World in Chains- The Complete Series Read online

  "I won't let that happen."

  "I-I don't want to lose you."

  "You won't lose me," her mother said. "I'll be there to protect you."

  Nadia didn't believe that, for she'd never changed the future before. An oppressive weight settled upon her chest, smothering her.

  Tonight would end with her mother's arrest and eventual execution.

  A few minutes later, Nadia's mother led them through a wooden door and into a small cave passage, which they followed upward for another couple of minutes, tense and silent. When they reached the cave mouth, they stepped out into the moonlit night and onto one of the small mountains overlooking the city.

  Six Imperial Guards waited for them.

  The men stood with swords drawn, wearing the red surcoats of Imperial Guards. Beneath the surcoats, their chainmail rattled. Their expressions were unforgiving.

  "Put down your weapons," said one man. "Now."

  Nadia tightened her grip on her sword, but then a hand grasped her shoulder.

  "Do as they say," her mother told her. "It's me they want."

  There was no chance of escape, but Nadia didn't care. Sword drawn, she engaged the red-haired commander. When his sword met hers, the force of the blow sent her sword flying. Sharp pain flared in her wrist, and she hit the ground hard.

  He shot a contemptuous look at Nadia. "Would anyone else like to resist?"

  One of the Imperial Guards yanked Nadia to her feet, and she couldn't pull out of his strong grip. Three Imperial Guards claimed their weapons, then checked them for more. Nadia flinched but endured the treatment. If she remained calm, maybe they wouldn't kill her as well.

  "They're all unarmed," said one Imperial Guard.

  "Good." The commander stepped toward Nadia and her mother. "High Lady Saria Cray, you are under arrest for treason. Your execution will take place tomorrow at noon in the city square."

  No trial. How typical of Warrick's regime. There was no justice here, not for good people like Nadia's mother.

  "Kill the guard," the commander said. "But leave the girl."

  Nadia got to her feet, using the cave wall for support. Why would they leave her alive? Did they intend to take advantage of her?

  An Imperial Guard dragged his sword across the guard's neck, and the guard clutched at his bloody neck before falling limp. Nadia darted toward him, but an Imperial Guard yanked at her hair, pulling her backward.

  "Don't hurt her!" Nadia's mother said. "Please."

  The commander barked a laugh. "Why should we honor your wishes, traitor?"

  "She's only a girl. She has nothing to do with my crimes."

  "As it so happens," the commander said, "Emperor Warrick told us to leave her alive."

  "Why would he do that?" Nadia asked, struggling against the Imperial Guard's grip. Yes, Warrick was a powerful sorcerer, all but invincible, but it made no sense to spare the daughter of a rebel.

  The commander glared at her. "I don't know. I just carry out the orders. Now shut your mouth."

  Nadia's mother held her chin high. "How did you know we'd be here?"

  "You can thank your husband for that. He decided he owed his loyalties to the emperor. As he should."

  Nadia burned with anger. She'd always loved her father. How could he betray them like this?

  * * * * *

  Midday arrived far too quickly, bringing warm sunlight, but there was nothing warm about her mother's execution.

  Nadia stood atop a large wooden platform in the city square, dread twisting her stomach into knots. All morning, she'd felt as if she were walking in a nightmare. She'd cried. She'd raged. She'd pleaded. But none of it mattered.

  Her father stood beside her in dark, somber robes, gazing across the city square and avoiding her gaze. He'd always been a distant parent, but never this distant, never a man she could outright hate.

  A traitor to his own family.

  Emperor Warrick loomed tall to Nadia's right, his expression blank, his robes a deep imperial red. He watched over the city square as the crowd assembled, some to protest, some to support the emperor. Those most fervent in their anger had thronged the edges of the square, held back by Imperial Guard spears.

  All too soon, Imperial Guards would march Nadia's mother toward the executioner's block in the center of the square.

  "Father, how could you do this?" she whispered, longing to strike him.

