Sorcery and Stardust: The Weaver's War, #1

Sorcery and Stardust

Book One of

the Weaver’s War

A novel by:

Samantha Marshall

Copyright © 2019 by Samantha M. Marshall.

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

without the express written permission of the publisher

except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This is a work of fiction, intended for entertainment purposes and should be treated as such. Any relation to names, characters, places and incidents is purely coincidental.

All relevant correspondence may be directed through:

www.sliceofsammy.com

Table of Contents

Love a Free Book?

Acknowledgements

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

~ The End ~

About the Author

Love a Free Book?

______________________________________________

Learn to let go... or burn.

DATING NOAH ACHESON has always been gentle, predictable and above all, safe – but when Noah breaks the rules of their carefully crafted relationship, Deanna cuts him off, retreating to her private sanctuary deep in the Australian bush.

Stinging from Deanna’s rejection, Noah returns from a brief stint fighting fires in New South Wales to face an infinitely more vicious fire front in Victoria. Though his broken heart still very much belongs to Deanna Schellponte, he’s determined not to chase her – until the wind changes, turning the fires towards pack land, and Deanna is reported missing.

With fire raging all around, Noah races into the bush to find the woman he loves. To survive, Deanna and Noah must confront not only the fury of Mother Nature... but the ghost whose memory tore them apart.

______________________________________________

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Acknowledgements

To my mum Helen, for always being my number one fan, for staying up late reading my drafts over and over, and for listening to me drone on endlessly during long car drives.

To Glen, whose creative input revived me before I was ready but right when it was needed. It seems like only yesterday that a glib conversation became an idea for a novel – now here we are, at the other end.

To Bron, for harassing me to get it finished, pointing out all the things that were Fenris Green, and for being so dreadfully excited that I had no option but to finish this book so you could read it.

To Erin, for always being my other unicorn, for 28 years’ worth of incredible friendship, and for volunteering to be a part of this. Here’s to the next chapter.

One

Arcana drew in a lungful of sharp morning air, expanding her chest to capacity and savouring the chill. Long tendrils of curling gold edged a mauve and crimson sky, promising another clear day. She tightened slender fingers around her steaming mug and exhaled in a gust, the bitter essence of the frozen landscape tingling through her veins and out between her lips. The beacon of warmth in her hands abruptly disappeared.

Ugh. Arcana looked down. The amber liquid had frozen at an odd angle, partially sloshed up the rim of the mug as though in preparation for a sip.

Did you freeze your tea again? A great drift of snow shot up into the air as Caelum stood, shaking himself off in a show of fur and slush.

Arcana tipped the mug upside down in demonstration. Yeah.

What is that, the third one so far? Caelum lowered his shaggy head and scratched at one ice-speckled foreleg. Arcana watched in silence, admiring the elegance of his antler rack, each dip and whorl carrying remnants of the snow which had piled up as he slept. Long, sleek fur cascaded like silk from his muscular frame, a silver grey which darkened to black down his spine and mottled across his hindquarters. Caelum turned towards her, his black eyes bottomless and filled with thousands of tiny, swirling stars. Well, is it?

I haven’t been counting. Arcana stared into the mug, where her reflection stared back from the mirror-like surface of the tea. White skin - whiter than snow, starker than salt - and midnight hair which tumbled straight and glossy to the base of her spine. She bore the slightly ovular face and button nose of a classic beauty but her eyes, a deep black without iris, pupil or white, ruined the effect. Without the signature features of most normal eyes they seemed too large in her face, emphasised by long black lashes which further unbalanced her cuter, canvas-worthy assets. Slender, not particularly muscular - no sorceress was - with middling to small breasts and a basic hourglass shape, there was nothing much to distract an onlooker from the full impact of her unusual face. Aware that Caelum was watching her self-assessment with an impatient, if not reproachful air, Arcana raised an ebony brow and leant back against the frigid weatherboard of the shack in which she had spent the night. Did you regret your decision to sleep outside so much that you spent the entire night dreaming of hot beverages?

