Soulblade: A Dance of Fire & Shadow, #4

By Jay Aspen

Ariel faces her most challenging adventures yet on this perilous journey into the heart of enemy territory.

 

Somewhere deep in the wild swamplands of Rapathia there will be a final confrontation with evil forces that could yet overrun the whole of the known world.

 

She joins the elite team of Eldrin defenders to search for the original cause of the war, only to discover far more than they bargained for.

 

Meanwhile, back in Samaran, Ariel's sister is once more in danger from unexpected sources as she investigates traitors perilously close to the king and crown prince.

 

Soulblade is the fourth book in A Dance of Fire & Shadow, the epic fantasy adventure-romance series from Jay Aspen.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sandfire Publishing Ltd
• Release date: Aug 25, 2022
• ISBN: 9781386999683

Jay Aspen

Jay writes from experiences in wilderness travel and extreme sports; snow peaks in the Andes, big walls in Yosemite and Baffin Island, sailing the Irish sea to photograph puffins and dolphins. A science degree and training with Himalayan shamans led to an interest in bio-psychology. She lives in the wild Welsh Borders, sings jazz, rides horses.

Book preview

1

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THIS IS THE SECRET history according to me, Jaren, Scribe to Valara who is the Commander and First Knight of Eldaran. She has truly shown herself to be the leader we were waiting for. She is the Power Mage who gave her Knights the fighting skill and strength of Maratic, to defeat all the other warring tribes of Samaran. Now we have peace at last. Freedom from the interminable raids that had brought us nothing but years of death and poverty.

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But even a Power Mage cannot see all future paths leading from her chosen battle plans. I now believe that Valara’s victory will sow the seeds of future disaster, even as she has established a golden age for Eldaran and its people.

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I have to persuade the Knights that rule by Mage-warriors with such great power is a path to tyranny. If this new kingdom of Samaran is to survive and prosper, we must forge this sacred law, that the King must be a civilian. He must not be one of us. Our task must be as guardians, protecting the King and citizens of Samaran. Every Power Mage, even from a royal lineage, must swear a solemn oath to the Eldrin never to take the throne.

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Now as I, Jaren, watch the seeds of a dark future being sown in the founding of this great new nation, I hold to one last hope. That the scattered descendants of our new Queen will one day find their way to Maratic. That even after many centuries, they will find my secret history and see the truth in my words.

A COOL WIND SWEEPS across the Vale of Eldaran, curving and writhing its way through the gnarled rocks that form the pinnacle of Maratic, while the surrounding snow mountains glow dull silver in the moonlight. I feel impatient, pacing back and forth across the courtyard outside the training cave, wondering why this conversation between Jantian and Marin is taking so long.

Enough. The anger inside me is still there, a seething resentment at the way the Eldrin commander ruthlessly used Marin to win our victory over the invaders. I head for the entrance, to be stopped by a firm hand on my arm. I know who it is, even before I turn to see the tall Fae warrior with the insight to intervene at my worst moments. As well as the uncanny skill to arrive as silently as only Elf or Nishan knows how.

I try to push his hand away. Deris, let me go. If I don’t get a chance to tell Jantian what I think of his methods, I’m more likely to lose control altogether and end up burning the whole place into a pinnacle of glass.

He simply tightens his grip, unmoved by the dragonfire flaring around my fingers.

"Then this is the perfect opportunity to learn. Get control of the power you have, once and for all. Ariel, no one’s life is in danger at this moment, so you can put all your focus on that one thing."

I try to twist out of his grip, glancing apprehensively at the dark archway of the cave entrance. The man I love is facing the worst nightmare of his life and I can’t work out what to do about it.

"But Marin’s life is in danger! Or it will be, if Jantian gets his way again and pushes him into every perverse situation he can think of. If he thinks it’s expedient of course, never mind what happens to Marin at the end of it. I can hear the bitterness in my own voice and withdraw the flames, anxious that I might have burned my friend. Are your hands all right?"

He must sense that he has already delayed my mission with Jantian because he releases my arm and holds out his palm for inspection. Even in the dusk I can see that he is unscathed. I look up at him, knowing he can read the question on my face.

He gives a dismissive shrug. I have been spending as many hours as I can spare, working with Jantian’s training. Maybe my Elven heritage helps. Now I can push the ice in different directions, into different parts of my body, if I really concentrate. I was about at my limit just then, though. If you had really tried to burn me, you could have killed me easily.

I suddenly catch a glimpse of the exhaustion behind the tangible aura of power I can feel whenever I am near Deris these days. He really did not need this burden on top of the hard discipline of his Eldrin training at Maratic. And I caused it.

