Curse: The Dark God Book 2 (36 page)

Battle dread—those were the words Da had used with Mother on that awful morning. But he’d misdiagnosed Mother’s intent just as the Mistress misdiagnosed hers.

The Mistress said, “This was your first encounter. It’s always the worst. Listen to me. When those Mokaddian whoresons come, I will be standing up on that wall, my staff sling in hand, throwing murder down upon them. And if not that wall, it will be another.”

“And their skir?”

“Let them come. That’s Lord Shim’s and Commander Eresh’s province. My job is to wield my pile of stones. Your job is to do whatever you do with that foreign crew. And”—she took a confidential tone—“wield your slethery.”

“Right,” Sugar said. Her fearful slethery, which consisted of nothing more than being able to run fast. And use her mother’s necklace. But neither would defeat Mokad’s army. She looked at the people milling about the bailey. Chances were they would all die.

“Look there,” said the Mistress. “Here comes our charge.”

Legs was exiting the stairway to the parapet.

She called out to him. Legs turned toward the sound and made his way to them, feeling his way with a stick, his other hand out in front.

“He’s got all the ladies eating out of his hand,” the Mistress said.

“Is that our lovely Mistress of the tub?” Legs asked and walked over to them.

“Charmer,” the Mistress said and pinched him on the cheek. “Too bad he’s not a few years older.”

Legs blushed, and the Mistress laughed.

Sugar smiled, but inside she was roiling. Inside she was imagining the Mistress being battered by a troop of Mokaddian soldiers. The Mistress had not seen the power of the skir nor the dogmen nor the endless ships. Confidence only took you so far.

“Thanks for your wise words,” Sugar said.

“You’re a good lass,” the Mistress said. “You’ll do what’s right.”

At that moment, Argoth exited Shim’s quarters. He began to walk toward hers, then spotted her and turned to talk to her.

“It seems you’re very popular today,” said the Mistress. “But you remember your promise—we have dibs on first audience.”

“Of course,” Sugar said.

The Mistress nodded, then walked away to join the washerwomen as they continued to load a wagon.

When Argoth was close, he called out to Legs. “How’s our singer?” he asked.

“In want of sweetcakes,” Legs replied. “And pillows. And a few silks. I’m terribly underpaid.”

Argoth laughed. “Yes, Lord. I shall work on the pillows. In the meantime, may I speak to your sister?”

“I just got her back.”

“I will return her as soon as I can. She needs to do some studying.”

“Another mission or patrol?” Legs asked.

“Perhaps,” he said.

Legs squeezed Sugar’s hand tighter, reminding her about his desire to be useful and fight.

“Let me go with Argoth for now,” she said. “I’ll meet you a bit later.”

He let her go, the frustration of being left behind yet again clear on his face.

She walked with Argoth back to Shim’s chambers. They passed by the clerk and climbed the stairs to the waiting room above. The doors to Shim’s audience chamber were closed. Argoth stopped, and motioned for her to sit down with him on a bench. Across the room, a small window let in the light and sound from the bailey.

He pitched his voice so low she had to lean forward to hear. “You’re going back to Blue Towers. You’re going in.”

“But—”

“Not through a gate or over the wall. And not alone. The Fir-Noy have many enemies. And that is to our advantage. Especially when one of them knows a secret way, not only into the fortress, but into Lord Hash’s very chambers. A woman came to us with information. She was one of Lord Hash’s servants who cleaned his chambers and filled some of his other needs. But Hash is heartless, and so are his men. She was treated worse than a dog. I won’t go into her tale, but the short of the matter is that she knows the way in. It’s how she escaped.”

“So why do you need me?”

“She’s not coming with us. Furthermore, this has to be done in complete darkness. We need your eyes. We need you to guide us through the pitch black passages, scout ahead, peer through doors.”

“You yourself are going on this mission?”

Argoth nodded. “A handful of men stand in our way of victory. Eliminate them, and humanity rises to stand upon its feet. Today we finished off some of the Kains. Tonight we’ll take the Skir Master.”

“How do you know this woman isn’t a plant sent to lead you into a Fir-Noy trap?”

“We don’t know that for certain, but she came to us two weeks ago, before Mokad stationed itself in Blue Towers. And we’ve confirmed her story. The Fir-Noy killed her family. They have no leverage with her.”

Sugar said, “Urban thinks this is suicide.”

“Urban thinks a lot of things,” Argoth said.

“Be honest with me, Zu,” Sugar said. “Do you think this is possible? The Skir Master will have guards, Walkers. Those dogmen and their maulers will be on patrol.”

“If we were just a fist of dreadmen, I’d say we had no chance. But we have you, my dear. You’re our secret weapon. You’re the key.”

