The Mysts of Sorcery: Spells of Earth

By Remi Black

When her own spell blasted away her magic and destroyed her memory, Desora had abandoned everything. Now, discovering the depths of elemental Earth and her memory returning, she is on the verge of recovering all she'd lost—even her lost love, Brax.

 

Yet fierce battles loom before Desora and her allies.

 

The monster escaped. It heads for Mulgrum, killing as it flees. The Dark Fae Horst and his remaining riders track the sorcerer and his wyre.

 

Only when the monster is destroyed will Mulgrum and the Northern Reaches be safe. The sorcerer who brought the monster through the portal must also die.

 

With allies gathered, the final deadly battle nears. Desora risks losing all she's regained as she confronts a monster she has no idea how to destroy.

 

Then betrayal rears its ugly head.

 

***

 

The fantasy The Mysts of Sorcery is the concluding novella in the three-part series Spells of Earth, part of the greater Fae Mark'd World. The series began with The Wyrded Forest and continued with The Riven Gate. Readers will experience the greatest enjoyment when they read the first two novellas in the series.

If you like elemental power battling twisted sorcery and cold steel clearing paths through magical monsters, then you will love the adventures in The Mysts of Sorcery.

 

Writer Remi Black has created magical worlds from the time she read a much-battered paperback in the Witch World saga by Andre Norton, the Grand Mistress of Fantasy. She writes determined heroines and strong heroes, both with internal conflicts as dire as the sorcerers and monsters that confront them.

 

Remi's first series set in the Wilding is Spells of Air. The young wizard Orielle encounters the proud Dark Fae Lord Skull and Lady Bone as well as a pack of shifted wyre enslaved by a sorceress. The opening novella in that trilogy is To Wield the Wind. The bundle Spells of Air is also available.

 

An epic fantasy series, Remi's the Fae Mark'd Wizard features Alstera, banished when she delved too deeply into sorcery-based magic. First in that series is Weave a Wizardry Web, followed by Dream a Deadly Dream and Sing a Graveyard Song. More novels in that series are in the works.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Writers Ink Books
• Release date: May 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9798985871487

Book preview

The Mysts of Sorcery

Spells of Earth ~ 3

In the

Fae Mark’d World

By

Remi Black

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Remi Black’s The Mysts of Sorcery

Copyright © 2022 ~ Writers Ink and Emily Dunn

First electronic publishing rights: 2022

ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded, or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the author’s or Writers’ Ink permission.

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale, or organizations is entirely coincidental. The author does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.

Published in the United States of America

Cover Illustration by Deranged Doctor Design

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Contents

The Mysts of Sorcery

Contents

Remi Black’s Fantasy

~ 1 ~ Pursuit ~

~ 2 ~ Trolls

~ 3 ~ Gobbers

~ 4 ~ A Sorcered light

~ 5 ~ Out of the Wilding

~ 6 ~ Unexpected Danger

~ 7 ~ Expected Danger

~ 8 ~ Wyre and Sorcerer

~ 9 ~ The Monster’s Attack

~ 10 ~ Battle Against the Monster

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Remi Black’s Fantasy

To Wield the Wind ~ Chapter 1

Remi Black’s Fantasy

Fae Mark’d Wizard

Wield a Wizardry Web

Sing a Graveyard Song

Dream a Deadly Dream

Fae Mark’d World

Spells of Air

To Wield the Wind

To Charm the Wind

To Curse the Wyre

Spells of Earth

The Wyrded Forest

The Riven Gate

The Mysts of Sorcery

At the end of The Riven Gate, novella 2 in the Spells of Earth series, the destruction of the Wind Arch on Mount Selinnia won a temporary reprieve. Desora destroyed the two monsters transitioning through the portal, but the sorcerer and the core of his wyre pack escaped. The first monster also survived. With their forces reduced, Desora, Brax, and the rangers pursue the monster. The Kyrgy Lord Horst and his decimated riders chase the sorcerer and his shifter wyre.

~ 1 ~ Pursuit ~

Tracking the monster began with locating the site where it landed after its plunge down Mount Selinnia.

