The Greater Challenge Beyond (The Southern Continent Series Book 3) Read online

  Men and women screamed, shrieked, and fainted, as the room was filled with a whiff of sulfurous air, and the goddess of punishment slowly stepped in a tight circle, letting her gaze fall upon everyone who was in the room.

  “You are not placed on this earth to interfere with the work of the champion of the gods,” her voice was a seductive rumble, as she finished her survey and faced Baron Holmgren. The man’s white face had turned gray with fear.

  “The boy and how he plays with his women is none of your concern,” she lectured him.

  Grange felt anger building in his veins. He had an active dislike for the goddess, for her very nature, for her practices, for her temples, and especially for how she had treated him personally. He eyed her carefully, ready to see her whip around and try to dole out more punishment to him.

  “For interfering with the champion, I am here to punish you,” she pointed a finger at the nobleman, and a jet of fire shot forth, enveloping the man in flame. More people in the room screamed.

  “No!” Grange shouted, horrified by the sight. He pulled his wand free and pointed it at Holmgren. “Water!” he commanded, and a jet of pure water shot forth, striking the fiery man with such force that it knocked him over as it extinguished the flames.

  Those who were in the room gasped at the sight of the sudden encounter, and at the temerity of Grange to reverse the punishment doled out by the goddess.

  “You impudent, undeserving, arrogant, overvalued piece of dirt!” Shaine screamed at Grange as she whirled to look at him.

  “Maybe we don’t need to keep you as champion. I’m sure that somewhere out there we can find one other person with your peculiar talents,” she growled as she started to stalk towards him.

  Fantasy Series by Jeffrey Quyle

  The Southern Continent Series

  The Elemental Jewels

  Perilous Travels

  The Greater Challenge Beyond

  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

  Alchemy’s Apprentice Series

  The Gorgon’s Blood Solution

  The Echidna’s Scale

  Scarlet from Gold

  The Southern Trail

  Also by Jeffrey Quyle

  The Green Plague

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

  The Greater Challenge Beyond

  The Southern Continent Series

  Book 3

  Jeffrey Quyle

  Index

  Chapter 1 – Page 1

  Chapter 2 – Page 12

  Chapter 3 – Page 16

  Chapter 4 – Page 23

  Chapter 5 – Page 30

  Chapter 6 – Page 39

  Chapter 7 – Page 45

  Chapter 8 – Page 48

  Chapter 9 – Page 52

  Chapter 10 – Page 57

  Chapter 11 – Page 72

  Chapter 12 – Page 77

  Chapter 13 – Page 88

  Chapter 14 – Page 106

  Chapter 15 – Page 118

  Chapter 16 – Page 129

  Chapter 17 – Page 142

  Chapter 18 – Page 156

  Chapter 19 – Page 166

  Chapter 20 – Page 174

  Chapter 21 – Page 180

  Chapter 22 – Page 186

  Chapter 23 – Page 194

  Chapter 24 – Page 213

  Chapter 25 – Page 220

  Chapter 26 – Page 229

  Chapter 27 – Page 238

  Chapter 28 – Page 245

  Chapter 29 – Page 249

  Chapter 30 – Page 255

  Chapter 31 – Page 273

  List of Characters

  Grange, wizard apprentice of Palmland

  Jenniline, princess of Southgar

  Hope, princess of Southgar

  Paile, Hilto, Acco, Brigin – princesses of Southgar

  Magnus, king of Southgar

  Ragnar, deposed king of Sothgar (deceased)

  Halsten, Magnus’s heir to the throne

  Inge, Halsten’s brother, prince of Southgar

  Earl Goala, Earl of Skengare, brother to the king

  Lord Birger, Baron Holmgren, Lord Wilder – members of the court

  Elred, priest at temple of Acton

  Tranch, older royal cousin

  Skore, Goala’s son

  Oehla, Goala’s son

  Tomas, Kiergar, Remar, suitors to Hope

  Merched, Southgar floozy

  Sweyn, Magnus’s henchman

  Jungar, Wilder’s daughter

  Listrid, Geric, Grange’s servants at the Tower

  Brady, young nobleman bully

  Carrel, mandolin player

  Leeds, Southgar singer

  Count Victor, Bloomingian pretender to the throne

  Histra, Hafir, Elouis, Bloomingian leaders

  Logan, Bloomingian patrol leader

  Shaine, Goddess of punishment

  Huem, God of reason

  Acton, God of war

  Miriam, Goddess of domesticity

  Ralax, God of parties and festivals

  Zephyr, God of mountains

  Prologue

  Grange has led an unbelievable life, in just the past year.

  He was an orphan and a pickpocket, an obscure minor criminal in the tyrannical city of Fortune, capital of the kingdom of Verdant, when a treacherous companion turned him over to the authorities.

