Feast of Fates (Four Feasts Till Darkness Book 1)

Feast of Fates

Christian A. Brown

Copyright © 2014 by Christian A. Brown
Feast of Fates
work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical. This includes photocopying or recording or using any information storage and retrieval system, except as expressly permitted in writing from the author/publisher.
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 1495907589
ISBN 13: 9781495907586
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014903202
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
North Charleston, South Carolina

For Cynthia

ON GEADHAIN (GLOSSARY)

I: Paragons, Wonders, and Horrors

The Sisters Three—Ealasyd
\’Ēl-ə-sid\,
Elemech
\’El-ə-mek\, and
Eean
\’Ē-en\: From youngest to eldest in appearance, they are Ealasyd, Elemech, and Eean. The Sisters Three are a trio of ageless witches who live in the woods of Alabion. They are known to hold sway over the destinies of men. They can be capricious, philanthropic, or woefully cruel. One must be careful when bartering with the Sisters Three for their wisdom. There is always a price.

Morigan
: A young woman living a rather unremarkable life as the handmaiden to an elderly sorcerer, Thackery Thule. Upon a chance, perhaps fated, meeting with the Wolf, a world of wonder and horror engulfs her. She learns she is an axis of magik, mystery, and Fate to the proceedings of Geadhain’s Great War. In the darkest days she and her companions must face, her heroism and oft-tested virtue will determine much of the world’s salvation or ruin.

The Wolf, Caenith
\’Kā-nith\: A smith of Eod. His fearsome, raw exterior hides an animal and a dreadful wrath. Caenith is a conflicted creature—a beast, man, poet, lover, and killer. Caenith believes himself beyond salvation, and he passes the years making metal skins and claws for the slow-walkers of Geadhain while drowning himself in bitter remorse. He does not know it, but Morigan will pull him from his darkness and make him confront what is most black and wicked within him.

Thackery Hadrian Thule (Whitehawk):
An old sorcerer living in Eod. Thackery lives an unassuming life as a man of modest stature. However, he is a man with many skeletons in his closet. He has no known children or family, and he cares for Morigan as if she were his daughter. Morigan’s grace will touch him, too, and he is drawn into the web of Fate she weaves.

Magnus
: The Immortal King of the North. Magnus is one of two guardians of the Waking World. The other is his brother, Brutus. The Everfair King—the colloquial name for Magnus—rules Eod, the City of Wonders. He is living magik itself, a sorcerer without compare, and the master of the forces of ice, thunder, Will, and intellect.

Brutus
: The Sun King. Brutus is the second of the Immortal Kings and ruler of the Summerlands in southern Geadhain. Zioch, the City of Gold, shines like a gold star on the southern horizon and is the seat of his power. Brutus is the master of the wilderness and the hunt. His magik has dominion over the physical world and self. He is victim to the Black Queen’s whispers and falls far from his nobility.

Lilehum
(Lila): Magnus’s bride. Magnus sought her when learning to live as a man independent of his ageless brother. Through the sharing of blood and ancient vows—the
Fuilimean
—she is drawn into the mystery of the immortal brothers and imbued with a sliver of their magik. She is a sorceress and possibly eternal in her years. She is wise, kind, and comely without compare. However, she is ruthless if her kingdom or bloodmate is threatened.

The Black Queen, Zionae
\’Zē-ō-’nā\: A shapeless, bodiless, monstrous entity without empathy that seeks to undo the Immortal Kings and the world’s order. Her actions—those who perceive these things sense she is a she—are horrific and inexplicable.

II: Eod’s Finest

Erithitek
\’Ᾱr-ith-ə-’tek\: More commonly referred to as “Erik.” He is the king’s hammer. Erik was once an orphaned child of the Salt Forests and a member of the Kree tribe, but Magnus took him in. Erik now serves as his right hand.

Rowena
: She is Queen Lila’s sword and Her Majesty’s left hand. Rowena’s tale was destined for a swift, bleak end until the queen intervened and saved Rowena’s young life. Since that day, Rowena has revered Queen Lila as a mother and true savior.

Lowelia Larson
: The queen knows her as the Lady of Whispers. Lowelia seems a simple, high-standing palace servant, yet her doughy, pleasant demeanor conceals a shrewd mind and a vengeful secret.

