down. All of the knowledge and training to master the powers of air, water, and earth may be too little too late as Leanah becomes a goddess among men.

Meanwhile, the Shaper, a seer who shapes the future out of clay, must form an unlikely alliance with a rogue assassin Viktor, on a quest for understanding a mysterious artifact and its role in preventing the coming apocalypse.

Leanah will destroy anything and anyone that gets in her way to save Aelis from the Elder Gods. All will pay for their utter abandonment of her home country.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Gearing
• Release date: Jul 27, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005573751

David Gearing

David Gearing is a recent transplant from the harsh Arizona deserts to the green forests of the Pacific Northwest. He plots, he games, he pretends to be his own living room rockstar when no one is looking. His other books range from various genres from thrillers to gothic horror and beyond. You can find him at his webpage DavidGearingBooks.com or at his publisher's website AkusaiPublishing.com

Book preview

1

1 Arrin

---

The fields had been an unexpected favorite spot for Arrin. They were just outside of the town that he had once called his home. Many, many years ago and what felt like lifetime after lifetime.

The fields were open, with a tree here or there scattered throughout. Trees just big enough to keep a small area of shade for the smaller creatures that called the long grasses its home.

Arrin found a round patch of grass that felt comfortable and right for the moment, and he sat down. He crosses his legs, bringing each foot just above the knees and closed his eyes.

He let his mind wander, though it seemed to rev up into the darkness of his mind.

He saw red and purples that swirled around into a dark pinpoint of a hole.

Then pink and purple.

And the purple started to talk. We need to talk.

Arrin waved her off. Not now, he said calmly, quietly. He let his emotions disappear behind his lungs, pushing them to the back of his stomach and he felt they were smaller than a breath of air.

We have been hiding long enough.

Arrin shook his head. Not hiding.

Yes, hiding, the woman’s voice said. Dianah had been an annoying pain of an elf, but Arrin felt oddly connected to her. As a non-human entity, they both knew what it was like to be surrounded by things and people that did not understand them.

Dianah would argue that they refused to understand, and that was an area in which they had to agree to disagree, as much as that expression had caused a slight pinch of pain in Arrin’s head.

I am busy, Arrin said. Kindly buzz off.

He felt cold hands grip his bald head, pulling it back so that his head faced the sky completely. The sun was warm, the breeze of the grass slipped into his narrow nostrils. He felt the urge to sneeze somewhere deep inside his throat, but he fought it off with a thought.

You are such a pain, Dianah said. Her purple hair fell over to the side of her head as she peered down, cascading the way a waterfall comes down the sides of rocks.

Dianah smiled with wide, dark lips that were almost purple in color. Her skin was lighter than his, almost pale. But he did not hold that against her.

I could easily say the same thing about you, Arrin said with a smirk.

Dianah nodded. Yes, well, we are wasting time here.

We both know that time here is inconsequential.

No, Arrin. Time is not inconsequential. Not here, at least. We move slower, yes, but there is very much a real world out there. And the more we ignore it, the more people die at that witch’s hands.

Arrin shook his head. You are too dramatic.

And you have no drama. Perhaps you could use some in your life to get you shaking.

Arrin’s legs and behind left the ground, carried upwards in a draft of strong, warm air. He spun himself around so that he could see Dianah eye-to-eye without having to relax from the lotus position.

Clever, Dianah said, but you clearly are not hearing me. Dianah turned around. We are safe here, yes. I’ll give you that. She started to yell at him as she walked away. But you do not have the slightest idea what it’s like out there. You are too afraid to leave.

Arrin shook his head. It was not fear. No. He felt not fear.

It was memory that kept him there. Safety was one thing, fear a driving factor in many lives.

But not his.

Arrin felt the ages pull at him. At nearly one hundred and twenty-five years old, Time herself had been sitting on the edge of its wall, waiting to hop down and take Arrin’s hand into the After Lands.

I am willing to listen, Arrin said. He opened his eyes, but she was a mere dot on the horizon.

Arrin closed his eyes again, hoping to fall back into the same trance he had begun.

But useless was an understatement. He pulled himself back to the ground, stretched out his tired legs and bones, and walked slowly back into the thin line of trees that separated the fields from the town.

