Spark
of Defiance
Games
of Fire Trilogy Book 1
by
Autumn M. Birt
Genre:
Epic Fantasy
352
pages
Six
months after a tragic war, the world of Myrrah has found peace. But
many of the heroes have not.
Wandering
to avoid memories of lost friends and past actions, Zhao reluctantly
returns home to fulfill a promise to his sister. And to proclaim to
the elders of his people that their treatment of Air Elementals is
wrong. His homecoming is met with hostility but not for the reason he
expects. It is far worse.
To
protect his gifted niece from a life of hardship and subjugation like
the one he endured, Zhao must rescue his sister. Even if she doesn’t
wish it. Quickly caught once again in events greater than he can
handle alone, Zhao struggles to prevent a personal conflict from
erupting into a larger battle. But friends are distant, and more than
a few are wrestling with new problems of their own.
Welcome
BACK to the world of Myrrah full of elemental magic and epic fantasy
adventure! A new trilogy begins in Games of Fire with book 1, Spark
of Defiance.
Chapter 14
CONFRONTATION
"We are looking for three of our people," Phet said from the back of his horse. "They travel with an infant and one whose heritage is unknown to us."
"They are here and asked for refuge," Teyak said without elaboration. He'd been selected to speak for the Nifail, but the youngest chief of the steppes did not stand alone. Three imposing warrior chieftains stood at his back. Zhao, Ria, and Laireag watched as well, using the safety invisibility offered. Safety made all the more secure without Kattan accompanying Phet to potentially sense the use of Air Elemental power.
"It was by my request that you sought them," Phet argued.
"Yes, we sought them. We never agreed to give them to you," Teyak said.
Phet shook with anger, unable to answer. "That isn't the agreement made," another man answered. "We offered coin for their return. They have escaped just punishment."
"They told us of this 'punishment,'" Teyak replied. "We, the Nifail, do not think it is so just. Punishing a mother and father for having an Elemental child is not justifiable."
"I am surprised to hear that, considering the Nifail do not hold those born with gifts in high esteem," Phet said.
"That is none of your concern," Teyak retorted.
"And how we treat our gifted people is not yours," Phet challenged.
A hiss ran through the Nifail watching the exchange. Teyak glanced at those behind him, returning his gaze to Phet with a half smile. "We disagree. When you hunt your people onto our land and they seek protection with us from you, I would say it has become our concern."
Teyak's statement was met with grunts of agreement from the Nifail. The horses of the Tiak danced under the tension of their riders.
"We will go, but we will return tomorrow. Hopefully, you will rethink what you have said this day," Phet said.
"Go. It would be best if you do not return," Teyak said with his hand on his knives.
The small group of Tiak turned and galloped through the high grass while the other chieftains clapped Teyak on his back.
"Oh Zhao, what have you started?" Ria asked, releasing his hand.
Zhao let the illusion of invisibility go as he shook his head, too distressed to answer.
"I wonder where they are going?" Laireag asked, gaze remaining on where the Tiak had disappeared.
"It might be best to wonder how many there are. It would, at least, give us an idea of how the fight will go," Zhao answered glumly.
"That is an even better reason to go. I'll be back," Laireag said with a grin. Laireag's form flowed upward as he transformed into a raven. The black bird winged into the sky, chasing after the riders. Ria's gaze followed him.
"I was hoping you'd be better, you'd both be better by now. It’s been six months," Ria said, green eyes sincere. She turned and walked toward the crevasse hidden deep within the encampment of Nifail along its rim.
"I didn't mean for this! Are you over the war and what happened?" Zhao asked.
Ria paused, turned to speak, and then kept walking. Zhao followed, torn between apologizing and curiosity at what Ria almost said. Finally, she sighed.
"I didn't see the fighting the way you did. I was on a boat with Ci'erra looking for the Sphere of Fire. I didn't watch anyone die, not a Priest and not Beite. I only came back in time for the funerals. So yes, Zhao, I suppose I am doing better than you and Laireag, or Darag. I've been busy trying to keep the Orders from separating and from the former Priests and Priestesses distrusting Spirit Elementals and the Kith. I built a home too. But I didn't do anything to help my friends," Ria said in a rush that left her eyes shimmering with tears.
Zhao pulled her into a hug. "You came now."
"After you are already in trouble!" Ria said with a bit of a laugh.
Gates
of Fire and Earth
Games
of Fire Trilogy Book 2
415
pages
Success
will destroy elemental magic. Failure condemns this world and the
next.
Named
Guardian of the Elemental Spheres, Lavinia seeks the lost gates to
the spirit realm and their ancient guardians. But some of the
guardians have left their duties and those that have stayed may prove
as dangerous as her enemy, whose wrath threatens the world. To end an
ancient punishment inflicted on them by the Goddess for their role in
a forgotten war, the Ashanti will conquer this world and that of
spirit to gain power over death.
Lavinia must close the
gates to stop the Ashanti, even though by doing so she risks ending
all elemental powers. And the act has consequences greater than the
ancient guardians imagine.