Deris, I really am sorry I inflicted you with the same curse that the Shadowblade gave me.

He sits down on the low parapet guarding the edge of the courtyard, unaffected by the sheer drop below.

"Ariel, I keep telling you, don’t be sorry. If you had held back from healing that arrow wound, it would surely have killed me. Now I have a second chance at life. Yes, it is hard, but now I can use this power to serve the country that gave shelter to my people after our islands were overrun. That makes it a privilege."

I don’t know how you stick with it. How often I think longingly of the simple life that was once mine, back with my family in our village of Caerlen.

Green Elf-eyes fix their steady gaze on mine. "I stay with it because if I cause any kind of disaster by abusing what I can do, it is not only my life that would be forfeit. My kind would suffer by association. Our havens in the western forest would be threatened."

I know he’s right. King Tandarion would never order that kind of mindless retaliation, but there are plenty of people who see no further than the first easy target for their anger. Thoughts about Marin’s father immediately lead me back to the original source of my restlessness. Marin himself.

"It’s worse for Marin than for either of us, though. I chose to ask for Shadowblade power because I needed it to rescue my sister. But Marin didn’t make that choice. He never wanted that kind of unearned advantage in a fight. I just inflicted healing on him because I wanted to show off what I could do, even though the wound wasn’t serious––"

Ariel, stop. It happened. Your feelings of guilt are behind a lot of your anger at Jantian for the way he used Marin’s skill and leadership to defeat the Rapathians. You have to remember that Jantian is a military commander, which means pushing his people into danger to save the country from the invaders. And it will always be the strongest among us who are sent into the front line of any conflict.

I’m starting to feel impatient again. "It isn’t about being ordered into the worst of the fighting! I can accept that. It’s the way Jantian trained Marin since he quit the palace as a child, conditioning him to obey orders, keep his word, to form his whole life around the ideals of the Eldrin. Yes, I believe him when he says the hard discipline is the only way to gain control over the force a Power Mage can take from Maratic––but what did he think would happen when he suddenly ordered Marin to break every oath he has ever sworn and claim the throne? And then do nothing to save him from being branded a traitor?"

The anger is flaring again with the thought of it. Even Deris seems subdued now I have put it into words so harshly.

I know. It... was a gamble that didn’t work out as well as it could have. Jantian had hoped to set things up so that once the battle was won, Marin could fake his own death, quit the disguise he used for his role as King and warlord, and go back quietly to his post with the Eldrin.

So what did go wrong?

Jantian didn’t anticipate the effect the dragon-power would suddenly have on Marin after he survived the initiation with Zandar.

I can feel the dragonfire starting to flare again.

"He could have asked me! I would have told him exactly how difficult it is to deal with."

Deris deliberately lays his hands on mine, challenging me to pull back rather than burn him. Ariel, it will be up to us to get Marin through this. It won’t be easy, not if we are being sent on another mission sometime in the next few days.

I give a huff of exasperation. "When is Jantian going to tell us what that is all about?"

After we have dealt with the war-wounded––and we are going to need your help with the healing. You’re the only one out of the three of us who can do it without passing on Shadowblade power.

My thoughts on that idea are less than encouraging.

"That is going to be a precarious negotiation with Shadow. I can’t heal more than maybe two serious cases without his help. And I can just imagine how he’s going to react to a request to save his long-time enemies."

Remind him that circumstances have changed. He is finally back in Maratic, just as he schemed and planned for so many centuries. Now he has to find a way to co-exist with the Eldrin. Maybe the scholars will dig up more old manuscripts and discover exactly how Nissanda managed to negotiate that situation with her own Elemental in Annubia.

I don’t feel too hopeful on that score. Yes, Nissanda managed to persuade a wild fire-drake to swear never to harm Annubians––and to allow her elite Nishan assassins to train in his ancestral place of power. But she was dealing with an ancient Elemental who had not been corrupted by centuries of exile and suffering, all the while nurturing bitter thoughts of vengeance.

We, on the other hand, are starting from a completely different place when it comes to negotiating with Shadow.

2

JANTIAN WALKS OUT OF the tall arch of the cave entrance and crosses the courtyard, his fierce grey eyes turning a warning glare in my direction as if he knows what I am about to say.

Ariel, we can discuss what has passed later, after we have dealt with the current emergency. They will be bringing in the wounded any minute now.

He disappears into the tunnel leading to the approach-trail to the rock pinnacle. All thoughts of challenging Jantian temporarily disappear. This might be my last chance to snatch a precious few minutes with Marin before new orders disrupt everything again. I hurry into the great dome of the glittering crystal-lined training cave at the heart of Maratic.