“I see,” said Sugar. She saw it all very clearly. They were desperate, grasping at straws. If she left, they would surely fail. If she stayed, they might fail anyway. But she might be able to help give them a chance, even if it was a small one.

A beat passed.

“Did you poison my mother?”

“What?”

“Did the Grove order her death?”

Argoth shook his head. “Urban’s been talking to you, hasn’t he?”

“I deserve to know the truth.

Argoth blew out a breath. “Indeed, you do. Here are the simple facts. We went to her, down in the cleansing room at Whitecliff. We wanted to save her, but there was no way to accomplish that. In the end, she herself asked for the poison to protect all of us so that we could protect you and Legs.”

That sounded exactly like Mother. She shook her head and thought about Urban, his pleasant smile, his eyes, the beauty he held on the inside. She thought of Soddam and Withers. Of freedom. Of being among those that treated her as a person of worth. Urban was probably right—going into the heart of the enemy camp was suicide.

“I’m asking you to take a great risk,” Argoth said. “I know you’re new to your powers, but you’ve proven yourself. I would not ask unless we had extreme need.”

She could leave her friends to die, or she could help. When put that way, the decision was clear. “Zu,” she said. “I’ve been trained as a ferret. I say send this ferret in that Shim may go hunting.”

Argoth smiled. He looked about the room. “Purity,” he said to the air, “I hope you’re listening. This is the quality of yours and Sparrow’s blood.” He turned back to Sugar. “You do your ancestors proud.”

Sugar nodded, but knew the dead were not watching over their living kindred. Mother was not here to approve or disapprove of her decision, which Sugar was already starting to regret.

“You’re going to need to memorize the layout of the passageways,” he said. “Are you ready?”

Sugar nodded, even though she didn’t want to, and Argoth rose and opened the doors.

Inside, Shim, Matiga, and Eresh stood around a candlelit table, and she realized the time of preparation was over. The war had begun. Humankind’s moment was upon them.

She wondered about Talen, River, and Ke. One of them should be here, not her. But she was what Argoth had. And she would not quail. Not while her mother’s blood flowed in her veins.

Sugar thought about Urban again. She thought about his ship. She thought about Legs.

Then she followed Argoth in.

The End

Dear Reader

I HOPE YOU enjoyed
Curse
. If you did, please consider leaving a review on Amazon or another favorite bookseller’s website. Even if it’s only a line or two, your hearty huzzah will be much appreciated by ye doughty author as well as fellow readers looking for good books.

For those wanting an even more noble reason, as with
Servant
, it’s rumored that the proceeds of the sales of this book are also being donated to foundations actively seeking to reintroduce hobbits back into the wild. These same foundations are also looking for vegan orcs this time, since the first batch tried to eat the hobbits.

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Terms & People

Political Hierarchy

While there are many variations, the basic power hierarchy in the realms of the Western Glorydoms flows from the Glory down:

Glory

|

Lesser Divines

|

Territory Lords and Warlords

|

District Lords and Village Bailiffs

There are still some small areas of the known world ruled by barbarian kings or chieftains, but almost all these pay tribute to one Glory or another in the form of treasure, slaves, or Fire. The major western glorydoms include Kish, Koram, Mokad, Mungo, Nilliam, and Urz.

The Six Orders of the Divine

Fire Wizards

Kains

Skir Masters

Guardians

Green Ones

Glories

Infamous Divines include: The Goat King, The Witch of Cath, and Hismayas, the ancient lord of the sleth.

Major Mokaddian Clans with holdings in the New Lands

Birak

Burund

Fir-Noy

Harkon

Jarund

Mithrosh

Seema

Shoka

Vargon

Koramites

Hogan

River

Ke

Talen

Sparrow & Purity

Sugar

Legs

Harnock

Mokaddians

Argoth & Serah

Nettle

The Creek Widow (Matiga)

Lumen (The missing Divine of the New Lands)

Rubaloth (Skir Master of Mokad)

Rose (Sister to Argoth, wife of Hogan the Koramite)

Shim (Warlord of the Shoka clan)

Armsman

Every clan has various martial orders within it. The ranks of the vast majority of these orders are filled with those who are not full-time soldiers, but farmers, laborers, and craftsmen. However, there are orders in some clans of elite and sometimes professional soldiers. These are the orders of the armsmen.

Bone Faces

Barbarian raiders from the South who have begun striking Mokaddian holdings by sea.

Dreadmen and Fell-maidens

Those without lore who are endowed by Divines with weaves of might. When such weaves are worn, they multiply the wearer’s natural mental and physical abilities. However, the weaves carry a cost: worn too frequently, the body wastes, consuming itself to fuel the magic.

