Ghost in the Sun

By Jonathan Moeller

A dark queen rises.

Talmania Scorneus has seized the power of the Iron King for herself and now leads her undead armies across the Empire.

Only Caina and her friends stand in her way.

And the cost of defeating Talmania might be Caina's life...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jonathan Moeller
• Release date: Nov 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005330118

Jonathan Moeller

Standing over six feet tall, Jonathan Moeller has the piercing blue eyes of a Conan of Cimmeria, the bronze-colored hair of a Visigothic warrior-king, and the stern visage of a captain of men, none of which are useful in his career as a computer repairman, alas.He has written the "Demonsouled" trilogy of sword-and-sorcery novels, and continues to write the "Ghosts" sequence about assassin and spy Caina Amalas, the "$0.99 Beginner's Guide" series of computer books, and numerous other works.Visit his website at:http://www.jonathanmoeller.comVisit his technology blog at:http://www.jonathanmoeller.com/screed

Book preview

GHOST IN THE SUN

Jonathan Moeller

***

Description

A dark queen rises.

Talmania Scorneus has seized the power of the Iron King for herself and now leads her undead armies across the Empire.

Only Caina and her friends stand in her way.

And the cost of defeating Talmania might be Caina's life...

***

Ghost in the Sun

Copyright 2021 by Jonathan Moeller.

Cover design by Clarissa Yeo.

Ebook edition published November 2021.

Smashwords Edition.

All Rights Reserved.

This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination, or, if real, used fictitiously. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written permission of the author or publisher, except where permitted by law.

***

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***

Chapter 1: The Iron Queen

Talmania stole the relics from us, said Caina Kardamnos. So, we’re going to steal them right back, and this time we’re going to destroy them.

Silence answered her.

Caina stood on the western wall of Iramis, the fields outside the city stretching towards the horizon. The fields should have been peaceful, but the wreckage of battle covered them. Bones and armor from destroyed undead creatures blanketed the earth. The ground had been torn up and charred from the release of powerful spells and from the stride of summoned elementals.

She was looking at the wreckage of the Umbarian Order.

Once the Order had almost conquered the entire Empire and been stopped from killing the Emperor and sweeping into the Imperial capital only by the thinnest of margins.

Now the Umbarians’ last strength had been destroyed below the walls of Iramis. Most of the Umbarian magi had been killed, the rest scattered. Their Kagari allies had abandoned them, and the Order’s conscripted infantry had surrendered without a fight. Prince Nasser would let the common soldiers go in peace. Some, Caina knew, would find their way home. Others had no homes left to go to, their villages and towns reduced to ruins by the Umbarians.

The Umbarian Order had been destroyed, and now something worse might rise from its ashes.

A crowd had gathered on the rampart over the city’s western gate. Prince Nasser and his chief advisors had commanded the battle from here. Caina and her family and friends had just returned from the Towers of Lore, where they had hurried to stop Talmania Scorneus from stealing the relics.

They had failed. Caina hadn’t figured out that Lord Haznar had betrayed them until it was too late. Rania Scorneus and Tarran Thunderclap had been killed in the fighting, but Talmania had escaped with the relics of the Iron King.

Caina didn’t know when Talmania would attempt the summoning of Rasarion Yagar and his undead army, but she knew it would be soon.

A fine place to start, said Prince Nasser. The ruler of Iramis wore scale armor similar to that of a valikarion knight, his hand resting on his sword hilt. But where to start? The power of Sigilsoara will allow Talmania to travel anywhere.

She will go to Rasadda, said Calvia, and Seb nodded in agreement.

Caina looked at her half-brother and half-sister. Calvia and Seb were twins, with Calvia the elder by a few moments. Though Caina, Calvia, and Seb looked enough alike that they might have been triplets. The blood of House Scorneus seemed to breed true from generation to generation.

Talmania wants to bring order to the Empire, said Seb. She betrayed the Umbarians, and now she will try to kill the Emperor and put herself in his place. Since the Emperor is in Rasadda, she will go there.

At least he has the Legions and most of the battle magi with him, said Kylon. His expression was grim, but Caina’s husband usually had a grim look on his face, save for when they were alone together, when she could get him to relax. But now, Kylon looked like he was about to go into battle.

