Elder epoch a dark fanta.., p.1
Elder Epoch: A Dark Fantasy Epic (Gunmetal Gods Saga Book 3), page 1
Cover by Miblart.com
Edited by Scott Moreland
Proofread by Victoria Gross
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2023 by Zamil Akhtar
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions,” at the email address below.
Zamil@ZamilAkhtar.com
“All good to me is lost. Evil, be thou my good.”
- Paradise Lost
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CONTENTS
Quick Glossary
The Story So Far…
Prologue
Seven Centuries Later
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
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Epilogue
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QUICK GLOSSARY
For a quick glossary of terms used in this novel and a high resolution map, head to ZamilAkhtar.com/Glossary4.
THE STORY SO FAR…
GUNMETAL GODS
A grizzled veteran of scores of battles, KEVAH the janissary is summoned out of retirement by SHAH MURAD of the Kingdom of Sirm, who fears the royal capital Kostany will soon be besieged by an army of paladins from the rival Holy Imperium of Crucis. To bolster the city’s defenses, Kevah trains a militia and begrudgingly accepts his spirited adopted daughter MELODI as the first enlistee. Ever since his wife LUNARA disappeared ten years ago, his daughter has remained the one most precious to him.
Meanwhile, the enemy army led by a zealot named MICAH prepares to siege Kostany, which the Ethosian faith covet as the holy city where their god the ARCHANGEL descended. Micah has hated the Sirmians ever since Sirmian raiders kidnapped his daughter fifteen years ago, and he has not seen her since. A sorceress named ASCHERE guides Micah and his army through Labyrinthos, a mystical, magical tunnel by which one can travel between distant lands in a few hours, and so they invade the city weeks earlier than anticipated.
A stunned Kevah leads the defense, but the fast-firing guns of the invaders — devised with the help of an ingenious Silklander engineer named JAUZ — prove unstoppable. Micah slaughters the Shah’s house, slits Melodi’s throat, and throws Kevah off the sea walls.
The daughter of the Shah, a zabadar horse-warrior named SADIE, seeks allies to retake the city. She enlists Kevah, who just like her, is burning for revenge. Together they travel to the new Sirmian capital of Lyskar to regroup with Sadie’s brother, who has been declared the new shah. But the true power is with GRAND VIZIER EBRA, who fears Sadie’s claim to the throne and imprisons her.
An outraged Kevah frees Sadie with the help of a disgruntled, though enigmatic former (or perhaps current) spymaster of Micah’s named AICARD, and a sorcerer named MAGUS VAYA, who has the power to command the jinn that control the wind. Ebra declares Kevah and Sadie outlaws. They must now watch their back as well as front.
Near Kostany, zabadar warriors loyal to the Shah have scorched the farmland, so Micah leads his army to fight them. During the battle, Micah is injured and his arm is amputated. The fever brought on by his injuries leaves him paralyzed, and his lieutenants scheme to take over. To shore up his power, Micah forces the imperator’s daughter, a faithful young girl named CELENE, to marry him. But because Micah’s injuries are so terrible, this ploy proves fruitless.
In the darkest part of the night, an ancient jinn named AHRIYYA offers to heal Micah and grant him a destructive gunmetal hand to replace the one he lost, in exchange for his seed. Despite the sin involved, Micah copulates with Ahriyya. Reinvigorated, he and Aschere summon a fireball from the heavens to burn the traitors who tried to take over while he was bedridden.
Aschere offers him even more destructive powers, but to gain them he must abandon his faith in the Archangel and embrace the primordial creator god, whom she calls HAWWA — THE DREAMER. This is a step too far for Micah, who clings to the faith of his birth and raising. As punishment, the Dreamer strips his powers and resurrects the hated IMPERATOR HERACLIUS. Seeing this resurrection as a miracle, Micah’s disloyal army flock to Heraclius, who orders Micah to kneel. Micah refuses to submit and Heraclius throws him in the dungeon.
Meanwhile, a crazed sorceress named MAGUS AGNEYA, who has the power to command jinn that control fire, attacks Kevah and Magus Vaya. Agneya kills Vaya, but Kevah manages to kill Agneya. By doing so, Kevah gains both their masks — which gives him the ability to command the jinn of the Jann and Efreet tribes — who control wind and fire respectively — though he doesn’t know how to use these powers yet. The blessings of the masks return Kevah to a youthful appearance, as if he were twenty years old again, and stops him from aging. He also gains the ability to see unseen creatures, such as jinn and angels.
Kevah and Sadie journey to the coast to entreat with an admiral named REDBEARD who has a large army. But Grand Vizier Ebra lies in wait and attacks with a force of horsemen, led by a gholam general named Kichak from the neighboring Kingdom of Alanya. Unbowed, Kevah fights them head on and upon routing them plunders many guns and horses. At the same time, Sadie convinces Redbeard to join them by offering her hand in marriage.
