Chapter 1

The sudden appearance and subsequent vanishing of a large portion of the Master stone had spurred the Blood Queen into action. Her Master had become enraged by this sudden occurrence. Another problem was that his primary slave, Blood Queen was growing old and feeble. He estimated she would not live two more years at the current rate of her failing health. He knew of a solution, but he would not be able to make it work until she had completed the legwork, as the mortals would call it.

The Blood Queen looked at the sleeping girl that was strapped to the table in her private library. The Master had explained that she could take over a new, younger body. The problem with this solution though would require power, more than they both currently had combined. The vampire did have a solution to this problem, but it would require time and effort on the part of his slave to acquire enough living sacrifices to achieve.

Over the next week, the Blood Queen paid visits to every prison in the area of her direct control and emptied them of the adult populations, feeding on, storing the energy from their destroyed bodies. The flow of power had her gasping for breath at times. “Is this what the power was like in some distant past time?” she wondered aloud as she traveled to her next destination.

“This is but a faint shadow of what it was like at one time and still is on many other worlds slave,” said the angry cold voice in her mind. “Many of both our kinds could travel across their homeworlds with but a thought.” She felt the anger in his voice as a physical thing, a pain that made it hard to even think at times.

When he determined she had enough energy stored, he told her it was time. Her old body was failing and to complete the mission, she needed a new, younger form. She looked at the young girl strapped to the table to keep the body from moving during the transference. It was full of youth, life, and ability. She climbed onto the table and laid herself on the girl, making sure her limbs lined up with the girls, then pushed her forehead to the girls, their face’s together as if kissing. Looking into the sleeping girl’s features, she felt a faint pang of regret. Regret at what she had lost at the hands of her grandmother before her all those years ago. Her hair had been a color she could no longer recall. This girl had a long flowing mass of the deepest black. Her eyes too were different in shape and size. They tended to a more slanted downturn and slightly larger than her own, yet the folds of skin around them made them look smaller at the same time. The girl’s skin was different as well. Her old skin had always been pale and fine-looking. This girl’s skin was darker, firmer-looking to both the eye and touch. “She can’t be more than fourteen or fifteen.” she chuckled an evil thought. “I wonder if the body is still virginal.” The Blood Queen settled herself on the girl and waited.

At her thoughts of readiness, her Master spoke a spell and activated the powers inherent in the gems that were embedded in the woman’s body. She felt a new fire burn through her old body, then felt herself sinking into the girl, their bodies merging. Her old body was soon merged with the young teen girl’s body.

With a sudden burning pain all through her body, she felt the stones shift from her old self to the new body. As they moved, they dragged her mind, her spirit with them to merge into the new one. The girl’s mind and soul, in turn, were shoved into her old body that continued to sink through it. It soon passed completely through the girl, then on through the table below, looking like a faint mist to anybody that could have watched, though none did. Once it had passed through the table, the body regained its full solidity and fell to the floor with a wet thud.

With a thought from the Blood Queen, the straps that held the girl down fell apart and vanished. The Blood Queen felt herself reborn. She rolled herself off the table to stand, only to stumble, falling to the floor, to lay on the cold stone unable to move again. This body refused to listen to its new owner, at least that was the case for the moment. After the better part of an hour of concentrated mental effort, she was able to pull herself up with the table to stand. Walking took a bit longer but after another hour, she was able to move around her chambers without support. Looking down at her new form, she marveled at this tight, firm body she now owned. She hadn’t felt this alive in decades. Even the gems flashed and glowed brighter now than they had in some time.

She heard a faint groaning from under the table and saw her old body starting to awaken. The girl was not able to talk yet or nor able to control it. The aged and weak body just lay there under the table and shivered on the cold stone floor. The Blood Queen knew she had to act quickly rather than risk any identity issues with her staff. Holding onto the edge of the table, she squatted down, reached under the table and grabbed the nearest arm of her old form. At the contact, she shuddered in disgust at how she had allowed herself to reach that condition. “I must take better care this time, I may not be able to do this again,” she thought. As she grasped her old forms arm, she willed it to dust. The body did fade away, but very slowly. It took a full five minutes for all the energy in it to be absorbed into the stones.