Caelum snorted, pawing at the snow. I already told you, I won’t fit inside the wayhut. Doorway’s too narrow.

Yeah, I know. Arcana shivered, and not from the cold. I would’ve felt better with you inside. The warg were howling all night.

I noticed. If it helps, they’re not particularly close - it’s just the sound carries so easily over the ice. Caelum yawned, his majestic profile thrown into silhouette by the rising sun.

Arcana rolled to her feet, staring over Caelum’s broad shoulders to the icy wasteland beyond. Say what you like, but this trek is taking us steadily closer to their godawful wailing - or are you going to tell me that’s a trick of the tundra?

No, you’re right, he allowed. If you’re worried, we can go back -

Don’t be silly. I’m just grouchy after trying to sleep on that frozen bed. Arcana tucked her long, ink-black hair into the collar of her jacket and dragged a knit hat into place atop it. The wayhut is woefully ill-equipped for this icy hellhole - anyone who wasn’t me would freeze to death in a couple of hours. 

Caelum turned his head south, where barren drifts of unmarked snow were gilt with morning light. A green tinted mountain loomed in the distance and Arcana knew without seeing that his eyes were trained upon it. Ice princess status notwithstanding, if we don’t get a move on the day will be wasted.

Suits me – the sooner we get started, the sooner we leave this ill-begotten iceberg. Arcana lifted her leather satchel from the porch and shouldered it in one swift movement, clumping down the steps to halt before a bank of waist deep snow. South?

Yes. Caelum pushed through the drifts towards her, leaving a deep furrow in his wake. I can hear that mountain singing.

Arcana buried her hands in the fur of his shoulder and swung astride, settling the leather satchel comfortably in her lap. Her legs tucked around Caelum’s ribs with the familiarity of long practice and his antler rack rose in two enormous, elegant silhouettes on either side of her field of vision. She brushed a finger along one velvety edge, entranced by the whorled pattern which was unique as any fingerprint. The surface began to smooth and change as she watched, velvet receding and curved edges sharpening until Caelum wore an antler rack of glittering, coffee-black blades. Arcana withdrew her hand from the scimitar curves and said; Getting the weaponry out already?

All that howling set me on edge. Also, I visited the dreambank while you slept, Caelum answered, turning south and pushing into the snow.

The dreambank? Arcana sat up straight, fingers clenched to fists in his long, silky coat. But... here? There’s an access point here?

Yes. Caelum’s voice turned dreamy as he left the drifted snow surrounding the wayhut and began to pick his way across the hard-packed ice of the tundra. It was fragile and fractured, like trying to catch falling water. Either way, the fact I saw anything at all - and the singing coming from that mountain - means we’re on the right planet.

I never doubted your instincts in the first place. Arcana reached out to flick playfully at a black-tipped ear. Did you see anything useful?

Fragments. Enough to point us in the right direction. It’s like looking into a kaleidoscope and makes about as much sense. His ears flickered thoughtfully. You were right, though. We’re going towards the warg, rather than away from them.

Arcana shivered. We never do anything the easy way, do we?

Where would the fun be in that? You never know, we could get lucky and find the temple before we find the warg. It might even be in one piece. Caelum turned his head slightly to regard her, the swirling stars in his black eyes a sharp contrast to the silver-grey fur of his face.

Oh please. Look at this place - if the warg are here, whatever we find will be a ruin. Even if all they’re doing is hiding from the weather, they’ll have found the temple by now. It’s how they work, Arcana muttered, shielding her eyes with one hand and glaring off into the stark white distance. I just don’t see why there’d be a temple on this miserable haemorrhoid of a world in the first place.

Caelum chuckled. This planet wasn’t always covered in ice, you know.

Don’t be ridiculous. Arcana waved a hand upwards, where the sun winked weakly above them. It’s too far from the sun for anything else.

It used to be closer. And there was a moon... maybe even a different sun, said Caelum. The amusement was gone from his voice, replaced by the sombre, distant tone that often coloured his memories of the dreambank.

