Seasons of August : Part 1: Seasons of August, #1

By Anna Alexander

For centuries humans and mages lived together in peace and prosperity across the kingdom of Midoria. Then the Ravage came, a sickness that imbued mage-like powers to humans that upset the balance of nature. The once proud race of mages, the direkind, were blamed for the illness and either fled or were killed as fires raged and the earth shook. Thousands were killed, including the king, leaving a young prince to rebuild the kingdom.

Several years passed. The king, now a man, was leading his people back to its former glory when an earthquake shakes the kingdom once again, igniting forgotten terrors. The king bids his most trusted knights to scour the countryside and find all remaining direkind and rid them off the earth for good. The loyal knights obey.

 

Except one.

 

One brave knight will defy his king to protect people he has never met. People who he wasn't sure still existed. One knight who knows that by embarking on his chosen mission he will change the fate of the realm forever.  

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anna Alexander
• Release date: Jun 30, 2022
• ISBN: 9781958752005

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Chapter One

For thirty years the Edenites lived in peace and good health until…

The two young knights guarding the entrance of the great hall had no idea they had been a flick of his fingers away from death.

Sir Icary of House Noel slipped past the two men who were on the night watch of the great hall and hid in the shadows cast by the lit torches, making his way down the long hallway that led the way to the king’s secret chamber.

He held no ill will toward his fellow knights in armor, but their obliviousness was a stark example of how easy it would be for one man to sneak into the castle and reach the most private sanctum of the royal family. He had gotten so close to the pair that the musky scent of the oil they had used on their leather vests and gauntlets tickled his nostrils, and it was clear one of them had recently eaten a meal with onions and garlic.

Of course, his skills at stealth and athletic prowess were incomparable, which was what made him part of an elite circle of knights of the king’s army. These lads would never stand a chance against him, even if he had come at them full bore with his loudest battle cry booming throughout the castle in warning.

It was his status as a Crowned Knight that brought him to see the king at such a late hour. King Angelatti’s message had been short and to the point. His presence was required in the donjon within the hour. No excuses. And even more worrisome, he could tell no one.

The last time Icary had been summoned to the chamber, a neighboring realm had tried to expand their footprint by invading the villages along the border. Instead of responding with the full force of Midoria’s army, the Crowned Knights had been sent on a covert mission and eliminated the leaders of the invasion. What could’ve taken months, if not years, had been ended in a few days with a launch of his arrows.

Before that was a scandal involving a lord and his mistress who threatened to go public with news of their illegitimate child. Icary had been called in because it was possible that the father of the babe was one of many nobles, all of whom were married. It had been up to him to settle the matter quietly. Which he had. Fortunately for all, that time no one had had to die.

In both of those situations he had heard whispers in the air from those around the king that warned him of what was to come. This time, he hadn’t a clue. And the dichotomy of possibilities put him on edge. Would he end his day facing the start of a war or covering up an inane indiscretion important only to those who held no real strife in their life?

It was an honor to serve his king, a right that he fought and bled for. Whatever the task that lay ahead, he would fulfill his duty with pride. He only wished that this time, his skills would be used for the greater good of Midoria and not because an self-indulgent lord had acted as if the laws of civility and respect did not apply to him.

Icary approached an alcove with a small bench to the right. Withdrawing a key tucked into a pocket of his outer tunic, he inserted it into the special lock on a section of the stone wall. A notch in the brick at the base was the only indication of the location of the secret door.

The door swung open without a whisper. The hallway to the inner sanctum was tomb silent,