Beginnings: Five Heroic Fantasy Adventure Novels Read online

  Beginnings

  Lindsay Buroker

  Contents

  Copyright

  Introduction to the Beginnings Bundle

  Dragon Rider

  Foreword

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Epilogue

  Encrypted

  Introduction to Encrypted

  Prologue

  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

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  The Emperor’s Edge

  Introduction to The Emperor’s Edge

  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

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  Balanced on the Blade’s Edge

  Introduction to Balanced on the Blade’s Edge

  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

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  Warrior Mage

  Introduction to Warrior Mage

  Part 1

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Part 2

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Afterword

  Dragon Rider © 2017

  Encrypted © 2011

  The Emperor’s Edge © 2010

  Balanced on the Blade’s Edge © 2014

  Warrior Mage © 2015

  The Beginnings Collection © 2017 by Lindsay Buroker

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Introduction to the Beginnings Bundle

  Hello, and thanks for trying out Beginnings. This book bundle includes five stories: my previously published novels Encrypted, The Emperor’s Edge, Balanced on the Blade’s Edge, and Warrior Mage, as well as a new adventure I’m debuting here, Dragon Rider. It also includes new introductions to the older novels, in which I chat a bit about how the novel (or series it started) came to be, so if you’ve already read those books, you may still want to take a peek at the introductions.

  Dragon Rider, the first story in the set, is on the shorter side at about 41,000 words. (I considered calling it a novella, but technically anything over 40,000 words is considered a novel, at least by the folks at the Science Fiction Writers Association.) The other novels are considerably longer (I believe Blade’s Edge is the only one shorter than 100,000 words), so I hope you’ll feel you got your money’s worth.

  Dragon Rider is set in the same world as Blade’s Edge, the first book in my Dragon Blood series, but it jumps back in time 1,000 years, so only one of the characters is the same, a dragon called Bhrava Saruth who believes he’s a god.

  Bhrava Saruth came onto the scene late in the Dragon Blood series, toward the end of Book 6. He was one of those characters who wasn’t intended to stick around or have a recurring role, but he ended up being a bit of a spotlight hog and shoved his way into a fairly substantial role in Book 7. He also poked his snout into Shattered Past, a novel that gave a side character a starring role (a side character who has no interest in dragons and wasn’t particularly pleased when Bhrava Saruth showed up). In short, my delusional dragon is a lot of fun to write about, and I decided to go back in time to see what one of his early interactions with humans was like. (And how he became quite certain that, as a dragon god, he was deserving of copious numbers of worshippers, worshippers who would bring him offerings—also known as pastries—and rub his belly. After all, what dragon doesn’t like a good belly rub?)

  I could have released Dragon Rider individually, instead of in this big bundle of books, but I had been thinking of putting together a set of Book 1s for a while. It’s always a challenge to keep older series selling once they’ve been completed and you’ve moved onto other projects. They tend to fall out of all the Top 100 lists on Amazon, and it’s easy for them to fall off the radar completely. That’s especially true if you’ve already purchased ads for those novels numerous times from the handful of sponsorship sites that work to sell books.

  I thought a bundle of Book 1s might be a way to essentially launch a new book while bringing some awareness to my older series. I knew it would be easier to market the set if I had some fresh material in it for my existing readers. Otherwise, those who had read the various Book 1s already would have no reason to pick up the collection (and I wouldn’t want people to pay twice for stories they already have). So Dragon Rider was actually written from the start with the intention of putting it into this book bundle, and I knew I’d never charge more for the bundle than I would for that individual story.

  Yes, these are the fun marketing things you get to try when you’re an independent author. I don’t think traditionally published authors get to play around this much. I’m sure some are happy that way, but I like having the freedom to experiment!

  Whether you’re new to my work, or you’ve read everything except Dragon Rider, I hope you’ll get some enjoyment out of this collection. As I mentioned, the included novels are all series starters, but Warrior Mage is the only one with a bit of a cliff-hanger ending (I warn you now in case you want to boycott it, ahem). Encrypted, The Emperor’s Edge, and Balanced on the Blade’s Edge are all complete and self-contained stories. If you like them and want to read more, that’s an option, but you shouldn’t feel that you have to continue on. Whether you check out more books or stop with this set, I thank you for giving my work a try.