"Wait... you’re saying this wobbly hunk of rock used to be in a different place?" Arcana demanded. Caelum was silent for so long that she yanked on the arm-length fur at the back of his head, earning herself a sharp snort and a threatening shake of his shoulders.

I told you, the dreambank is fractured. Caelum’s ribs expanded beneath her for a moment, then he sighed. I saw green, and life, and a bigger sun, and a very large planet off the port side. Some sort of ferrying system, like that ridiculous setup that runs between Jupiter’s moons. So yes, I think it used to be somewhere else.

Arcana turned her eyes upwards, where the sky remained a strange shade of after-dawn grey and would for the rest of the day. There was certainly no large planet on the horizon and hadn’t been since they landed two days ago. "A different location would certainly explain why the wayhut was so badly provisioned, but who... what could move a moon? What happened to the planet?"

Caelum’s shoulders rolled in an elegant shrug. If I knew that, I would tell you. Calm words, but the hackles at the base of his neck were stiff with frustration. Arcana stroked her fingers though his fur until it began to relax, glaring out at the landscape. There was nothing to see beyond the flat, solid ice of the tundra, nothing to hear beyond the stinging wind. For want of anything better to do, she began braiding the long hair that grew down the ridge of Caelum’s spine, trusting his instincts to take them wherever it was they needed to go. The sun was well overhead when his steady progress abruptly halted, jerking a complicated braid out of her fingers. Arcana looked up through the swirl of his antlers to see that the landscape ahead rose into a short, stubby hill at the foot of the green tinged mountain.

It’s here, Caelum said.

It... that? Arcana frowned. It looks like a half-built sandcastle.

Illogical construction or not, somewhere up there is the reason we came. He was silent a moment and then sighed, a great rumbling of his chest. This place... I feel strange. Edgy. As though there’s something I should be doing, or something I should know, but I can’t do it because I don’t know it.

That’s why we’re here, isn’t it? To unlock the secrets hidden inside you. Arcana jumped down from his back, her booted feet sliding across the ice. Caelum’s head snaked out, his teeth fastening over her coat and steadying Arcana when she would have fallen. Thanks.

Welcome. Caelum waited while she regained her balance then turned to look at the mountain, his posture cramped with lines of tension. I feel like we need to hurry.

Arcana glanced around them nervously. Warg?

No. Something else. Caelum tilted his head, starry eyes roving over the almost sheer ascent. In the interest of haste, I think a staircase would be handy.

Only you would ask for a staircase up a mountainside, Arcana grinned, crouching to flatten her hands against the snow-flecked ice beneath them. She called her magic, savouring the chill heartbeat of the landscape that flowed in her veins. Caelum moved closer until his legs almost brushed her shoulder, cloven hooves weaving an intricate dance as the ground beneath them began to reform. The ice buckled and cracked, the inch-deep covering of snow sloughing sideways as first one step, then another, rose gracefully from the tundra’s frozen surface.

Halfway up for now, Caelum murmured and Arcana obliged, continuing to shape the shallow ice stairs until they connected with the hillside where he indicated. Caelum regarded her work in silence, his twitching tail the only sign of life. That never gets old.

I’ll take that as a compliment. Arcana pushed to her feet, shaking the last few snowflakes free of her clothing.

You should. He tossed a rogue’s grin at her but it was short lived, falling into a frown. The singing is getting more urgent. Let’s go.

All right. Arcana twisted one hand in his fur, dragging herself onto his back. But for the record, following the directions of a singing mountain might be misconstrued as crazy.

It’s never stopped us before. Caelum flowed over the hardened ground without fear of slipping, picking up speed until he may as well have been flying. Moments later they stood at the top of the stairs, eyeing the wall of snow and ice before them. Although I’ll admit it’s never been this strong before. Are you sure you can’t hear it?

Not a thing. Arcana clutched at Caelum’s fur as he stepped fearlessly onto a narrow ledge, navigating footholds that should have been impossible for his size.

Here, he said at last, motioning to a section of the hillside that looked like any other. Arcana waved a hand and the snow slithered aside, revealing solid ice. Caelum’s ears flickered. We need to go in.