The slender, pole-like trees that grew parallel to the mountain’s steep slope had fallen with the monster. They lay tumbled and broken at Mt. Selinnia’s foot. Upslope, uprooted trees and disturbed rocks marked the monster’s rapid fall. Somehow the alien creature had survived. Its damage must be minor, for the ranger Ivhart had seen it stomp away. Heading west.

West. The direction filled Desora with dread.

West. Away from the Wilding’s eastern border to the Wastes. There the sorcerers of Frost Clime were based. There dragons still survived.

West, out of the Wilding ruled by the Kyrgy Lord Horst.

West, toward Desora’s hut and the High Meadows of the monster’s first kills and the unsuspecting village of Mulgrum.

Desora squinted at the trail ahead. At the beginning of their pursuit, ripped-away tree limbs, unearthed rocks, and stomped grass and brambles had marked the monster’s passage. Yet soon the creature had regained the sorcered mysts that shielded it and soared above the ground.

They followed only with the aid of the sprites. Tiny scouts zoomed back to consult with the queen. She flew at the apiary’s center, only a few feet ahead of Challoch. The armored guard rode in the vanguard of their whittled-down column.

Captain Brax rode rearguard. Two guards, one fore and the other rear, four rangers, and Desora. Seven, that was all that would fight the monster.

If they caught it before it reached Mulgrum.

A jingle of bridle and the thud of horse hooves lifting from walk to canter signaled a rider coming along the short column. Desora turned her head and saw Brax. She guided her horse to a wide spot in the trail and reined in.

He joined her, his big destrier jostling the crowded space, but her mild gelding merely shifted over into the weeds underneath the ancient trees. Brax lifted his chin. A memory flashed, the scruffy lift of his face asking a mute question.

The memory surprised her, but multiple memories had surprised her over the past days. The flashes never overwhelmed. After years of blankness, they opened shadowy doors and windows that she had never suspected. It was hard to reject any of those fragments. For too long she’d desperately wanted any signs from her past. And Brax centered many of those lost images.

Never once, though, had she received any flash of her lost wizardry.

She didn’t grieve that magical loss. The strong, rooting depths of elemental Earth had replaced it.

So, to Brax’s unasked question, Desora offered a smile and a shrug. Sun’s setting.

Challoch will be on lookout for a campsite.

How is Ivhart holding up?

He gave a quizzical look. You expect him to have trouble? Horst healed him.

She glanced at the rangers, well past them now. "Exactly. Horst healed him. Dark Fae don’t give their gifts lightly. What bargain did he wrest from Ivhart when he healed his broken arm?"

Borrowing trouble?

She shrugged. Best to be prepared.

The Kyrgy is our ally.

Desora merely shrugged again. She urged the gelding back to the trail. We’re falling behind.

Brax followed but stayed beside her. You have reason for your concern?

No, she admitted baldly and kicked the gelding to a canter.

Shouts came from ahead.

Brax surged past her, his big warhorse thundering into a trot. Desora didn’t spur her horse to greater speed. The shouts hadn’t the urgency of battle. She heard no clash of steel.

A sprite darted to her then returned, flitting quickly. At this sign of the queen’s concern, Desora did urge the range-runner to greater speed.

First, she spied the rangers, still ahorse, milling restlessly on the trail. Ahead of them were the big destriers. Sunlight flashed on the guards’ armor. They had their swords out, ready, but they were in battle defense. Then she caught a whiff, foul and horrid. The tang of blood drowned any under-scent.

When she reached the rangers, they parted for her to ride through. Brax and Challoch had dismounted to examine the ground. Ahead, in the dimness under the trees, the apiary swirled in a mass of twinkling jewel-colored lights.

Then she saw the pale grey and sooty black hump athwart the trail.

It lay inert. As she rode closer, she distinguished an arm, the shape of a head ... the dark red of blood on warty grey skin. The exploded chest.

Desora swallowed but pushed the gelding closer until it balked at nearing the creature on the trail.

The troll had fought and died hard. Brax had knelt just beyond the creature to examine the churned ground, the rocks torn from the trail, the roots ripped out. A few understory trees had broken limbs. Bushes looked squashed. She looked again at the dead troll and saw its legs were