Tribulations (Rogue Mage Anthology Book 2) Read online

  TRIBULATIONS

  Rogue Mage Anthology Vol. II

  17 Vignettes and Short Stories set in Faith Hunter’s World of Thorn St. Croix

  Edited by Spike Y Jones with Faith Hunter

  The Rogue Mage story began with the post-apocalyptic novels BLOODRING, SERAPHS, and HOST, when epic battles between Thorn St. Croix and the forces of Darkness were fought. TRIBULATIONS (Rogue Mage Anthology Vol. II) takes place during and after the series timeline. These stories and vignettes, set in Faith Hunter's Rogue Mage world, are adventures with new characters and old, facing Darkness and an uncertain future.

  The relationships between seraphs, kylen, second-unforeseen, mages, seraph-touched, spawn, humans grow deeper, and the battles with dragons and their creatures grow more dangerous. TRIBULATIONS features new short stories from five authors—including Faith Hunter—and vignettes from the Rogue Mage role playing game.

  TRIALS and TRIBULATIONS will soon be followed by TRIUMPHANT—the paperback omnibus (both Anthology Volumes I and II in a bound format).

  TRIBULATIONS Authors: Faith Hunter, Jean Rabe, Spike Y Jones, Christina Stiles, Lucienne Diver.

  TRIBULATIONS

  ROGUE MAGE ANTHOLOGY II

  ISBN: 978-1-62268-113-6

  KRAKEN CONQUERED Copyright © 2016 Faith Hunter.

  RIVER BONES Copyright © 2016 Jean Rabe.

  A START Copyright © 2016 Spike Y Jones.

  TWO MULES FOR BROTHER HOPE Copyright © 2016 Christina Stiles.

  OUR LADY OF THE STONES Copyright © 2016 Spike Y Jones.

  ROLLING STONE Copyright © 2016 Lucienne Diver.

  UNBIDDEN BONDS, BONES, A WING AND A PRAYER, GIRL LOVES TO SHOP, and TRADING DEPTS Copyright © 2012 Faith Hunter. Previously published in THE ROGUE MAGE RPG PLAYER’S HANDBOOK, Bella Rosa Books 2012. Hardback ISBN: 97815622680153. Paperback ISBN: 9781622680146.

  THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, BEAUTY AND THE BEASTS, WINGS ON SITE, TEARS OF TAHARIAL and LIONS AND TIGERS AND MONKEYS OH MY! Copyright © 2014 Faith Hunter. Previously published in THE ROGUE MAGE RPG GAME MASTE’S GUIDE, Bella Rosa Books 2014. Hardback ISBN: 9781622680917. Paperback ISBN: 9781622680924.

  PAN-ELEMENTAL Copyright © 2015 Faith Hunter. Previously published in CONJURE INK: TATTOO MAGIC IN THE ROGUE MAGE RPG, Misfit Studios e-book 2015.

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For more information contact Lore Seekers Press, P.O. Box 4251 CRS, Rock Hill, SC 29732. Or online at www.loreseekerspress.com.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  This collection first published December 2016.

  Cover illustration by Mike Pruette.

  Lore Seekers Press is an imprint of Bella Rosa Books.

  Lore Seekers Press and logo are trademarks of Bella Rosa Books.

  Table of Contents

  Timeline

  Introduction

  Spike Y Jones and Faith Hunter

  (Note to reader: The timeline of these stories begins at the conclusion of the novel BLOODRING.)

  Late Winter 105 PA / 2117 AD

  Unbidden Bonds*

  Late Winter 105 PA / 2117 AD

  Faith Hunter

  (Note to reader: The novel SERAPHS falls here in the timeline.)

  Late Winter 105 PA / 2117 AD

  Bones*

  Late Winter 105 PA / 2117 AD

  Faith Hunter

  (Note to reader: The novel HOST falls here in the timeline.)