I figured. Arcana slid carefully off his back and flattened her hands against the mountainside. She called her magic and pushed, walking forwards. The wall gave way beneath her touch, retreating and widening to form a tunnel big enough for even Caelum to follow easily. It should have become darker as they progressed but the ice projected a soft blue light that filled the tunnel.

How did you do the light? Caelum asked.

Arcana paused, looking back over one shoulder. I didn’t. She removed her hands from the ice and the light winked out.

It’s not... that’s not your magic? He sounded uncertain for the first time since their arrival.

No. Arcana touched the wall again and the light returned, soft and blue and constant. Should I stop? We can go back if you’re worried.

The blue light is creepy, but... Caelum frowned, scuffing at the floor of the tunnel with one neat, cloven hoof. We need to keep going. Just be alert.

Okay. Arcana pushed further into the mountainside, Caelum so close behind his breath tickled her ear. They walked in silence, save for the rasp of Arcana’s lungs and the soft slither of her feet along the icy flooring. All of a sudden her magic cut off, the feeling akin to that of a solid slap. Arcana gasped and stumbled face first into the wall ahead, rebounding into Caelum and plunging the tunnel into darkness.

Arcana? Caelum’s voice echoed through the inky black.

I’m fine. Arcana leant against the side wall and the blue glow returned, revealing an imposing stone slab in front of them. Whatever that is, it rejected my magic.

Caelum leant over her shoulder, his fur tickling one cheek as he squinted at the door. I guess that means it’s not for you to open. Can you increase the light?

I don’t know. As if hearing her words, the tunnel brightened, throwing the carving on the door into focus. Arcana gasped and took a half step back. Caelum – is that your face?

Not my face, but one like mine. And look; a keyhole. He jerked his chin and Arcana saw at once that the deerlike face on the door had a soft indentation where the nose should be, and two long, narrow slits at the outer edge of the antler rack.

Arcana frowned. Are you sure about this?

Not at all. Caelum slid past her, placing his nose in the indentation and the tips of his antlers into the stone slits. A moment passed, then another, and then the door began to glow, a gentle green light that emanated from the places Caelum touched and spread until the entire carving’s face was illuminated. The slab swung aside with a huge groan, leaving Caelum standing alone in the blackened maw of a doorway. He turned to regard Arcana with gently swirling eyes. Shall we?

Wait - there’s no light, Arcana protested. I can’t see in the dark.

Hmmm. Caelum poked his head through the door and swung it from side to side. Nothing. What about that magic ice?

Arcana looked at the glowing wall with a degree of uncertainty. In her experience, it was unwise to trust an unknown source of magic, much less meddle with it - but without a fire handy, what choice did they have? Frowning, she bladed her hand and made a scooping motion against the wall, using her magic to carve out a fist-sized ball of ice. The tunnel immediately darkened but the globe in Arcana’s palm retained its eerie blue luminescence, shedding a soft glow around her for several feet. She held her breath a long moment - but nothing happened, save for Caelum to stare at her inquiringly.

Okay. Here we go. Arcana twined her fingers into the fur at Caelum’s shoulder and lifted the orb higher, widening the circle of light. The glowing ice was no match for a proper torch but it alleviated the worst of the gloom, revealing a vast rectangular chamber whose far wall had collapsed in a tumble of rubble and snow. A stone dais stood in the centre of the space, the back end partially covered by debris. As they approached, Arcana made out the crumbling remains of a tall, circular structure with a shorn-off stone pedestal to one side.

Do you see that? Caelum’s steady, hypnotic pace faltered for a moment and then he shot forward with his nose outstretched, jerking free of Arcana’s grip. She stumbled on the uneven floor, the light in her hand zagging crazily across the stone walls.

Great Gods of Sorcen, what are you-

Here! Caelum’s voice bore an urgency which had Arcana hurrying forward. He stood at the base of the dais, head lowered to the armoured figure slumped on the floor.