They will help, but it will not be enough, said a soft voice with a strong Ulkaari accent. Nadezhda was a small, sharp-featured woman with black hair and eyes. She wore the gleaming silver armor that the Cataphract had made for her, her valikon staff in her right hand. Talmania will summon the Iron King at once, thinking to bind him to her will.

Can Talmania truly do it? said Ilona. She looked a great deal like Nadezhda, with black hair and dark eyes, though she was several inches taller and more athletic. Ilona’s childhood had been hard, but she hadn’t been enslaved as Nadezhda had. She’s become so powerful. Is she strong enough to dominate the Iron King?

Perhaps, said the Cataphract. Aristaces Strato was a thousand years old, but he looked somewhere in his upper thirties, with graying black hair and keen gray eyes. He wore the black plate armor of a battle magus of the Imperial Magisterium, though his armor was far more powerfully enspelled than that of a normal battle magus. Strato had made it himself, after all, and the Ulkaari had given him the title of the Armorer for a good reason. His black helmet was tucked beneath his left arm, and in his right hand, he held his staff. Talmania Scorneus was a spellcaster of exceptional power and skill. Yet so was Rasarion Yagar. She may have the strength to bind the Iron King. Or she might summon him only to be enslaved and devoured herself.

Wouldn’t that be a pity, muttered Calvia. Her hair was almost the exact shade of white as the walls of Iramis.

Indeed, said Strato, save that Yagar would hardly be sated by her death. It would be only the beginning, and he would work to bring Temnuzash’s Final Night to our world.

Does the shadowsight see anything, Lady Calvia? said Nasser.

Calvia drew in a long breath and let it out. Caina saw the faint flicker of arcane power around her half-sister. Calvia’s ability with the shadowsight let her view the past and future. But its scope was limited. Or, rather, the shadowsight was infinite, but the human mind was not. Calvia could see a few seconds into the future with near-perfect accuracy, allowing her to dodge arrows and sword blades and fight an entire room of assassins without a scratch. But as Calvia had explained to Caina, the farther she looked into the future, the more complex it became. Choices interacted with each other, the complexity of every subsequent decision increasing exponentially, and if Calvia tried to see too much of it at once, her brain would leak out her ears.

At least, that was what she had said. Caina suspected the more prosaic truth was that Calvia would burst a blood vessel in her brain and die.

Only chaos, said Calvia at last. I look along each of your individual destiny threads, and I see… She blinked, shook her head, and swayed on her feet. Seb was at her side at once, grasping her arm. Chaos. That is what I see. The future is in turmoil.

One of three things will happen, said Nadezhda. Talmania will summon the Iron King, and he will be under her control. Or she will summon the Iron King, and he will enslave her. Or he will feign submission and destroy her when convenient. Rasarion was ever cunning. She turned to Nasser. But regardless of what happens, lord Prince, Iramis must be ready for war.

It shall be, said Nasser. Of old Iramis stood against dark powers for the good of all mankind. The valikarion knights and the loremasters shall go to war. For that matter, I doubt that Rasarion Yagar has forgotten that you trained in the Towers of Lore or that valikarion knights aided you in the last war. Even if we chose to hide behind our walls, he would come for us in time.

Indeed, said Nadezhda, voice distant. He will not have forgotten. He forgets and forgives nothing.

He and Talmania ought to get along splendidly, then, murmured Seb.

Either way, we know what we must do, said Caina. She glanced at Strato, tall and solemn in his dark armor. We will travel through the Tower of the Cataphract and back to Sigilsoara, and steal the relics from Talmania. And this time, we won’t need to hide them. She turned to Calvia. You have the Sun Key. We can take the relics to Risiviri and unlock the Great Sanctuary Stone. The stored power in the stone will destroy all the relics, and the world will be rid of this curse at last. And perhaps they would have the opportunity to kill Talmania Scorneus as well. The Umbarian Order had been destroyed, its final remnants shattered outside the walls of Iramis, but Talmania had survived.

If she mastered the power of Rasarion Yagar, she would become stronger than the entire fallen Order.

Talmania knows that the Tower of the Cataphract can reach Sigilsoara, said Kylon. She must have secured or blocked the door by now.

Perhaps, said Strato. Or perhaps not. Sigilsoara is vast, and the door is not easy to find. If it is blocked, I can create another one, though it will take some time.

