The shurshu tasks of the.., p.1
The Shurshu (Tasks of the Nakairi Book 3), page 1
Tasks of the Nakairi:
The Shurshu
K. E. Young
The Shurshu Copyright © 2019 by Karen E. Young. All Rights Reserved.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
Cover designed by Clavis
Portions of cover art Copyright 123RF Stock Photo
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
K. E. Young
Visit my website at http://WorldsOfKEYoung.com
Dedication
This isn't the dedication I originally wrote for this book, but sometimes events change your world. As I was finishing the final edits for this book, such an event turned my world upside down. As a result, I find I must thank a completely different group of people. Without their help, this book might well have been published posthumously.
My deepest gratitude go to the following: Dr Marianne Broers who realized that my problem was far worse than I thought; Dr Christopher Breed who ushered me through my crisis, performed the surgery, and gave me a path forward; Dr Meghana Bansal who is overseeing my treatment; the staff (especially the nurses) at Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup for their care and kindness during my crisis, surgery, and recovery; and those at the Multicare Regional Cancer Center in Puyallup for their help and cheer during this whole process.
I WILL survive this and it will be because of you all.
Contents
The Shurshu
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Epilogue
Prologue
6th of Sanctuary, 3837 — Drakken Imperial Palace
Zenra kicked snow off her boots as she entered the palace. She deposited her cloak with a servant and made her way to the Spymaster's office, her steps guided by long familiarity.
Daro wasn't there when she entered, but she knew he would arrive shortly. Council meetings often ran a little late. She warmed the teapot and poured two cups as usual.
After a few minutes, Daro entered with a scowl on his face. "Your message asked, 'Why did our ancestors feel it was necessary to have a council,' and I must admit, I must ask myself the same question. So, why did they feel it was necessary to have a council?"
Zenra smiled as she lowered her cup. "You already know the answer Daro, because they didn't want the chance of another Mad King gaining ascendancy."
Daro growled as he seated himself in the opposite chair. "As if that were likely to happen, the man was insane. Now we verify that the dragon soul exists in our royalty, it could never happen again."
Zenra paused before she answered. "I'm not so sure. I examined the records from that era. There were conflicting stories. Some say he had lost his dragon soul, others state it was there, but constrained somehow. There were as many versions of the story as there were witnesses."
Daro eyed her speculatively. "Kora told me I should always listen to what you have to say with care. Are you trying to tell me something?"
Zenra was pensive. "I'm not sure. Before she destroyed the valbore, Sara discovered someone turned Ren against Kaio on purpose. As a result, I've been looking into Ren's activities over the past few years." Her fingers tapped at the edge of her cup before she raised three to Daro. "Three items of note came up. The first is that Lady Zabidis Gamis was the one to feed him those nasty 'rumors'."
She took a deep breath. "The second… When I listed the proposed marriage candidates Ren had arranged over the years, every single one linked back to Pandonea through blood, debt, or House. The first candidate was Gamis herself when Kaio was fifteen. Incidentally, Gamis was a candidate to marry Ren as well. His dragon refused to accept her, as has every other dragon. She went to an unknown person to sire her daughter. Rumor frames the father as Akkadi."
Daro looked at her blankly. "Pandonea. What does all this have to do with why we have a council?"
Zenra's eyes held his. "Because the Mad King's clan… was Pandonea. Every Pandonea in existence descends from the Mad King. The sole Pandonea to survive that time was his son although that item has been quietly left out of the history books."
Daro contemplated that bit of information, correlating it with everything else she had said. "Is this why you checked the records of the Mad King?"
Her smile was fleeting, "Peripherally." She took a sip of her tea.
Daro bounced his knee in thought. "And item three?"
Zenra's face was downright grim now. "Gamis has a brother, Pandonea Anos. His eldest daughter died twelve years ago. The records do not say why. Discrete investigation showed that while there were rumors, there was no one who could definitively say how she died. She had no friends and no contacts. No one outside her own clan ever saw her, not even other members of her family unrelated to the Pandonea."
She took another sip of tea as Daro waited silently. "I found a servant who claimed to have been there when she died. I needed to get him very drunk and use mind magic to extract the information because someone had placed a magical block on his ability to speak of it. Little ten-year-old lady Zeret committed suicide by shattering her mirror and cutting her throat. Before she died, she wrote on the walls of her bedroom, 'The Mad King lives on,' in her own blood."
45th Day of Sanctuary, 3866 — Drakken Imperial Palace
She had finally come.
He had been waiting for thirty years. Thirty years of war and political struggle. Sara had brought changes to the Drakkeni and some had balked at the extent of them. What would Kendra bring?
Geran's letter comforted him despite his fears. He read the words through again.
