Book 2 of Sons of Destiny
Thoughts from…
Note: These thoughts contain spoilers if you have not already read “The Wolf.”
Saber: Those guard-illusions on the ramparts and castle rooftops were a good idea; they had originally been placed to give the Mandarites an illusion of strength and order, but he had been wise enough to make them functional, too. Now that they have proven their value, Saber plans to strengthen them a bit more. Not that he wants anyone else to come around for an attack, but next time, it might be the Katani Council of Mages. He is rather proud of his wife’s rather quick-witted thinking, though; Kelly might not have any magic, but she certainly knows how to defend her new home!.
Kelly: Ouch. Losing a finger—even if it was successfully reattached within minutes—was not something she’d ever planned on experiencing. Morganen’s enchantments seem to have fused her flesh back together with full sensation and motility, but she knows she really ought to look into getting some sort of comprehensive health-care coverage going here on Nightfall. Especially for poor Evanor’s sake. Briefly having her finger severed was nothing compared with Evanor losing his voice, and with it, his powers and his unique identity in the family. Yes, hiring a healer of some sort would be a very good idea…if she can figure out how to do it without alerting the Katani Empire to the presence of two women on the Isle.
Wolfer: Well, he certainly can’t think of anything more fitting than having Broger the Bastard Baron dragged down into a Netherhell for an eternity of suffering. Not after years of the bastard hurting his Alys. As satisfying as it would have been to kill his uncle-in-law personally, this way is even better; his hands aren’t stained with blood, yet the fat bastard will suffer for every single cuff and blow and cruelty visited upon such a sweet, undeserving young woman. Plus whatever misery Broger heaped upon everyone else around him.
With the threat of Broger of Devries vanquished permanently, Wolfer can concentrate all of his attention on his shy-yet-bold bride-to-be. Once upon a time, they had been close childhood friends, as close as a young boy and a young girl could be. Now they are a man and a woman, fully grown, and they fit quite happily together as a man and a woman. If he had known of her suffering, he would have rescued her sooner than this, but now that Alys is here, he is determined to compensate for her miserable past with as joyous a future as he can create for them both.
Alys: That was unnerving, having to first battle her uncle’s beasts, then face down the biggest beast of them all…and yet Kelly had been right. When the time had come to face her uncle, she had just viewed it as just another chore, and gone right through it without any problems or hesitations. Except for poor Evanor! Somehow, they would have to find a way to get him his voice back. She, especially, owed him that much, for Evanor had been protecting her life when he lost it.
But as much as she owes Evanor, she owes Wolfer even more. Not just for him loving her and wanting to protect her, not just for him being her friend and welcoming her with open arms to the Isle…but for him being her friend from the very start, all those years ago. Now that the two of them are lovers and beloveds as well as friends, she cannot wait to marry him, to mark him as hers for all of time. Not that she fears he will stray…but there is a little bit of possessiveness buried beneath all of her shyness. …Okay, a lot of possessiveness; she had laid claim to him when she was only three, after all!
Dominor: He’s still missing. Incommunicado. Whereabouts unknown, other than presumed to still be a captive of the sneak-thief Mandarites…
Evanor: No voice. No Voice. No magic, no singing, no sounds—nothing! Just breathy whisperings, drowned out by the conversations of his kin. No communicating, no enchanting, no Singing—and robbed of the ability to croon in his missing twin’s ears over the increasingly vast distances separating them! He doesn’t regret protecting Alys, but if he doesn’t get his Voice back, he’ll likely go mad…
Trevan: Damn! Another opportunity to try and save someone, and once again, he wasn’t able to do a thing! At least this time, he himself wasn’t injured, but poor Kelly’s finger, and Evanor—the Gods had to be laughing at them. Or worse, the Seer Draganna. Ev’s line in the Curse is to ‘weep in silence’, after all—but did Fate have to take the stupid poem so literally? Oh, yes, and mustn’t forget yet another of his brothers has now acquired a bride, but he still has two more brothers to get through before it’ll be his turn to find romance and happiness. It certainly doesn’t help that no one knows anything about Dominor’s current predicament—and has anyone realized yet that, with Evanor rendered literally speechless, they’ve just lost their main method of communicating across the length and the breadth of Nightfall Isle?
Rydan: It is a massive conspiracy of his brothers, the Seer Draganna, and the Gods themselves. And perhaps even the two women on the isle, though Kelly hasn’t any magic to help twist the matter, and Alys is too guileless and kind to try. No, he lays the blame for his problem at the feet of his brethren. They are trying to make him diurnal. Trying to ensure that he walks among them during daylight hours, that he endures their camaraderie, and participates in their problems. Not that he would abandon his family, by any means…but the night is peaceful and quiet, a haven for his thoughts, a refuge for his soul. With his brothers falling one after another to the Curse of the Sons of Destiny, it won’t be long before his preferred, solitary existence is shattered and ruined irrevocably…
Koranen: Wow. Uncle Broger murdered his own younger brother, opened a passage through the Netherhells themselves, and tried to kill them all. And Koranen got to help his brothers close and seal for all eternity a Dark Gate, right here on Nightfall soil! Kor has heard of powerful spells requiring elemental fire as one of their components, but this is the first time he has been part of such a vital casting. It almost makes the crafting of lightglobes and ward-sigils seem boring by comparison…except he’d far rather be bored by his work than be forced to fend off possible attacks from hordes of demon-things. He certainly could have done without any more of his family being injured, for that matter!
Morganen: Well, that wasn’t quite how he was expecting Evanor to wind up silenced in order to fulfill his part of their Destinies…but it’ll do. Somehow, they would get him Healed. In the meantime, Morg is going to keep on doing what he is Destined to do: nudge his brothers firmly toward marital happiness. With two down and five more to go, the next challenge on his list will be Dominor. Stolen, adrift, with no one able to say what’s been happening to him, and being hauled off to a war-torn continent of misogynists and their opponents…yes, this is all definitely starting to get interesting!