Marin is sitting by the stone bench on the far side, his face lit in shades of flickering red-gold from the torches on the walls. To my relief, the black hair and beard of his disguise as King Tieran has gone and his hair is back to its natural tangle of soft brown curls. If only the memories those few terrible days could be erased as easily as the disguise. A bloody battle, followed by the savage penalties inflicted on him after the confrontation with his father. I run across to him, noticing how the fine contours of his face are drawn with exhaustion and tension and it tears at my heart.

He looks up. Ariel, I can sense how angry you are about all this, and it isn’t helping.

I reach out to clasp his hand and feel the dragonfire in him, sparking against my own. I pull back in shock from the crackling sting of ice-lightning as it dances between us. All through my own struggles with this, I have been able to turn to Marin when I needed his love and calm control to pacify the wild power inside me. Now he needs me to get him through the same thing––and I don’t have anything to give. My own feelings of inadequacy only serve to feed my anger at Jantian. Whatever Marin’s conversation with his commander was about, it surely hasn’t helped him come to terms with what has happened.

"Just stay with it for a while, Marin. I’ve been talking to Deris and we will think of a way to get through this somehow. When I’ve given Jantian a piece of my mind about how he handled the whole thing––as if we’re no more than carved pieces for him to move around on his personal Tican board!"

Marin’s shoulders slump wearily. You really think there is any way out of this? That we can ever be seen as anything but criminals, traitors, a collective deadly threat to the future of Samaran?

I have never seen him like this before. He has seldom talked much about the time when he exchanged the privileges and luxury of the royal palace for the hard life of a soldier, but when he does speak of it there has never been any hint of regret for what he chose to abandon. Jantian’s training, the loyalty and trust of his close friends, his sense of purpose in protecting his country and the King, has always felt more valuable to him than the wealth and adulation afforded to royalty.

And now all those things that meant so much to him have been taken away, leaving him with nothing but the brand of a traitor.

No. Not everything has been stolen from him.

Marin, you’re not on your own with this. Don’t think for a minute your friends will abandon you because of what happened. And if Jantian wants us to go and deal with some new problem in the murky depths of Rapathia, I’m going to make sure he steps up and does a lot more to fix the damage he has already caused.

Marin doesn’t answer, simply reaching out and gripping my hand, just as I have done so often with him when I needed reassurance. It feels like a new level of responsibility that I’m fearful I won’t be able to live up to. I glance round as a shadow falls across the moonlit arch of the cave entrance.

Brac walks in, carrying Nem. He kneels to lay her on the ground and looks up anxiously at me.

She was mending well, and then t’ fever took her.

I sink to my knees beside the half-conscious Annubian, her fierce vitality now suppressed by the raging fever beading her face with sweat. I haven’t seen her since she was wounded in the fight for Samaran’s freedom. All I could do then was to push her onto my horse to get her out of the battle. I reach out to touch the festering gash in her shoulder but her dark eyes suddenly snap wide open as her hand grabs my wrist.

No! Ariel, I don’t want...

I try to carefully peel her fingers off me.

Nem, I know what you’re thinking, but nothing bad is going to happen. Just ask Brac. It has been weeks now since I healed him after the battle in the Northlands and there has been no sign of Blade adept developing in him.

Brac leans closer and supports her head.

She’s right, Nem. Nothing changed in me except that I’m still alive, instead of being dead. You saw yourself how bad that wound was before Ariel healed it. Jantian checked as well, and he says it’s true––now Ariel and Shadow are so closely bound, her healing doesn’t affect people t’ way we fear Marin and Deris would. And we all need you alive and fit for what we have to do next.

Nem lets out a long sigh and reluctantly releases my wrist. Fine. Go ahead.

It doesn’t take long. I lay my hands on the infected wound and watch the feverish flush slowly fade from her face.

Nem, sleep. You might be lucky and get an hour’s rest while I’m dealing with the other casualties. Then we have to get ourselves alert enough to deal with whatever it is Jantian has in store for us in Rapathia.

She tries to smile, a flicker of her habitual sharp comments resurfacing already.

Don’t tell me any more details, please. Even a few days in that overgrown swamp sounds like the worst deployment of my life.

None of us know any more than that, so I couldn’t tell you anything even if I tried. I turn away to count how many more casualties are being carried inside by the teams of Eldrin. They must have brought the most serious cases here directly from the battlefield. There are too many for me to handle without help. I close my eyes and focus.

Shadow, I’m going to need you with me on this.