  Dragon Rider

  by Lindsay Buroker

  Copyright © 2017 Lindsay Buroker

  Foreword

  Thank you for picking up Dragon Rider, a new adventure in the world from my Dragon Blood series. Unlike the rest of the novels in
the series, this one jumps back in time, introducing mostly new characters along with one who will be familiar to Dragon Blood readers: the dragon who thinks he’s a god, Bhrava Saruth. I hope you enjoy the story! My thanks to my beta reader Sarah Engelke and my editor Shelley Holloway for helping me put it together.

  1

  Dragon Rider is set approximately one thousand years before the events in the Dragon Blood series, when the Cofah first came to conquer what was then known as Iskandoth, when the sight of a dragon in the sky was not uncommon…

  * * *

  Magic flared, making Taylina squint and look away from the glowing emerald at the end of the scepter. Heat radiated down the shaft, making it grow uncomfortably warm in her hands.

  “If you make this explode, I’m going to club you over the head with the handle.” Taylina lowered her voice to a mutter. “What’s left of it.”

  Raff, her lone colleague in the tool shop, grinned at her over the glowing gem, his shaggy blond hair dangling in his eyes. “I don’t think it’s appropriate for a lowly woodworker to threaten a powerful sorcerer.”

  “I’ve known you since you danced in the front yard, wearing your smallclothes like a headdress and proclaiming yourself a powerful clansman chief. I don’t feel you have the right to tell me what’s appropriate.”

  “I’ve matured a lot since then.”

  “Did I mention that, with the exception of the smallclothes hat, you were utterly naked?”

  “I have no recollection of that event.”

  “I’m sure your aunt Veyluis could fill you in on the forgotten details. She paddled you afterward, as I recall.”

  Raff grimaced at her. “Your memory is good for a lowly woodworker.”

  “Yes, it is. And if you call me lowly one more time, I’ll definitely club you.”

  “Such violence. It’s no wonder the handsome bachelors in town haven’t come a-courting.”

  She scowled at him and shifted her weight, aware of the dull ache in her hip that always came when she stood too long—aware, too, that her awkward gait and limp were the more likely reasons men didn’t come a-courting. It had certainly been the reason for much childhood teasing.

  “Sorry,” Raff said, touching her arm. “It was a thoughtless joke.”

  “That’s creepy, you know.”

  He blinked and withdrew his hand. “My touch?”

  “No, when you get all sensitive because you’re reading my mind empathetically. Or telepathically. Whatever it is you’re able to do now. You used to be obtuse.”

  “Oh, I think I’m still that.”

  “Maybe a little.”

  They shared a grin. They’d known each other far too long for any slips of the tongue to seriously offend. Taylina was glad that he hadn’t changed much in the years he had been away on the mainland, studying to become a sorcerer and a toolmaker. Back when he’d first been accepted to that fancy mage academy, she remembered fearing that she would lose her best friend.

  Disturbed by the heat, she shifted her grip farther down the scepter’s handle. She worried that an explosion was a real possibility. It wouldn’t be the first wooden handle she had painstakingly turned on her lathe, only to later watch it blow up when Raff tried to imbue it with magic.

  “Raff, maybe we should—”

  A distant boom interrupted her. The emerald lost its glow as Raff lost his concentration, turning toward the front window. His mouth dropped open, and his eyes grew round with horror.

  “What is it?” Taylina asked, laying the scepter on a table.

  From their spot in the back of the tool- and clutter-filled shop, she couldn’t see much outside, but Raff had powers that she did not.

  He closed his mouth, shook his head grimly, and jogged toward the window. Taylina grabbed her staff and limped after him, skirting the big planing and cutting tools without trouble. She had spent almost as much time up here as she had in her family’s woodworking shop, and she could have navigated it even in the dark.

  “It’s the Cofah,” Raff said, gripping the windowsill.

  Dread curled through Taylina’s gut as she joined him to look out the window. Their island, way down in the southeast panhandle of Iskandoth, had thus far been ignored by their country’s would-be conquerors, but judging by the four huge imperial warships floating in the harbor, that had changed.

  The tool shop was a half mile up the slope above town, so Taylina had no trouble seeing over the whitewashed buildings and flat rooftops to the protected harbor and the sea beyond. The cheeky Cofah had sailed right up to the docks. Her stomach clenched when she spotted several of their fishing ships wrecked, the masts broken, the craft tilted onto their sides. Flames leaped from the devastated hulls of more than one. Seven gods, how had she missed hearing the battle? Or had the Cofah caught everyone by surprise and done this with lightning speed?