"Lady Kendra has arrived and she is not what we imagined. In her, I have gained a sister of my heart. She is a warrior and a scholar, but not a mage. She is dragonkin, and her dragon bears four colors: gold, green, brown, and red."
An imperial dragon appears, after two thousand years. The implication made his mind reel.
He pulled a much-read sheaf of paper from the shelf behind his desk. Thirty years of reading and re-reading had long since committed the contents to memory but he still read it in moments of stress. His eyes skimmed and caught at particular phrases. Much of it he didn't comprehend. Sara had done her best to explain, but the ideas were beyond him. He just didn't have the time to dedicate to learning all he would have needed to understand. Even Ren had struggled. The children did better. They always did.
He reached the section that had influenced him most, reading it through carefully, hoping for some insight he hadn't already gleaned.
Goddess: "Just as gods die, they are born. A god cannot mate with another and produce children though. It's more like mitosis. Some portion of my children, perhaps a single individual, rising above, changing what they are, and becoming More.
"You come closest this generation, but you are still far from where you would need to be to become a goddess in your own right. This time spent between nudges you in the right direction though. You're getting a peek at the larger world and you will pass it on to others."
Sara: "I'm confused. How can we be a part of you? The cross-section, as you say. We evolved this way."
Goddess: "Yes, you did. It took a long time to do it too. We come into being and a universe is born. It takes billions of years for stars to coalesce and worlds to accrete. Billions more pass before the burgeoning of life. Without life, there is no future beyond our death. In time, the universe grows old and cold and energy ceases to flow. Thus, a god dies. While there is life, however, every choice made by every being spawns new probabilities. Higher order probabilities than the simple 'Will this atom decay right now or not.' Chaos. Choices spawning more choices. Choice and probability are where the gods live, Sara. When you meet her, ask Kendra to explain her Hamsat strategy."
Sara: "Wait. What? Who's Kendra?"
Goddess: "You'll see when the time comes."
"Creation is a funny thing. Not all gods are equal and so not all universes are equal. Chance plays its part in our creation as it does in yours. I was lucky — for a while. There was another. His universe never came together right. What your people call the Plank's Constant isn't always so constant. Even within a single universe, it can vary. So, some areas of that universe can give rise to life while other areas can't.
"Within his universe, it never settled into a range that would allow the kinds of physical and chemical interactions that let life happen. Even worse, his universe was unstable and fading much more rapidly than it should. In his fear and instability, he thought to merge with another, to steal part of another's unive
"I could save some of my children, but not all of them. Many were lost before I could act. Even in an emergency, certain things take time and they had less than a lifetime to prepare. Those who hadn't advanced enough, those too close to the conflict, those who refused to listen, those too disorganized, were all lost. So very few of my children were both capable and willing to save themselves. Now, they're scattered across worlds in thirteen universes. Thirteen brothers and sisters willing to take the risk of helping me. Through my children, I continue to live even as my universe dies. They are all I have now."
"This world is not mine and my children are here on sufferance. So far, they have been good for this world and its native people so my brother is happy enough to let the Aria Atlani stay. The Ansoren had yet to rise above the level of hunter-gatherers when my children arrived. The Arboren were the most promising of my brother's children here, but something went wrong. They lost their capacity for empathy.
"The Arboren's acts were supremely selfish. They are a cancer affecting even their own kind, their own god. A god they deny and wish to supplant. My brother had given up on them before my children came here. He cannot see any future with them in it that would benefit him or his other children. They no longer have what it takes to become more. Yet, as with any cancer, they have a way of coming back."
"We hope this time, my children can be more thorough."
He read again the words of the Goddess that had defined his life for thirty years. He hoped he had been thorough enough, but Kendra's appearance made him fear otherwise.
Chapter 1
Day 9: 47th Day of Sanctuary, 3866
I paced through the chaos, the drying blood on my hands and arms beginning to itch.
I found Geran further down the hallway talking to Mero's Uncle Kelan, Captain Kilas, and two strangers I didn't recognize. The first was as tall as Geran but paler and leaner with long straight black hair pulled back in a tight braid. The second man was a couple inches shorter than Geran with black hair shorn close in what looked much like a jarhead's buzz-cut. While they weren't wearing uniforms like Kilas and his men, it was clear they were both Dragonkin and warriors.
That thought shook me from my preoccupation with Mero enough to notice the resemblance to Geran. This had to be Rendas and Daro. The shorter one noticed my approach and his eyes widened. This caught the taller one's attention and I finished my approach in silence. It made me self-conscious enough I could feel myself changing as the claws and scales melted away.
