Siege of Shadows: The Keeper Chronicles Book 3
Siege of Shadows
The Keeper Chronicles Book 3
JA Andrews
Siege of Shadows, The Keeper Chronicles Book 3
Copyright © 2019 by JA Andrews
Website: www.jaandrews.com
All rights reserved. This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise- without prior written permission of the publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. Characters, names, locations, events and incidents (in either a contemporary and/or historical setting) are products of the author's imagination and are being used in an imaginative manner as a part of this work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, settings, or persons, living or dead is entirely coincidental.
Ebook ISBN:
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Cover art © 2018 by Ebooklaunch.com
Illustrations © 2018 by Wojtek Depczynski
Contents
Sunfire
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Epilogue
From the Author
Afterword
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Sunfire
Sini stopped at the cusp of the clearing, pressed back by the presence of the Elder Grove.
Behind her, the Lumen Greenwood stretched out like a sea of shadows. The trees thrummed with life. Strands of energy wove up the trunks and along the branches, spraying out into the leaves. Walking through the speckled green light of the elven forest for the last two days with her new companions, she’d thought those trees were more alive than anything she’d ever felt.
But they were nothing compared to this.
A wide, flat glade lay before them, drenched in sunlight. She stretched her arms into the light and her skin tingled. The stones in the two rings on her fingers—the small orange one for warming and the yellow for illumination—glowed dimly as they always did, leaving thin trails of light behind them as she moved. But the pricks of sunfire that danced along her fingers in pink strands of light were new.
She stared at her hands for a heartbeat before shrinking back into the shadows, rubbing her fingers. Sunlight always held sunfire, falling to the earth like a fine rain. But it had never done that before.
Everyone stopped at the edge of the trees, silent and still.
She glanced at the odd group who had rescued her and Rett from the Sweep just three days before. None of them seemed to feel the sunlight. It wasn’t surprising that Evangeline and Ilsa didn’t, there was no reason the human women would. Or Douglon the dwarf. But she’d thought the grass elf might and had almost expected either Keeper Will or Keeper Alaric to feel it.
Why did no one ever feel the sunlight?
Of course, the sight of the grove was enough to stop them on its own.
Enormous trees lay toppled out from the center of the wide glade. Half their roots jutted up into the air like clawed hands, the rest were still anchored in the churned earth. Deep gashes scarred the ground, and from the torn earth rose a stand of…the only word for them was trees.
Their towering trunks stood side by side in a wide ring, vicious and angry. Dark green leaves, jagged like saw blades, jutted out from between ruthless red thorns. Power thrummed out from them. The air quivered with energy. It called to Sini and unnerved her at the same time.
Even Rass’s usual chatter had grown quiet. Since they’d entered the elvish forest, the grass elf had scampered among the trees, almost wild with wonder at the place. Sini had barely believed Rass was an elf at first, but here her elfishness was obvious. Rass belonged in these woods in a way that Sini didn’t, in a way none of the rest of them did.
Rass had begged Douglon to teach her to hear the trees and to Sini’s surprise, the dwarf had agreed to try. Will had told Sini part of a story in half-whispers when Douglon wasn’t too near about the dwarf and an elf named Ayda. She’d saved his life once by transferring so much of her own energy into him that he gained her skill of hearing the trees.
Ayda was the reason they’d come here. This story Sini had heard in its entirety. Ayda had been the last elf, and she held the power of all her people inside her. She had used it to help Alaric finally destroy Mallon.
It still felt unreal that she was free of the Roven and traveling with Keepers. She’d been almost four long years on the Sweep surrounded by people who hated them, and yet she’d never been convinced Keepers were evil. Certainly neither Will nor Alaric fit the image of a controlling, manipulative monster. In addition to the wild freedom of getting to leave the Sweep, she felt a glorious hope that maybe all the good things she’d believed about her old home really were true.
The unsettling feel of the grove made her shrink back and tuck her hands into her pockets. Her knuckle knocked against the avak pit from lunch. To distract herself, she rolled it between her fingers, focusing on the smooth surface of the pit, thinking about the way the fruit juice burst in her mouth. How it heightened all her senses.
Her fingers paused, caught by an idea. This grove reminded her of avak.
Rett stepped closer to her and she leaned into him, pressing her shoulder against his arm, reassured by his presence. In many ways, Rett was more like a child than a man in his forties, having been hurt in an accident years ago. During her slavery, though, he’d been like an older brother: always nearby, always protective, even as she grew up and he stayed forever childlike. He studied the trees with a scowl. “Don’t like those.”