  Late Winter 105 PA / 2117 AD

  River Bones

  Late Summer (Southern Hemisphere) 105 PA / 2117 AD

  Jean Rabe

  A Wing and A Prayer*

  Early Spring 105 PA / 2117 AD

  Faith Hunter

  The Magnificent Seven*

  Spring 105 PA / 2117 AD

  Faith Hunter

  A Start

  Spring 105 PA / 2117 AD

  Spike Y Jones

  Girl Loves to Shop*

  Spring 105 PA / 2117 AD

  Faith Hunter

  Beauty and the Beasts*

  Late Spring 105 PA / 2117 AD

  Faith Hunter

  Two Mules for Brother Hope

  Early Summer 105 PA / 2117 AD

  Christina Stiles

  Trading Debts*

  Early Summer 105 PA / 2117 AD

  Faith Hunter

  Our Lady of the Stones

  Early Summer 105 PA / 2117 AD

  Spike Y Jones

  Wings on Site*

  Summer 105 PA / 2117 AD

  Faith Hunter

  Tears of Taharial*

  Summer 105 PA / 2117 AD

  Faith Hunter

  Rolling Stone

  Summer 105 PA / 2117 AD

  Lucienne Diver

  Lions and Tigers and Monkeys, Oh My!*

  Mid-Summer 105 PA / 2117 AD

  Faith Hunter

  Pan-Elemental*

  Late Summer 105 PA / 2117 AD

  Faith Hunter

  Kraken Conquered

  Late Summer 105 PA / 2117 AD

  Faith Hunter

  *Previously published in the Rogue Mage Role Playing Game.

  Introductions

  From Spike:

  When I was first asked by roleplaying game writer Christina Stiles to work with her on the Rogue Mage RPG back in 2007, I’d never heard of New York Times bestselling author Faith Hunter or her Rogue Mage trilogy of novels. In fact, nobody had gotten around to coining the “Rogue Mage trilogy” term to describe the books at that point, as the third novel hadn’t even been released yet. But Christina and I had worked together on a number of projects, and I trusted her judgement and signed on to the project.

  After some years of hard work, the roleplaying game was released—as the ROGUE MAGE RPG PLAYER’S HANDBOOK and GAME MASTER’S GUIDE, available in print from Bella Rosa Books and downloadable from Misfit Studios.

  Then Faith asked me about the next Rogue Mage project. Faith had written a number of short stories and short-short vignettes for the game books, and she thought that they could be combined with an equal amount of new material to make an anthology set in the Rogue Mage universe, bringing those stories to readers who might not have seen them in the games, while providing new stories to please fans who wanted more. And she wanted me to edit the new material.

  One thing led to another, and Rogue Mage: TRIBULATIONS (and the companion volume, Rogue Mage: TRIALS, that preceded it) are now double the size of that original conception. Along with the RPG fiction and a new Faith Hunter short story, Faith, her agent Lucienne Diver, and I assembled a group of other writers who we felt would enjoy writing in “the Faithiverse.” Heck, even I got a chance to contribute, writing a handful of pieces scattered over the two volumes.

  There are two things I’ve really enjoyed about working on these anthologies.

  The first are the stories.

  Rogue Mage: TRIBULATIONS isn’t just about the adventures of Thorn St. Croix, “the rogue mage.” It’s about the entire Rogue Mage universe. The majority of the stories here, of course, feature Thorn and the supporting cast of the novels, but there are also stories set parallel to Thorn’s adventures. In fact, all the stories of TRIBULATIONS take place in 2117, the same event-filled year as Faith Hunter’s Rogue Mage trilogy—the novels BLOODRING, SERAPHS, and HOST. (TRIALS features stories that run
from Biblical prehistory to just before the start of BLOODRING.)

  The stories are set in other parts of the USA, in other countries, on different continents. They feature neomages, of course, but also kylen, humans, and others. There’s humor, adventure, tragedy, romance, and some windows opened into what the reaction in the rest of the world is to Thorn St. Croix’s activities in the USA. It was a challenge to make these diverse stories come together into a cohesive volume, and a puzzle sometimes figuring out exactly where each piece fit, but I think we managed to make it work.

  And the second thing I’ve enjoyed are the authors.

