A Prince's Errand [PREVIEW] ✔️ | Book One of TALES OF THE AMULET

PRELUDE TO TALES OF THE AMULET

Dusel rose from the bloodied sand and stumbled to his feet, staring about him. Thousands of armored soldiers—clad from head to toe in thin-plate armor—littered the arid plain, their blood staining the sand crimson. Like him, Dusel's comrades wore white plate armor with golden gilding, the various pieces arrayed with diamond-shaped plates that shielded the more vital areas. Flexible metal sheets covered their joints, crafted with metallurgy that involved imbuing the metal with transmutative properties. With their helmets on, Dusel couldn't tell if they were men like him, or elves.

His gaze shifted to the fallen enemy ranks mingled with his dead allies. The men of the Cheserithean Empire wore a variety of armor-types dyed in various colors, accenting the bloodied sand. The qui'sha, however, wore identical armor. Each qui'sha had an elongated helmet at the front, allowing room for their snouts. Their armor was scaled with sharp points and spikes. Qui'sha looked wicked in that armor, although they also looked wicked without it.

Weapons littered the battlefield, their sharp metal gleaming with a deadly light—energy called magic.

A sudden pang of sorrow struck Dusel's heart. Despite his years of battle, he found the corpse-littered plain a horrific sight.

This was not the first time Dusel had walked away the sole survivor. It was becoming commonplace, and not because he was a coward. Dusel fought valiantly, and died often.

But death never lasted long with him.

He turned from the dead armies, searching the crimson sand for his fanisar. The staff-like weapon lay nearby, next to where he was slain. The fanisar was as long as he was tall and a dull-platinum color. It was much like the channeling staff used by mages, with a groove all along one side. Of course, the weapon could be wielded as such, but it was capable of so much more.

Grabbing the fanisar, Dusel pressed on two oval indentations near the staff's center. Crimson light formed along the ends of the weapon, becoming glistening blades of razor-sharp metal. Both blades gleamed red, surrounded by an aura of annihilation particles.

With fanisar in hand, Dusel picked his way across the battlefield. Other parts of the plain were a mismatched mess of grass and sand, the result of Alliance Transmuters. It was their plan to leave this place desolate after the battle, a warning to all who defied the Kaldean Alliance and the Lords of Metal.

Across the horizon, a beam of light sped skyward. It pierced the multi-hued sky above a rising ridge, but soon disappeared into the void beyond the stars.

They did it! he cheered, grinning beneath his helmet. Finally, Cheserith is ban-ished. Without their god this war can end and Kalda can be at peace. Hope filled Dusel, and he hastened toward the ridge.

He soon descended into a level basin, finding more blood-soaked battle-fields. Unlike where he had fallen, not all here were dead. Groans and pained cries filled the air in a dreadful cacophony. Explosions of magic echoed in the distance. Those eruptions were accompanied by shrilling roars, undoubtedly the cries of gangolins or tarrasques. Those beasts were commonplace in this theater of war. They were devastating creatures, especially when enthralled by draconic mages. The Lords of Metal were said to be the only ones who could coerce such creatures, though some claimed that the elven conjurer, Hasernal, could control a gangolin.

Beyond the last battlefield lay a city of considerable size and partly in ru-in—the capital of the Cheserithean Empire. It was where the light had beamed skyward. Though the city was vast, Dusel knew the place where the beam originated: Cheserith's Palace at the capital's eastern edge.

Luckily, it wasn't too far away.

It took Dusel an hour to reach the palace, at least what remained of it. Cheserith's Palace had sat on a mound, surrounded by beautiful gardens and hemmed by elegant crimson stone walls. But now, the palace grounds were desolate. Spires of rock replaced trees and grass was now sand. The palace walls were toppled, strew across the ground in pieces. The mound was also destroyed, and in its place was an enormous crater.