Decoy (Assassin's Rising Book 1)

  Decoy

  By

  S. B. Sebrick

  Copyright 2012 Golden Bullet Publishing

  Kindle Edition

  Printed in the United States of America

  Cover Art, copyright 2015, by Seth Bennett

  Stock Art by destinacigdem of 123.rf.com

  A Golden Bullet Publishing Novel

  PO Box 451

  Brush Prairie, Wa 98606

  www.goldenbulletpublishing.com

  All rights reserved. All similar appearance to other works or people are coincidental.

  Author’s Forward

  Special thanks to my friends and family for their constant support. I’d like to offer a special thanks to Dr. Rita Carey, who helped me to find my voice. Thanks to Randy, and DiAnne for challenging me to put "Assassin’s Rising" on the market.

  I’d especially like to extend a special thanks to those of you reading this book. Without your support, stories like these would not see the light of day.

  Thank you.

  Praise for S. B. Sebrick and ‘Decoy’

  “I was hooked and can’t wait for the next book in this series.”

  -Geeky Girl Reviews

  “I highly suggest lovers of fantasy, world building, and epic war pick this one up.”

  -A Book Vacation

  “I recommend anybody to read this novel and his sequel to this book.”

  -Once Upon A Twilight.com Reviews

  “The system of magic the author created in Decoy is phenomenal and detailed. I hope we see a lot more of Kaltor and his adventures in the future!”

  -The Bibliophilic Book Blog

  Also by S. B. Sebrick

  www.sbsebrick.com

  http,//www.goldenbulletpublishing

  Assassin’s Rising Series

  Decoy

  Dismay

  Defiant

  Desolate

  Dire

  Deliverance

  Shattered Realms

  Unseen Secrets

  Splintered Loyalties

  Persuader's Might (coming soon)

  Related Short Stories

  Fate of the Child

  Betrayal

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 25

  Sample Chapter of ‘Dismay’

  Subscribe to the Newsletter

  Shattered Realms

  About the Author

  Other Titles

  Chapter 1

  The viper hound’s hissing shriek filled the forest.

  Unable to spare even the breath to curse, Kaltor bolted into a denser thicket of trees. He could hear the hunter’s claws ravaging the ground beneath it, slowly pulling it ever closer, impossible to outrun.

  Through his skin vision, energy emanated from his skin and into the air around him. It left in his mind a black and white rendition of his attacker without Kaltor even turning his head. Not that it helped the situation much. The ever-growing image of claws, fangs, and drool left his legs weak and unsteady as fear sought to paralyze him.

  Flickers of energy similar to his own blossomed in his mind behind him. His friends followed, too far away to help. It was just him and the creature, bred by nature to feed off his kind with merciless ease.

  Come on! he thought desperately. Where is that tree?

  He glanced toward the thick branches and brambles ahead, locating spaces he could penetrate more easily than his pursuer. In desperation he drew an extra blade, spun, and threw it the beast’s way.

  It missed the creature by a couple feet, allowing it to close the gap even further as Kaltor sacrificed some of his momentum for the failed strike. Drawing another curved dagger, he clawed the trees and shrubs as he passed, trying to coax every ounce of speed from his body. Gotta find that tree from this morning— There!

  He dove through a small gap in between two pines just as the viper hound leapt for the kill. Both its front paws swept hungrily through the air, its curved claws full of longing for a fresh kill. It unhinged its serpentine jaw to swallow him whole, preferably while he still struggled for breath.

  Suddenly, a dizzying mixture of swirling images and paralyzing terror smashed into his mind. "No!" He cried to no one in particular. "Not a vision! Anytime but now!"

  His power dissipated like smoke before a fierce wind. He spun recklessly through the air, plummeting from a cliff’s edge where a crowd watched anxiously. He smashed into a protruding tree branch and cried out in agony as the bones in his leg snapped. Icy ocean water, with an odd, light-blue glow to it, collided with his body as he sank below the waves. Then the vision vanished.

  The viper hound’s claws caught hold, tearing the flesh in his back as he fell out of reach.

  The beast grunted in pain as it collided into the tree at full speed, forcing it to coil and detach its bones as it recovered, momentarily stunned. Kaltor hissed against the pain in his back. As he rolled downhill, barely maintaining control of his decent, he caught faint black-and-white images of the beast regaining its senses.

  His limbs shook from the exertion. By the Gods! he swore silently. Keevan could be dying off the coast somewhere and I’m busy playing Prey and Predator in the forested mountains! Intense feelings of inadequacy washed over his heart, throwing him off-balance even further. How can I learn to protect him if I can’t even save myself?

  The viper hound uncoiled itself, snapping its vertebrae back into place and renewing its pursuit down the hill with an ear-clawing shriek. The beast kept to the trees above him as he rolled along the gradually steepening ground. With each somersault he saw the nearby cliff getting closer and heard the nearby thundering of a waterfall.

