The Miscreant (35 page)

“I want to toast those of us who are moving on to greater things and to the friends we had to leave behind. May we always remain steadfast in our duty no matter how
hard
our task or how
stiff
our opposition.”

Garran held his glass to his lips and grinned as he watched everyone down their drinks. He then tilted his head back and drank. A familiar warmth and tingling spread through his body just as he was certain was happening to everyone else.

“Cadets, it is time to take your places,” a court attendant declared.

The graduates marched in procession into the large audience hall. When they came to the long dais, the field agents split off to the left and the analysts and operatives to the right. Parents, school faculty, and members of the diplomatic corps sat in attendance. Once everyone was situated on the dais, King Remiel and Queen Damodara Altena strode down the aisle with arms linked and took a position standing between the two sets of graduates. Gregor Ward loomed as still and silent as a statue behind them.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Remiel intoned, “thank you for attending the diplomatic corps’ sixty-fifth graduation ceremony. Graduates, if you will take a knee, place your right hand over your hearts, and recite your oath of loyalty.”

The former students all knelt, placed their hand over their heart, and began to chant in unison. “We are the eyes that no one sees. We are the ears that no one hears. We are the blades no one can parry. We live to serve and defend the kingdom. Our duty shall never waver. Our resolve shall never break. Only death can release us from our oath.”

Remiel gave a single nod of his head. “Please rise.”

A few gasps and muffled sniggering rippled through the gathering of onlookers. The eyes of the graduates on stage flicked down and their faces reddened. Everyone looked ill at ease except Garran who stood near the end with an enormous grin plastered across his face.

Damodara leaned closer to Remiel. “Have they made a change to the uniform, or is everyone…standing at attention?”

Gregor took a step forward and whispered, “It appears one of the more jocular students has likely spiked the punch with distilled rapture root, unless I miss my guess.”

“One of the girls then?” the queen asked.

Gregor gave a brief shake of his head. “I’m thinking not.”

“Who would afflict themselves as well?”

“Only the most devoted to their work,” Gregor replied.

Remiel’s body twitched and his lips writhed as he tried to maintain his courtly decorum. “Let us get on with it.”

Remiel pinned the field agents while Damodara presented the pins to the analysts. The agents’ pins were a silver eye centered in a triangle with a sword thrusting through the bottom. The analysts’ pins were made of bronze and lacked the blade but were otherwise identical.

Damodara let out a startled gasp and stifled a laugh. She glanced over at Remiel’s questioning look. “I accidentally brushed one with the back of my hand.” She met the eyes of the young man named Thomas as she pinned the badge of office onto his lapel. “You must be very proud.”

Thomas swallowed with difficulty and squeaked out, “I am, Your Majesty.”

Damodara stepped to the next student but leaned back toward Thomas with a mischievous grin. “You must be thrilled to graduate as well.”

Thomas’ face went from red to purple, and his knees nearly buckled as he struggled to keep from fainting. Remiel went down the line awarding the field agents their pins. He met Garran’s gaze and smiled.

“I have heard a lot about you, young man. I know completing this course must have posed many challenges few others had to face. I am proud of you, son.”

Garran lost his smirk and nodded. “Thank you, Sire. I hope I prove myself worthy.”

Remiel clapped Garran on the shoulder. “Gregor has faith in you, and I have faith in Gregor. I am sure you will not disappoint me.”

“I won’t, Sire.”

EPILOGUE

“We are near the fifth anniversary of your audacious plan, but not only have we not seen a return from it, The Guild is tens of thousands of dinarins poorer with no profit in sight,” Sabinus said, her voice veiled in accusation.

Joshua stood and gripped the high back of his chair from behind. “On the contrary, there is great profit on the horizon if one is willing to look beyond the ends of one’s own feet. Remiel’s line has been culled, and his replacement is ripe to ascend the throne. The business we have established for Gordon Mandel flourishes with a large portion of his profits going to the church and the needy. This sets him up to replace Remiel as king with little to no dissension, all for what has been a rather paltry investment.”

Roger cleared his throat. “It seems to me that, like the actual horizon, no matter how far we walk, it always remains far beyond our grasp. How much longer must we continue to pour good coin into this scheme before we reap the rewards? Our investors are getting anxious.”

“Remiel should be near to completing his road within the next three to four years, and Gordon and the rest of the pieces will be in place to take the crown.”

“Four more years?” Sabinus practically screeched. “You are asking for a great deal of tolerance, Joshua.”

“I ask only for patience. We are on a precipice. If we move too quickly, we will most assuredly fall to our doom. Not only are there still people able to contest Gordon’s claim to the throne, Remiel has powerful supporters in the other kingdoms. Make no mistake, this reaches far beyond just Remiel and Anatolia. The more our neighbors invest in Remiel’s road, the stronger our influence on the other kingdoms becomes until they too are our puppets, forced to dance at the slightest tug of the strings if they want our coin. Once they invest the bulk of their treasuries in Remiel’s road and no longer have any hope of seeing a return on their venture, they will have no choice but to crawl to The Guild to keep their government functioning or risk losing their crowns and possibly heads as well.”

“You certainly have the gift of oratory,” Rupert said from the far end of the table. “Let us hope your vision is as acute as your ambitions.”