  "We have duties, Nadia. You and your mother never understood that."

  "You betrayed her!" Nadia swung a fist at him. Before her punch could connect, Warrick yanked her arm back. She struggled against his grip. "Get your hands off me, you murderer!"

  "Nadia, how dare you speak to the emperor like that!" said her father. "I-I'm sorry, Your Majesty. Her traitor of a mother gave her these ideas. I did no such thing."

  Warrick's grip held strong. "Don't worry about it. She only feels the love a child feels for her mother. In time, she will come to understand that people like you and I seek to bring about a better world, that people like her mother don't want us to prosper. They're the ones who've imprisoned us."

  Nadia strained against Warrick's hold. "Let me go!"

  "Not until you promise you'll behave," Warrick said.

  "All right, I promise," she said, glaring at him. She didn't care if he killed her, for then she could join her mother. She thought of leaping off the platform and racing to her mother's defense, but her mother would want her to go on. She had to make her mother's dreams reality, however painful it might be.

  "I understand your hatred, Nadia," Warrick said, his voice soft and gentle, as if he were the reasonable person here. He released Nadia's arm. "To you, I'm evil. The man depriving you of your mother. You believe she's a good person. And, yes, she might be a good person, but even good people can be dangerous when they have the wrong ideas."

  "You're the one with the wrong ideas," Nadia said, surprising herself with her boldness. "You've bound us all in chains, and it doesn't matter what we do because you're invincible. All that keeps the people in line is the knowledge that they can't kill you."

  Warrick watched Nadia with a calm, infuriating smile. "You should keep such thoughts to yourself. Only by my mercy are you and your father alive. Don't make me regret that." Ice had crept into his tone. He placed a hand on her shoulder. A gentle touch, but firm enough that she felt dwarfed by him.

  She flinched away. "Don't touch me, you bastard!"

  Warrick was about to respond, but then two Imperial Guards appeared at the edge of the square, emerging from among the wooden buildings, leading Nadia's mother between them. For a long, tense moment, the crowd fell silent but for anxious whispers. Then those protesting the occasion erupted into chaos.

  The Imperial Guards at the edges of the square held the people away with their spears. They used the blunt ends, but people still hit the ground, clutching their stomachs. Nadia's face burned with anger.

  The rest of the protesters retreated, though some farther away cursed the emperor. Warrick waved a hand, unleashing a whirlwind in the middle of the crowd. It tossed people a few feet away, but it appeared Warrick hadn't intended to kill anyone.

  "Silence!" he shouted. "Anyone else who curses my name will feel my wrath."

  Nadia stared down into the square, a chill sweeping over her as the Imperial Guards secured her mother on the executioner's block. The Imperial Guard commander stood by the block, ready to take her mother's head, his hair and beard glowing red in the sunlight.

  Warrick stepped to the edge of the wooden platform. "It is with great regret today that I must oversee the execution of High Lady Saria Cray. It is not something I wish to do, but it is necessary to maintain our peace and prosperity."

  Curses came from the crowd, and a few more people fell to Imperial Guard spears. The rest of the crowd had fallen silent.

  "High Lady Cray is a convicted rebel," Warrick continued, unfazed. "However, High Lord Cray is still your local ruler. He did not share in her treachery, and I urge you
to love him as you loved her. But remember this: Should you support the Order, you will find your head on the block next." He paused a moment. "Proceed."

  Nadia wanted to close her eyes. But, no, she needed to remember this moment.

  The commander raised his axe, then brought it down toward Nadia's mother, chopping through her neck in one quick stroke. People in the crowd cried out. Some turned their heads away.

  But Nadia watched her mother's blood pool on the cobblestones as she'd seen in her vision. She glanced at her father, who avoided her gaze.

  She could rely on no one else.

  Not her father. Not her God. No one. She looked to the right, into Warrick's dark eyes.

  I will kill you.