---

2 Leanah

---

The bodies had begun to pile up just outside of the stone wall that surrounded the large stone tower in the middle of the greater plains.

The bodies were definitely new. Some of them not quite decomposed by the sun, nor eaten by the critters that were desperate for food after the recent fires.

Fires that Leanah herself had created.

She had mixed feelings about that. That was new.

The wall was also new, built by some of the neighboring towns at Leanah’s request. They did as she asked not because they were happy to help.

Leanah could sense the deep, dark dread somewhere in their chests as all of the towns agreed. They knew what consequences were. They understood that they could be next. Some even figured they would be next.

And Leanah let that hang over their heads.

That was not new.

Leanah stood at the great rectangular window on the third floor up from the tower. Only four floors, the tower was more assuming than actually dangerous. It tilted slightly to the west, but the base was strong. Leanah had seen to that by knocking it hard with fists of dark, dense shadow wrapped around her own tiny knuckles. Each punch was met with a rattling inside Leanah’s jaw.

Not many things in the world could do that to her, so she respected its strength. It was worthy of belonging to her. In her moment of need, she needed only the best and the strongest to survive.

And with that thought, she glanced over at the shiny metal blade that seemed more obsidian than shiny steel these days. When she had received it—stolen it, if you wanted to get technical—from her father, the blade was a bright and hungry silver. It was proud to be wielded. Proud to be out, hunting.

Then it turned dark. Heavy.

Leanah had wondered just what its problem was. It had stopped talking to her, but she still felt its strength inside her. Her muscles pulsed and throbbed when she felt angry. It was as if the strength of the very stone that made up the handle had somehow coursed through her veins.

She felt strength through that knowledge, that somehow, she might be able to finally destroy the Elder gods and everything they believed in. Make this world safe.

Safe in her own image.

And as she stood at the window, looking out into the buds of green that poked out of the distant borders of the scorched earth.

She had not intended that the ray of light be so intense that the earth itself is burnt into an uninhabitable husk. Drier than dirt, it would be incapable of supporting any living creature for years to come.

And yet, she had managed to do it, intention or not.

Leanah gripped the edge of the window with her left and right hands, letting them slide down so only her fingertips held her still. She leaned her body outward, bending it out so that the wind could pull at her waist and hips. She closed her eyes, her own green cloak flapping and whipping about her.

She smiled. Leanah had forgotten what it felt to be free.

The moments were fleeting, when she wasn’t so burdened down by her duty to protect the world from those who would do it harm.

The once bustling, coastal town of Schorna had stopped smoking three weeks ago. It was now just gray and black ash, soft as the snows that fell in the early winters. No one lived there for weeks until about last week when she had spotted a small wagon pulled by a thin, red horse. A family of four walked behind it.

The father figure was strong and young. Naïve. He thought he could fix the land, no doubt. Survive where others had given up hope.

He had been wrong and left sooner than they had hoped. For a while they were able to eat fish. But even fish knew to stay away from the disaster that was once one of the happiest villages along the southern coast.

Which was why Leanah felt the need to scratch her head at the sight of people, at least a small party, coming toward her tower.

Leanah shook her head. Not again.

She turned from the window and dropped down off the sill. The soft heels of her leather boots created a soft thud sound that kicked up a little cloud of dust that disappeared quickly around her feet.

Leanah smelled dust when she would rather smell food. Saw bodies when she would rather see cows and chickens.

These things that the gods and goddesses just let happen without a single bit of doubt. No worries from the gods, sitting in their mighty thrones and mocking it creatures as they live their miserable lives.

Leanah pulled her fingers into tight fists so hard her knuckles cracked. What do you want this time? she asked, though there was no on there to hear her.

She walked the long hallways of the tower out to the middle of the first floor. Down below, a dungeon-like floor that was as dark as a dungeon but held supplies that had long since gone rotten. The rats and birds had fed on them for the past few months, until they, too, stopped coming around.

Leanah stood in front of the wooden door that separated her from the outside world. The wood seemed enchanted somehow, though she couldn’t quite explain or decipher where it was from. The doors were made out of a single piece of wood, reinforced with another layer of wood laying perpendicular to the first sheet. She found comfort in the attention to details, though she missed the strong, almost rustic look of her father’s doors.

