Authors: Pauline M. Ross
The Second God
THE SECOND GOD
A sequel to
The Fire Mages
and
The Fire Mages’ Daughter
An epic fantasy
Part of the Brightmoon Annals
by Pauline M Ross
Published by Sutors Publishing
Copyright © 2016 Pauline M Ross
ISBN:
978-0-9928819-7-9 (paperback)
All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction.
Cover design: Streetlight Graphics
Proofreading: Coinlea Services
Map © Pauline M Ross 2016
Design by Write.Dream.Repeat Book Design
Map elements by Ignacio Portilla M.
In
The Fire Mages
, Kyra discovered her unusual ability, but it led to confrontation with the rulers of Bennamore. In
The Fire Mages’ Daughter
, Drina learned about her own unique power over magic, and devised a novel way to subdue the neighbouring Blood Clans’ living god. The story continues in
The Second God
…
It’s been five years since war with the fearsome Blood Clans, whose giant bonded beasts almost destroyed Bennamore. Now the tenuous peace is being put to the test. Drina’s prisoner-husband and Blood Clan god, Ly-haam, attends a magical challenge to assert his authority over his people, who think him weak. But then the unthinkable happens – a second living god emerges. Is it a sign that the gods are displeased with Ly-haam, and have sent another leader to supplant him?
Left behind in Bennamore, Drina’s lover, Arran, is vulnerable to flattery from the ambitious fringes of the ruler’s court, but his weakness could endanger many lives. Meanwhile, on the southern Plains of Kallanash, a new force is arising from the chaos of the Karningplain – a vast golden army, raised in ferocious discipline, and fanatical followers of another kind of god, who is determined to spread his power into an empire, and will let nothing stand in his way.
To combat the threat to Bennamore and its allies, Drina, Arran and Ly-haam must set aside their personal differences and combine their talents in a uniquely dangerous way, which will test their heroism to its limits. How much will they have to sacrifice to save their country?
Books published so far in the Brightmoon Annals:
1: The Plains of Kallanash
2: The Fire Mages (The Fire Mages Trilogy Book 1)
3: The Mages of Bennamore
4: The Magic Mines of Asharim
5: The Fire Mages’ Daughter (The Fire Mages Trilogy Book 2)
6: The Dragon’s Egg
7: The Second God (The Fire Mages Trilogy Book 3)
Forthcoming books:
8: Findo Gask’s Apprentice
9: The Dragon Caller
10: The Return of the Mages
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The Fire Mages:
Kyra was just a village girl, but she’d always been fascinated by magic and she had big ambitions: to become a law scribe, authorised to write spell magic. She turned down a lucrative position as drusse to a minor ruler to travel to the nearest town to train as a scribe. After two years of struggling to pay her way, she was the best scribe in her year and had found a powerful mentor – the volatile mage Cal. He wasn’t very likable, but as one of those able to work spell magic with thought alone, he could teach her so much.
But then disaster struck. A fake spell written to give her sister some peace of mind turned out to have worked all too well, and Kyra was accused of the illegal use of magic. Unwilling to lie, she accepted her punishment – she was allowed to remain a scribe, but her authority to write spells was revoked. Her career was ruined.
Kyra now knew she had an unusual power, which made spells more effective, and she was not alone – Drei, the little-regarded son of a local ruler, also had a mysterious power, including the ability to make fire. Kyra accepted his offer to become his drusse and travel to Bennamore’s capital, Kingswell, to try to find out more about their powers. But they had to be careful not to attract attention, since the unregulated use of magic could see them both executed.
As Drei became more involved in high politics and began courting the daughter of Bennamore’s ruler, Kyra was left to her own devices. When Cal came to Kingswell, she turned to him for comfort. But then she found she was pregnant – Drei had switched her contraceptive herbs for less effective ones. As part of his plan to marry into the ruling family, he needed a child. Kyra refused to extend her drusse contract with him, and he kidnapped her to force her to sign. Kyra used spell power to escape, and made a deal – she would give Drei the child if she could resume her law scribe studies.
Her use of spellpages during her escape caused her to be accused once more of the illegal use of magic, and she was arrested, but fled to the ancient and dangerous Imperial City where her magic protected her. She convinced the ruler that she could be useful to him and he allowed her to become a fire mage.
