Journey Through the River Cities (The Memory Stone Series Book 1) Read online

  The two bandits were on either side of him, and both had swords drawn. Theus crouched low in a defensive stance, waiting to let the attackers move first. Vanline had spoken a time or two about the challenges of fighting two opponents at once, but Theus had never experienced any such scenario. And now the situation was pressing in upon him with grim seriousness.

  The man on Theus’s right moved first, stabbing his sword directly at Theus’s torso.

  The boy lifted his stick forcefully, striking the blade upward and making it slide just above his shoulder as the two bodies met and bumped chests. The force of the contact made their arms wrap around one another in an awkward grip.

  “Duck to the right,” the strange little voice was suddenly speaking to Theus in the middle of the fight in the middle of the bridge.

  He instinctively reacted, trusting the voice. He leaned out over the parapet, and felt a sword thrust from the opponent behind him thinly slice through the shoulder of his tunic, just missing him thanks to the timely advice.

  He looked down and saw the river waters foaming over their stony bed far below him, as he extended himself to the right, his body and his opponent’s still grappling with one another. The bandit gave a howl, as his fellow thief’s sword thrust solidly struck his shoulder, and he jerked and writhed in pain, causing Theus to lose his balance.

  Suddenly Theus felt his feet slipping and his body starting to tumble, he whipped his head around, and saw the fierce face of the man behind him, as well as the appearance of Vanline, brandishing a sword, only a few steps further behind him, coming to the rescue.

  Then Theus and the first attacker passed the balancing point, and started to tip over the parapet. Their arms came apart and they both began to drop through the air, floating slightly apart as they each plummeted downward. The bandit let out a long, high pitched scream, but Theus didn’t notice it as he tumbled, his view flipping about in all directions.

  The last thing he saw was the water of the river rushing to meet him. And then he splashed into the river.

  Fantasy Series by Jeffrey Quyle

  The Memory Stones Series

  Journey Through the River Cities (NEW)

  The Inner Seas Kingdoms Series

  The Healing Spring

  The Yellow Palace

  Road of Shadows

  A Foreign Heart

  Journey to Uniontown

  The Guided Journey

  An Unexpected Deity

  A Marriage of Friends

  The Ingenairii Series

  Visions of Power

  2. At the Seat of Power

  3. The Loss of Power

  4. The Lifesaving Power

  5. Against the Empire

  6. Preserving the Ingenairii

  7. Rescuing the Captive

  8. Ajacii and Demons

  9. The Caravan Road

  10. The Journey Home

  11. The Cloud of Darkness

  12. The Past Revisited

  Alchemy’s Apprentice Series

  The Gorgon’s Blood Solution

  The Echidna’s Scale

  Scarlet from Gold

  The Southern Trail

  The Southern Continent Series

  The Elemental Jewels

  Perilous Travels

  The Greater Challenge

  Out of the Wilderness

  Also by Jeffrey Quyle

  The Green Plague

  For more information, visit the Ingenairii Series on Facebook, www.facebook.com/ingenairiiseries

  Journey Through the River Cities

  The Memory Stones Series

  Book 1

  Jeffrey Quyle

  Index

  Chapter 1 Page 1

  Chapter 2 Page 10

  Chapter 3 Page 22

  Chapter 4 Page 24

  Chapter 5 Page 37

  Chapter 6 Page 51

  Chapter 7 Page 57

  Chapter 8 Page 62

  Chapter 9 Page 67

  Chapter 10 Page 79

  Chapter 11 Page 86

  Chapter 12 Page 91

  Chapter 13 Page 109

  Chapter 14 Page 114

  Chapter 15 Page 134

  Chapter 16 Page 142

  Chapter 17 Page 147

  Chapter 18 Page 151

  Chapter 19 Page 180

  Chapter 20 Page 185

  Chapter 21 Page 191

  Chapter 22 Page 199

  Chapter 23 Page 208

  Chapter 24 Page 220

  Chapter 25 Page 238

  Chapter 26 Page 248

  Chapter 27 Page 250

  Chapter 28 Page 261

  Chapter 29Page 276

  Chapter 30Page 282

  Chapter 31Page 286

  List of Characters

  Theus (Prometheus)

