Shards of Etha Read online

  Contents

  Shards of Etha

  For news, books, and bonus content

  Part One: Dragon Master

  Part Two: Lone Rusis

  Part Three: Swamp

  Part Four: Transformation

  Part Five: Shadow Play

  Part Six: Shroud of Marog

  Part Seven: Eruption

  Part Eight: Storms

  Part Nine: Rocknests

  Part Ten: A Failed Path

  Part Eleven: Upon a Goddess Darkly

  Part Twelve: Unto the Depths

  Author's Note

  For news, books, and bonus content

  Copyright

  Shards of Etha

  (Clockmaster’s Shroud #2)

  Stormborn Saga Book Eight

  J.T. Williams

  If you would like to know about new releases, specials on other books, and get insider information before anyone else, head to my website and join my mailing list!

  Official Mailing List

  STORMBORN SAGA

  Stormborn

  Mage Soul

  Elf Bane

  Stormborn Saga Trilogy

  Ranger’s Fury (Ranger Trilogy #1)

  Black Moon (Ranger Trilogy #2)

  Aieclo (Ranger Trilogy #3)

  Epochs (Clockmaster’s Shroud #1)

  Shards of Etha (Clockmaster’s Shroud #2)

  Shadow Cry (Clockmaster’s Shroud #3) Coming 2019

  HALF-ELF CHRONICLES

  Half-Bloods Rising

  Seer of Lost Sands

  Shadow of the Orc Star

  Necromancer’s Curse

  Wrath of the Half-Elves

  The Last Dwemhar

  ROGUES OF MAGIC

  Rogues of Magic Trilogy

  LOST TALES OF THE REALMS

  Ranger’s Folly (Ranger Trilogy Prequel)

  The Dwarven Guardian

  A Stranger’s Quest

  Wizard Trials

  All books listed here are within the same world. For further information, please head to my website!

  www.authorjtwilliams.com

  Part One: Dragon Master

  Valrin and Elera had been watching the guard who roved down the halls of dungeon cells around them. It took him twenty seconds to make the pass on their side, and then they had fifty seconds to open the door, get out, and flee down the corridor to the right.

  "Then what?” Valrin asked her.

  They had already decided that waiting until night was the best bet, because according to her, the guards were much less frequent in their patrols, and she said they were not considered the high-priority figures who needed more guards.

  “I’ve already told you that your friends are likely unreachable. We might can get to the half-orc you told me about, but any Rusis or wizard will be kept somewhere else.”

  “He’s not really a wizard,” Valrin said. “He’s a shadow elf.”

  “A shadow elf without a blade is no shadow elf. I know shadow elves, and I know wizards. He has a staff and uses magic. He’s a wizard.”

  "So sure of yourself?”

  “I’m always sure. Except flying over this island. I wasn’t sure about that. Shouldn't have done that. As for what we’ll do? We’ll get to Rikernala; it is the central town here. The city surrounds a large port. This prison is like the wing of a castle that was already here—at least, from the type of stone they used. It has three entrances but only one on this side of the castle. It just lucks out that this was the side entrance and not the one that most worshipers follow into the shrine.”

  The guard was coming back around and sipping something from a bottle with a grunt.

  Elera waited until the guard passed again, and then looked out the small window at the top of their cell at the darkening skies. “Marog is worshiped here.”

  “And you got this all from simply flying over?” Valrin asked.

  “No, not at all. I was flying over when my majestic Rornuk became inconsolable, unruly, like he had become mad. We crashed outside the town, and she was instantly bound with vines and dragged into the jungle. I escaped, for a time. Got to the city, figured out a lot of what was going on, and then tried to get into the jungle. That’s where I messed up.”

  “Oh?”

  She smiled. “You have to have permission. Take my word for it, killing three of the masked people by causing one of their dogs to go insane and go on a killing spree is not the way to do it.”

  Valrin noticed the guard was coming back around. The guards here did not wear masks, and it seemed like even before the guard had started drinking whatever brew he had, they weren’t exactly in the best of health. Their faces were puffy, and they were sweating profusely though it wasn’t that warm within the cells. Not to mention the man had a putrid odor.

  Valrin covered his nose and sat away from the cell.

  “You smell that?” she asked as he passed.

  “How could I not?”

  She giggled. “They didn't find everything when they searched me. I kept a bit of ash weed, something from my home. Blew the particles at his fat face before you woke up. He’ll be feeling great soon, and by great, I mean that his friends will just think he drank too much and vomited, choking on his vomit. Well, ash weed has a reputation for causing one’s lungs to fill with fluid.” She winked. “Told you I knew shadow elves.”

  Valrin looked at this dragon rider with a hand for ingenious acts and imagined if Evurn was to have a daughter, she might be it.

  The night sky was much darker than before, and the guard seemed to be wobbling in his walk. He stopped abruptly in the hallway, and both Valrin and Elera acted as if they were sleeping sitting up against the wall. He dropped the bottle he was holding and wandered back the way he had come.

  Elera sat up and slipped her hand through the railings, inserting a small key into the lock. The gate swung in, and she stopped it from creaking.