“I live again,” she whispered in wonder. The energy she had recovered from her old form, plus the spirit of the girl had strengthened her. This spell, so powerful here, yet her master had told her it was a minor spell on his world. She dressed in her favorite catsuit of black silk and willed the stones to glow brightly through her skin. This would ensure no doubts lingered in the minds of all who knew her and saw her that this was the Blood Queen reborn. “Now,” she said out loud, “Time to prepare the fleet to sail and capture what is rightfully my masters.”

An hour later, the new fleet admiral stood shaking in terror after watching his predecessor vanish in screaming agony. “You mean our entire Battle Fleet is gone?”

“Between the storms and the tactics used by the lesser kingdoms, they destroyed the fleet to the last vessel. Our coastal defenses will keep them away for a time, but we must rebuild and quickly if we are to prevent invasion.” He paused then went on before she could start on another tirade. “We will also have issues with the manning of a new fleet. With the sudden unexplained emptying of the prisons and work camps, we will have to wait until enough of the male population becomes of an age that they will be of use on ships.”

The Blood Queen sat in silence, eyes closed, shocked that this had happened and stranded her here. She heard her Master laughing at her so she could only sit and stew. With a heavy sigh, she looked back at the fleet commander, “Very well, get the shipwrights to work. Also, start the training of the boys anyways. Gather the street urchins and begin training them as well. And tell those lazy women and street whores to get busy and start making more slaves for our crews and armies.” Her main landing groups had been on the transports, over twenty-five thousand men and woman had been lost in that debacle.

She went to her chambers and sat down and discussed this setback with the Master. He just laughed and then told her, “The stones are all going the same way. The one in the ring will arrive at Fairhams Cove before Midwinter. The others seemed to be in the area and moving the same way as well. You will find them, then you will come to my prison and free me. We will go to the southern lands and enter the Eternity Walk and I will finally be able to make my way home.”

“What of me Master?” She asked, now with more than a bit of trepidation.

“I will feed on your blood of course, then drain your life energy to supply me as I cut the gems from your dying body with what I need to return to the realm that spawned me.” He paused then went on sharply, “Do not fail me, girl, you can easily be replaced.”

She shuddered in terror at the sheer coldness of her master’s judgment. Remaining silent, sleep soon took her and her nightmares took her to hell once more.

Ledger Fireham studied the tome that he had been assigned to learn from and was soon able to produce a stone that glowed dimly in the family library. He was a very frustrated fifteen-year-old boy that still looked about twelve. No matter how he tried, he had not been able to produce an enchanted light stone that was little better than a weak candle. He could feel what he wanted to happen, but it just wouldn’t come no matter how hard he concentrated on the stone to give it the power to produce cold light.

Ledger could tell his mother was rapidly losing any hope of passing on her legacy to any of her children. Of the six, Ledger was the only one to show any usable talent. “Mom, I got another to glow, but it is still very week.”

“I can see that.” She reached to take it from him so she could get a feel for how he had produced it. She held it and concentrated for a few seconds. “Ledger, this stone should be blinding us right now. I don’t understand what is holding back the enchantment.” She picked up a small oval stone and in a few seconds, it was producing a solid glow that lit the room. She handed it to Ledger and he felt what she had done. He could tell it was very much like he had worked, though it felt different as well. No two enchanters ever produced an identical effect.

He had a thought and asked, “Make another one mom, I want to feel what you do as you are doing it. Maybe I will be able to get a better take on the spell effects that way today.” He handed her another stone for her to enchant with the simple light effect. Minda Fireham took it and waited for Ledger to touch the stone. Once he had a finger on it, she began again. This time the stone only flickered then went out.

With a frown, she said, “I know I did that correctly, yet the stone died.” She held the stone up and tried again without Ledger touching it. This time the stone lit up and stayed solid white. “Ok Ledger, that is just weird. Try something for me.” She handed him another small stone. “Enchant this one, but use as little power as possible, make it so weak as to not be visible.”