Time is not a luxury we have, my love, said Nadezhda. She looked towards the Towers of Lore, the hot sun of Iramis glimmering off her silvery armor.

No, said Calvia. Talmania will not wait. She will try to summon the Iron King as soon as possible. She would never abandon the chance for power.

There may be a way to find her, said a man’s quiet voice.

Caina turned her head to see the high loremaster Khajerian walking towards them.

He looked old, almost ancient, and wore a simple white robe, plain and unadorned. His head was bald, and he had a wispy white mustache and beard, stark against his creased dark skin. He looked at least a century of age, but Caina knew he was far older. The most powerful of the loremasters gained mastery over their bodies, the ability to control their hearts and other internal organs in a way that most people could not and consequently could live for centuries at the cost of constant self-discipline and self-denial. Khajerian’s eyes had turned a blue so pale that they looked almost white.

The Words of Lore, said Nadezhda, gazing at the ancient loremaster.

Khajerian nodded. If we go to the Tower of Divination and focus our powers, we can find Sigilsoara.

You can do that with the Words of Lore? said Caina.

A mixture of contradictory emotions went through her at the question. Her initial reaction to anything sorcerous was distrust and revulsion. Her formative experiences with sorcerers had been nightmarish, and that would forever color her view of the world. Sorcery, like any tool, could be used to wreak great harm, and some forms of sorcery, like necromancy and pyromancy, were innately corruptive. But the tool could also be used to work good as well.

It had taken Caina a long time to learn to see that.

That, and marrying a sorcerer had helped.

I thought it would be impossible to track Sigilsoara through the netherworld, said Annarah. She was several months pregnant and leaned upon her valikon staff like a walking stick to help her get up and down the stairs to the rampart, though the pregnancy did not seem to have sapped her energy otherwise. Her husband Mishan stood next to her, somber and silent, though Caina had seen just how quickly he could explode into violent motion when the situation required it. We could not before.

That was before all five relics had been gathered, said Khajerian.

He is right, said Nadezhda. The five assembled together, borne by one wielder, will create a wellspring of necromantic power. Like gazing at the sun, if the sun gave off light that poisoned and corrupted all that it touched.

Taking all five relics within Sigilsoara will further compound the effect, said Khajerian. He gestured towards the shape of the seven Towers of Lore rising from the heart of the city. Inside the Tower of Divination, we can join together our powers and find where Sigilsoara and Talmania are.

Then let us proceed to the Towers of Lore, said Nasser. Once we learn where our enemy has gone, we will decide how to act against her.

###

Calvia Scorneus followed the others through the broad streets of Iramis.

Rage seethed through her, looking for a target, but she could not find one.

Iramis readied for battle around her. The city had responded well to the attack of the Umbarian Order. Compared to the power the Umbarians had wielded at the start of the Empire’s civil war, the force that had gathered outside the walls of Iramis had been small, but it had still been powerful enough to take the city unawares. But Iramis and its Prince had not been unprepared, and the city had withstood the attack. They would have destroyed the Order and kept the relics if not for Lord Haznar’s treachery.

If not for Talmania’s damned cleverness.

Once again, Talmania had outwitted Calvia.

The thought was infuriating. Again and again, Calvia had tried to get away from Talmania, to break free of her aunt’s malign influence. She had fled the Magisterium, becoming an independent thief, only for Talmania to force her to steal the Amulet of Rasarion Yagar from the Sages of Catekharon. Calvia had managed to avoid getting killed, though Talmania had walked away with the Amulet. After that disaster, Calvia had vowed revenge upon her aunt.

But revenge required weapons, and Calvia had gained the shadowsight at a great price. With the shadowsight, she had attacked the Umbarian Order in a way they had not expected. The Umbarian magi had put great faith in their arcane prowess, and they were indeed mighty sorcerers. But the Order had overlooked the other pillars of power – money, military skill, and political alliances. The high lords of the Empire were arrogant and rigid men, but among them, they had men of great military skill, like Valerius Hadrazon and Conn Maraeus, and men of political acumen like Lord Corbould Maraeus.

But the high lords of the Empire needed money, and Calvia decided to supply it. Using the shadowsight to predict the future was chancy since the future held so many variables. For that matter, looking too far into the future could fry her brain like an egg upon an iron skillet.