The doors lowered with a flick of her wrist. A shadow-like tendril unwrapped itself from her wrists and forearms in a slow, lazy movement.

Then, as words flickered in her mind’s eye, the tendrils whipped about the doorway, triggering it to pull up and out of the way.

Leanah stood in the middle of the doorway. A small creature in a giant doorway. She was aware of the visual that she inadvertently created.

Perhaps it made her seem mightier as she stood with impressive stone towers and doorways large enough to let in a giant. Or perhaps it only drew unnecessary attention toward her small stature.

Probably the latter, and Leanah gritted her teeth together.

The crowd in front of her moved quickly, pulling in a tighter formation—a circle—as they approached.

For effect, Leanah stepped into the shadows of her tower, long shadow that were cast from the wide angle the sun’s rays met with the tower’s walls and edges. While there, she felt the shade’s cooling embrace.

And something like a tug at the deepest parts of her. Her soul? Is that what Papa would call it?

Leanah stepped up into the shadows again, pulling it up and around her, covering her the way a cloth wraps around a baby.

And she pulled herself out of the shadows, feeling it pull at her and give resistance.

When she emerged from the shadows, her skin glistened with a liquid-like black film around her body. She grinned, though she wasn’t quite sure if it would show in her current state.

She allowed herself to appear larger, wider, than she was in real life.

The crowd approached, and then stopped just short of the shadow’s edge.

Leanah let out a sigh as if she were irritated by the men’s presence. What can I do you for? she asked. Her voice felt deep and dark like a rumble in a cave.

The crowd had been made up of finely dressed aristocrats. The blondest of the plutocrats, a younger looking boy with blue eyes that rivaled the sky stepped forward. He knelt down, then bowed, unsure of what was most appropriate.

Leanah did not correct him.

We come offering you homage, the boy said. His voice cracked, but he was not of that age to be so young. He caught this himself and cleared his throat. He looked up, his eyes piercing. I mean, we come offering you gifts. Payment in honor of your greatness.

Leanah stood up on the tips of her toes, peering over the crowd. I see no gifts, she said. Leave. Now.

Please, the boy said again. He knelt down completely, his head facing downward, arms in front of him. Please, we beg you. Take our gifts.

What are these gifts? she said.

The boy lifted his head. We offer you people.

Leanah scoffed, turning around back to the tower. You insult me, she said.

Do I? the boy said. He had stood up, bowing and still speaking to the ground. You have a large tower, and yet I see no others around. Perhaps you could use the help?

Leanah flung a hand up in front of her, backslapping the air.

A dark mass had risen up in front of the boy and pelted him in the face. His feet left the ground and he spun in a half circle before landing again in the heavy, dark black dirt.

I mean you no insult, the boy said.

Leanah turned back to face him. She pushed past the crowd, nudging them away with small arms of black that poked out from her shadow-like armor. You come here selling your own people out of fear? Leanah said. She could not take her eyes off of his. Those bright blues that seem to have no depth to them, no bounds. The sea had once looked that beautiful.

Leanah stood up tall, then grabbed the boy the neck. She held him up to his feet, then pointed his head to the burnt cinders of Schorna. You see this?

The boy nodded. Leanah felt his voice through her fingertips. Yes.

I did that, she said. And I will not hesitate to do that again. All I need from you is a reason.

Leanah dropped the kid. He scrambled to his feet and stood back to the crowd. From here, Leanah could see that the boy was dressed in what looked like a dark blue velvet that was held tight with a golden cord belt around his waist. He tugged on his robes to adjust them and straighten them out.

I mean you no harm, the boy repeated.

You mean me no harm, Leanah said mockingly. You mean me no harm. You mean me no harm! Leanah’s voice cracked like thunder over the crowd and they huddled together even tighter than before.

A bolt of lightning struck the ground in front of her feet. She felt the brief spark of heat on the edge of her nose, then the sudden cool air that filled its place after the lightning had gone.

But the boy stood still.

Where are you from? Leanah said.

We come from Boyl Rock.

That is just near the mountains, Leanah said. Near the Kaverin Mountains.

The boy nodded. You’ve heard of us.

I grew up not far from there.

The boy smiled, though Leanah was not sure if he should be. You’re proud to have me from your region?

The boy’s face went white. He turned to the others, looking for words of encouragement.

He found none.