Ledger reached out and felt power flowing all around him. It flowed away when he reached for it. He let his mind wander and soon he felt a loose thread like the edge of a frayed cloth touching his mind. He reached for the power and all hell broke loose. Ledger took the proffered stone, holding it in the open palm of his hand. The effect was instantaneous and painful. Rather than the dim and flickering light he had expected, the stone flashed into daylight bright and began heating up as he held it. He dropped it and it quickly began to melt into a tiny pool of molten rock that burned through the wood floor into the dirt below. Minda grabbed a water bucket that had wash water in it and poured it over the burning wood putting out the fire before it could spread. She looked in the hole and saw the light was beginning to dim as the stone destroyed itself from the way it was radiating heat and light.

“Well Ledger, I think we found your problem. Now you need to find a balance in with the power.” She looked in the hole again, “To much more power like that and we could have real problems here.”

“Would it hurt the family?” He asked.

Still looking down she said, “Worse, far worse. Remember from your early lessons about Gardallen and how the world is arranged?”

“Are you suggesting I could create a hole in the world and the molten rock would come up?” He asked incredulously.

“Yes, exactly that,” she snapped. “You felt the energy level you created, yes?”

“Yes,” he said, rubbing his scorched fingers together. “It felt odd though. I tried feeding it the smallest amount of power I could, then getting that massive surge in response hurt, and not just my hands.”

“I can understand that. I felt it as well. I use my energy to enchant stones. You seem to draw power from the world around you. If you try too hard you get that.” She pointed at the floor.

Ledger looked at the burned hole and shuddered. “Well, I can make light stones. Can I make the other types? Heat and cold. How about a shielding stone. Does it have to be a stone? Could I empower a sword to do fire or cold damage, or even lightning.” He was getting excited now. “Mother, I could make arrows that do enchantment damage on impact.”

She took him in her arms and spun him to face her. Staring him in the eyes she spoke in a harsh voice. “Unless it is a truly life or death situation, never, ever enchant something to kill in such a manner. There are those out there that would use you, then kill you if they felt you were becoming a threat to them. Never give away that you can even begin to do other materials.” She let him go and he staggered from her a few steps. “But you’re right, we need to discover the limits of your abilities.” She looked around the room and spotted a loose nail sticking from the wall. “See if you can chill that nail.” She said pointing at the nail sticking out of the wall near the floor.

Ledger saw the nail she was pointing to and put one finger on it. He willed the energy to create cold, not a lot, but not a tiny amount either. At first, nothing seemed to happen, then he felt for the thread again and the power flowed out of control again. As he watched, frost formed around the nail head and it rapidly spread to the wood it was embedded in. Seeing it was still too cold, he willed more energy to it to see if he could stop it that way, the cold accelerated rather than diminishing. He concentrated to stop the spread and the nail warmed back to room temperature and the frost stopped after a minute. “Ok, that was scary. I tried to stop it by adding power, which made it worse. So I just told it to stop and the nail returned to normal.”

Minda smiled as she thought about what he had done. “Try to cool it down a little, not to freezing, but just cool to touch.”

Ledger looked at the rusted nail head and thought about it getting cooler just a little. The wood around the nail turned frosty and it slowly spread again. He said, “Not so much nail, just cooler than the air, not freezing. The frost melted away and moisture kept forming on the nails head, dripping to the floor every few seconds. Not wanting to have the water wreck the floor worse than it already was, or wall for that matter, he willed the nail to stop being cold and much to his surprise and pleasure, it returned to a non-enchanted state in a second. He felt the thread slip away again as he released control.

His mother had watched and sensed what he had done. She could only stand and watch in stunned amazement. Her youngest son did have the family talent, and more. The real talent that had not been seen in generations. The only person she knew that was even close to this level was her old teacher and fellow traveler of the Mercs Company. He had taught her much in the short time she had been with them. “Ledger, head inside and clean up for dinner.” He turned to exit the small training room, “And Ledger, don’t mention this to anybody, not your father, especially not your brothers and sister.” She continued to stare at the nail, scared now for her son’s safety. If the other siblings found out, they would use him and kill him once they had what they wanted. He left to go back to the main house, she stayed and picked up the loose stones and pebbles that had so frustrated Ledger.