But the shadowsight was invaluable for predicting the rise and fall of prices. It had given Calvia great insight into commerce, and she had amassed a vast fortune quickly, soon dominating the agriculture of the Cyrican provinces. With that fortune, she had fed and paid for the Imperial Legions, keeping the Empire from running out of money and food during the civil war. The Umbarians had put too much faith in their arcane prowess, certain that their sorcerous might would overcome all opposition. They had come close, but in the end, coins, swords, and military skill had won out against sorcery.

That, and the Umbarian magi had been unable to cooperate in a crisis, preferring to stab one another in the back in the hope of advancement.

Calvia’s foresight had proven correct. The Empire had survived the crisis. The final siege of Artifel failed, and the Umbarian Order started to fall apart. The difference in money, supply, and manpower began to tell. Poor old Emperor Alexius had finally died, and an unexpected stroke of luck had come Calvia’s way in the form of her half-sister Caina, who had conspired with Lord Corbould to put Valerius Hadrazon on the Imperial throne. The new Emperor was a vigorous warrior, and he led an invasion of Rasadda and the Saddaic provinces from both land and sea, driving back the failing Order.

It should have been over when the Order’s final army collapsed against the walls of Iramis.

But Talmania had one last trick up her sleeve, and with it, she had stolen the relics from the Tower of Artificing.

Damn her. And damn Lord Haznar! Calvia remembered him dying on the steps of the Tower of Artificing, reaching out to Talmania and begging for help. He might as well have tried to find water in the desert or fire in a glacier.

There was no mercy in Talmania Scorneus.

Calvia had spent years trying to wreck Talmania’s plans. She had wound up contributing to the destruction of the Umbarian Order, which was well and good, but Talmania had gotten what she wanted anyway. She had all five relics of the Iron King, and the gods only knew what kind of havoc she would unleash with them.

No, that wasn’t entirely true, was it? Calvia knew exactly what Talmania would do with the relics.

The rage of it, that Talmania had won yet again, burned through Calvia. She couldn’t let go of the emotion. She had to avenge herself on Talmania, had to pay her back for all the suffering Calvia had endured. Calvia supposed that stopping Talmania from killing anyone else was a noble goal, but that was only secondary.

She let out a long breath and looked at the others. Her twin brother walked with Ilona and her half-sister with Lord Kylon. Caina was married to Kylon, and Calvia was reasonably sure that Seb would marry Ilona, probably after he impregnated her – Calvia had seen that possibility in the shadows of Seb’s future. She had never been the sort to look at a married woman and experience jealousy. Calvia valued her freedom too much for that.

Yet she wondered what Caina and Seb knew that she did not. Seb had experienced Talmania’s cruelty, and Caina had suffered at the hands of Laeria, who wished that she had been Talmania but lacked the older woman’s skill and intelligence. But despite their pain, Seb and Caina had been able to let go. They had been able to think about things other than vengeance.

What did they know that Calvia did not?

Perhaps it didn’t matter. Not while Talmania was still alive and armed with the relics.

They came to the Plaza of the Princes in the center of Iramis. The Prince’s Palace rose on one side, serene and elegant, and the Tower of the Valikarion on the other, the fortress where the valikarion trained with their ghostsilver swords and the Prince’s Guard maintained their barracks. To Calvia’s right rose the seven Towers of Lore inside their gardens. The Towers were immense structures of white stone, tall and wide, their sides their walls carved with Iramisian glyphs. As Calvia looked at them, the shadowsight stirred within her. There was so much arcane power gathered around the Towers that it was an involuntary response, like a man squinting when his eyes passed too close to the glare of the sun. She saw the immense power of the wards around the Towers, though that hadn’t been enough to keep Talmania out. Calvia could also see the long shadow the Towers had cast through history. Iramis was old, older than the Empire, older than Istarinmul or Anshan, one of the oldest remaining civilizations in the world…

Calvia grimaced and pushed back the shadowsight before the vision overwhelmed her. She was, she knew, very clever, a trait she shared with most of the Scorneus family. But her mind was still mortal, only capable of holding and considering so much information at any one time. The shadowsight could see practically anything, but if she didn’t keep it under tight control, it would easily destroy her mind. Calvia had considered using it to find Talmania and Sigilsoara but dismissed the idea as too risky.

Besides, why put herself through the effort when Khajerian and the other loremasters would do it for her?