We hope that perhaps, ma’am, that your familiarity with our area, our region would, um, the boy swallowed to buy himself some time. Perhaps you would be a bit gentler upon us.

Leanah looked back at the town, the smoldering, lifeless crater. You mean like this?

The boy shook his head. My name is Pevit, the boy said. And, if I may speak freely, ma’am.

Leanah crossed her arms across her chest. Yes, she said. This should be entertaining.

We know about the destruction of Schorna. We know you are the one who did it. Our seers had observed it all.

Seers? Leanah said. She released her arms from her chest and peered down her nose at him. You have seers as well?

Pevit nodded. His boyish looks and soft skin began to sweat under the afternoon sun. Yes, my lady.

I did not know that everyone was allowed to have their own Shapers now. Leanah snapped her fingers.

Quick footsteps pitter-patted down the hallways, echoing down the stone steps.

It makes mine feel so less special, Leanah said.

Pevit nodded. Yes, my lady. But if I am honest with you, we are frightened of you. All towns are. They fear that you will turn an angry eye toward them.

Leanah bit her lower lip to keep from smiling. She was rather enjoying the fear that she felt from these fancy men lying prostrate in front of her.

"If you want to keep me from turning to you, do not ever offer your people to me as slaves. Believe me, please. If I want something, she paused. Or someone I will go ahead and take it."

Pevit nodded. I see.

Though Leanah had doubted that he really did. The temptation was there, laid out, for her to take over and show him. She could show him exactly what it felt like to be a slave. To be bought and sold.

Return, Leanah said. Back to your homes, to your villages. I don’t want anything with you except for your allegiance.

And you have that, my lady.

Leanah could not get enough of that. The words my lady had reminded Leanah of her mother from years ago back in Vamori Village. She had wanted to be a my lady someday.

She had never thought it would be now.

But before you go, Leanah said. She turned to the castle once more, walking quickly. When she heard nothing behind her, she paused her step, held her hand out, and snapped her fingers.

Pevit ran to her, hiding out just behind her shoulders. Yes, my lady.

I want you to tell me, exactly. What happened at the Citadel, that everyone has a shaper now?

There has been a takeover, Pevit said. A rather hostile one. Rumors have spread that the On High are dead, but no one has been able to confirm it.

Leanah waved for Pevit to follow her into the ancient stone home. They walked past the shadows and into the cold entrance to the tower. The shadows that had wrapped themselves around her melted to the ground and left her feet as if she had just stepped out of a puddle.

She could sense the heartbeats in Pevit’s chest speed up then suddenly stand still for a half a breath.

Yes, Leanah said, it is impressive. She stopped just before the stone steps leading up to the second and third floors. The stairs were built into the wall and circled around the inner wall of the building. To walk upstairs was to walk in circles twice the inside circumference of the tower.

The trick was to not look down.

As Leanah had reached the middle of the stairs to the second floor, she caught a glimpse of a dark blue robe and bare feet before her. Peer up, a bald head and an old, smiling mouth. Hello, Leanah, Alberto said. His shiny head had a gleam of light that glinted off the corner of his round noggin. What can I do for you?

Pevit, Leanah said. Meet my seer.

Seer, ma’am? Alberto said. He held his hands at his side, standing tall.

Leanah dismissed his words with a wave of her hand. I didn’t have to get him, though. He came to me. She paused, motioning for Alberto to get out of her way.

He stepped aside.

Can you imagine that? Leanah continued.

No, I cannot. Pevit walked just past Alberto, trying not to lock eyes.

Leanah pretended to not notice that they were somehow communicating with each other through flicks of their eyebrows.

She knew the warnings. The darkness hides nothing.

Come, Leanah said. We could use some tea and a few words about what’s come of the Citadel.

Pevit nodded and followed her upstairs.

---

3 Luca

---

Luca decided that the best possible place to watch the match was from the sidelines, up on stone steps that led up to a hill of wooden houses. Small one- and two-room houses that were just enough for Luca and his best friends and traveling companions as they hid out in this pocket town that existed both inside a try and nowhere in particular.

Luca had stopped counting the weeks since they ran here for the first time. His friend Lyle and the new elfin woman Dianah had discovered it first.