  “Now we get out of here.”

  Valrin slowly sat up and looked out the empty hallway. He noticed that there didn’t seem to be any other prisoners in the hall with them, or if there were prisoners, they were keeping to themselves and not alert at all to what was going on.

  Elera motioned for him to follow, and she locked the gate back, tucking the key into her shirt.

  They both were wearing similar garbs: a tan shirt and a simple pair of pants with nothing for shoes.

  As they hurried down the hall the opposite way from where the guard had been, Valrin wondered how his new friend had any idea where to go. It was then he saw a glowing orb high above them, moving along slatted ceiling openings. Elera was watching this orb, making a point to stay just under it.

  “My friend helps us,” Elera said, glancing up.

  “Well, that is definitely not a dragon.”

  “It’s a fairy, dear man. A fairy who doesn’t have time for me to be stuck here and has done quite a bit to help me out so far.”

  They had reached an area with a small raised drawbridge only accessible from the other side by way of a lever. This wouldn’t stop Elera. The industrious woman not only had a fairy friend, a dragon, and the ability to use herbs, but seemed to have quite an accurate throw as she hurled a broken brick she found on the ground at the lever, dropping the bridge. The fairy drifted down to her and then went across the bridge, zooming under and over and then along the walls on either side. At last, the fairy floated on the platform where the bridge ended, and Elera signaled for them to move.

  “Checking for traps. The dear fairy wants me to get out safely, too.”

  “Any more friends I should know about? You seem to have this entire plan in motion regardless of my presence. Any other surprises? Any clue how to get to my friends? I must get to Braei and-”

  She interrupt
ed him, “My dragon, that is how. Other than that, no. We have work to do as soon as we get to Rikernala, and that we’ll get to immediately. Fairies like this would not be in this place unless there was a reason. This place is rank with shadow magic, and no fairy of decent quality would find themselves here, and I assure you, dear Valrin, that this fairy is of the highest quality.”

  At this point, Valrin had no opinion of Elera other than she was being most helpful for now. He wished he had his sword; he had just gotten it.

  As they reached the far end of the corridor, they came to a doorway and both knelt. Elera pushed open the wooden door and peered out. They could see the night sky and a dark-green grassy knoll in the moonlight.

  “You said this place was like a castle, so I assume this isn’t opening up to the outside world but yet actually a courtyard?”

  She glanced back at him with a slow but mocking nod. “Very good, Sea Captain! You know of something aside from sailing and water. Nice. This is going to go well. Are you sure you have no friends or powers you haven’t talked about? I kind of like surprises.” Valrin stared at her. “The silent type? Very good, I’ll take it. Now, follow me!”

  Though Valrin didn’t see the fairy anymore, that didn't stop Elera from darting into the night air with full expectations that Valrin would follow just behind her. He did his best to keep up, sprinting from one dark area to the next—from the base of a tower to a large boulder in the center of the courtyard. There were guards on the high walls, but they did not seem to be paying attention, and it wasn’t like this courtyard was one with much expected traffic, anyway.

  They came to a gateway with several torches on the upper levels and near the gate itself. There were two guards here.

  Valrin and Elera hugged the wall down the way from the guards.

  “Will the fairy help us here, too?”

  Elera looked at him and shook her head. “The fairy has done much for you already. No expecting it to do more. No, it is my turn.”

  She whistled like a strange bird. Valrin assumed it was a bird because it didn’t sound like a normal whistle and he couldn’t imagine any other creature doing it.

  She then squealed loudly. It was like a pig’s squeal.

  “What are you doing?”

  She motioned for him to be quiet and then squealed again.

  The two guards looked around the gate their way and slowly approached.

  Valrin really wished he had his sword now. The two guards were massive, much larger than normal men with large spears. These were not the same race as the guard in the inner part of the prison. As they were nearly upon them, Elera leaped from the ground, grabbing one by the head and spinning into the other with a swift kick, sending a spray of blood. As she twisted around the first one, Valrin heard a crack and the man collapsed.

  Elera punched the other in a series of jabs before kneeing him in the face and jumping atop his shoulders. She gripped him from behind and he collapsed, flailing as she choked him.

  In a few seconds, it was done. She sat up and brushed herself off before pulling two daggers off the guards, which in their hands were like swords.

  “They are some form of pigmen. Ironic—they like to eat hog as much as they look like them. Noticed there were hogs on the island, and after seeing them chow down on them in Rikernala before I was captured, I figured these two guards might react to a similar squeal.”

  Valrin scanned their surroundings. “Or perhaps they were investigating the sounds and you got lucky.”

  She winked. “Either way, it worked out! Now come on!”

  They went into the guardhouse, and after twisting the gear to raise the gate just enough for them to slip out, Elera and Valrin had escaped the prison.

  Though they were outside the walls, they made quick pace, moving into the jungles around a wooden wall that Elera pointed to as they passed.

  “Northwest part of Rikernala. The city is right up against the fortress. There is a gateway somewhere down this way, but we need to get into the market.”