I couldn't tell which was which so I settled for nodding to them each before turning to Geran. Handing him the diary, I said, "This is how Nurian knew about the passages. It looks as if we've already cleared most of the ones of interest to him. One leads to a gallery of peepholes in the throne room, council chamber, and your office. Your office also has a door. Nurian had oiled the hinges so he may have used it. I'm sure Captain Kilas has told you about the passage leading down to the river warehouse."
He nodded assent as he examined the diary. I prodded at the bond. Still nothing. My dragon paced and fretted in the back of my mind. Her fear was distracting.
"The stairwell Dantalion, Mero and I took down to the cistern continues down to a room Nurian noted as the old king's cache room. It was full of gold, sparkly stones, and other stuff, according to the diary's author. He also said there was a tunnel on the far side with 'strange sounds' coming from it. It frightened him and there's no mention of where it leads. Nurian added no notes."
Geran's tone oozed satisfaction. "Excellent. In one afternoon, we have wrapped up a plot that could have killed us all, including the emperor. There's still cleanup to do, but that's always the case. Tani mentioned you want your man Michael to audit the treasury to see how much Nurian has stolen. May I ask why? Specifically, why him?"
I blinked for a moment before answering. I had won this war and my new family was safe, but at what cost? My dragon's frantic calling along the bond made it difficult to focus on anything else. "Michael specializes in forensic accounting." I fumbled for a moment when I realized the word came out in English. "Using accounting records to track down missing money, graft, fraud, and similar crimes, and obtaining proof for legal proceedings. He seemed ideal for the task."
"Ah. I understand now. Yes. I believe you're right." He frowned at me. "Kendra, what's wrong?"
I swallowed the tears threatening to come. "I can't feel him. Mero's missing. Gone. The bond is empty."
Fear made my heart pound. "I have to go find him Geran. I have to. I can't feel him and it's been too long."
Geran cupped the back of my head and kissed my forehead. "Yes, you must, Sister, but not alone. Captain Kilas and his men will go with you. Do not despair yet. Just because you can't feel him does not mean he's dead. He may be unconscious or simply out of range. Be hopeful. If he were dead, the bond would have broken. Since it's still there, empty or not, then he still lives.
"If you get to a point where you cannot continue safely, you will come back and we'll try again with better resources. There is no point in getting him back if you kill yourself in your rush. You are the other half of his soul as he is the other half of yours. Neither of you will live without the other."
I nodded numbly as he turned to shout orders, prodding at the empty place in my mind as my dragon called out in vain for our mate. His words helped though. The bond was still there.
Geran finished his task and faced me. "Now, while Captain Kilas is gathering his men, sufficient lanterns, and a few supplies, I'd like you to meet our brothers. The short one is Daro, the other is Rendas."
"I'm not short!"
"You're shorter than we are." Rendas's voice was much lighter than Geran's bass.
Rendas looked amused before turning back to me. He was silent a moment as he examined me "I had thought at first Geran must be mistaken about you being royalty but there is no doubt whatsoever." A grin spread over his face. "Welcome to the family. I hope my cousin knows how lucky he is." He leaned over and kissed my cheek. "Your handling of this little rebellion was well done, Sister. You are a credit to the family, unlike this reprobate."
Daro grinned. "Poor Geran, getting the wine dregs again. If you keep trying eventually you too will be a credit to the family."
"It's a pity you're too self-absorbed to realize Rendas was talking about you."
Yup, they were brothers all right. I looked around for Captain Kilas, hoping he was ready to go but no such luck. Cordan was close by though, wearing a slightly anxious look as he watched me. I excused myself while my new brothers indulged in genial bickering and pulled him aside. "Is there something wrong, Cordan?"
"Forgive me, my lady. I overheard your report to Geran about the passage you found under the palace."
"And that has you worried." He nodded. "Why?"
"Stories in this region state that long ago, before this palace was built, a temple stood here. Deep under the temple was a place where a strong magic lived with a life and a will of its own. They called it the Heart of Atlan and said a mage of true heart meets his greatest test there, but it would destroy anyone else who tried to tame it. Mages came from all over for testing. Some never came back. Those that did returned with greater power than ever before. There came a day when the mages who were not true of heart hatched a plan to take its power for themselves. It destroyed them and the Gods took the Heart away, destroying the temple. The first king of Vallen built his palace over the ruins.
"Lady, if the Heart has been found… Lords Cassettis and Dantalion are not mages."
His story tickled a memory but I couldn't place it. My mind was too obsessed with Mero's silence to focus on an errant memory. I sighed before responding. "Actually, they are. All dragonlords are mages to one degree or another. Magical ability is necessary to turn into a dragon."
Cordan's worried expression cleared. "Then you needn't fear for them. I'm sure there is no one truer of heart than your mate and brother, save yourself."
"Thank you Cordan! I am glad you are a member of my house."
"As am I, my lady."
"Kendra? Is something wrong?"
