A Sample from The Complexity of Magic

Prelude

FROM ALL ACROSS the world, members of the Earth Clan gathered inside the hollow mountain in the Highlands of Scotland to attend Merrick’s coronation as their High King, the Ard Righ.

Bythrop MacKelster was among those in attendance and stood with the rest of the royal Fianna guard, but he was not there by choice or desire. He stood firm as one link in the chain of guardsmen who formed a protective barrier between Merrick and the thousands of Drayoom who cheered and applauded him. With Merrick’s short brown hair, his intense gaze, and the ease of confidence with which he stood, so calm amongst the clamor, he looked the part of a King, but Bythrop knew better.

The louder the shouts of excitement from the crowd grew, the hotter Bythrop’s internal fire burned. A part of him yearned to relinquish his sword and leave his role and the Earth City all together—to make his way in the world and to perhaps settle down in one of the clan’s smaller villages to worship the Earth Dragon Terrada in his own way. At his age, nobody would question his decision to retire. But his pride and his sense of duty would not let him leave while a pretender sat on the throne. Doing so would be the same as letting Merrick win.

Bythrop had been a member of the Fianna since he was a young man and had served faithfully under Queen Nabharia and King Ohman and also under King Othel before them. Through his daily interaction with royalty, he’d learned how to spot a true ruler, and his heart knew that Merrick was a false king—an intruder barely worthy of being a member of the clan, much less its leader. The man accepting the crown in front of him was careless, selfish, and rash. Worse than all of those traits, but also because of them, Merrick had caused the loss of countless lives, including that of Bythrop’s son, Gerald.

Gerald had always been a productive and valuable citizen of the clan. He had served as a member of the Fianna under King Ohman and had faithfully served Queen Nabharia after Ohman’s expulsion. Gerald had been a good man and an idealist, but his faith and belief in Merrick had ended with his own death.

Bythrop knew that Queen Nabharia hadn’t been the best ruler the clan had ever had, but at least there had been no wars during her reign and certainly no invasions of the sacred mountain inside which they all lived.

Under her rule, the clan had enjoyed decades of peace.

It was true that she had told untruths about her ex-husband, King Ohman. She had likely lied about countless other things as well. But that was part of what it meant to be a ruler.

Bythrop understood and accepted that.

But when the truth had finally been revealed that Merrick was her son—the product of her romantic relationship with a member of the Fire Tribe, Bythrop’s suspicions about Merrick had been confirmed.

He was a bastard and a mixed breed among the Drayoom, with only half of his blood coming from the Queen’s royal lineage. And, with both Earth and Fire running in his veins, he was an abomination—out of balance and unstable.

All of the families had experienced how dangerous Drayoom of his kind were, and history did not lie. Bythrop heard the way the people talked about Merrick now—so amazed that he destroyed an entire army with a single word from some supposedly unknown ancient language. Some even speculated that the word he used had come from the lexicon of the cosmic dragons—creatures that pre-dated Terrada and her siblings.

Rubbish.

Bythrop had been there when Merrick defeated the Emperor’s invading force of Wind Warriors. He had been close enough to hear Merrick utter that single word of death, and he could tell that Merrick was not in control of it. If anything, the word had seemed to erupt from Merrick’s mouth rather than being spoken.

He agreed that Terrada or one of the other dragons had chosen Merrick to be their vessel that day, because the false King could not have drawn on such power without help. But he also knew that trusting Merrick with a word such as that could have resulted in the destruction of the Earth Clan.

Bythrop felt his blood pressure rising as he dwelt on Merrick—the very person he was charged with protecting. His thoughts were interrupted as another unbelievable and unwarranted event occurred directly in front of him. The woman with the short blonde hair who had first brought Merrick to the clan—the illegitimate daughter of King Ohman and his human wife—had just proclaimed that she would sit with Merrick as his Queen.

As if that were her choice to make in the first place.

He dropped his gaze to the ground—stunned—as the crowd erupted in even louder applause, and he wondered silently if everyone had gone mad.

He shifted his weight from his left foot to his right, trying to restrain himself—to hide from his fellow Fianna and from Merrick and Cara what he was really thinking.

Bythrop glanced back at the crowd—his people.

The rule of their beloved clan was being turned over to two mixed-bloods who would surely lead them to their destruction. Bythrop listened to them cheer despite the fact that Merrick had just declared war against the Wind Family and its Emperor. It was as if they didn’t realize an all-out war with such a powerful family would mean even more deaths—for them and for their children.

And for what?

To help Merrick exact his revenge on the Emperor for killing his betrothed human and their unborn, mixed-breed child. It had only been weeks since Merrick’s woman had been slain while ripe with his child, and already he sat on the throne with another woman.
How much could the death of his beloved have affected him if he were able to move on to someone else so quickly?

And as for the death of his unborn child, Bythrop admitted that he felt sorrow for Merrick on that account. Having just lost his own son, Bythrop would never wish that grief on anyone—not even his most hated enemy. But to send an entire people to war because of his personal loss was nothing more than ego-driven foolishness.

Bythrop took a deep breath and reminded himself that although he served the Ard Righ and the Queen, his duty was first to the Earth Dragon and then to the Earth Clan.

He carefully studied the faces of his Fianna brothers and thought that he saw two or three who were also struggling to hide their true feelings.

He would decide later whether it was safe to approach them, but if he did, he would have to move carefully. But whether on his own or with other true patriots, he would ensure that the proper bloodline was restored to the crown and that Merrick and Cara were gone.

As his resolve thickened, he vowed to Terrada that if an opportunity arose where he could depose Merrick himself, he would do so, even if it meant working with the enemy of the clan or losing his own life.

Bythrop swallowed hard, suddenly very alone in the crowd—a solitary Drayoom with a noble mission about which only he knew. The road ahead would be difficult, but he would persevere and endure for the memory of his son, and because it was his duty as a patriot and a true follower of Terrada.