  The beast ran across branches and limbs a few feet above him, surveying the terrain ahead for the strongest place to pounce from. Kaltor rolled to his feet and ran onward, widening the distance between them. His pursuer took off at full speed, determined to savor his flesh in its venomous maw.

  Through his skin vision Kaltor saw a patch of broken earth along the cliff’s edge, fragile and muddy from the spring rains. A thick oak tree protruded from the cliff’s edge, its roots coiled along the outskirts of the weakened earth. Kaltor sprinted forward, dangerously close to losing his balance as his legs pounded the ground beneath him. This caused the viper hound to accelerate, driving them both at reckless speeds toward the cliff’s edge.

  A split second before he reached the fragile earth, Kaltor jammed his dagger into the roots of the oak tree, jarring his shoulder viciously as his body swung into the open air to his right. His whole body collided with the tree roots and stone cliff, driving the air from his lungs so fast that he nearly fainted.

  His pursuer dove in, missing him by inches, as its full weight and careening momentum landed it squarely on the eroded earth. Its traction failed completely as it plummeted over the cliff’s edge in a hail of dirt and upturned stones.

  Hope that’s where the rocks are! Kaltor thought triumphantly.

  His moment of triumph evaporated like a drop of water before flame when his dagger tore through the roots above him. Gravity instantly dragged him
down toward the rocky riverbank below, ready to shatter his body with the impact. Kicking against the stone cliff, Kaltor threw his body into the air like a sling-shot firing a stone away from the fragile precipice. He sheathed his dagger and twirled into the pain-numbing white spray of the surging waterfall.

  His heart sank as he saw the viper hound land in the river to his left, narrowly missing the rocky bank. Even as he fell, he could see its spine re-arranging into a snake’s form again for better water maneuverability.

  He hit the river’s surface gracelessly, pummeled under the immense pressure of the cascading water. His right leg snapped instantly as the ground slammed against him. His skin vision vanished, accompanied by splitting pain as the energy flowing through his body collided with itself.

  Swim! he screamed at his muscles, stunned by pain and slowed by the water’s sheer weight beating him into the ground. Swim! But no amount of urging could change the fact that the waterfall held him in place like a parent disciplining a rebellious child, making its superiority clear.

  Maker’s might! he swore in his mind. Have to risk making that thing frenzy.

  He tapped into his Varadour power. Inside his chest he felt one of the pouches around his heart contract, injecting his blood with magical liquid that surged straight into his muscles. They flexed with greater strength, his limbs trembling against their liquid oppressor. Gradually, he managed to pull himself from the center of the waterfall’s fury.

  The current nearly overwhelmed him, hurling its former victim against the opposite bank of the river. Groaning against the pain in his leg, he pulled himself from the waves and onto the rocks along the water’s edge.

  He rolled himself onto his back, gasping for air, feeling the other Varadours getting closer. That would have been a lot easier if I could have used my full power, he thought grimly.

  Then he heard the hiss.

  He sat up instantly, adrenaline pushing all fatigue aside like a tornado extinguishing a candle. The wet viper hound lay coiled at his feet, its vertebrae snapping back into its wolf-like form. It lunged, eyes glistening crimson like those of some creature from the Abyss itself.

  Both clawed paws sank into his shoulders, forcing him onto his back as he slashed uselessly at its heavily scaled stomach. From his pinned perspective, all he could see was a snake-like jaw full of long, curved fangs, and savage eyes reflecting the image of its victim’s last moments.

  Suddenly the creature froze, glancing past Kaltor toward the waterfall. A feeling of peace filled the area. Instinctively he drove his dagger through the hound’s upper jaw and into its brain. It collapsed lifelessly on top of him.

  By the Gods, what was that? Kaltor thought, struggling beneath the creature’s four hundred pounds of tough muscle. Blood and fluid seeped from its head wound onto his face and chest as he spat metallic-tasting liquid from his mouth. The weight constricted his lungs, putting him on the brink of passing out. Pain throbbed brutally through his broken leg and clawed shoulders.

  With a final grunt of exertion he managed to slip out from under the viper hound. Glancing over his shoulder, he thought he saw a person standing there amidst the cascading water, clad in white. He blinked, surprised, and the figure was gone.

  Must have been my imagination, he thought, rolling up onto his shoulder for a better look at his attacker. Well, our imagination, he added.

  My earlier vision of Keevan, though, Kaltor thought in retrospect. Of him falling into the sea. That was real. Keevan’s been hurt. Was it intentional or an accident? Will he even live long enough for us to find him?

  He shivered, not from the waterfall’s constant, chilling spray, but from all-consuming feelings of helplessness. His brother lay broken on a seashore in only the Gods-knew-where and he could not even take care of himself, much less find and protect his brother. He slammed the rocky ground with his fist and screamed in frustration, his voice easily engulfed by the constant thundering of the cold river water rushing by him.