But one gate has a new guardian as
well as the old, and the last time he saw Lavinia, he tried to kill
her before she stole his power. And he’s been seeking revenge
…
Continue this epic fantasy journey begun in book 1 of the
Games of Fire trilogy, Spark
of Defiance.
Friendships are tested as what is sacrificed is more than some are
willing to give. Welcome back to the world of Myrrah and meet the
Elementals of Fire, Earth, Water, Air, and Spirit who shape it. Pick
up book 2 of the Games of Fire trilogy, the Gates
of Fire & Earth,
today!
Chapter 6
RULERS OF THE DESERT
"Do you question me, Shi'taku?"
Keifa'kana sat on his throne staring down at the young heir to Ekhaba, the last Ashanti city in Myrrah. Power sat heavy in the room feeling like the weight in stone of all the desert threatened to fall onto the young boy with dark hair and skin the color of Ak'Ashanti's sand, who stared at the ruler he was to learn from and then replace. Keifa loomed over the young boy from the gilt and jewel embedded throne on its dais, the only furniture in the center of the lofty room with massive arched windows that looked out at the city and desert beyond.
Keifa, draped in a cream robe that reflected gold when he moved, did not look very patient. The ruler of the Ashanti was in his prime; however short a timeframe that was. Bare chested, his muscles were tight with tension. Not a gray strand marked his black hair, but heat flamed his dark eyes. With only a gold belt holding a sheathed knife and silken cloth over his privates, the King of the Ashanti could have been any man on Ekhaba's street.
But none would dare sit the throne or held the power of the desert.
Shi spoke each word with care far beyond his age and small stature. "I do not question your actions, great Kana. Only I do not understand them." Shi hesitated, lowered gaze darting toward Behk as he walked to his place beside Keifa. "And I wish to."
"I seek an end to the punishment inflicted on our people." Keifa's voice filled the chamber with the resonance of a thunderclap. "And that should be sufficient."
Shi remained motionless a moment before he bowed and took his leave of the throne room. Behk waited for his King to finish the musings that left him staring into the distance, though patience was difficult for a culture that measured a lifetime in short years. Dust motes from the raging desert floated through faint beams of light.
Behk watched until he broke the silence without thought. "Shi'taku is unhappy with our cause?"
Keifa gestured toward the desert beyond Ekhaba."It is he who creates the storm."
Behk stiffened at the realization. All Ashanti controlled the five elements, but the desert obeyed only the Kana. And the heir, it seemed.
Keifa glanced at Behk with amusement as if he knew the flush of desire that raced through Behk for that power which forever lay beyond his control. "He does not like that Ashanti died. Shi'taku may know civilities, but his heart is angry, so Ak'Ashanti rages as well." Keifa grunted as he stood, stretching his limbs. "The boy reminds me I grow old, and my time is too short. Have you learned anything?"
"Do you remember what the outsiders Darag and his wife said when they were here? She touched the Sphere of Water?" Keifa nodded at Behk's question. "Where was it?"
Keifa walked to a wide window, gaze on the murky sky beyond Ekhaba. "It was kept in the Temple of Mists, but the name was different ... ice. They called it the Temple of Ice."
"But not the Marsh of Isha ... why was the gateway there and not the Temple?"
Behk did not expect an answer as he paced the floor of the throne room, his irritated steps swirling the settling dust as the hem of his violet rope swept over them. A heaviness filling the air with weight similar to what Keifa had held over Shi'taku made Behk return his attention to his leader.
"There is a gateway to the spirit realm in the Temple." Keifa blinked his focus back to the world around him from the memories he'd pondered. "That is why Lavinia was dying. She was pulled to the sphere, and it had been thrust into the spirit realm."
Another gate, and they knew its location. Hope reborn rose like a spreading fire through Behk's chest. "I will get the others." Plans needed to be made so that they didn't fail again.
A
New Goddess
Games
of Fire Trilogy Book 3
The time has come to end their punishment or the world.
For
nearly destroying the world in an ancient war, the Ashanti were
cursed by the Goddess Mhyrah with lifespans of less than a decade. To
regain normal lives for his people, Beh’kana, the Ashanti King,
will conquer death by gaining control of the source of all elemental
magic: the spirit realm. Even if he must burn the world to do so.
After all, he already killed his closest friend to gain the Ashanti
throne.
But
his defeat at the Earth Gate nearly cost him his life.
Lavinia
did not seek to be named Guardian of the Spheres when she touched
each to gain control of elemental power. But now that choice has
propelled her to being the key to stop the Ashanti. She controls the
gates that allow magic into the world. And she must close them or the
Ashanti will cross into the spirit realm and gain power beyond
imagination, enough to enslave or destroy the world they once sought
to rule.
But
with the closure of each gate, an elemental power is lost.
Only
two gates remain open. Magic is faint. Just when the fight grows the
most desperate. To win needed help, Lavinia has promised a man who
once tried to kill her best friend that she would open the gates and
restore magic again.
It
might give them the power to fight the Ashanti or it will give their
enemy the world.