  * * * * *

  The night after the execution of Saria Cray, Darien Warrick entered a secluded chamber in his palace. Magical torchlight cast a bluish glow upon the room, leading him to an empty table at the center. He took a seat in a wooden chair, silence enveloping him, and closed his eyes.

  Tonight, he would read the Webs of Fate.

  Silence and seclusion were best for this. He needed to focus on nothing but the scattered images before him, needed to glean what he could from the unreliable future. It was infinitely complex, infinitely unpredictable. There were many strands in it, like the threads of something a million times more complicated than the most intricate spider web.

  But Darien had learned to control his viewing of the future, mastering the Webs of Fate as no one had before him. He wished he could claim complete control, but that would never happen. There were too many variables, too many things that could go wrong.

  Eyes closed, he focused his thoughts on today's execution. The threads of the web clustered around twelve-year-old Nadia Cray. She was a Weaver, someone who exerted unusual control on the strands of that web. Someone like Darien Warrick himself.

  And he would find a way to guide her path. Her mother's execution was only the beginning.

  Yet he regretted that he must take her mother from her. He knew the pain of losing loved ones as a child. He'd been a year younger than Nadia the day he'd lost his parents. That kind of thing changed a child. Some, like him, became stronger. Others never recovered.

  And there would always be a hole in her life. A hole he'd created.

  Just another on your list of crimes, he told himself. For five hundred years, he'd done wrong after wrong—all to achieve a better future.

  The world was broken. Someone needed to fix it.

  Part I

  The Gathering Flames

  Chapter 1: Four Years Later

  Nadia cracked open yet another book, praying its pages would reveal how to kill an immortal sorcerer like Warrick. She'd done this countless times over the last four years.

  She was beginning to feel hopeless.

  The book she'd opened contained various accounts by Imperial Guard commanders. She leaned low over it, reading by the light of the library's magical torches.

  Most of the accounts were useless. They detailed tax collection, raids, and encounters with bandits. She was about to give up when she came across a strange account detailing a mission into the ruins of Woodsville, an ancient city haunted by evil spirits.

  On the third day of September, Emperor Warrick gave us a very strange mission. It's not my place to question the emperor, but I'll admit that I was a bit concerned about this mission. He gave us a lone scroll, which he told us to take deep into the ruins of Woodsville.

  Naturally, my men complained about this task. We all knew the stories about Woodsville. We all knew this mission might require us to surrender our own lives.

  Whatever this scroll is, it must be important. But it's not my place to understand why the emperor wants us to do something. I'm just an Imperial Guard commander, a man bound to his emperor. Through everything that follows in this account, I remained a steadfast supporter. No matter what we had to sacrifice, I knew that we were doing it in the name of the greater good.

  Nadia felt a stab of anger. How could anyone believe Warrick was doing the right thing? She pushed her feelings aside, though. This account could be what she needed. After all, her mother had told her of a spell that could kill Warrick.

  A spell known as White Fire.

  Her mother had learned of the spell from Cyrus Middleton, a sorcerer as old as Warrick himself. Cyrus told Nadia's mother that he knew the location of two parts of the spell. But the third and final scroll's location had eluded him.

  Could this account be the answer? Nadia kept reading, unable to sit still.

  We set out for Woodsville early in the morning, taking a path to the southeast from Crayden. When we reached the city, I was overcome by a strange chill only I could feel. The city was also shrouded beneath a thick blanket of darkness that none of my men could see.

  After a few minutes, I recovered enough to continue the march into the city. The whole time we walked, I felt like something was watching us. Shadows danced at the edges of my vision. That cold knifed into my bones like nothing I'd ever felt before.

  But I forced myself through it. I had to do this for my emperor. He hadn't given me much information about the scroll, only that it is highly dangerous. That was enough for me.

  I won't bore anyone reading this with accounts of every creature we faced in this evil place. Let's just say we had a tough time. Two of my men were channelers. With their magical staffs, they defended us from the wraiths and skeletons and other creatures I don't want to mention.