  “Look.” Raff pointed skyward with one hand and gripped her arm with his other.

  Clouds grayed the sky, and twilight wasn’t far off, so it took her a moment to see what he was pointing to. But as the village bell tower started clamoring a warning, she saw it. No, she saw them.

  Three dragons soared in the sky, human riders in black Cofah military uniforms astride their backs as if their mounts were horses instead of massive, scaled creatures with wings that stretched thirty feet or more. Reptilian tails streaked out behind them while long, sinewy necks snaked about, their lizard-like heads peering at the landscape below, sword-length fangs waiting to chomp into man or beast. Oh, Taylina couldn’t see those details well from her spot more than a mile away, but she had seen the dour man-eating dragon that claimed the back half of their island before. The great creatures were agile and strong, but also magical and nearly impossible for a human or even an army to defeat in battle. The idea that human beings, even if they were powerful sorcerers and sorceresses, had talked some dragons into working with them—and allowing themselves to be ridden—boggled her mind.

  Another boom sounded, one that started a chain of many. Cannonballs soared from the warships and crashed into the docks and the buildings on the waterfront. The dragons, two golden and one silver, arrowed out of the sky, straight for town, and Taylina stepped back, fear flooding her body even though the creatures weren’t yet close to the tool shop. One breathed fire, doing little damage to the stone structures, but the others must have launched some magical attacks, for an invisible force greater than the fiercest hurricane seemed to strike the large two-story town hall near the docks. The entire building exploded into thousands of pieces of rubble.

  Taylina stumbled back as screams made their way up the hill, mingling with the gongs from the bell. As loud as the booms of the cannons were, they could not drown out those cries.

  “Mother, Father,” Taylina whispered, their faces leaping to the forefront of her mind. “Jessa and Morlin,” she added, naming her little sister and older brother. They were all down there now, most likely still at the woodworking shop. The woodworking shop right in the center of town. She hoped Jessa was with their parents. Her sister had been simple of mind and easily confused since enduring a childhood illness, and wouldn’t know what was going on. “I have to get them,” she whispered.

  “Tay,” Raff said, not releasing his grip on her arm as she turned toward the door. “What can we do?”

  “I don’t know, but we can’t stand here and watch our homes burn, and our families—” Taylina broke off, not wanting to contemplate what might happen to everyone. Would the Cofah keep attacking until the town was leveled? Or were they trying to take over without destroying everything? Would people be captured? Imprisoned? Killed?

  Taylina jerked her arm out of Raff’s grip and limped for the door, ignoring the dull ache in her hip. She thrust it open, and the scent of smoke hit her like a slap to the face. The screams were louder outside, and she spotted people fleeing town, running up the brushy slope in the direction of the tool shop and beyond. Hiding in the hills might be the best way to avoid invaders, even if it meant
the townsfolk had to leave their homes and everything they owned behind. Taylina couldn’t head in that direction, though, not until she found her family.

  She started down the winding dirt road that led through the juniper and oleander, but paused when one of the dragons veered inland. It seemed to be coming straight at her. Before, she had only noticed one rider on each dragon’s back, but this one had picked up three more, men in soldiers’ uniforms.

  “Get off the road,” Raff whispered, touching her arm.

  She hadn’t realized he had been following her, but she was glad for his presence now. As someone trained to use magic, he would know more about dragons—and how to avoid them—than she did.

  Using her staff to navigate the uneven terrain, Taylina stepped into the shadow of a stray olive tree that had grown up far from the cultivated groves in the flatter land above the town.

  The dragon, its magnificent form visible even through the branches, soared in their direction. Even from a distance, its sheer size and the power of those wing beats inspired awe—and terror. Taylina’s knees weakened, and she felt herself a fool for contemplating running down into the town.

  “It’s not after you, is it?” Taylina asked.

  “I haven’t done anything to irk any dragons lately,” Raff said, hiding under the tree with her.

  “But it might sense your power.”

  “My power is insignificant compared to that of a dragon. It might be coming after you.” He gave her a worried frown. “The males are known to shape-shift and take human lovers.”

  The dragon coasted low over Chay Jarffle’s house, the medicine woman’s small home perched along the same road that led to the tool shop. Its massive jaws opened, and fire blasted from its throat. Unlike most of the stone buildings in town, the house was made from wood, and it burst into flame as if it had been doused in alcohol first. A scream erupted.