  Valrin looked up a road intersecting the one they were on. “Should we not be worried about what we're wearing?”

  Elera shook her head. “No, they don’t like to give the people any clue that there is any type of ‘prison,’ so we shouldn’t actually stand out in any way. If we see guards, meh. It could be an issue, but at this hour, we should be okay. There is an inn not too far into the town. I’ve stayed there before without an issue. From there, we can go upstairs, get changed, and then get going on the next bit of our journey.”

  They came to a large open gateway, but there was only a single guard, and this guard was not of the same kind as the others at the castle. He wore a red tunic with wooden armor and held a small axe.

  Elera nodded to him as they passed, and he nodded back.

  Valrin looked back as they began through a small dark passage that led into the town ahead.

  “He didn’t even really notice us.”

  “Town guard, they’re volunteers. They don't ask many questions. Most of the town is worried about the end of the world now, or so I understand it.”

  They came into a quaint town with two-story buildings built along a hill that descended into a large harbor. On the outer ring of the harbor were large ships just like the one he had fought before, and he immediately saw his ship within the harbor.

  He stopped and Elera noticed, tracing his gaze.

  “Your ship, I am guessing? It doesn’t look like the other ones.”

  “Yes, it is my ship. The Aela Sunrise.”

  “Strange name. Why would you name it something so strange?”

  “After a friend. A friend who died.”

  Elera sighed. “Well, quite strange but okay.”

  Valrin could see his assistants, the turtles that worked on his ship. They were rolling about the top of the vessel and it looked like there were many guards around the Aela Sunrise but none of them on the ship. Perhaps, they were waiting or they had already tried and failed to board or defeat the turtles. Either way, the ship was not being dismantled, as was part of his worry before.

  The fairy from before floated down just in front of Elera.

  “I know, I know. Let us get something else on and we’ll get to you. I know you’re still waiting. I didn’t forget.”

  “Forget?”

  “I have a bit of a task I’m in the middle of, or was in the middle of. Kind of a trade of services that I guess I owe a bit more on now considering the fairy got the key and brought it to me.”

  The fairy bounced on her head.

  “Ow!” She swatted the fairy away. “I will meet you at the fountain. Just go. We will hurry! Come on, Valrin.”

  She pulled him by the hand, much to his uncomfortable surprise. He felt odd not being with his crew and essentially having a stranger pulling him along. But it wasn't like he was being taken somewhere he didn’t expect, and in fact, he soon was staring at a simple enough three-story building with black shutters and a most solemn melody playing on the other side of a green door.

  Elera pushed open the door, and they entered a tavern that smelled of salt and old stew. Not the greatest of smells, in Valrin's opinion. Several tables were empty, and even the bar looked shut down. A fire was still burning brightly in a nearby fireplace and mounted above it was the head of one of the bore that Elera had most likely been imitating.

  A woman with black hair emerged from a lower level with a lamp and hung it on the post just next to the bar.

  “Elera, you have returned? You look mishandled a bit,” she said with a curious stare. “And you brought a friend?”

  Elera blew the hair out of her face, and in the better light, Valrin saw that she had a bruise on her cheek.

  “I have, and we need a change of clothes and we’ll be on our way again.”

  “Seems like most,” the woman said. “The tavern was empty tonight. Many of the men were making stakes to put in the harbor.”

  “Still worried?”

  “It w
as decreed by the priests, yet they will not let us leave. Three more of my friends have gone missing. I had thought the same of you when you did not return. I suspect you’ll leave soon if you can?”

  Elera nodded. “I will, but not because I believe something is coming. Do you really think your entire island will be destroyed? These priests are at just as much risk as you!”

  “We must serve. We will be cursed if we leave. Go on,” she said. “Will you be needing food, or are you okay?”

  “We are good. Thank you.”

  Though Valrin was hungry, seeing as he did not know when he had last eaten, he was more focused on getting to his crew at the moment. For now, though, he did not know what that would entail, considering his current companion and her lack of details even with what seemed a certain plan.

  She led him upstairs, and it was here they went to a communal-type dresser with changes of clothes.

  “They get many who are lost at sea and end up here. Most of those talk of sea monsters, or so she said. It is what they believe is coming.”

  “Sea monsters?”

  “They have been told by the priest of Marog that they must prepare for the arrival of a terrible beast and either prepare the harbor itself or pray at the altars, channeling their thoughts into Marog so that he will save them.”

  As they changed into much less suspicious clothing, Valrin wondered of their next step. “After we meet this fairy, what then? How do we get your dragon?”

  “We get into the jungle, but we have to have permission by one of the masked priests, or so I understand it. I ran into the fairies just before my attempt into the jungle, and well, I should have listened. The fairies have been here longer than any. They claim they knew of a wizard from before, the one who settled into this place. They knew I was not from here, but claimed I had a particular part to play. I just wanted my dragon. Now, I meet you, another stranger to this place, and it just so happens we are both needing something. I guess we’ll see where this goes.”

  She smiled at him, and at that moment, he sensed she had a plan, but she looked at him almost as lost as he was. It seemed, for now, they would have to work together.