What in the name of magic? Arcana dropped to one knee beside the figure, reaching out to carefully tug the dented helmet free. The face inside was male and bloody, his soft teal skin and high cheekbones framed by a tumble of dark curls. A knight?

Is he-? Caelum broke off.

Arcana laid two fingers against the knight’s throat, pressing down, searching. His skin was cold to the touch, sticky with sweat and blood, but beneath it all Arcana felt the unmistakable flutter of a pulse. Alive, but barely. Arcana moved her hand over his plated chest, where the metal had been slashed diagonally from pectoral to hip. Dark blood flowed readily from the gash, pooling on the floor and coating her fingers. We need to get him out of here.

Put him on my back. Caelum dropped to the ground, silver fur spilling across the stone floor and immediately staining dark with the warrior’s blood.

Yeah, sure. Hoist a knight in full plate armour onto your back, Arcana growled, levering her arm behind the warrior. His eyes flew open at the touch and she gasped as jade fire spilled down his cheeks, mingling with the blue glow of the ice orb and casting eerie shadows over the planes of his angular face. Though the knight’s eyes appeared featureless, Arcana knew without doubt the moment he focussed on her.

Run, he grunted.

Shhhh. I need you to get onto Caelum’s back. Arcana grabbed the knight’s chin as his head began to list. Can you do it?

No... leave. Run... The knight groaned, trying to pull away until his gaze fell on Caelum, kneeling patiently on the floor. His jaw dropped open.

Please listen to her, said Caelum quietly.

A deerken, he breathed, and just when Arcana feared he wouldn’t move, the knight gripped her arm tightly and pushed himself upright. Even doubled over it was impossible to miss the fact that he was almost seven feet tall, his frame wiry but powerful underneath what remained of the armour.

Of course. Don’t move for me, no, but a big hairy goat? No worries, Arcana drawled. She inserted herself under his arm, doing her best to provide support as the knight slung a leg over Caelum’s back.

My sword... He gestured to a long, wide blade on the floor, revealed by the absence of his body.

Arcana bent to heft it and staggered under the weight. The giant sword - it had to be at least as tall as she was - barely shifted an inch. No way am I going to be able to carry that. We’ll have to ditch it.

No!

Put it in the bag, Caelum jerked upright, ears swivelling towards the tunnel. And hurry. I have a bad feeling.

A bad feeling? Great. Arcana slid her satchel off and crouched on the bloodied stones. The knight’s brilliant green eyes widened as she slipped the mouth of the bag over the tip of the blade and tugged, inch by slow inch, until the entire sword had disappeared. Arcana flipped the satchel shut and repositioned it over her shoulder. Much better.

Mage, the knight whispered.

Sorceress, she corrected, stepping beside him and hefting the glowing ice. And slave to the first rule of adventuring: always have a magic bag. Now, let’s get you out of here.

Warg! Caelum’s shout echoed through the crumbling cavern, his stardust eyes wide in the pale blue light. A shadow hurtled across the room towards them, claws rasping on stone. Arcana dropped to one knee, flattening her hand against the floor and calling her magic. It rose through her veins, dragging the energy of the stone and the earth along with it. The warg leapt, no more than flashing fangs and whirling claws in the half-dark. Arcana raised her arm and great pillars of stone shot out of the ground, huge and ancient teeth more than twice her height. The warg yelped as the stone skewered his body and the room fell silent.

Arcana stood and dusted her hands. That was close. I thought you said they were further away?

Yeah, and you said they’d be here. One of us had to be wrong, Caelum murmured, ears flickering as he listened to the dripping silence. This place must be connected to their den. Probably a side effect of the cave in.

Hmm. Arcana stepped over the gritty rubble, the blue light in her hand spilling across the furred face of a creature who was neither human nor animal, but some bizarre blend of both. The warg’s tongue lolled out at an angle, eyes wide and lifeless. He was only young.

That’s why he was so easy to kill. Caelum high-stepped past the body, nose wrinkled in disgust. The scent of his blood will call the others. We need to move.