  I still shudder just thinking of what we saw in Woodsville.

  We fought our way deep into a temple located in the center of the cursed city. Along the way, I lost all of my party. I survived through a strange ability to sense the evil in this place, which allowed me to avoid the worst of it.

  I placed the scroll deep within the temple, praying I'd done enough to keep it hidden from those who might use it against the Empire. I made it out, but I'm not the same man I used to be.

  My faith in Emperor Warrick remains. I've seen all the good he can do.

  And now I've seen the horrors that existed before Emperor Warrick, the horrors he protects us from. Without him, the creatures in a place like this would run free. They would terrorize everybody, as the emperor tells us they have throughout the rest of the world.

  It is my deepest fear that someone will find this scroll. Emperor Warrick will take this account into his protection, where he can protect it from prying eyes. There are times when I wonder why he asked me to write it, but again it is not my place to question the emperor.

  I am his servant, always.

  Nadia couldn't believe what she'd read. She'd found the answer she needed, and she didn't care how dangerous Woodsville was.

  But how had this account come to be in her library? She'd been through everything on the shelf where she'd found it. Had someone placed it there so she would find it now?

  Whatever the case, she couldn't ignore this new information.

  Later that day, Nadia met her friend Kara for sword training, but first Nadia had to tell Kara about this new information. Kara had always been skeptical of Nadia's mission, but Kara couldn't ignore such compelling evidence, could she?

  They sat in a secluded corner of the vast library. Nadia flinched every time she heard a noise. Some in the castle, including her father, didn't support her mission.

  Once Nadia finished recounting her discovery, Kara said, "I know you want this to be true, but you don't know for certain that there's a connection between White Fire and this account."

  "Kara, you have to admit it's too much to be coincidence."

  "This would be a very dangerous mission," Kara said. "We need better evidence."

  "Of course it's dangerous! We're talking about killing Warrick."

  "Let's say you're right about this scroll. How do you think you'll find it? That account you read told of channelers, people with magic, and only one person made it out alive. You really want to go against such odds?"

  Nadia
took deep breaths, holding in her anger. Kara was only acting as the voice of reason, as she always did, and she didn't deserve Nadia's anger.

  "You don't understand," Nadia said. "I don't care about the risks. At least I'll die trying to make a difference, and that's a hell of a lot more than the Order can say."

  Kara looked away, as though she couldn't deny the truth in Nadia's words. "I don't want to see you die, Nadia. You're like the sister I never had. Believe me, I want Warrick dead too, but we can't rush into these things blindly."

  "Then what do you propose we do?"

  "We need a plan. The Order knows that staffs like these exist. They're usually protected by Imperial Guards. Some Imperial Guards even carry them. If we can find one of these staffs, then maybe we'll have a chance in Woodsville."

  Nadia's chest felt lighter. "Then you actually think I'm right?"

  "I don't know, but maybe we need to take more drastic action. I'll talk to Aric and Ander, and we'll see what we can do."

  Nadia wrapped Kara in a tight embrace. "Thank you."

  Whatever differences they had, Kara would always stand by her side, in the end.

  They decided they wouldn't practice their swordplay. Instead, Kara went back to the city, leaving Nadia alone with her thoughts. Nadia's father didn't let her go out unless she gave him some warning first, and he'd been in a sour mood lately, so she didn't want to test his patience.

  Not when she was on the verge of fulfilling her life's dream.

  She went to the practice chamber and watched the guards train. If nothing else, she could learn from their techniques. There was also something comforting about the clunking of practice swords. She lost herself in thought.

  How could she and Kara acquire these magical staffs? If they did, how would they reach Warrick's palace and acquire the other two scrolls along the way? The journey across the Empire was long and dangerous, and the other scrolls had to be under similar protections.

  A voice startled her. "May I sit here?"