Discover
the end to the epic fantasy journey begun in book 1 of the Games of
Fire trilogy, Spark
of Defiance, and
continued through book 2, Gates
of Fire & Earth. The
struggle for the power over life and death as well as all the
elements comes to a dramatic conclusion. Can a cruel ancient
punishment be ended without destroying magic or the world? Welcome
back to the world of Myrrah and meet the Elementals of Fire, Earth,
Water, Air, and Spirit who shape it. Pick up book 3 of the Games of
Fire trilogy, A
New Goddess, today!
Chapter 11
A NEW ARMY
In awe, Behk watched his sister fight. Power flared around her with such strength it warped the air and sand.
Even more impressed than Behk were the fifty or so women who stood in a circle around Kita and Shajhar as they fought. Kita kept the young desert warrior at bay with her power. Ashanti women were not trained to fight. Kita meant to change that. And watching his lithe sister send Shajhar scurrying with bolts of fire and cutting dust, he had to agree she was right. She would train his new army. Together, they would win immortality.
Shajhar tripped. Woman gasped and three leapt out of the way as Shajhar rolled. Where he’d lain the sand compacted as a fist of air slammed into the ground. Even from the palace where Behk watched as his sister demonstrated her skill in the plaza below, he could see the white rimming Shajhar’s eyes. Behk wondered if she would kill him.
Shajhar dodged to his other side as the sand next to him compressed into glass by the force of Kita’s strike. This time, he managed to gain his feet. With a whirl, he sent dust and stone toward Kita in a wrath of wind. It sliced to either side of her as she stood in the center of an impenetrable wall of dense air. The debris filled gust whipped past Kita and curled upwards, carrying dust and grains of sand. Behk watched as it circled skywards to pummel Shajhar. Unlike Kita, his attempt to deflect the downdraft failed.
From the palace, Behk could not hear Shajhar yield, but some signal made Kita stop her attack. Shajhar’s kneeling form appeared as the billowing dust cloud cleared. He was plastered in a thick coat of grime. Women covered their mouths as they laughed.
Spilling dust with each movement, Shajhar stood and swept a bow toward Kita. She offered him the same in return before waving him away. Then she turned toward the women, calling them closer as she began to demonstrate each element.
Coldness settling on his skin like icy mist brought Behk’s attention to his bedchamber where he stood away from the sunlight, his sister, and the women who undertook training most boys received when they took their first step.
“Where are the last two gates?” Behk asked without turning. Only Keifa brought the chill of death to the heat of the desert, making Behk’s bones ache and his dead arm thrum with pain. “Or have you not found them yet?”
“Have you?”
Behk spat. “The Air Gate is to the east.”
“Most likely.” Keifa, transparent as a dream, joined Behk at the window, casting the room in shadows so thick they might have stood in the dying day rather than mid-afternoon. A chill raced through Behk with such strength that he shuddered. Keifa’s lips twisted in a cruel smile. “But I have not wasted time searching for it.”
Behk rounded on the ghost of his once king with enough power in his grasp that Keifa’s form wavered. “Why?”
“Because our enemies have used the spheres of fire, earth, and water to close each of the gates. They will do so with air as well.” Keifa offered Behk a semblance of a bow. But the true respect came in the step away he took, especially when Keifa eyed the Sphere of Earth and took one more step sideways. Behk’s innards unclenched as warmth seeped into his body again, at least all but through his dead arm. “You were correct, that is how the spheres and gates work.”
“Which means we don’t have much time,” Behk countered. Growing irritation itched his skin and nearly set him pacing. It was only Keifa’s amused dark eyes that kept him standing a few feet from the ghost of the man he’d killed. “I need to know where the Air Gate is if I have any hope of moving Ekhaba to it.” Behk hoped that the Ashanti city really could cross the entire ocean if he managed to send the desert sand ahead of it. Somehow.
Keifa shook his head. “We have all the time we need.” He paused, silence growing in the room along with Behk’s anger, but Behk refused to ask what Keifa meant. “If I did not need you alive, I would stand here and watch you age while I waited.” The bitterness in Keifa’s words darkened the shadows in the room. “But only the power of the living will end this and maybe only someone as strong as you.”
A thrill went through Behk, erasing his irritation. Keifa’s games did not matter. In many ways, Behk had already won. “Then why do we have time?”
Kiefa glanced outside at the women conjuring twirling funnels of air or sparking stars of fire. “The spirit gate has no sphere.” He met Behk’s eyes with a smile. “It cannot be closed.”
Discover
the world of Myrrah- full of elemental magic and epic fantasy
adventure with the Rise of the Fifth Order trilogy!
Find
them on Amazon!
Autumn
is a best selling author in fantasy, epic fantasy, and war - not all
on the same series though! She is the author of the epic fantasy,
adventure trilogy on elemental magic, the Rise of the Fifth Order.
Her newest series is Friends of my Enemy, a military dystopian/ dark
fantasy tale laced with romance. Friends of my Enemy was released in
full in 2015 and is quite the story full of strong characters, tight
plots, and lots of action. Meanwhile, she is working on a new epic
fantasy trilogy, Games of Fire, set in the same world as the Rise of
the Fifth Order. The first book was released in March of 2016.
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