  In moments, his friends finally appeared at the edge of the cliff. They were a mixed blessing. Though having fellow Varadours to train with lessened the burden considerably, their presence prevented him from using his full powers. Even the weakest of them could sense another using his or her abilities nearby, and so would realize Kaltor’s secret if he used his full strength.

  Once they caught sight of Kaltor and the viper hound’s corpse, some of them started climbing down the distance or walking further downriver. Two in particular simply dove in. They dove far more gracefully than he had, cutting smoothly into the surface with only faint splashes to announce their presence.

  If only I could have used all my power against it— he thought angrily. That viper hound would have been an easy kill if I hadn’t had to pretend to be as limited as the rest of you!

  Kaltor’s father, Gereth, one of the king’s royal advisors, used to lecture him about the Remnants. The legends said that in the final generation, one member of each race would be blessed with the strength of their forefathers. They had never mentioned the loneliness of such an existence, but there was no denying the increased power.

  Kaltor’s abilities were far stronger than those of his peers, or even Master Taneth’s, though he was still untrained and restrained by secrecy. If he ever got far enough away to use his power without being noticed, he could truly train. But such opportunities were as common as having the same dream two nights in a row.

  In his brother’s case, Keevan had the capabilities of any Sight Seeker, but with far superior levels of power. That power, however, revolved around a person’s eyes, not the heart, making it impossible to hide.

  The real mystery was how his brother, a child of such power, had managed to elude discovery all these years. Kaltor’s occasional visions were usually of his brother in public places. He could have sworn he’d glimpsed a crowd watching him fall from the cliff. He couldn’t understand why Keevan was still impossible to find, despite such blatant circumstances.

  Honmour’s boyish face peeked over the rocks first. He pulled himself up in one strong motion, landing solidly on both feet like a cat waiting to pounce. "Is it still alive?" he asked, short sword at the ready.

  Master Taneth’s training put them all in peak physical condition. Their muscles were hard but lean, built for agility and stealth, not sheer strength. On the outside, one couldn’t tell a Varadour from a regular person. In an open fight, however, the differences were quite obvious.

  "Only if it can live with a dagger through its brain," Kaltor responded, trying to sit up but hissing uselessly at the effort, as his motions pulled on the broken leg and torn flesh in his back. "Didn’t you say this morning they didn’t have the brains to outsmart us?"

  His second friend, Jensai, arrived in the same graceful manner as the first. "Did he just try to make a joke?" He held his spear high and hatchet low, not quite willing to lower his defenses near such a massive creature.

  "Yeah, a bad one though," Honmour answered with a chuckle. "He must be alright," He set his short sword next to Kaltor’s leg. "Give me your spear so I can finish this splint."

  Jensai set it on the other side of Kaltor’s leg, but kept eyeing the viper hound with distrust, hatchet in hand. The corpse twitched occasionally, as if toying with the boy’s caution. "Gather wood for a carrier!" he bellowed to the other students who were now arriving on the scene.

  They nodded and turned aside, searching for suitable materials. He stretched his back, looking at the viper hound’s remains. "That thing ran right past us and sprinted straight for you," he said, his tone thick with puzzlement. "You weren’t even using your power— isn’t that what they go for when they frenzy?"

  "According to Master Taneth," Honmour admitted, wrapping Kaltor’s leg in another coil of rope from his belt. His patient winced, trying his best to ignore the discomfort, as they were trained to. "Then again, if we can’t bring down one of these, no wonder we haven’t been given any political targets yet."

  "I don’t think it wi
ll happen again," Kaltor said through gritted teeth, stealing a curious glance toward the waterfall.

  "What? Assassination orders? Eventually we have to enter the field."

  Kaltor shook his head. "Viper hounds don’t attack a target if it’s not using Varadour power. This one must have been attacked earlier. Someone left it on edge," It was the only decent explanation he could think of.

  Viper hounds were very territorial. Once they chased you off their terrain, they would usually turn aside to continue defending their young, unless, of course, a Varadour were foolish enough to use his or her power near it. That was the part that didn’t make any sense. This creature had pursued him far beyond its territorial limits, without the slightest provocation.

  That was not a very convincing lie, he chided himself. Though his tone was meant to comfort those around him, he couldn’t ignore the unease he felt inside. The memory of helplessly lying there as its red eyes and open maw lunged in for the kill sent waves of nausea through his system. He clamped his teeth shut against the reflex.

  Honmour and Jensai nodded but didn’t say anything. They all knew the truth. No one hunted these forests but them. No one could pass through without being noticed. Kaltor glanced at the viper hound once more. Something was not right about that creature, he thought with a shudder. At least we can harvest it.

  The rest of the students arrived quickly, shuddering nervously as they stared at the viper hound, despite the afternoon heat. They watched it like children nervously watching a corpse for the first time, trapped in the terrifying presence of the beast specifically designed by nature as their natural predator. Some of them even chewed nervously on their trail rations, storing energy in case of danger.

  Stunts, Kaltor groaned inwardly in disgust. Can’t even control their hunger pangs yet. I hate working with the newest recruits.