They crossed the gardens where loremasters trained classes of initiates in times of peace, though the gardens were empty now that Iramis was at war. Caina’s bondswoman Sophia Zomanek was among them. Calvia glanced at where Sophia followed Caina, ready to heed her commands. Since no one had told her to do anything else, the girl had defaulted to her usual role of following Caina. The shadowsight flickered over Sophia, and Calvia caught a brief glimpse of multiple futures.

Sophia, dead on the battlefield in the coming conflict.

Sophia, middle-aged and confident, clad in the white robe of a loremaster as she taught classes of initiates.

Sophia, exhausted and sweaty, but smiling as she nursed her newborn son for the first time.

Calvia forced back the shadowsight.

They came to the paved courtyard that surrounded the Towers. The Towers themselves rose overhead like gleaming white spires. Calvia noted Caina’s eyes flicking back and forth. Mishan was doing much the same. They were both valikarion, and Calvia supposed that to the vision of the valikarion, the Towers would be ablaze with light. The Towers of Lore had to be a maze of glows to Caina’s and Mishan’s eyes.

They headed towards one of the Towers, which Calvia presumed was the Tower of Divination. The Words of Lore, the ancient form of sorcery practiced by the loremasters of Iramis, had seven branches, and each one of the Towers was dedicated to the study of one of those paths.

The double doors to the Tower of Divination stood open, and they entered the great hall. It looked much like the great hall of the Tower of Artificing where the Sword and Dagger of Rasarion Yagar had been stored. It was an immense chamber of gleaming white stone, a balcony encircling the wall about forty feet above the floor. The walls had been marked with columns of Iramisian glyphs. A dais stood in the center of the chamber, and a half-dozen men and women in the white robes of loremasters stood around it. All of them looked elderly, even ancient, with white hair and eyes that looked sightless and blank, but in truth were such a pale blue that it was hard to discern the iris from the rest of the eye. Like Khajerian, they were high loremasters, centuries old. Their mastery of the Words of Lore was so profound that it allowed them to control their bodies to an astonishing extent. They would live for a long time, but of necessity, they had an ascetic existence, subsisting only on the Words of Lore and water.

Calvia glanced at Annarah, who was very clearly pregnant. Pleasures of the flesh were something else from which the high loremasters abstained, so she doubted that Annarah would ever join their ranks. Nor would Calvia want to become one. Rania and the other Umbarian magi had all been obsessed with physical immortality.

Little good that had done Rania once Talmania had stabbed her in the back.

Khajerian stepped towards the dais, the other high loremasters turning to face him, and Calvia focused on holding back the shadowsight. She would not want to use the shadowsight to view whatever powerful spell the high loremasters would use to find Sigilsoara.

My friends, said Khajerian. The seven high loremasters took positions around the dais. You know what has transpired. Talmania Scorneus has the relics, and she will call the Iron King back to the material world. Iramis must go to war as we did in the days of the Great Necromancers of Maat. First, we must find where Sigilsoara has gone.

The seven high loremasters raised their pyrikon staffs and began casting a spell. White light glowed from their hands, and they began to gesture. A shimmering haze appeared over the dais. Calvia looked at Caina, saw her blinking several times. As Caina had explained it, the vision of the valikarion could overwhelm her if she wasn’t careful to control it. A bit like the shadowsight, Calvia supposed, though the second sight of the valikarion was much less likely to be fatal.

The seven high loremasters thrust their pyrikons towards the dais in unison, and a flare of light rose in the air. Calvia had lost her ability to cast spells when she had gained the shadowsight, but she nonetheless felt the surge of arcane power. The high loremasters were using a lot of energy to work their spell, but they were skilled enough that it didn’t look as if they were straining at all.

Now, said Khajerian. The spell will show us Sigilsoara. The spell shall find the relics and power of the Iron King.

Nadezhda gazed at the flickering light, her expression intent.

We have found Sigilsoara, said one of the other high loremasters, an ancient woman with white hair braided down to her hips. It has returned to the material world. Northern Ulkaar.

Sophia stirred. Is it near Kostiv? Calvia took a moment to place the name – a small town in

Reviews for Ghost in the Sun

[T. Dean Gates · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The good won. Lovers survived. The cycle concluded.
What? You think it should be otherwise?
Pooh!