LITMIR.BIZ

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rang out, the frantic tugging weakened, yielding to his superior strength. The grasping tangle of limbs fell away from the prize, leaving him in sole possession. He crowned himself anew with the dark metal circlet and felt the old joy ignite within him, banishing all doubt and fear. Thwarted, the mass of enemies melted away, while his shout of triumph echoed in a vault of sunlit clouds.

      ‘My foes are many, but I crush them all. I bow to no power in the Sky or the Ground Realm. I reign. I rule!’

      It was the simple truth…So why didn’t his enemies understand that and let him be? Why did they keep returning over and over to trouble him with these unquiet waking dreams?

      Why?

      It was maddening.

      Orrion Wincantor, Prince Heritor of Cathra and unwilling bridegroom-elect, felt a need to stop and take stock of the situation before climbing any farther. He dropped behind his older brother, Vra-Bramlow, and his twin, Prince Corodon, and paused to catch his breath and stare up at the looming bulk of Demon Seat in morose silence.

      Why did I let Bram and Coro talk me into this? he asked himself. Scaling a mountain in order to perform forbidden sorcery! The notion was idiotic…and damned dangerous as well. Coro might easily have broken his leg when he lost his footing and took a tumble back at the torrent, and he himself was rock-bruised and aching. But they’d nearly reached the top now, and it was probably too late to suggest they turn back without seeming to be craven.

      Was it also too late to disavow the magical tomfoolery? Might he yet find a way to laugh off the venture after they’d gained the summit, claiming that he’d never intended to ask the Sky Demons for a blasphemous miracle and had only made the ascent to distract himself from his heartache?

      But that would be a lie.

      The view of the surrounding Cathran countryside was stupendous. From the ledge where he rested Orrion could see most of Swan Lake, the distinctive spiky crest above Beorbrook Hold, the isolated monolith of Elktor, and even a faraway twinkling to the east that had to be the famous crystal window of Castle Vanguard. Below him the steep ridges of the mountain’s south flank, thrown into prominence by bright sunlight, resembled notched axe-blades. The glacial ice lying between them was grubby from leftover ash that had been deposited by eruptions of Tarnian volcanos two decades earlier. A few pink and gold alpine wildflowers bloomed in crevices nearby. The summit rocks above showed patches of brilliant white, dusted by the first light snowfall of approaching autumn.

      Summer that year had been uncommonly warm, melting more snow than usual from the Dextral Range. Even Demon Seat, the loftiest peak on High Blenholme Island, had lost most of the shroud that ordinarily softened its grim contours. The unusual sight of those bare slopes, visible to the three royal brothers from Swan Lake, had been the inspiration for this adventure. Orrion had yielded to the others’ urgings on a fatalistic impulse. It was a last resort. Why not chance it?

      He bowed his head in misery. ‘Oh, Nyla,’ he whispered, ‘if only there were another way! Dearest friend of my childhood, everyone at court knew that I had chosen you for my bride. Even Father gave tacit consent – until that bastard, Somarus of Didion, murmured against the Sovereignty. And now, Nyla, our only hope lies in dark magic.’

      Magic, that bane of the Wincantor family…

      Prince Heritor Orrion had a profound distrust of uncanny powers. His study of certain Didionite documents, reluctantly provided by his mother Queen Risalla when he insisted on knowing the truth about the fall of Holt Mallburn, had convinced him that his father Conrig had made use of illicit Beaconfolk sorcery to establish his Sovereignty, thus committing a terrible sin against the Zeth Codex. Beyond doubt Conrig Wincantor had schemed with Ullanoth of Moss to conquer Didion’s capital city through foulest magic. He had also relied on the Conjure-Queen’s moonstone sigils to win the Battle of Cala Bay, forcing Didion to become the vassal of Cathra.