Joshua smiled. “My sight has never been clearer.”

End

A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR

I hope you enjoyed this tale and will try my other works. Feel free to look me up on Facebook! You can also check me out on my
blog
at
http://brockdeskins.blogspot.com
. I post release dates, answer questions, and occasionally release new covers for my books!

PLEASE REVIEW MY BOOKS
(especially if you liked them). Customer reviews are the primary means of enticing others to purchase them. I am dependent upon the sales of my books to earn a living that will allow me to continue writing stories that I hope bring you some measure of entertainment. Thank you for your support.

The Miscreant (The Transcended Chronicles Book 1)

The Sorcerer’s Ascension:
Torn from a life of comfort and luxury, his family destroyed by political intrigues and aspirations, a young boy must quickly grow into a man before the deadly streets of Southport devour him. Follow Azerick through a page-turning adventure which pits him against thieves, thugs, murderers, and men of power who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals.
Azerick must fight just to survive, but for him survival is not enough. A hunger to avenge the wrongs committed against him burns deep within. But that is not all that lies within the young man. There is a power waiting to be unleashed that may be the key to achieving the justice and security he seeks—if it does not destroy him first.

The Sorcerer’s Torment:
Azerick flees The Academy but quickly falls prey to powerful beings which use his skills and power for their own amusement. What these creatures do not understand is the power of the young sorcerer's will and the lengths he will go to for vengeance. Despite becoming a prisoner, Azerick finds his first true love, but can he keep it?

The Sorcerer’s Legacy:
Azerick has found himself a home and tries to settle down. He takes on an apprentice and tries to put all the death and desire for vengeance behind him. But when the Rook finds him, Azerick is once again pulled back into Ulric's schemes. Knowing that all he has worked toward and everyone close to him is in danger as long as these schemes are ongoing, Azerick decides to put an end to them, once and for all.

The Sorcerer’s Vengeance:
After narrowly avoiding being killed in his own bed by the land’s most feared assassin, Azerick leaves his school behind to find out who sent him and to put an end to the threat once and for all. Azerick’s search will take him to the very pits of the abyss and back to unleash hellish fury upon those who threaten him.

The Sorcerer’s Scourge:
With the siege broken and Ulric dead, Azerick can finally relax, study his magic, and run his school in peace. Unfortunately, Jarvin’s reign is far from uncontested and the true usurper decides to make his move. Jarvin escapes with help from an unlikely source—a vampire named Landrin who still clings tenaciously to his own humanity. While Azerick and a large force from North Haven race to save the king in exile, evil forces are preparing to unleash a nightmare upon the kingdom, which may well destroy them all.

The Sorcerer’s Abyss:
Now the master of the Fifth Circle of the abyss, Azerick is challenged by another demon lord for supremacy. Azerick must face this threat as well as his innermost demons, all the while searching for a way to escape his hellish prison.

Ellyssa fears she is going insane as she is plagued by nightmares of her capture and enslavement. Deciding the key to saving herself lies in the total destruction of the object of her fears, she embarks on a crusade to find and kill the slaver, Captain Jake, and eradicate the slave trade.

Ellyssa's nightmares and battles spill out onto the streets of North Haven and gain the attention of The Academy. Fearing Azerick's school is turning out rogue wizards, The Academy decides to hunt down and destroy the rogue and place the school within their control.

The Sorcerer’s Return:
Azerick has come back from the abyss in order to try and unite all the races against the return of the old gods who seek to destroy them and subjugate the few they allow to survive a brutal purging. However, fighting ancient gods may be the least of his troubles as he battles to save a fractured kingdom, a brilliant son traveling a dark path, and the splintered soul of his own humanity.

The Sorcerer’s Destiny:
Brutally purged of his demonic influence, Azerick continues the struggle of uniting the kingdom to face the coming of the Scions, ancient gods banished by the mortal races during the Great Revolution two thousand years ago. The fallen gods’ prison is crumbling, and Azerick is powerless to stop them from breaking free and enacting their cataclysmic vengeance upon the world. 

The humans must ally with the other races in a final battle against impossible odds while their entire world crumbles to the ground and is trod beneath the feet of an unstoppable foe. How can they set aside their distrust of each other when they fear the very person trying to save them? 

Shrouds of Darkness
is a modern-day vampire tale. Leo Malone has been a vampire for the better part of the twentieth century. Once a prominent Sherriff (vampire cop), he now earns his living as a private eye and occasional bodyguard for anyone who requires some serious protection. Leo is hired by the daughter of a mob accountant who has gone missing.

The fact that her father is also a werewolf has Leo following a trail of grisly murders which will lead him through a web of intrigue and conspiracy involving his fellow vampires and the local werewolves that make New York their home, all the while trying to keep one particularly determined cop off his back and himself out of jail. Leo is not some pretty-boy vampire that all the girls ogle over, but a hard-eyed, remorseless killing machine who does not take crap from anyone.
IF YOU READ THIS, PLEASE REVIEW IT.
I cannot endorse this book enough. It was an absolute joy to write and I still giggle when I read it. I challenge you not to laugh at many of Leo’s constant snide remarks and smart-assed comments.