  He was punished beyond all sense of justice, and sent into exile to work in a mountain labor camp, digging a tunnel that could never be completed.

  But in the course of his degrading work, he found a set of magical jewels, sentient, crystalline embodiments of energy and power. The jewels attached themselves to him spiritually and physically, taking him under their guidance, with a purpose of teaching and training him to become capable of fighting demons.

  The jewels warned of an approaching invasion of demons, a periodic attempt by the dark forces to overwhelm earth and all its inhabitants. They told a disbelieving Grange that he was destined to be the leader of humanity’s efforts to resist the demons.

  The jewels found Grange wanting in many aspects of battle knowledge and leadership, and they set out to train him, according to what they thought best. He slowly became proficient in some of the arts of war.

  Grange also practiced his own preferred art, the art of music. He wandered through the lands outside of Verdant and came to settle in the nation of Palmland, a benevolent monarchy, where he played the flute in a musical group.

  His life underwent a decided change when he came to the attention of the wizard of the court of Palmland, after he survived a mass attack by a gang of demons. Brieed, the resident court wizard, took Grange under his wing, and assigned the wizard apprentice Grace to help Grange learn how to be a wizard.

  Grange found Grace to be a contradiction – helpful, abrasive, musical, jealous,
insecure. But his work with her proved that the two of them were destined to be partners in learning the ways of wizardry and the world.

  Grange traveled on behalf of Palmland to visit the land of Kilau, where he served as part of an ambassador’s party negotiating a treaty. While at Kilau, where he was joined by Grace, he produced magical activities that helped cement a treaty between the two kingdoms.

  One thing led to another though, and Grange found himself traveling to the arctic south, helping a rescue expedition reach a distant mine in the forsaken mountains where evil was reported to exist. He helped the expedition achieve its goal, but then he was ambushed afterwards, and forced to battle a strong demon.

  The demon inflicted a terrible defeat upon Grange, killing the elemental jewels by using the power stored in Grange’s own wand. Though Grange killed the demon in the end, he was devastated by the loss of his companions.

  Grange wandered in the frozen wilderness until nearly dead. He was found by an adventure-seeking princess from the distant, barbaric land of Southgar. The people of Southgar had the same appearances as Grange, pale white skin, white hair, thin facial features.

  Grange’s memories were destroyed by water from a mineral spring, and he traveled uneasily with the Southgar travelers. But when the party was attacked by demons, Grange’s battling skills rose to the surface, and he fought well enough to save the princess and himself from death.

  Chapter 1

  “So you are a princess?” Grange asked Jenniline after they both awoke around noon. He found Jenniline bent over his injured leg, using strips of cloth to bind his sliced flesh wound closed.

  “Me and a half-dozen others,” she muttered as she tightened the cloth strip. She suddenly bent low, and Grange was uncertain what her intentions were.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  She lowered her mouth towards his flesh, and she put one end of the cloth strip between her teeth, then pulled it tight as her fingers held the other end, creating enough pressure so that Grange could feel the gaping wound in his flesh close slightly. Then Jenniline’s fingers tied the strip in a knot, she released the hold with her teeth, and raised her head.

  “What did you think I was doing?” she asked, staring at him with her crystal blue eyes.

  “I, I,” Grange stuttered, “I didn’t know.”

  “Let me handle things here. You just lie still and heal,” the girl told him in a no-nonsense tone. She moved over to the packs and opened one, then pulled out several pieces of dried meat and handed some to him.

  “There’s only the two of us now, so we’ve got plenty to eat. We’ll be back on the road in two days if you can heal quickly.

  “Can you heal? You haven’t been healthy since we found you,” Jenniline said. She seemed annoyed more than concerned by his lack of health.

  “Yes, your highness, I can heal,” he answered crossly.

  “Go get in the spring,” the girl told him.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Go soak in the spring, the hot water. It’ll relax you. Maybe you won’t be so crabby then,” she was short with him. “And take care not to break that wound open when you go to the spring.”

  “Crabby? You’re ordering me around and acting like I should be able to heal when I’ve been in constant motion since I don’t know when. The only times I’ve stopped in the past month were for battles,” he didn’t know why he said it, but he knew it was true. “You’re the one who’s crabby.”

  “I’ve just seen three of my lifelong family guards murdered by each other, or you, or by my own hand!” Jenniline shouted at him, catching him by surprise. He hadn’t thought about the relationship aspect she had known with the men; they had simply been traveling companions to him.

  “Why don’t we both get in the spring waters?” Grange suggested, trying to extend a peace offering.

  “You will not be presumptuous,” the girl said haughtily. “I will bathe privately.”

  Grange was taken aback. He vaguely recollected some unknown place, a warm tropical place with habits of casual undress that were common and a part of everyday life – he had ordinary visions of naked people walking without concern; he almost said something, then bit his lip and held the words, for his memories had been wiped too clean by the waters of Yellow Spring. He carefully stood and limped away from the princess. When he reached the spring he sat down, then slid into the water, fully clothed and unconcerned about his state for the moment.