      Over the years, the Lords of the Southern Shore had kept those shameful allegations of sorcery alive, just as they continued to stoke the fires of calumny hinting that Conrig himself was besmirched with windtalent. Now, with the latest Salka threat, Duke Feribor Blackhorse and his fellow conspirators openly speculated that the Sovereign was preparing to use Beaconfolk magic once again, to counter the monsters’ massive invasion of northern Didion.

      But so what if he does? Orrion asked himself. Am I any better than my flawed sire? At least his sin might save our island from the Salka, whereas the deed I contemplate committing is motivated only by a selfish desire to escape a loveless marriage.

      The brothers had begun their melancholy journey from Cala Palace to Boarsden Castle in Didion, where the betrothal ceremony was to take place, over a tennight earlier, allowing ample time for a side trip to Swan Lake. The two royal princes were each accompanied by six Heart Companions, young nobles who were close friends. Vra-Bramlow, the novice Brother of Zeth, had no retinue, as was fitting for one belonging to the austere Order.

      Prince Orrion was a keen salmon angler. (Sportfishing with an artificial lure was now all the rage, having been newly introduced from Tarn.) His brothers hoped that a few days on the beautiful body of water would lift Orrion’s depressed spirits. The three princes and their entourage had been invited to stay at a rustic lodge owned by Count Swanwick, a trusted ally of the royal family. But the fish proved elusive and the diversion was turning out to be a failure.

      It was Vra-Bramlow who conceived the audacious scheme to resolve his brother Orrion’s predicament once and for all. Before revealing his idea to the twins, he windspoke one of Castle Vanguard’s young alchymists, who had been a fellow student of occult science at Zeth Abbey, to verify that an ascent of the currently near-snowless Demon Seat would be feasible. A Vanguard resident would know if anyone did, since the peak was part of that dukedom.

      Vra-Hundig reluctantly conceded that daring men might be able to climb to the top of the mountain, using trails that in other years were deeply buried in snowdrifts. A couple of madcap young fellows had scaled the peak some sixty years ago for the fun of it, but one of them perished of exposure during the descent. Hundig described the likeliest access routes in detail and wondered who among Vra-Bramlow’s friends would be lunatic enough to attempt such a useless feat.

      No one, the royal novice had reassured his former classmate. No one at all. The inquiry was only intended to settle a bet made with his twin brothers.

      The next morning, as the princes and their companions broke their fast in the fishing lodge’s hall, Bramlow quietly told Orrion and Corodon about a certain ancient tract he had recently come upon in the abbey library. It contained convincing accounts of miracles worked atop Demon Seat in days long gone by. Why shouldn’t Orrion seek a miracle of his own on the mysterious mountain?

      ‘I know the possibility’s a slim one,’ the novice alchymist admitted, ‘but the manuscript said that the demons grant favors to petitioners who are worthy – and who is worthier than you, Orry? One day you must take up leadership of the Sovereignty, the heaviest burden in all of Blenholme. It’s not right that you should be deprived of your one true love, merely to strengthen the weak reed of Didionite loyalty.’

      Corodon smirked. ‘What a pity King Somarus rejected my hand for his daughter in place of Orry’s. I’m so much better looking!’

      ‘But you aren’t the Prince Heritor.’ Bramlow’s dark brown eyes flashed with anger. This was no matter for levity.

      ‘I can’t see how magic could change the mind of Somarus,’ Orrion said, looking dejected. ‘Not with that villain of a chancellor making decisions for him. I suspect Kilian Blackhorse was the one who thought up the marriage ploy in the first place. God knows what sort of convoluted plan that traitor has in mind for me and Princess Hyndry, but his malice toward Cathra has never flagged.’

      ‘If I wore Father’s Iron Crown,’ Corodon said, ‘I’d put down Kilian like a mad dog! Then I’d depose that insolent fat rogue Somarus and replace him with a less surly kinglet.’

      ‘Easier said than done,’ Orrion said. ‘Didion is a patchwork realm – a rabble of mistrustful barbarian chieftains, clannish timber-lords, and

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