Bolstered by allies and fresh supplies, Kevah and Sadie march toward Kostany. Kevah gains an unlikely ally in the form of a jinn named KINN, who helps Kevah capture Celene, the imperator’s daughter and girl Micah forced into marriage, to hold as ransom.
Kevah tries to convince the Crucian Imperator, a man named JOSIAS, to help him by offering to return his daughter. But this ploy fails because the newly resurrected Imperator Heraclius has already taken over. Heraclius lures Kevah toward the walls of Kostany and captures him, imprisoning him in the cell next to Micah.
Heraclius wins the battle and pursues Sadie’s retreating allies deep into the plains. With their backs at the impassible Syr Darya River, Sadie and the Sirmian army are forced to make a last stand. Heraclius captures her and begins stoning her to death for spectacle.
All hope is lost, until Sadie’s old enemy Grand Vizier Ebra flanks Heraclius’ overextended lines. With the help of CROWN PRINCE KYARS and tens of thousands of gholam slave soldiers from the Kingdom of Alanya, they defeat the Crucian army. Shah Murad — now freed — beheads Heraclius for harming his daughter, while Sadie remains near death from the stoning.
Back in Kostany, Aschere visits Kevah and Micah in the dungeon. Kevah is shocked when he sets eyes on his wife who disappeared ten years ago, the woman he knew as Lunara, but who has now become Aschere. She claims that her love for Kevah was meaningless and beckons him to serve the Dreamer, but Kevah bitterly refuses. Aschere then leaves and returns to Labyrinthos. Micah also learns that Melodi, Kevah’s adopted daughter whom he killed the day he invaded Kostany, was his in fact his daughter who was kidnapped fifteen years ago.
Kevah and Micah escape from their jail cells with the help of Aicard. An enraged Kevah finally gets the chance to avenge his adopted daughter. He stabs Micah in the kidney, but before he can slit his throat, Ahriyya whisks Micah away into Labyrinthos, heals him, and grants him the power to use his gunmetal hand back — apparently because Micah is the father of the child in her womb.
Though the victorious Sirmian army reclaims Kostany, Sadie succumbs to her injuries. Kevah realizes he loved Sadie and rages at her demise. Knowing that the Dreamer can bring back the dead, he enters Labyrinthos to pursue Aschere, but instead runs into Micah. In a climactic battle of guns versus magic, Kevah shoots Micah, but fails to finish him off. As Micah escapes out of Labyrinthos toward what he thinks is a monastery, he is shot and killed by a young boy with green eyes, who belongs to a band of Crucian mercenaries.
Kevah finds Aschere in the bowels of Labyrinthos. She offers to have the Dreamer resurrect
The GODDESS LAT, worshipped by the Latian faith practiced in the kingdoms of Sirm, Alanya, and Kashan, is pleased that Kevah killed the apostle of the Dreamer. She offers to revive Sadie, if Kevah will agree to travel to the Holy City of Zelthuriya and serve her instead by achieving fanaa — a mystical state in which one annihilates their selfish desires. He agrees and so Lat revives Sadie, and the two enjoy a few weeks of travel and enjoyment before Kevah leaves to serve Lat.
CONQUEROR’S BLOOD
One year passes after the events of Gunmetal Gods. Kevah is fasting and meditating in Zelthuriya, but is unable to make progress toward fanaa, the mystical annihilation of the self that will help grant him the power to utilize his three masks and command the following jinn tribes:
· The Marid tribe who control ice, led by the Sultana MARADA
· The Efreet tribe who control fire, led by the Sultan EBLAS
· The Jann tribe who control wind, led by an unknown sultan
A half-day’s ride south, in the glorious city of Qandbajar, Seat of the Seluqal Kingdom of Alanya, the machinations of Hawwa the Dreamer and her followers stir a new conflict.
A scheming angel named MAROT, revered as one of the Twelve Great Angels by Ethosians, resurrects ZEDRA, an ancient and powerful blood sorceress, in the body of NORA, an innocent young woman whom Marot saved from death at the hands of raiders.
Marot tricks Zedra by making her believe that he is CHISTI, the holy man revered by all Latians as the founder of their faith. He tasks Zedra with bringing back an ancient tribe known as the Children, who descended from Chisti but were annihilated when the current dynastic rulers of Sirm, Alanya, and Kashan — the Seluqal House — conquered the western half of the continent. This event finalized a split in the Latian religion into two sects: the Path of the Children, who still revere the now long-gone tribe, and the Path of the Saints, who compose the majority of Latians and revere various holy men and women throughout history instead of the Children.