“Welcome to the new Elder Grove.” Douglon had grown quieter as they neared the grove, and now his voice was hushed. “Ayda made these trees when she found the original grove destroyed. I’ve seen them three times now, and they’re still terrifying.”
His eyes looked straight ahead, unfocused. Despite his words, his expression wasn’t afraid, it was wounded. With a catch in his breath, his gaze dropped to the ground near one of the toppled trees.
A body lay among the roots, white against the forest floor.
It could be no one but Ayda.
After she had helped destroy Mallon, Ayda had sacrificed herself to save Alaric’s wife Evangeline, in the process giving her, too, some of the elves’ knowledge. Evangeline couldn’t call upon the knowledge at will, but sometimes, unbidden, the answers to questions just came to her.
Douglon had brought Ayda back here to the elven wood in preparation for her burial. He knelt down beside her now, bowing his head.
Will, Alaric, and Evangeline stepped closer to Ayd
a. A thin layer of crystal, clear as glass, covered her body. Rass crept toward Ayda’s feet, the little grass elf peering down at her larger tree elf cousin with a sorrowful face. Ayda’s skin was pale and smooth and her hair fell over her shoulders and arms in a rich gold. She was dressed in a plain white dress with a thin chain of purple flowers wrapped around it like a belt.
Will frowned at the trees. “We can’t bury Ayda here.” All traces of the wariness that had shadowed the Keeper on the Sweep had fallen away a couple days ago when they had entered Queensland. He was relaxed and confident and happier than Sini had ever seen him. Or he had been until now. “She was too bright and lively to lay in the shadow of these.”
Heads nodded in agreement.
Sini glanced at the vicious trees. The idea of putting anything into the ground near those brooding pillars made her shiver. The trunks were crowded close together, each so wide she couldn’t have wrapped her arms half way around them, even if she could have gotten past the thorns. But from between two trunks, something glimmered. She took a step closer and saw a narrow passage through the trees. There was definitely light inside. Bright, warm light.
Turning sideways, she slipped in, giving the red thorns as wide a berth as she could. Rett called after her, but she didn’t answer. There was something treasure-like about the light, hiding inside the cocoon of the baleful trees that pulled her in.
She broke through into the center of the ring of trunks and stopped, stunned.
The glen was an oasis. Maybe fifteen paces wide, the trees that had appeared so savage outside were utterly different in here. The leaves were still a dark, rich green, but the edges were feathered and rippled gently. The red thorns were replaced with sprays of luminous scarlet petals. Sunlight poured down on thick grass and the light smell of fresh mornings filled the grove. The air shivered with sunfire.
“Sini?” Will’s voice came muffled through the trees, concerned.
“It’s in here!” she called back.
“What’s in there?” Douglon muttered.
Sini turned slowly, her face pointed up, taking in the trees, letting the sunlight soak into her cheeks.
The others squeezed through the trees and joined her. No one spoke as they stared, awestruck, into the trees.
“I can feel them.” Will’s brow furrowed. “They have emotions. They’re yearning for something.”
Sini breathed in the air. It felt thicker, richer. She closed her eyes, trying to read the emotions of things the way Will could. She couldn’t feel anything from the people around her, but the forest did feel like it was longing for something. The ache seeped into her, fanning a feeling she’d pushed away for years. Unbidden, the memory of her mother surfaced. Her little brothers, their faces always too thin. Lukas, laughing. The longing for all of them took her breath away. She blinked back tears.
“They miss Ayda,” Douglon said quietly from the edge of the glen. “And the other elves. This is where she should be buried.” Without waiting for any agreement, he left, and Alaric followed. They returned bearing Ayda’s body. Using whatever tools they could find, everyone dug.
The earth was surprisingly soft beneath Sini’s fingers, and before long they had dug a grave in the center of the ring of trees. Alaric and Douglon set Ayda’s body in it. Alaric set his hand on the crystal that covered her. Orange light glowed around the Keeper’s hand, and the crystal disappeared.
Sini held her breath for a moment with everyone else, as though Ayda might open her eyes, but her body was the only thing in the grove that held no life. Douglon’s hands clenched a thin blanket from his pack. He climbed gently down into the grave and pressed a kiss to her forehead before covering her. Without a word, he climbed out and began to fill the grave.
Sini covered Ayda’s feet, pushing the soft earth into the grave.
When they finally stood beside a mound of fresh earth, silence fell over the group.
A tremor ran through the ground.