  He immediately jumped out; the water was hot – too hot for comfort. He wandered along the bank of the pool, testing the temperature in various locations. It was cooler in one spot, and cool enough in the next, so that he slid into the pool again, ducked his head beneath the surface as he closed his eyes, and held his breath. He felt warm – warmer than he’d felt in weeks, and it was good.

  With his eyes closed there came a sudden vision to him, a long forgotten memory from a city in his lost past. He remembered taking a purse, back in an impossibly different life when he’d been a pickpocket. And in the purse had been a locket. And in the locket had been a picture of a girl – a Southgar girl –the girl had been Jenniline.

  The purse had belonged to an old woman. He lifted his head and broke out of the water, the astounding memory suddenly, vividly, in the forefront of his mind. The woman had told him that Jenniline was the one. The woman had said that Jenniline would chew him up and spit him out – she had told him to toughen up.

  The memory had disappeared for months. Even after he’d met the princess, he’d not recollected the encounter or the picture in the locket, until now, while he was immersed in the spring. What had it meant? What had the old lady meant when she’d called Jenniline ‘The One’ he wondered.

  “You fought well,” Jenniline’s voice was nearby, and he whirled in the water, which came up to the middle of his chest, to see that she was sitting on the bank, watching him.

  “I thought you said we should have privacy,” he immediately sputtered.

  “I said that I should have privacy, not you,” she answered. “You are not in need of it; you’re a male, and a commoner.”

  The expression on her face was one of amusement, and Jenniline laughed at Grange's indignation. "I'll leave you to your modesty," she said, then disappeared into the foliage, leaving Grange alone in the warm spring. He waited until he was sure she was not going to return, and he climbed out of the water so that he could slowly shed his clothes, peeling the layers off painfully, breaking crusted blood around his old and new wounds.

  He slipped into the water again, and moaned with pleasure. The water was hot, wonderfully, comfortably warm. His muscles were reacting with disbelief, feeling more relaxed than at any time in recent memory. Grange lowered himself completely into the water, then, after a moment's reflection on Jenniline's demand that he clean up, he pulled his clothing into the water too. He sat on a stone that was submerged and half-heartedly scrubbed the apparel before he threw it back on the bank, then closed his eyes.

  "How much longer will you need your privacy?" Jenniline's voice asked from some location not far behind him.

  "What are you doing back here?" Grange asked indignantly.

  "You've had plenty of time," Jenniline answered. "I'm ready for my turn."

  Grange opened his eyes and saw that the sun had risen high above the horizon; he must have dozed while he sat in the spring.

  "Get out and let me take a look at that slice on your leg," she instructed him.

  "Turn around and let me put my pants on," he replied.

  "How can I check your leg if you cover it with your pants?" Jenniline snorted.

  "Alright, hold your pants in front of you, if you must. I'll wait over here for you," her voice conceded his point, and the sound of rustling bushes indicated the girl's movement away from the hot spring pool. “There’s nothing to worry about between us,” she muttered just loud enough to be heard.

  Grange waited several seconds, then climbed up onto land. He grabbed his clothes
and held them in his hand, tightly pressed between his hips, and then he awkwardly sat on the turf.

  "I'm ready," he called aloud.

  Jenniline immediately crunched through the surrounding growth and emerged within seconds. She gave him a cool glance, then knelt beside him and bent low to look at the collection of untreated wounds, along with his already-bound slice that he has sustained in the battle against the demons that had ambushed the small party of Southgar travelers.

  “I cannot believe that you are blushing so much,” she murmured in a low voice, as her eyes remained focused downward on the wound she was gently probing. “Would you please control yourself?”

  “I can’t help it. You’re here and I’m unclothed. I don’t know how to control blushing,” he hesitantly replied.

  Her head and eyes shifted upward to look at his face. “You don’t know how to control your blushing?

  "That cloth strip isn’t enough; I'm going to stitch it closed," she announced after matching a brief stare with him. She immediately rose to her feet.

  "Stitch?" Grange asked skeptically. "Surely it will heal without that. How could you do it anyway?" he said dismissively.

  "I'll be back," she tossed the answer over her shoulder as she departed.

  Grange sat on the ground, flummoxed. He rearranged his wad of cloth to maximize the skin he covered, then closed his eyes and waited. Despite the confusion and the embarrassment, he felt himself drifting into sleep, exhausted by the long night, and the long journey before.

  He only awoke when he felt Jenniline’s hands pressing the sides of his sliced flesh together, and he awoke with a start, his head jerking up and his eyes popping open in confusion. He’d started to dream about jewels, beautiful, sparkling gems that had floated through the air over a pool of dark water, then dropped one by one into the still surface of the pool and disappeared.