  Thera, Theus’s sister

  Cern, father of Theus

  Allise, mother of Theus

  Eiren, caravan worker girl

  Charin, caravan worker

  Bert, caravan bully

  Vanline, caravan leader

  Grant, river merchant from Stoke

  Bartus, Eiren’s merchant boss

  Shell, Waterspot baker

  Coriae, daughter of Great Forks nobleman

  Klermie, nobleman from Thuro

  Monsant, evil member of royalty

  Alsman, river priest in Great Falls

  Forgon, son of nobleman from Great Forks

  Warrell, father of Coriae and Forgon

  Janiae, murdered friend of Coriae

  Caral, Lanaie, noble friends of Coriae

  Marvin, gardener at Warrell’s estate

  Jack, captain of the Surprise river barge to Great Forks

  Kiltik, crew member

  Falstaff, memory stone merchant

  Susan, Falstaff’s daughter

  Jensen, Falstaff’s apprentice

  Blanche, kitchen servant for Warrell

  Lorinse, steward for Warrell’s mansion

  Glory, Great Falls apprentice bottle painter

  Becca, Falstaff’s wife

  Mason, barrel apprentice

  Trey, weaver apprentice

  The Gods of the Land

  God of healing, Baccoso

  River goddess, Currense

  Mountain god, Limber

  Flat land/soil god, Plever

  Persepho, goddess of crops

  Darkness goddess, Scurtisse

  Stone god, Trinte

  God of thieves, Maurienne

  Light god, Incand

  Air goddess, Bellance

  Gelate, goddess of love

  Flat land/soil god, Plever

  Prologue

  The city of Limber, on the eastern slopes of the Wallchick Mountains, was lost in the terrible cataclysm that raised the Jewel Hills far out on the eastern frontier. The destruction of Limber unsettled the balance of power among the four great cities that dominated the lands from the Wallchick Mountains to the ocean that washed the western edge of the civilized world. Over the following generations, the city of Stoke came to control nearly all the lands.

  Limber’s sacred ruling family was nearly extinct, as only a few surviving members of the blood line sank into obscurity and decline over time. One such minor branch of the family settled in the poverty of the Jewel Hills, where farmers and residents of small villages eked a poor living from the distressed land.

  But when evil began to arise and ascend towards a conquest of the south, as a prelude to a conquest of all the land, the dormant god of Limber struggled to resurrect the partnership between the royal blood and himsel
f, as the likely best protector of the lands that faced the hidden threat.

  Theus, the son of a woman who was a distant progeny of the Limber royal line, did not know or understand any of the divine maneuverings taking place. When his poverty-stricken family is forced to sell his services to a traveling merchant, Theus is placed on a path that will require worldliness far beyond what he has experienced in his sheltered corner of the world.

  Chapter 1

  The ground was cold and damp, and Theus wished he had some way to warm his feet. Having dry, warm feet had to be the happiest feeling in the world, he told himself, as he walked up and down the furrowed lines in the farm field.

  His back was stiff and sore as well, from all the bending, stooping, and plucking he was carrying out as well. He’d be even happier if he was sitting in a cushioned chair, while having dry, warm feet, he amended his view of success in life.

  The sun was setting behind the western hills, where a row of fruit trees awaited the arrival of their anticipated fruits – apples and cherries – as the late spring days lengthened. He ought to be finished with his work for the day, Theus sighed to himself, but instead he was expected to keep working in the field until it was too dark to see. He was weeding the potato field, and he knew he was held responsible for making sure that the field was productive enough to provide sufficient food for the family.

  It never would be that productive, he told himself as he used his walking stick to expertly prod the soil beneath a clump of weeds and dislodge them from the ground. That was one less competitor the potatoes would have to fight, he told himself; one small victory. It was an additional victory in that he’d managed to pull the weed up without having to stoop, and his back was thankful for that.

  The family desperately needed a good crop of potatoes from the patch Theus was working in. The other field had suffered from being too wet, and no plants had survived the deluge that had run down onto the soil throughout the spring. The unanticipated water had flowed outside its expected usual course in a drainage ditch higher up the side of the hill; no one had noticed the breach in the ditch for several weeks, which had allowed the small potato field below to become so terribly waterlogged. And Theus was supposed to have walked along the ditch to patrol it periodically, but in the wet and rainy weather of the dismal spring he had wanted to stay dry when at all possible, and so had fudged on his reports of checking the ditch.

  Under his father’s direction, Theus had sown oats in the lower field after the hopes for potatoes had been dashed for that season, and he had been given responsibility for caring for the pair of goats that provided milk for the family. His father had swallowed his pride and gone to work for the season in the stone mines, bringing in a meager income to help the family afford to buy a few staples that kept food on the table for two meals a day.

  The days weren’t long enough, Theus discovered for the first time, to do all the work required to run a farm that needed to feed six people. With his father only available for a couple of hours a day, his sister Thera, the next oldest child in the family, had taken to helping with the farm work too, and so they managed to get by.

  But his feet were cold and wet, and his back was stiff.

  He uprooted another clump of weeds, then stopped and peered at a glint of light in the cluster of stringy roots he had dislodged. Theus bent and pulled the stone nugget free of the roots and held it at eye level to examine it. Could it be a memory stone, he wondered?

  Since he had been a little boy, he’d dreamed of finding a memory stone in the family fields. Every farming family in the Jewel Hills had heard stories about someone finding a memory stone lying randomly loose in a field, leading to a sale for fabulous riches. Theus wasn’t greedy – he didn’t expect to become a rich nobleman – he simply wanted to give his family enough money to buy food for the table, and perhaps even boots for all the feet in the family.