It was a beautiful world, with grass greener than the emeralds he had seen around the necks of rich city women. The grass had been twice as shiny as well, especially in the morning when blades of grass were covered in sparkling drops of dew.

While Luca had grown up on northern shores of Aroko, he could not remember the last time he had ever seen water droplets that pure. That pristine.

The thoughts brought with them the terrible weight of missing home, the soft wooden and straw huts that he had grown up in.

And this was a dangerous place for his mind to wander. Because no matter what he felt, and how he tried to swerve his memories into a good place, he always thought about Grenseal.

The fire mage and potential love of his life.

They had spent years together, both learning about themselves and each other as they struggled to contain the elements that sat inside their earrings and their palms.

Grenseal would always sense these moments in Luca, when he would let the weight of the world lay out completely across his broad, caramel-colored shoulders and press Luca’s normally high spirits back down to earth.

And so Luca found a nice place on the stone steps, away from the oncoming carnage, to watch the little boy he had come to love as a little brother spar with the beautiful young girl that brought as many smiles as she did confidence that the world was still filled with good people.

Luca shifted his foot, still in a leather boot that the Shaper had learned to make out of cowhides found in distant sheds in this pocket world.

The shoes were uncomfortable at first, but he felt the freedom of them breaking in, thank the Elders.

If he had to walk around in leather stiff as metal, he would rather go barefoot. It was freer, and the way Luca’s feet often felt as if they were burning, might be a welcomed change.

Are you ready? Lyle shouted out with a laugh. His brown cloak waved in the air around his shoulders like flag, drifting off to the left side. Lyle rushed his hand through his short hair.

The wooden bangle that had been stuck on his wrist for the past seven years—when he was five—reflected a bit of the light that came from a sun that shouldn’t be there.

Yup! shouted the cute little voice from the other side of the field. Villi. A beautiful young girl with big pink cheeks that always seemed to glow with happiness and confidence and sense of self that was rarely found in young children, let alone adult men and women. She pushed her tan cloak down around her waist, tugging it tighter around the leather breastplate that seemed magically fused to her body.

Lyle stood up tall, bringing his feet together.

Arrin would have his head if he saw what Lyle was doing.

I’m not going to go easy on you! he shouted.

And Villi, from the other side of the field, began to laugh. You got nothing!

Lyle curled his fingers into tight fists. The twelve-year-old boy pulled his left foot back into a battle stance that had taken months of practice to pull off. As strong as Lyle was, he was hardly a gifted fighter.

What damage Lyle could do in a fight came from his obscene strength that allowed him to take a hit as well as dish one out. He had shattered boulders, ripped trees from the ground, and saved horses from drowning. Each time, barely breaking a sweat while doing it.

Luca had always wondered how far he could take that strength.

Arrin, the trainer of the crew, had refused to find out. He still has time to grow, Arrin said in his slow, almost monotone voice. We have nothing to worry about yet.

It was the yet that got to Luca, but he had brushed it off. Arrin was getting a darker view of the world as time progressed.

Lyle pulled one fist behind him, bending his elbow so his arms created a straight line through his shoulders. Here I come! he shouted.

Bring it! Villi shouted back. She laughed.

Lyle did not. Instead, he grunted, kicked off the ground with a thick cloud of dirt and clumps of grass exploding into the air.

The two met somewhere in the middle.

Lyle pulled one of his tiny fists back, then launched it into Villi’s shoulder.

Villi stood still, her shoulder twitching only a little bit.

The impact was enough to make Luca flinch, shielding his ice blue eyes from the wave of air that grew out from the impact.

Hey, hey, hey, Luca said. He rolled himself back off his feet, pulling his knees toward his barrel chest. Go easy, will you?

Villi shrugged and tilted her head to the side. Her blond pigtails swung with her head movements. Why? she said. It doesn’t hurt.

Lyle stood up and brushed the dirt off his shoes. Yeah, we need the practice. He turned to Villi and assumed his stance again. Not everyone has had all this practice like you have.

Luca stood up, shaking his head. Yes, I know, he said. You’re calling me old.

Lyle laughed from behind him. Villi joined him.

Whatever, you two. Go have your fun. Luca climbed the steps toward the largest building at the top of the hill. It was one of the few three-bedroom buildings in the town. Arrin claimed it served as a government building, but it was too big, to elaborate,