Zedra is also descended from the Children, though Nora is not, and thanks to Marot’s tricks, she does not realize that she’s been brought back in a different body to her original one.
To advance his scheme, Marot impregnates Zedra and sends her into the harem of Kyars, the Crown Prince of Alanya. Kyars, having copulated with Zedra many times, believes the child to be his own, and thus names him as his successor in the line to the throne. Zedra, believing the child to be Chisti’s son, will do everything to ensure he takes the throne, as this will fulfill her aim to bring back the dynasty of the Children.
Meanwhile, a woman named CYRA is up to her own schemes. By leveraging the power of her ascendent Sylgiz tribe, she convinces TAMAZ, the Shah of Alanya, to marry her to Crown Prince Kyars, thus making her Sultana of Sultanas, one of the most powerful women in Alanya.
Desiring this position for herself and fearing that Cyra’s ambitions will hinder her plans, Zedra enacts a bloodwriting spell to take over Cyra’s body. She then uses Cyra’s hands to stab Shah Tamaz to death, while the eyes of everyone watch. To her mind, this means that Kyars will become Shah, and being the mother of his only son, she will become the most powerful woman in Alanya and be better placed to direct affairs toward her goal of ensuring her infant son becomes the next Shah.
Cyra barely manages to regain her body and flee Qandbajar with the help of another blood sorcerer named ESHE, who is trying to figure out who or what is behind the vile plot ensnaring Alanya. On the back of a camel, he takes Cyra to Zelthuriya to meet with Kevah, whom he places much hope in.
Kevah, bored of sitting around in a dusty shrine for an entire year, is moved by Cyra’s story and agrees to help her clear her name and expose the true evil. However, the Disciples of Chisti, the Latian order who guard Zelthuriya, refuse to aid her, especially after one of their sheikhas, a young bloodrune-covered woman named RUHI, convinces them that Cyra is a liar and a sinner. Despite their rejection, Cyra, Kevah, and Eshe travel to Qandbajar to uncover the menace.
During the journey, Marada, Sultana of the Marid, appears in the sky and submits to Kevah — despite his lack of fanaa — giving him the power to command the ice jinn. At the same time, the angel Marot lures Cyra into the mysterious and much-feared Palace of Bones, where she is granted the power of starwriting magic, just like Aschere, with the help of a new black-on-black eye that lets her see stars up close.
Zedra, meanwhile, enlists the aid of two unlikely allies: the Crucian princess Celene, who escaped Sirm but was captured by slavers, and the resurrected Sirmian princess Sadie, who is trying to live a carefree life and has come to Qandbajar for an archery tournament. They don’t realize Zedra was behind the plot to murder Shah Tamaz, and are won over by her charming demeanor and her claims that she wants to avenge Tamaz and uncover the evildoers causing havoc in the kingdom.
But now Marot is using both Zedra and Cyra to enact his mysterious scheme, and so leads them into greater and greater conflict.
At the same time, Tamaz’s brother, MANSUR, arrives in Qandbajar to claim the throne. Kyars beheads him, causing much bad blood between him and Mansur’s children.
Zedra convinces KATO, the commander of the Alanyan gholam slave soldiers, that Cyra is the devious schemer behind the plot to bring chaos to Alanya. She also convinces Kyars of the same, despite that Cyra is his wife by law.
But she fails to enlist the aid of the Philosophers, a mighty group of scholars who reverse-engineered Micah the Metal’s fast-firing guns, and who seem to have their own agenda. For completely mysterious reasons, the Philosophers kidnap Eshe and force him to copy down a book called The Melody of Flowers. Soon after, they release Eshe and suddenly disappear from their tower, nowhere to be found.
Meanwhile, Cyra convinces the khagan of the powerful Jotrid tribe to aid her — a childhood friend of hers named PASHANG. Pashang has had visions about her ever since he encountered Marot in the Deep Waste, many years ago, and so eagerly helps her.
Cyra and Zedra’s respective sides collide during a battle between the Jotrids and gholam in the desert. Kato and his gholam defeat Pashang and his Jotrids, while the angel Marot himself defeats the jinn sultana Marada, leaving Kevah powerless. All seems lost until the Goddess Lat, protector of the land, appears in the sky and destroys Marot with a scepter that emits a scathing aurora of light.
Though Marot is dead, the gholam are closing in on Cyra and are about to kill her. So Cyra uses her starwriting powers to summon Hawwa’s hand from the Blood Star. Hawwa’s hand crushes Lat — the god of all Latians — then uses Lat’s blood to enact a blood sorcery spell. This spell makes all the gholam explode into a lake of blood, and begins a curse known as the blood plague, which will over many decades cause all the water and living tissue in the kingdom to turn into blood.