I still don’t fully understand how he seems to hear me, no matter how quietly I speak when making the summons. Reassuring at times like this when I need his help, but it does make me wonder how much of my life he is able to spy on with that damn scrying skill of his.

A few minutes later Shadow walks in through the entrance, his tall powerful form silhouetted in a swirl of black robes against the pale moonlight outside. He pauses, pushing back his hood and looking around to take in the number of wounded laid out on the floor. Then he walks slowly and deliberately to the central point of the arched space and turns to me with a faint but triumphant smile.

Brac lets out a snort of indignation. Standing there as if he owns the place...

Wait. I lay a restraining hand on the gruff Northerner’s arm, feeling more tension in the bulky muscles than I expected. "Don’t let Shadow goad you. Bear in mind this was his place until Valara and her knights destroyed his kind and banished him to the wilderness. After waiting so many centuries to return, it’s not surprising if he over-reacts sometimes."

Brac stares at me, frowning as he pushes blood-matted russet hair from his face. Looks like he has given himself no time to rest since the battle.

Ariel? Whose side are you on?

I don’t think it really is about taking sides. Something Jantian said after finding those ancient scrolls in the archives...

I have to break off this conversation and concentrate on the task in hand. Shadow knows only too well what I need. He doesn’t wait for my request, drawing in Maratic’s power and passing it on to me. I’m guessing he wants to demonstrate that he can do this on his own terms, without anyone making threats to ensure he doesn’t take too much.

Now I need to focus on healing Eldrin casualties from what I fervently hope was our final battle to defeat the Rapathian invaders.

3

THE END OF THE LONG healing session does not leave me with the same kind of deathly exhaustion I experienced when doing it alone, but the constant replenishment of power from Shadow brings its own disorientation. I feel as if a great river of energy has been flowing through me, washing away the weight of bone and muscle and leaving only a thin transparency instead of a solid body. I feel compelled to reaffirm that I still fully exist, grasping the handle of my dagger in an effort to convince myself that it will not simply pass through my hand.

Ariel? You all right?

Deris again. He seems to be taking his guardian role as seriously as ever. Constantly checking up on me to make sure I’m not about to go wild and inflict more death and damage where I shouldn’t. It suddenly occurs to me that he noticed the weapon in my hand and probably thought I was planning another deadly attack on someone.

Deris, really, I’m not going to actually use the blade. I just need to feel sure I can still hold on to things.

His expression shifts from anxiety to puzzlement. You shouldn’t feel weak if Shadow has been supporting you.

Not weak. Sort of washed out, half wraith instead of solid human.

He passes me a glass of water.

Drink this. And you’re probably hungry. I’ll go and get you something to eat. But please, put that blade away first.

I sheath the dagger. The water helps, but I still feel... not just light-headed, but light-bodied as well. Maybe Deris is right and I’m just hungry. But I can fetch my own food. I don’t need Deris waiting on me hand and foot even if he is my designated minder. I turn to follow him into the Eldrin living quarters.

Jantian blocks my way. Ariel. Are you still hoping to be accepted into the Eldrin?

I wasn’t expecting that. But after what has passed during these last two days, I am suspicious. Jantian could simply be using the offer as a way of flouting my desire to challenge him. For all my anger, I’m still intimidated by his aura of authority.

Maybe. I feel less sure about it after the way you’ve been using us for the fight against the Rapathians. Especially the way you used Marin. And you delayed your offer for so long. Why now?

He deflects my question with a vague answer that tells me nothing. I think it will be a useful asset before I send you on this mission to Rapathia. Deris will give you all the answers you need about what is involved. After that, you may ask me anything you want. You have seven hours to prepare while I deal with some essential business elsewhere.

I wrestle with a conflicting mix of feelings as I watch him walk away. I know I don’t have an alternative to accepting his offer unless I want to become a hunted fugitive for whatever remains of my life. But there are too many possible outcomes running through my mind to be able to think clearly.

I hardly notice the generous wedge of bread and cheese Deris shoves into my hands. I munch slowly and automatically, trying to work out what should be my top priority in the remaining time I have as a free woman.

Deris, Jantian says you have to help me prepare for Eldrin initiation. But there are a few things I have to do first. Will you be here all day?

Yes. I volunteered to help with the wounded while they finish recovering. He frowns. What else could be more important to you than preparing to swear allegiance?

Better you don’t know. Before he can stop me, I run outside to catch up with Shadow in the courtyard.

Shadow, this is my last chance to talk to my sister before Jantian sends me on this new mission to Rapathia. I glance back over my shoulder in case Deris is on my tail again, but he seems to have decided this might be one argument he won’t win. Maybe he has worked out exactly the same issue that I have. Once I am sworn