On a visit to her home, Kyra discovered another wild mage with similar power to her own, but when she brought him to Kingswell, Drei killed him. Drei was now dangerously ambitious. Having taken control of the army, he stirred up a conflict against the Port Holdings, Bennamore’s allies, who quickly surrendered. Drei married the ruler’s daughter, but he began to suspect Kyra of involvement with Cal. Unreasonably jealous, he tried to kill them both, and Kyra’s unborn child, but Cal and Kyra prevailed and Drei was killed. Kyra’s daughter was born safely.
The Fire Mages’ Daughter:
Kyra’s daughter Drina had never been well. Bathed in excessive magic even before she was born, she was addicted to magic, drawing it into her to keep herself well. Because she was also the daughter of the disgraced fire mage Drei, his wife Yannassia, now the ruler of all Bennamore, was her legal custodian and summoned Drina to the capital, Kingswell, to see if she might be a suitable heir. Drina tried every trick she could think of to persuade Yannassia that she was unsuited to be heir, so that she would be sent home, but nothing worked. Since the magic all around Kingswell kept her healthy, she agreed to stay on and try to be a mage. But again she failed – she could never use magic, since her unique need for it drained it from her spells. Even the seduction of her old childhood friend, Lathran, failed to change Yannassia’s mind.
Drina was sent on a diplomatic mission to Bennamore’s mysterious neighbours, the Blood Clans, to meet their recently discovered living god, Ly-haam. But things went disastrously wrong when Ly-haam’s blood magic was irresistibly drawn to Drina’s need for magic, resulting in a traumatic coupling. Ly-haam’s seed mingled with Drina’s blood gave her a degree of the clanfolk’s ability to bond mentally with beasts – the minds of rats, bears and eagles were open to her, and she learned to fly an eagle. A visit to the magic-drenched Imperial City strengthened her awareness of magic in others – both natural or contained in vessels – and she learned to extract magic whenever she wanted an extra burst of energy.
In return for agreeing to be trained as a possible heir, Drina negotiated a deal with Yannassia – a drusse of her own, her former bodyguard, Arran. He’d been sent away from Kingswell in disgrace, losing his place in the elite corps of the army, but he was happy to return and accept a drusse contract as Drina’s lover. But then she discovered that Arran had married and fathered a child while he was away, keeping it secret from her. She sent him away, although she was miserable and lonely without him.
Since Drina’s diplomatic overtures towards the Blood Clans were unsuccessful, her older half-sister, Zandara, began a war against them in order to harvest the valuable bark from the strange black-bark forests, which grow only on clan land. At first the war went well, but then Ly-haam struck back by kidnapping Drina. Again the force of their opposing magic overwhelmed them, and drew Ly-haam to rape Drina. Horrified, he took her to his island to recover and rest, offering to leave before his magic regrew.
Drina managed to escape on the eagle, reaching the Bennamore army’s forward camp and safety. At Kingswell, she was reunited with Arran, forgiving him his mistakes because she loved him. With a lull in the war, northern neighbours the Icthari proposed a marriage alliance through Drina. But her ability to understand other languages revealed the truth: a plot to kill all three children of the disgraced fire mage, Drei, that is, Drina, Zandara and Axandor, because of Drei’s Icthari heritage.
Yannassia sent assassins to kill the perpetrators, and it appeared that the plot had been foiled. But then Icthari assassins broke into the Keep at Kingswell, and Drina’s life was only saved by Arran’s bravery. Later, an attempt was made to poison her, but again Arran intervened and an investigation revealed that Drina’s sister Zandara was to blame, driven by jealousy. Yannassia ordered her execution, but she took her own life.
Drina was now forced to take on the role of War Leader, and shortly afterwards the forward camp was destroyed and Bennamore itself came under attack by the Blood Clans and their mentally-bonded war-beasts, controlled by the magical power of Ly-haam. At first the Bennamorians drove the clan army back, but they soon regrouped and invaded Bennamore, marching all the way to Kingswell. Neither the Bennamorian army nor the power of their mages could withstand the giant lions and other great beasts now besieging the city.
In desperation, Drina, together with Kyra and Cal, used their combined powers to seek out Ly-haam’s hiding place. Once they were close enough, Drina was able to take all his magic and bring the war to an end. At Ly-haam’s trial, Drina decided not to kill him, but to keep him as her prisoner and husband, so that she could control his power by withdrawing his magic as it regenerated, and that would also assuage her need for constant infusions of magic. Drina, Arran and Ly cautiously began their life together.