  The stone in his hand gave a dull gleam in the late afternoon sunlight from one fractured spot on the surface of the dark, dirty rock. Was it a sign of the memory jewel beneath the unpolished surface, or was it simply a streak of quartz in an otherwise worthless rock in the field?

  Theus clenched the stone in one hand, and his digging stick in the other, then decided to end his day in the field. He tramped up the hillside to the crown of the rise, then paused to look down at the small homestead below, the shabby farm house, three-sided barn, and the empty grain crib beside the barn. It was home – it had been home all his life – and it looked to him like a welcome place to end the day.

  Even from the top of the hill he could smell the peat burning, and see the thin thread of smoke rising from the chimney at the end of the house. A faint layer of the smoke spread above the farmstead, trapped from rising further, a sign that Theus’s father always interpreted to mean that colder air from the north was on its way down to chase the warmth away from the Jewel Hills.

  He hurried down the hill and reached the barn, where he leant his stick against the outside wall, and walked in to check on the goats. Thera, his oldest sister, was milking the female goat, her metal pail sounding a rhythmic count of the squirts of milk being deposited for the family. Everything seemed peaceful, and Theus left to traipse into the small farmhouse and begin to warm his feet.

  He opened the door and stepped inside, then quickly pulled the door closed behind him, helping to keep smoke and warmth trapped inside the home. His younger brothers and sisters were together in the next room, or at least the sounds from that direction seemed to indicate so, though he couldn’t see them. He couldn’t see much even in the kitchen where he stood, for only a single tallow taper gave a minimum amount of light that his mother relied upon as she bustled about from task to task.

  “Go down to the cellar Theus, and bring up a jar of preserves,” she told him brusquely, not facing him as she tackled some chore.

  He sniffed the air and detected the scent of bread baking in the oven. Bread and preserves? That was an extraordinary treat, a use of expensive resources from the limited pantry in the cellar.

  He crossed the kitchen, his toes momentarily warming as he stepped on the flagstones closest to the stove, then climbed down the steep steps into the dark cellar, and felt his way along the empty shelves on the wall, looking for the stone jar of preserves while racking his brain, trying to remember if there was a religious holiday the family was due to celebrate. He could remember nothing of note, and his fingers tapped the cool preserve container at that moment. He grasped it, then worked his way back to the dim patch of light that was the return to the kitchen.

  “Is there something special?” he asked his mother as he placed the preserves on the table in the middle of the room, then edged over to stand next to the warmth of the stove.

  He could see her face from where he stood. Her face was lined and careworn, and her eyes looked especially red in the dim light of the kitchen.

  “Your father’s a good man, and we should treat him to something special from time to time,” she replied brusquely, as she almost but not quite made eye contact with him, then pulled the loaf of bread out of the stove and turned to set it on the table beside the preserves.

  “He’ll be home any minute now,” she added. “Go tell Thera to come in, and send your brothers and sisters to the table for dinner,” she directed.

  Theus stood next to the warmth of the stove for a moment more, then obediently left the kitchen and returned to the barn.

  “Ma says to finish up and come in. Dad’ll be home soon for dinner,” he told his sister, who he could barely see in the advancing gloom.

  “She’s not giving much more milk anyway,” Thera replied as she stood and looked into her pail. She untied the goat, which went hurriedly scampering away to the far corner of the pen, as the pair of siblings walked back to their cramped home.

  Their father arrived as the two oldest siblings were herding the younger children to the table, and everyone quickly sat at the table in obedient silence as the food was placed on the ta
ble.

  “Not so fast,” Cern, the father growled in a low voice as Theus began to reach for the platter of pieces of boiled potatoes.

  Theus looked at his father in surprise at the unexpected admonition.

  “Before we eat tonight, we’ll pray to the gods,” Cern said.

  Theus’s mother made a sniffling noise, while the others at the table sat silently, taken aback by the unexpected pronouncement. There were no more than five or six holy days during the year that Cern and Allise brought religious practices to the attention of their children, and Theus remained surprised that there was any ceremony to be carried out in the late spring season.

  “We pray to the gods for protection and safety,’ Cern began to intone a prayer in a deep, reverent tone, causing all the children to automatically drop their heads and clench their hands in devotional positions as they listened to their father speak.

  “We pay respects to all the gods,” Cern said. “We thank them for all that they have given us.”

  Theus’s mother gave another loud sniff.

  “And we ask for their mercy in all our lives going forward. Let us please have the blessings of Currense in particular, for all the members of our family, in all circumstance.

  “Please let us all receive the care of the gods. May our actions always be pleasing in their eyes,” he finished his brief prayer. Cern seldom gave long prayers, Theus knew.

  “And may Limber recall his covenant with our family,” Theus was surprised to hear his mother, Allise pick up the prayer. “May he extend his blessings and protection over all of us, as we will keep him in our hearts, and wait for the day his city rises again.”

  There was an awkward silence, and Theus risked opening one eye slightly to see that his father was examining his mother closely. After waiting for any further words, Cern resumed his closing.