Sons of Ironstorm - Book 3: New Alliance

Charting a New Course

For what seemed liked a lifetime, and more, Lawrence swam in the dark comfort that was unconsciousness, luxuriating in the sensation of feeling nothing at all. Into this darkness a thought intruded, a feeling that curled itself around the knot of self that floated effortlessly in the heart of the motionless sea of unconsciousness. Curled around and abruptly pulled on, dragging his awareness kicking and screaming towards a bright light growing more visible near the sea's surface. And then he was breaking through to be bathed in that light.

An eye blink later he was awake with a groan. After a moment needed for his senses to reawaken the young prince became aware of the bed around him, the covers that warmed him and the space that felt familiar beyond. And, for a pulse-pounding moment, the pounding in his head that marked the wound that sent him into the dark lands of unconsciousness. Thankfully a quick healing rune sorted that out swiftly enough. The combination of those sensations was possible in only one place: he was in the bedroom Queen Marinda had given him upon his arrival.

Pushing back the fog that still hung over his mind, he carefully sat up. And he immediately espied a shadow-shrouded figure sitting in the chair occupying the room's far corner.

"Aine?" he rasped, catching a hint of the Mamran princess' familiar scent lingering in the air around the bed.

"No," the figure rumbled with a chuckle, leaning forward into the light slanting in from the room's single window. "You missed her by a turn of the small glass. You'll have to make do with an old, beat up war king instead."

"For a second best, you can't do much better, Morgan." Lawrence felt a smile twist up the corners of his mouth. "How's Janis?"

"Alive, thanks to you, my young friend," Morgan replied. "I owe you a debt that will be hard to repay."

Lawrence quickly held up a hand to forestall any further words from the dark king.

"All things considered, Morgan, the debt is repaid in full. In fact, I think I still owe you, for putting a roof over our heads and a bed under our backs, not to mention the offer to help me find the Tree Staff."

A smile turning up his lips, Morgan replied.

"As you say, all things considered, my young friend, the debt isn't even close to being paid. But I won't quibble with you. You've saved me from needing to spout more flowery words and emotions." The smile faded to a grim frown.

"Unfortunately we've also had the dubious pleasure of discovering that wraiths still exist," he darkly noted, sitting back with a shake of his head. "I truly thought the Hammer free of those venomous ghosts after you handed them their heads in the Merchant's Quarter."

"You weren't the only one," Lawrence admitted, swinging his feet around to let them drop onto the floor, stretching away the multitude of kinks that now knotted his neck and back, echoes of his rough tumble into that stone wall marking the edge of one of Morgan's palace gardens, the only place he could think of with water boiling in on him and Janis. After the tumultuous battle in the Quarter that saw several civilians dead along with a good number of King's Own and nearly his uncle, the wraiths plaguing eastern Talemon and the kingdoms of the Hammer had virtually vanished. Lawrence had thought it was because they had destroyed them all.

Janis' kidnapping, however, proved they were still around, if not in the numbers they once had, and still engaged in sowing as much chaos in the Hammer as possible. Why they specifically targeted the Galentaler princess, they might never know, or why they chose this particular moment in time to do so. Regardless, they nearly hurt two great kingdoms badly in doing so, and a promised Wielder of a Weapon of Power to boot!