BooksBarbecue
Back Legacy of Ash Save as PDF
Chapters (95)
  1. Cover
  2. Copyright
  3. Dedication
  4. Map
  5. Dramatis Personae
  6. Fifteen Years Ago
  7. Endas, 25th day of Wellmarch
  8. One
  9. Two
  10. Three
  11. Four
  12. Maladas, 26th day of Wellmarch
  13. Five
  14. Six
  15. Seven
  16. Eight
  17. Nine
  18. Ten
  19. Lumendas, 1st day of Radiance
  20. Eleven
  21. Twelve
  22. Thirteen
  23. Fourteen
  24. Astridas, 2nd day of Radiance
  25. Fifteen
  26. Sixteen
  27. Seventeen
  28. Eighteen
  29. Nineteen
  30. Jeradas, 3rd day of Radiance
  31. Twenty
  32. Twenty-One
  33. Twenty-Two
  34. Twenty-Three
  35. Twenty-Four
  36. Twenty-Five
  37. Endas, 4th day of Radiance
  38. Twenty-Six
  39. Twenty-Seven
  40. Twenty-Eight
  41. Twenty-Nine
  42. Thirty
  43. Thirty-One
  44. Maladas, 5th day of Radiance
  45. Thirty-Two
  46. Thirty-Three
  47. Thirty-Four
  48. Thirty-Five
  49. Tzadas, 6th day of Radiance
  50. Thirty-Six
  51. Thirty-Seven
  52. Thirty-Eight
  53. Thirty-Nine
  54. Forty
  55. Forty-One
  56. Forty-Two
  57. Forty-Three
  58. Lunandas, 7th day of Radiance
  59. Forty-Four
  60. Jeradas, 10th day of Radiance
  61. Forty-Five
  62. Forty-Six
  63. Forty-Seven
  64. Endas, 11th day of Radiance
  65. Forty-Eight
  66. Forty-Nine
  67. Fifty
  68. Fifty-One
  69. Fifty-Two
  70. Fifty-Three
  71. Fifty-Four
  72. Fifty-Five
  73. Maladas, 12th day of Radiance
  74. Fifty-Six
  75. Fifty-Seven
  76. Fifty-Eight
  77. Fifty-Nine
  78. Sixty
  79. Sixty-One
  80. Sixty-Two
  81. Tzadas, 13th day of Radiance
  82. Sixty-Three
  83. Sixty-Four
  84. Lunandas, 14th day of Radiance
  85. Sixty-Five
  86. Sixty-Six
  87. Lumendas, 15th day of Radiance
  88. Sixty-Seven
  89. Sixty-Eight
  90. Tzadas, 20th day of Radiance
  91. Sixty-Nine
  92. Acknowledgements
  93. Discover More
  94. Extras
  95. Meet the Author

A glance behind revealed a wayfarer galloping in pursuit. A pair of simarka loped alongside. Verdigrised claws struck sparks from the cobbles.

To turn back was to be taken, a rat in a trap. The certainty of it left Josiri no room for doubt. Onward was the only course.

“Hold tight to me,” he told Calenne, “and don’t let go.”

Thin arms redoubled their grip. Josiri drove back his heels.

Time slowed, marked out by the pounding of hooves and the beat of a fearful heart. Steel glinted. Horses whinnied as wayfarers hauled on their reins.

“For the Southshires!”

The battle cry fed Josiri’s resolve. The widening of the nearest wayfarer’s eyes gave him more. They were as afraid of him as he of them. Maybe more, for was his mother not the Phoenix of prophecy?

Time quickened. Josiri’s sword blurred. A wayfarer spun away in a bloody spray. And then Josiri was through the line, his horse’s greedy stride gobbling the last distance to the west gate. The mare barely slowed at the next corner. Her hooves skidded on the rain-slicked cobbles.

Calenne screamed – not with terror, but in wild joy – and then the danger was past, and the west gate was in sight.

The portcullis was down, its iron teeth sunk deep. A line of tabarded soldiery blocked the roadway and the branching alleyways to either side. Halberds lowered. Shields locked tight together, a flock of white hawk blazons on a wall of rich king’s blue. Wayfarers filled the street behind.

Thunder roared, its fury echoing through the hole where Josiri’s heart should have been. He’d failed. Perhaps he’d never had a chance.

“Everything will be all right.” He hoped the words sounded more convincing to Calenne than they did to him. “Mother will come.”

Calenne stared up at him with all the earnestness of youth. “Mother’s already dead.”

Spears pressed in. An officer’s voice bellowed orders through the rain. Josiri gazed down into his sister’s cold, unblinking eyes, and felt more alone than ever.

Endas, 25th day of Wellmarch

Endas, 25th day of Wellmarch

Our souls are but motes of light, stolen from the
Dark. Lumestra’s love wakes us to life, and the
hammer of duty tempers us upon the forge of our
waking days.

from the sermons of Konor Belenzo

One

One

Preparations had taken weeks. Statues had been re-gilded. Familial portraits unveiled from dusty canvas and set in places of honour. The stained glass of the western window glittered in the afternoon sunlight. Come the hour of Ascension it would blaze like fire and cast an image of divine Lumestra into the hall so that the sun goddess too would stand among the guests.