Galivad
: Master of the East Watch. The youngest of Eod’s watchmasters, he is seen by many as unfit for the post because of his pretty face, foppish manner, and cavalier airs. He laughs and sings to avoid the pain of remembering what he has lost.

Dorvain
: Master of the North Watch and Leonitis’s brother. He is a brutish, gruff warrior tempered by the winds of the Northlands. He is dependable and unflappable. He is an oak of a man who will not bend to the winds of change or war.

Leonitis
: The Lion. He is thusly named for his roar, grandeur, and courage. He is the Ninth Legion master of Eod (King Magnus’s personal legion). Once Geadhain’s Great War commences, he will play many roles from soldier to spy to hero. Leonitis’s thread of destiny is long and woven through many Fates.

Jebidiah Rotbottom
: A flamboyant spice merchant from Sorsetta. He sails the breadth of Geadhain in a garish, crimson vessel—the
Red Mary
. Currently he uses different aliases, for reasons no doubt unscrupulous and suspect.

Tabitha Fischer
: The sole magistrate of Willowholme. She has assumed this role not by choice but through tragedy.

Beauregard Fischer
: A waifish, lyrical young man lost in the Summerlands with his father. In his past and soul lies a great mystery. His cheek is marked with the birthmark of the one true northern star.

Devlin Fischer
: A seasoned hunter and Beauregard’s father. He is as gruff and hairy as a bear.

Maggie Halm
: A descendant of Cordenzia, an infamous whoremistress who traded her power for freedom from the Iron City. Maggie—Cordenzia’s granddaughter—runs an establishment called the Silk Purse in Taroch’s Arm.

Talwyn Blackmore
: The illegitimate son of Roland Blackmore (since deceased). Talwyn is a kind, brilliant scholar and inheritor of all the virtue that escaped his half brother, Augustus. Talwyn lives in Riverton. His thirst for knowledge often makes him cross boundaries of decorum.

III: Menos’s Darkest Souls

Mouse
: More of a gray soul than a black one, Mouse is a woman without a firm flag planted on the map of morality. She knows well life’s cruelty and how best to avoid it through self-sufficiency and indifference. As a girl she escaped a rather unfortunate fate, and she has since risen to become a Voice of the Watchers—a shadowbroker of Geadhain. Mouse’s real trial begins when she is thrust into peril with Morigan—at that time a stranger—and Mouse is forced to rethink everything she knows.

Adelaide
: Mouse’s childhood friend from the charterhouse. The girl’s fate is the cause of much torment for Mouse.

Gloriatrix
: The Iron Queen and ruler of Menos. Gloriatrix single-handedly clawed her way to the top of Menos’s black Crucible after her husband, Gabriel, lost first his right to chair on the Council of the Wise and then his life. Gloriatrix has never remarried and blames her brother, Thackery Thule, for Gabriel’s death. With her family in shambles, power is the only thing to which she clings. Gloriatrix has ambitions far beyond Menos. She would rule the stars themselves if she could.

Sorren
: Gloriatrix’s youngest child. Sorren is a nekromancer of incredible power who possesses the restraint and moods of a petulant, spoiled child. He shares a pained past with his (mostly) deceased brother, Vortigern.

Vortigern
: Gloriatrix’s second son. This pitiable soul lives in a state between light and dark and without memory of the errors that brought him to this walking death.

The Broker
: All the black rivers of sin in Menos come to one confluence: the Broker. Little is known about this man beyond the terror tales whispered to misbehaving children. The Broker has metal teeth, mad eyes, and a cadre of twisted servants whom he calls sons. He inhabits and controls the Iron City’s underbelly.

Elissandra
: The Mistress of Mysteries. She is an Iron sage and the proprietress of Menos’s Houses of Mystery—places where a wary master can consult oracles and seek augurs regarding his or her inevitable doom. While she is wicked, she is also bright with love for her children, and she fosters a hidden dream and hope no other Iron sage would ever be so bold as to consider.

Elineth
: Son of Elissandra.

Tessariel
: Daughter of Elissandra.

Moreth of El
: Master of the House of El and the Blood Pits of Menos. He traffics in people, gladiators, and death.

Beatrice of El
: Moreth’s pale and ghastly wife. After a glance, a person can tell this ethereal woman is not wholly of this world.

Alastair
: A mysterious figure who acts seemingly in his own interests. He greatly influences certain meetings and events. To all appearances, he is the Watchers’ agent and Mouse’s mentor. He almost certainly, though, serves another power or master.