Fire Angels

FIRE ANGELS Prologue

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Author Note

Completed 

This book was published by Harper Collins some years ago and was recently re-released in print by Ticonderoga Publications and as an ebook by Clan Destine Press. It won Best Fantasy novel category in the Aurealis Awards. If you'd like to get to the end sooner please contact one of these publishers and buy a copy. Otherwise join me on Dion's Wattpad journey here. Great to have your company!

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FIRE ANGELS

Prologue

(Moria. Just before Smazor's Run)

By mid morning they had crossed over the pass and to the west the great flat green plain of Southern Moria was spread out before them. Alain, Master Kintore's Morian servant sat patiently as the Klementari mage turned back and took one last longing look back east towards where his beloved country of Ernundra lay. Ernundra the beautiful, the country with in a country, surrounded as it was on all sides by Moria. It was two days ride away and they could see nothing of it through the mornings haze, but he understood something of what Master Kintore felt for his homeland.

"It's like a pulse," Master Kintore had said once. "Or a distant beacon glowing warmly inside your mind. Even when you are far away, even when you are on the other side of the Red Mountains, you can still sense that distant glowing. Even when we cannot see her, Ernundra lets us know that she loves us, that we belong to her, that we are not alone."

It was a beautiful place. Sometimes Alain could not imagine how Master Kintore found to the strength leave it especially for the dubious privilege of living in Northern Moria as Klementari Envoy to Duke Henri at the court of Mangalore. There were few Klementari living in the north, which was not surprising; at best Northerners regarded the Klementari with nervous respect, which could change quite readily to bitter hatred. Alain had had insults, and once or twice even blows from other servants for serving one of the "Moonies" or "Witchpeople". Master Kintore only laughed ruefully and said, "They shall be better when Duke Henri lets our mages come here and the people become used to us." There was something in what he said. To know the Klementari was to love them. Alain was devoted to Master Kintore and regarded him more as a beloved uncle than a master. Personally, though, if he'd been Master Kintore, he would have let those sour northern bastards rot and stayed at home in beautiful Ernundra.

Perhaps Master Kintore was thinking the same at that moment, for he sighed and moved his shoulders as one taking on a burden, before he turned and nodded at Alain to take the road down the Western side of the Red Mountains.

Yet for all their love of home there were many Klementari who lived outside Ernundra. They could be found all over Eastern and Southern Moria, sometimes even married to Morians. Here they were greatly famed for their mage-craft and loved for their strange unearthly beauty, their gentle kindness, and the generous way they dispensed healing and other small magics even to those who could not pay.

At midday the two men stopped for a meal at an inn at the foot of the Red Mountains. When Alain came in from seeing to the horses he found Master Kintore in intense conversation with one whose fair hair, high cheekbones and dark eyes proclaimed her one of the Klementari. From the affectionate glances and greeting of the other customer, Alain guessed she must be their local healer or dreamer.

"The ban on foretelling still stands," said Master Kintore to the woman whom he had introduced to Alain as Enna Thurre. "The madness of the Dreamers continues. While I was in Ernundra, three died while struck by Foretelling. Two more have been driven from their wits and can only babble of darkness." He sighed. "Such a terrible thing."