Arcana reached inside the neckline of her top, where a tooth hung on a length of leather. She closed a fist around the necklace and prodded it with her magic. Whatever energy stopped me opening that door is thick through the whole place. I’ve got a basic trickle of power, but not enough to charge the tooth. We need to get outside to jump.

Caelum grunted, already moving for the tunnel. I figured as much. Come on.

Warg. Always warg. Arcana waved a hand and watched as the stone spikes returned to the earth. The dead warg now lay at her feet, his chest a gaping hole. Looking much like the classic bipedal werewolf out of a Terran horror story, the warg were a force to be reckoned with. They bred incessantly, fought without mercy and possessed an innate cunning surpassed only by their physical abilities and natural weaponry. But how did they get out here, to this misbegotten lump of ice and snow? Arcana stepped around the corpse and made for the tunnel, placing her feet carefully to minimise the sound of their passing. It was no use; a terrible howl echoed through the vast room and moments later warg began boiling out of a crack in the corner.

Run! She shouted, leaping between Caelum and the slavering, racing bodies. He bounded away and Arcana threw her arm skywards, sending their tiny orb of light up and up and up. In her experience, it was always a bad idea to meddle with strange, wild magic - unless, of course, there were worse things chasing you. So Arcana poured her own magic into the globe, feeling for the spark inside, grabbing it, twisting... Until the orb exploded in a blinding ball of brilliance. The warg howled in pain, falling away from the bright light that spun and shimmered in the air above.

Arcana leapt for the tunnel, blinking the radiance from her own vision as she raced along it, dragging her fingers down the wall for balance. A pool of daylight called her on, Caelum’s silhouette framed in the entrance. Together they crept along the tiny goat track, back towards the icy staircase. Arcana forced herself to take deep, steadying breaths, absorbing the cold into her lungs, changing the magic from the earthy interior of the temple to the chill of the frigid outdoors.

They’re still coming, Caelum warned.

Arcana looked over her shoulder, where the tunnel had come alive with the sound of snapping teeth. Be ready. This could go badly. She closed her hand to a fist, collapsing the icy entrance. The mountain groaned, the warg howled and for a long, terrible moment everything was still. She flicked a glance at Caelum, watched his ears swivel until they were trained on the mountain.

Get on, he commanded. An ominous crack punctuated the words, followed swiftly by sloughing, swishing and rumbling. Arcana hauled herself up behind the knight as a great wall of snow came crashing down the mountain towards them, dotted with boulders and fuelled by crumbling masonry. Caelum leapt down the icy stairs and Arcana leant over his neck, using her body weight to hold the knight’s limp body in place.

The ground bucked and heaved but Caelum didn’t miss a beat, his cloven hooves cleaving thin air as often as they did the ice. Did you have to bring down the whole mountain? He shouted, his voice snatched by the wind and muted by the roar of the earth.

I didn’t mean to! Arcana cast a glance over her shoulder to see the avalanche rapidly gaining speed, spitting rock and ice and warg into the air behind them.

We need to jump! I can’t outrun it. Caelum reached the bottom of the stairs and threw himself across the ice, a desperate race to buy them time. Arcana reached inside her furred coat and yanked the leather thong from around her neck. Clenching the tooth in her fist, she crushed herself against the knight’s plate armour, wrapped her legs tightly around Caelum’s ribs and focussed her attention on the tiny talisman in her hand.

At first, nothing. No more than the roar of the icy doom behind them and the undulation of Caelum’s body as he raced over the bucking ground. Arcana closed her eyes and held her breath, anything to shut out the world and focus. She probed the tooth with her magic, finding a crack through which she could gain entry. The inside was a tranquil dream that spoke of lazy summer days, softly swaying flowers and gentle breezes. Arcana melded with the energy and dragged the sensation over them like a blanket, forcing it into Caelum’s flesh, into his bones, suffusing their combined essences with an otherworldly presence until the ice, the snow, the land around them shimmered as if in a heat haze.

And Caelum jumped.

For moments that lasted lifetimes, they hung between realms and realities, bound together