Escrum

A weave that binds the wearer to a master, allowing communication over long distances.

Frights

Not completely of the world of flesh, frights feed on Fire. They most often prey on the sick and dying, attaching themselves like great leeches.

Godsweed

An herb with properties said to repel some creatures such as frights and the souls of the dead. The smoke from one thin braid can rid a house of an infestation for many weeks. But its effect does not discriminate between frights, ancestors, or even the servants of the Creators. Hence the saying: take care to appease those you’ve chased with smoke.

King’s Collar

A weave wrought by a special order of Divines called Kains. Such collars not only prevent a person from working magic, but also weaken the wearer, making those captured easier to handle.

Kragow

A weilder of the strange lore of the Bone Faces.

Military Units

A fist is made up of 8-12 soldiers. A hammer contains 2-4 fists. A terror contains 4-6 hammers. The leaders of these units are called fistmen, hammermen, and terrormen. A cohort contains 4-6 terrors.

Skir

Orders of beings that inhabit the heavens as well as the deep places of the earth and sea. While invisible to the naked eye, many do exert power in the visible world and can be harnessed by those knowing the secrets. But not all are useful to man. Many orders of smaller Skir are deemed insignificant, while other powers are so dreadful none dare summon them.

Stone-wights

A vanished race whose ruins are found in the New Lands. Some claim plague or war took them. Others find evidence they were destroyed by the Six themselves.

The Six

Seven creators fashioned the earth and all life therein. However, upon seeing the flaws in what he and the other six Creators had wrought, the seventh, called Regret, wanted to destroy the work and begin again. The remaining Six, whose names are sacred, refused, but they were not able to overcome Regret. And so it is that the powers of both creation and dissolution still struggle on the earth.

Sleth

Another term for “soul-eaters.” In Urzarian tongue it literally means “The East Wind,” which dries and kills life. Applied to those who, in rebellion of the Glories, use an unsanctioned form of the lore of the Divines. They are beings and orders of beings supposedly twisted by their polluted draws. Said to have gotten their lore from Regret, one of the seven Creators who, having once seen the creation, realized its flaws and wanted to destroy it.

The Three Vitalities

All life is made up of one or more of the three vital powers. There are many names for these life forces. The most common terms in the western glorydoms are Fire (sometimes called Spirit), Body, and Soul. There are rumors, among those who know the lore, of lost vitalities: powers that have passed out of human ken.

Weaves

Objects of power. Some can only be quickened and handled by lore masters. Others, wild weaves, are independent of a master and can be used by those who do not possess any lore. Weaves may be made of almost any material; however, gold is used most often for the wild weaves given to dreadmen.

Woodikin

Creatures that live in great families beyond the gap in the wilds of the New Lands. About half the size of a man, they are ferocious and spilled much blood in the battles fought with the early settlers. Although rare, single woodikin are sometimes seen in human lands.

Acknowledgements

Curse
took a very long and crooked path toward publication, which makes the help and encouragement that so many offered along the way even more special.

My first thanks goes to the many readers who let me know of their eagerness to read this book. There are too many names to mention here (those of you who emailed and posted know who you are), but all of your support was much appreciated.

Smart beta readers are precious, and these folks provided loads of good reader insight:
Caitlin Blasdell
,
Darren Eggett
,
David Hartwell
,
David Walton
,
Garrett Winn
,
Hannah Bowman
,
Kassandra Brown
,
Larry Correia
,
Mette Harrison
,
Stacy Hague-Hill
,
Stephen and Liesl Nelson
, and
Steve Diamond
. A huge thanks goes to
Alex and Amy Lamborn
who were extra helpful with each iteration of the story.

A number of folks also provided excellent reader responses to a beginning I wanted to test. These helpful souls include
Adam Teachout
,
Alexis Cooper
,
Cameron Wilson
,
David West
,
Eric Allen
,
Hyrum Grissom
,
Justin Fisher
,
Krista Hoeppner Leahy
,
Laurel Amberdine
,
Lindsey Tolis
,
Mark Holt
,
Martin Cahill
,
Melanie Goldmund
,
Merrill Nielson
,
Nick Dianatkhah
,
Ray Solomon
, and
Wes Amodt
.

As for the art,
Victor Minguez
provided an awesome illustration.
Dixon Leavitt
stepped in at a critical juncture and made that illustration possible. And
Devon Dorrity
did a wonderful job on the cover.

Above all, my thanks goes to my wife
Nellie
who played the roles of reader, editor, listening ear (when this project ran into heavy weather multiple times), and business manager.