Born of Blood (The Valdir Chronicles Book 3)
Born of Blood
Book 3 of The Valdir Chronicles
By
R.A. Lewis
Born of Blood
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
Copyright 2019 © RA Lewis
Cover by Jennifer Stevens for Down Write Nuts
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.
Also by R.A. Lewis
Novel, Fantasy
Secrets & Swords
Born of Air, The Valdir Chronicles Book 1
Born of Embers, The Valdir Chronicles Book 2
Short Story, Fantasy
The Sellsword And The Beast
The Sellsword And The Bandits
The Sellsword And The Raven Girl
The Sellsword And The Siren
Short Story, Horror
The Bird
Short Story, Paranormal Romance
Last Date to Prom
Dedication
This book is dedicated to imagination. Never lose it.
Born of Blood
Born of Blood
Also by R.A. Lewis
Dedication
Part 1
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
Part 2
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
Part 3
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Epilogue
About the Author
Part 1
Chapter 1
Late afternoon sun filtered in through the high windows of Queen Kalina Stanchon’s sitting room in the Ravenhelm Castle, falling across the scattering of papers on the large desk. Kalina sat, her head in her hands, silver hair falling down around her, a crown with blue scales and silver scrollwork askew on her head. She was now queen of two peoples, both of Ethea and of the Valdir, and the pressure was building. She groaned just as someone entered through the ornate doors on the other side of the room.
“Oh, quit complaining,” a voice rang out, making Kalina’s head snap up. “You are the Queen. Things can’t be all that bad.”
“Easy for you to say, Delisa. All you ever see is the good stuff.” Kalina gestured to the stacks of papers before her. “This is what it takes to actually run the country.”
Her best friend paused in front of the desk, both hands firmly planted on her ample waist, her hip cocked out and an eyebrow raised.
“All I see is the good stuff? What about all the times in the last month that I’ve had to talk you out of running away? Again?”
The look she gave Kalina spelled no-nonsense, but the corner of her lip twitched in a smile. Kalina gave a small chuckle and sighed.
“You’re right. I’m just feeling overwhelmed.”
“Wasn’t it like this with the Valdir?”
“No. The Valdir had limited writing materials in the mountain, and since their population was so small, it was relatively easy to handle. But Ethea is a huge country. There are so many more moving parts, plus I have to think about what’s best for the Valdir, and they are having trouble assimilating.”
“They did live in that mountain for more than a decade,” Delisa said as she bustled around the room, straightening various items and stacking Kalina’s discarded breakfast and lunch dishes. “Besides, cities weren’t really meant for dragons.”
Delisa’s words were true enough. Maska, her huge emerald dragon, had come to her a week after the Valdir and the dragons had arrived at the capitol and mentioned feeling useless. They hadn’t needed the Emberweed after all, and so he’d felt like he wasn’t useful to her or the kingdom. Kalina had not flown with him in days, and without patrols to run and a mountain to guard, he spent his days lying in the sun of the gardens and getting fat on cattle that were brought to him. Many of the Valdir had left the city, back to the Great Grey Mountains, choosing to settle in their ancestral homeland rather than stay in the capital, Ravenhelm. More and more left every day. Kalina was sad to see her people leaving, but she knew it was for the best. They were never meant to live in the tight quarters of Ravenhelm, and she couldn’t combat the wariness of the city’s general populace at having such fierce warriors among them. The Valdir needed space and freedom, a feeling Kalina knew all too well, and she wasn’t about to keep them tied to a city they hated.
“You’re right,” Kalina sighed and scrubbed at her tired face with her hands. “I’m just going to finish going over these reports about grain consumption and then I’ll take a break for dinner.”
Delisa grunted her approval and then went back to straightening up Kalina’s office. Kalina had sent for Delisa not long after her arrival at the capitol, offering her a position as a member of her household, and her best friend had responded wholeheartedly. Now Kalina was beginning to appreciate her friend’s ability to help her hold things together.
When she wasn’t busy with her baby, Calla, the woman who had taken Kalina in the first time she’d stepped foot in Ravenhelm, often spent time at the castle. Together, Calla and Delisa had hit it off marvelously, the two strong women helping to keep Kalina in line whenever she tried to run off for a flight on Maska or to the training grounds instead of attending yet another infernal council meeting.
Soon, the lines began to blur on the page and Kalina found she was reading and re-reading the same sentence over and over and still didn’t know what it said. Finally, she put down the papers and stood, stretching. Her muscles were stiff and sore and she vowed to hit the training yard early the next morning to help them loosen up. It was difficult to keep herself in shape when much of her job of running the country happened from behind her desk.