Sini glanced around, but everyone else was looking solemnly at the new grave. Will stood on the far side with his sister Ilsa. Alaric and Evangeline stood next to Sini and Rett. Rass sat at the foot of the grave with a long, mournful face, brushing her fingers though the blades of grass. Douglon pulled his axe off his back and set the head of it on the ground, resting his hands on the end of the handle. Light skittered along a line of red flames carved into the shaft.
Next to Sini, Rett began to hum a low Roven dirge, haunting and slow.
Will cleared his throat and began speaking, with Rett’s song as a backdrop. “I met Ayda before going to the Sweep. I spent three weeks with her here in the woods, wondering when she was going to introduce me to other elves. Not knowing there weren’t any.” He grew silent for a moment. “She was more alive than anyone I’ve ever met. Approachable and terrifying at the same time.
“I planned to come back through the Greenwood on my way home from the Sweep and see her again. But being here, like this—if we’d just lost her, it would be almost unbearable. But to have lost every trace of the elves as well…” He knelt down and placed his hand on the grave. “I will miss you, Ayda. The whole world will miss you.”
The only sound in the grove was Rett’s humming before Evangeline stepped forward. “I only knew Ayda for a few moments, but I owe her my life, and the elfish memories she left with me are priceless and precious.” She sighed. “Ayda, I wish I could have known you longer. Thank you for your gifts.”
Sini felt another tremble.
Not in the earth, though. In the air around them. Neither Will nor Alaric gave any indication they felt it, and Rett stood perfectly still beside her with his head bowed. Not even Rass appeared to have noticed.
Sini almost said something, but at that moment Ilsa stepped away from Will, searching the grove with a dissatisfied expression. At Will’s questioning look, she said, “On the Sweep the Roven plant grass on the grave. A reminder that new life springs from the old. But…” She glanced up at the trees. “Grass feels insignificant here.”
Sini reached in her pocket for the avak pit. “I have something.” She held it out. “Avak are a bit magical, like this place.” Alaric intercepted the pit and studied it for a moment. He made a curious noise in his throat and gave it to Ilsa. She knelt down and tucked it into the fresh dirt in the center of the grave, a handbreadth below the surface.
There was so much power in the grove, Sini half expected a shoot to burst out of the ground immediately.
Nothing happened.
Will, who’d been watching closely, nodded. “Avak belongs here.”
Alaric stepped a little closer to the grave. “Ayda was nothing that I expected her to be. She started out a curiosity and ended up…a good friend. I owe her everything.” He took Evangeline’s hand. “I will be forever grateful to her. I only wish I could have done something different so that she was still here.”
Douglon stood at the head of the grave, his head bowed. He lifted it enough to look down on Ayda’s grave. “Dwarves do not bury their dead in the ground. We build a cairn of stone around them, holding them in the eternal embrace of the mountain. When you put something under the ground it is devoured by the earth itself, and I have never understood why any people would choose this.”
Sini shifted her weight, shying away from the thought of the inevitable decay Ayda’s body would undergo. Alaric opened his mouth as though he might protest, but Douglon spoke first.
“But even now she continues to change me. Because Ayda does not belong encased in stone. She would have liked the idea of her body being given to the forest. She’d have been giddy at the idea of becoming part of the trees. Especially these trees.”
Douglon looked up at the dark branches. “When we discovered Gustav and the dragon had torn down the old Elder Grove and stolen Mallon’s body, Ayda was so angry. These trees—” he motioned around them “—were her answer. I thought what we could see from the outside was all there was. That the proof of her anger was all the world would get to keep of
her. But this is what she was like, right here, the way this feels.” He left his face turned up and the sunlight fell on him. It fell on everything, soaking into the trees, the mourners, and the fresh turned earth. “This is where she belongs.”
They fell silent again, Rett’s humming the only sound aside from the rustling of leaves.
“In the beginning,” Douglon continued. “I thought she talked to the trees because…I don’t know why. Because she did nonsensical things.”
The dwarf’s hand went beneath his beard and rubbed over a spot on his chest. “When she gave me part of herself to save me from that arrow—once I could hear the trees, too—then it all made sense. Their voices soothed that deep loneliness she carried. In the trees she could almost hear the voices of the elves she’d lost.”
He looked up into the trees around them, his eyes unfocused. When he spoke again it was barely loud enough to be heard. “Because when I hear the trees, I can almost hear her again.”
No one spoke, and Sini felt a shadow of the aching loss in his voice.
A pulse rippled through the air of the grove like a silent crack of thunder, and she tensed.
Rett’s humming broke off, and Will and Alaric both started.
“You felt that one?” Sini asked.
Rass drew in a sharp breath and shoved her hands down into the grass, pressing her palms against the earth. She closed her eyes, her little brow knit.