  I didn’t know the majority of the writers of these anthologies before we got started, and there were some . . . disagreements between some of us. But in the end I’ve learned a few things, I think we’ve forged some relationships that will last, and, most importantly, I hope my editorial efforts have managed to take an assortment of stories that were already good in draft to excellent in print.

  In the ROGUE MAGE RPG PLAYER’S HANDBOOK I couldn’t imagine what the next project was going to be after that major undertaking. Well, now I’m here on the other side of the next project, and I wonder what we’re going to do to top this.

  —Spike Y Jones

  From Faith:

  For years I have been asked, “When’s the next Rogue Mage book coming out?” and, “Is the series really over? It feels unfinished!”

  And now I can say: The series isn’t dead. Now you have TRIALS (you have read it, right?) and TRIBULATIONS, millennia of stories gathered in eBook format, fiction by some fantastic authors—including me.

  The series is in your hands, Rogue Mage fans. Buy, read, review, and enjoy. And if enough of you still love the series and Thorn St. Croix, then there might yet be that long-awaited final novel, in serialized novella form. Fingers crossed!

  —Faith Hunter

  Unbidden Bonds

  Late Winter 105 PA / 2117 AD

  Faith Hunter

  Kicking the snow from his boots, Zadok took a calming breath and faced the small house, trying to project the confidence of a seasoned healer, rather than the fear of an acolyte on his first solo cure. His smile was stiff on his frozen face, the air so cold and still that his flesh felt brittle, as if it would crack and fall from his bones should he move wrong.

  The short trip had been brutal, his contingent of six guides and fighters more accustomed to the vicious cold and hard pace than a mage who had lived his entire life in the comfort and ease of the Seattle Enclave. He’d gained an appreciation for the humans who lived in the frozen wastes, losing his snide sense of superiority, which had been based solely on his mage abilities. He never would have survived the short trip without the assistance of the others.

  He glanced at the human woman, Sarai. She’d saved his life when he’d stepped off the track and crashed through the snow into the creek beneath. The driving snow had already drained Zadok’s mage energies dangerously low, forcing him to draw constantly on his prime amulet to protect himself, and he’d lost precious body heat to the icy water. Not even his amulets could fight off hypothermia. While Howard, a mule, started a fire, Sarai had activated all of his Healing amulets, stripping him down and crawling into a sleeping bag with him . . . naked . . . sharing her body warmth with him . . . offering him her life energies.

  He’d accepted the gift of her life, stealing the energies of a human in ways no Earth mage was permitted. Now she smiled at him, encouragement in her glance, seemingly hinting that some bond still lingered between them. Zadok nodded once at her and opened the door of the fortified building.

  Stepping inside the thick stone walls, he took in the dwelling with a sweeping glance. Perhaps twenty humans were gathered around a huge fireplace in the large room. Except for a table before the fire, the furniture had been shoved against the plastered walls. On the table was a blanket-covered form, a body racked by shivers. The gathered humans looked up, fear and stress grooving their faces. Zadok took a second calming breath and the stench of rotting flesh, old urine, and feces met him. Fear threaded through him, knotting his muscles, causing him to pant. Am I too late?

  He gulped, frozen on the threshold. Gently, Sarai pushed him into the room and closed the door behind them, leaving the others to set up perimeters. As if she were his servant, she took the satchel from his numb fingers and whispered, “You can do this. I have faith in you.” Louder, she said, “The healer Zadok has arrived from Seattle Enclave to work an incantation of healing on your kirk elder, Judith. He requires a surface for his implements, a cup of warming chai, and space to work.” Within moments, the humans had helped him from his winter gear, brought him hot chai laced with brandy, placed a table before him for his mage amulets, and eased the body from the tabletop to the floor, creating a space wide enough for him to work a healing circle.