She spent the evening eating dinner with Delisa and Kari, the two women cracking jokes and poking fun at one another. Sometimes the two women flirted, furtive touches giving them away. Kalina eyed them sideways, a small smile playing across her lips as Delisa poked Kari in the side with a wicked grin on her face. Kalina would be very happy if two of her best friends in the world ended up together. But she wouldn’t bring it up, she wanted to let them figure it out on their own.
The next morning was bitingly cold, winter giving its final grip on the city. Frost covered the ground, t
urning every blade of grass white. Kalina stood in the frigid air, her twin axes in her hands, as she moved through the warm-up sequence which Geir, her father’s best friend and her previous commander, had taught her all those months ago. Every time she did them she thought of him and it brought with it a twinge of pain and sadness; although as time went on, the pain of losing him, her father, and her mother was beginning to lessen. Especially with the distraction of running a country. Besides, she’d spent more time with Geir, and his loss had seemed more painful somehow than losing either of her parents. Walking through the palace gardens always reminded her of her mother, and flying with Maska reminded her of her father and their first flight together.
She felt a presence behind her so she pivoted, her axes at the ready. She might be queen, but she couldn’t let her guard down, not entirely. Beside her personal guards stood Leif, her commander and Geir’s son, watching her with his grey eyes, his silver battle braids falling around his shoulders as she moved through her exercises. He smiled crookedly at her and she returned the smile.
“Thought I’d join you,” he said as he moved to her side, pulling his own sword from its scabbard and beginning his own fluid dance. Kalina resumed her movements, and her chest filled with joy and pride.
Her own feelings for Leif had been growing steadily since coming to Ravenhelm. He had been her staunchest supporter, and more than once, when the pressure of being the Queen of two peoples began to make her feel overwhelmed, he had been there to hold her as she’d fallen apart.
“I haven’t seen you in a few days.” Her words came out in huffs and puffs as she exerted herself, executing a slow block and attack with her axes.
“I’ve been in the Valdir villages, setting up a small council there and appointing a leader to help run things like you asked. Since they are so far away, it’s hard for you to be there to settle disputes.”
“Good. Who did you appoint?”
“I wanted to appoint Skaldrik but he insisted on staying here as the chief metal worker. He said he has a surprise for you.” He winked at Kalina.
She looked at him bemusedly. She was curious, but she didn’t want to spoil the surprise for herself.
“So I ended up appointing Asta. She hasn’t been happy here, so I took her back with me,” he continued.
“That was a good choice. She has a solid head on her shoulders.” The woman had been a part of Kalina’s council since the beginning, and before that she’d been a part of Kalina’s father’s entourage and council. She and Kalina frequently butted heads, but Kalina felt confident the woman would take care of her people and do what was in the best interest of the whole rather than the few, especially if Eira, Kalina’s aunt, was there to guide her.
“I have a surprise for you, too,” Leif said, giving her a mischievous grin, as he turned to perform a slow attack on her with his blade. He stepped in close, pressing his body against hers. His nearness made her suck in a breath, tasting the tang of sweat in the air between them on her tongue. His sword and her axes were locked in a quiet and slow struggle, and for a few moments, Kalina got to savor the feel of his muscled body against hers before they broke apart.
“What is it?”
She began circling him, their individual training dances forgotten. He grinned across the gap at her, then stepped forward swiftly and raised his sword to attack her but she deflected it fluidly and stepped around in a circle, forcing him to follow.
“You’ll see soon enough. It’s something I promised to give you a while ago.” He winked again. “There’s your hint.”
Kalina stopped dead in her tracks, a puzzled look on her face. Leif stopped too, lowering his sword. What had he promised to give her? So many things had happened in the last months that details were blending together and getting fuzzy.
“Don’t hurt yourself,” Leif joked.
Kalina snapped out of her momentary lapse in focus just in time for Leif to launch himself at her in a full-speed attack. She had to pull her axes up quickly in order to block his strike. He kept coming, forcing her back across the small practice yard until her back was pressed up against the wall of the training barracks. His face loomed closer and Kalina flicked her eyes to her guards. They were turned away, watching for outside threats, not worried about what Leif was doing. Leif was her commander after all.
He leaned across their straining weapons and pressed his lips against hers. Kalina relaxed at his touch, their weapons falling, discarded on the ground as Leif deepened the kiss. They were hidden from any spying eyes by the side of the building and the low overhanging roof, and Kalina felt comfortable enough for a moment to entangle herself with Leif, winding her arms around his neck and stroking it with her fingers. These stolen moments with him were what kept her going, even when she wanted to quit.
Finally, they pulled apart, both panting slightly. Luckily, their bright flushes could be attributed to their bout of fighting rather than the kissing as they made their way back into the castle, Kalina’s guards falling into step behind her. Alone time was something she craved, and lately, the only alone time she got was when riding Maska. Even then, usually at least one Valdir was required to fly with her. She chose Leif when he wasn’t busy, otherwise Kari or Rangvald. Neither of them would force their way into her alone time. They understood it better than most.
The interior of the castle was cool but not as cold as the early spring outside its walls. So far winter had been a busy affair, full of meetings with the Ethean nobles to discuss crop yields, the treasury, the army, recompense to families shattered by the war, and for the nobles to declare their loyalty to her. Kalina was heartily sick of sitting politely in a stuffy room with a whole slew of stuck up peacock nobility, all of them looking down their noses at her. She had found a significantly warmer reception from the common folk of the realm, and she’d spent time getting to know her people as much as she could. Each festival day, of which there were many in Ethea, she spent down in Ravenhelm, talking with people, learning their concerns and needs. Most of her council thought it was a bad idea, but Kalina didn’t care. She had learned from her aunt Eira that the best way to be accepted was to get involved. So she had.
“You know, eventually you’ll need a few of those nobles on your side,” Eira had warned one afternoon when Kalina had come storming in after Lord Avril had once again insulted her for being a half-breed orphan. Kalina had thrown a pillow clear across the room and then immediately stripped her clothes off, not caring that she left her velvet purple dress in a pile on the floor, and donned her red leathers, eager to go to the training grounds to get her pent up aggression out.
She knew Eira was right, but it was so hard trying to connect with people who not only still didn’t trust you, but thought you were beneath them and thought the way you did things was unacceptable.
Kalina sighed and put her axes away in their double sheathes over each shoulder. At least she still had a few allies, like Leif. She glanced sideways at him, as he prowled beside her through the stone corridors.
“Now, how about that surprise?” she said with a grin.
He returned it, wolfishly.
Chapter 2
Kalina stared in awe at the golden fall of scales that made up the light chainmail shirt she wore. She ran her fingers down it, mystified at how light it was and how easily it moved with her as she stretched and twisted.
“All of these are from Arikara?”
Leif chuckled beside her, admiring the way she looked in the shirt.
“Every one. That’s why it took so long. I could have made you a rainbow one out of randomly discarded scales but I wanted something special. Something beautiful, like you.”
Every inch was covered in golden dragon scales. The sleeves reached down to her elbows, and it fell just past her backside, with slits in the sides to allow for easy movement. It covered all of her vital parts while still being functional, and glittered in the sunlight that bled in through the window.
Kalina looked up at Leif in awe. She
couldn’t believe he’d spent so much time meticulously fitting each scale to the shirt, all for her. She wiped away an errant tear as she turned back to the mirror.
“It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. You’ll have to tell Arikara I said thank you.”
“Tell her yourself.”
He put his arms around her waist and turned her towards him.
“I wanted you to have the most beautiful armor in the world. There is no other like it in existence. When the rest of the Valdir hear about it, they will all want their own. So, cherish this one.” He lifted her chin with his fingers and she stared up into his grey eyes. Her breath caught in her throat for a second before he lowered his lips to brush hers. She wished with all her might that they could stay that way forever. But they had a council meeting soon, and then she was meeting with Mistress Aynne and Margy to discuss the preparations for an upcoming ball that was being held to celebrate the Festival of Flowers.
That made her pause as she began to pull the dragon scale shirt off over her head. St. Martin’s Day was only a few months away at the end of Spring. She marveled for a moment about how far she had come as she pulled the shirt off and set it reverently on her bed.
“Maska is going to be jealous,” she joked, pulling her leather vest back on and tightening the laces across her chest. “He’ll be mad you didn’t ask him for his scales.”
“Green would have been nice, but gold compliments both of you perfectly.” Leif held out her ax sheath and she pulled it on over her shoulders, buckling it across her chest. She never went unarmed anymore, even with constant protection in the castle. After two different assassination attempts, she wasn’t taking any chances, especially since Terric, the former king of Ethea, was still imprisoned beneath the castle in the dungeons.
“Well, you will still have to apologize to him.” She smirked over at Leif. “Now let’s go see what Lord Averil has to complain about today.” Leif laughed at her remark and together they left her quarters and made their way towards the council chambers.