  Fortified, Zadok thanked them, his hand resting on Sarai’s shoulder a moment, for a thanks more personal and heartfelt. With her help, he folded back the mounds of blankets and inspected his patient. The stench of death was caught in the blankets, and Zadok tossed them aside. “Burn them,” he said, curtly, “They contain the taint of Darkness.” Beneath the blankets, Judith’s skin was feverish and tight, stretched like the desiccated tissues of a mummy. Spawn bites were ragged holes in her flesh, covered by bandages. The bites had become infected, the pustules suppurating.

  Infection had been wiped out in the plagues. Humans no longer suffered from bacterial infection except as a result of spawn attack, and few spawn victims survived the immediate shock and blood loss long enough to suffer the infection of the Dark. Zadok had studied medicine from Pre-Ap medical books, and had seen photographs of similar diseases. His obscure course of study, and his creation of a new series of amulets, was the main reason he’d been chosen for this mission.

  Steeling himself, he placed one of his diagnostic amulets on Judith’s stomach. In moments, he had an answer. She had a medical condition called septicemia, caused by a bacteria once known as Staphylococcus aureus—but a more virulent, Dark-mutated version of the germ. It had resulted first in kidney failure, and the amulet indicated she now had pneumonia, liver failure, and an infection of the lining of her heart. Organ by organ Judith was dying. There was nothing that could be done for her. Nothing. It was too late. He backed away from her sickbed.

  Sarai knelt beside him and took his wrist, her fingernails digging into the tender skin above his thumb. “You may draw on the energies of the forest,” she whispered. “You may draw on the energies of the mules who escorted you here. You may draw on the life force of the earth itself.” He knew this. He knew it all, but his mage gifts seemed frozen inside, petrified by fear. What if he failed?

  Her fingers dug in harder. “These are legal uses of your gift. I know you know how.” She held his gaze with her fierce one, reminding him that he’d stolen her own essence in extremis. “Try.”

  Zadok nodded and she eased away, turning to the low table set with the implements. “Salt for the healing ring?” she asked. When he nodded again, she placed the bag of salt in his hands. Five pounds of pure earth salt, dug from deep underground, enough for a very heavy salt ring. He stood and paced around the patient, evaluating her and the situation. The forest had the best chance of surviving the removal of life energies, the bleeding of power necessary for a healing of this magnitude.

  He walked a slow circle, a circle large enough to accommodate Judith’s pallet, his implements, and himself. As he walked, Sarai followed, sweeping with a broom to clean the surface of the floor. She had clearly worked with mages in the past, or perhaps she studied the Internet sites dedicated to his species and knew what was needed. She was still acting as his servant, which made Zadok uncomfortable. But her presence and her actions were calming to him, so he let her continue. When the circle had been walked once and swept clean, he walked it again, Sarai on the outside now, the bag of salt upended, pouring a thick ring. When it was finished except for a narrow opening, he brought in his impleme
nts.

  “I need a living bough from the forest,” he said, “a cup of water drawn from a deep well, a cup from a running stream, a cup of snow, and a cup of dirt from near her home. And I need something from the fight when she was injured: the claw of a spawn, a weapon still bloodied with their blood—anything will do, but it must come from the actual battle.”

  Zadok turned to the oldest of the humans. “These are the words the townspeople must chant from the moment the blood of sacrifice is drawn: Thus saith the Lord, the god of David thy father, “I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears. Behold, I will heal thee.”

  The old man nodded, tears in his eyes. “We will not fail Judith. It shall all be as you command.”

  The Earth mage looked at Sarai as the townspeople scurried into the storm to bring him what he required. Zadok placed a small silver chalice in her hand. “I need a cup of mingled blood from the townspeople, a gift of their love, gathered by self-inflicted wounds in her honor. Hold the cup thusly.” He encircled the cup with her fingers so her body would keep the blood warm. “Nothing must be spilled. Every drop that falls must fall into the cup, nothing lost. Understand?”

  She nodded. “I am honored to bear the cup of sacrifice.”

  Zadok opened a vial and poured a clear liquid into the cup. It was an anticoagulant that would keep the blood a liquid, not allowing it to clot. “You must swirl the cup as it is filled to keep it well-mixed. Hurry,” he said. “Judith will not live through the night.”