Fallen Gods Trilogy
An introductory chapter from Book 1 of the fantasy trilogy
Fiction
FALLEN GODS TRILOGY
An introductory chapter from Book 1 of the fantasy trilogy
Dylan F. Morgan
Editor’s note: This is Chapter 2 from Godfall, the first book in the Fallen Gods trilogy. The chapter introduces the female protagonist Lumence. For more information on the trilogy and weekly chapter releases visit Dylan's Substack.
Ambush
The overcast skies foretold rain. It was expected this winter in the Tamblewood; the road remained deep with mud and fallen trees lay in suspicious locations. Lumence sat on an upper branch, watching a tree lying conveniently across a sloppy part of the trail. A whistle came from across the road. Her twin, Lucius, held ten then five fingers indicating a group of fifteen. A significant party, though not unusual as spring approached.
She started to relay the information when her brother moved again. He tapped his head with a fist, indicating an armed guard. Lumence hadn’t believed it when the first reports came from the south. An armed escort was rare – most travelers simply paid the toll. There was a time when an escort was enough discouragement, but after scraping by through the harsh winter, they couldn’t risk the opportunity.
Lumence relayed the information and prepared her bow as Lucius did the same. She was almost as effective with it as Lucius, but fighting from a distance was boring. There was just something about the look in a man’s eyes when he realized he was being held up by a girl who stood no taller than his chest. She had expressed this to her brother, who had shrugged and told her dead was dead. One couldn’t argue with such blunt honesty.
A covered wagon rolled around the bend, still too far away for the guards to tell the tree was blocking the road, much less that it had been cut. Lumence nocked an arrow and glanced at Lucius, who let his legs swing beneath him. She didn’t like heights. She had seen a man fall to his death after a branch broke under him and that was it for her. Her competitive nature was the only thing that had her in the tree now, though she stayed close to the trunk.
The tension grew as the wagon approached. She always got a feeling of excitement at the possibility of conflict even when she knew someone was likely to pay the toll and be done with it. She was glad when they didn’t.
As the wagon approached the trap, the bandits’ leader, Taverd, walked along the tree’s length and called out to the guards, who halted their march. Lumence had heard Taverd’s speech plenty of times before but this one sounded different, less forceful and more inquisitive.
“We can have this tree and several others cleared along the way for just a small fee,” Taverd said. A rider spoke, but Lumence couldn’t hear from the distance.
“No food to spare? Coin works just as well.” Taverd spoke loud enough so the band knew whether there would be a fight. “No coin either? Huh, who might you be then? You’re armored like Makoni, but Makoni don’t ride. Are you one of those cults?”
One of the guards snapped something back angrily then both turned to the wagon as if listening to instructions.
“We don’t want any–”
Taverd’s words were cut off as one of the riders charged. Taverd jumped to the lee side of the log and hurried for cover as the band shot from the wood line from behind the wagon. Lumence and Lucius let loose as well, her arrow bouncing harmlessly off a guard’s breastplate; his arrow slid cleanly under the chin of another.
The remaining guards struggled in the growing quagmire to protect the wagon and keep their mounts. Many arrows bounced off the thick armor but men still dropped, some underneath their horses, others from a lucky shot finding a joint in the armor. A man whose horse had gone down recovered his feet in the mud. He pulled up his visor to see and Lucius put him down. Lumence thought it best to save her arrows; the quagmire had enough splinters already.
A scream came from one of the horses pulling the wagon, and the team bolted down the road toward the log. Lumence watched from her branch excited to see what would happen when they hit the obstacle. She looked behind the wagon and saw the few guards who had kept their seats pursuing it. The sheer volume of arrows directed at them and their horses took them down before they could make any headway, but the wagon didn’t slow.
The wagon’s driver, shot in the first volley, slumped from the seat. Lumence scrambled down her tree to move to a better position to deal with anything that came out of the wagon. She reached a branch just above the road when the horses leapt the log.
What the jump lacked in grace it made up for in audacity. She watched in awe as the beasts cleared the three-foot obstacle with the wagon in tow.
The moment was broken by the loud crack and snap of wood as the wheels struck the tree and broke from the wagon. Still pulling a box through the mud, the horses hardly slowed. Not wanting to chase the horses, Lumence set aside her bow and drew two long knives before dropping onto the wagon’s canvas cover as it passed beneath.
She landed with a slight grunt and slashed the canvas with a knife. She expected to land among the trunks and wares of a rich merchant but was surprised to land on a soft pallet. She looked up to see a man lying low behind the driver’s seat. He wore leather that had fur on it like Makoni were said to wear.
“Tides,” she swore.
He stared at her, clearly surprised at being joined. He was injured from being tossed about in the wagon and, judging by the number of holes in the canvas, possibly an arrow as well. She moved forward slowly, sheathing one knife to free a hand for balance. The man gave one last lash across the backs of the horses and stood, drawing a short sword. He was too big to stand straight under the canvas but that did little to limit his reach. He thrust, and she stumbled backwards as the wagon bumped along.
The man’s handicap in the cramped space allowed Lumence to recover. She lunged, and he pushed her knife aside and knocked her onto the pallet with a punch that glanced off her shoulder. Lumence rolled to her feet and squared off.
Tiring and without someone to urge them on, the horses slowly came to a halt. Lumence drew her second knife and went on the attack.
Her opponent easily blocked her every attempt and steadily backed towards the driver’s seat. Once his heel touched, he swept aside her knife and forced her back. As Lumence retreated he rolled over the seat into the mud and ran down the road.
Lumence sprang after. She jumped from the seat onto the back of a panting horse and launched after him. He turned and blocked her blow, and she landed, sinking into the mud. She quickly tugged herself free and nearly fell backward avoiding the swinging short sword. The two collected themselves and sized each other up. Seeing him at his full height, there was no doubt in Lumence’s mind he was Makoni.
Lumence didn’t waiver until he began his assault. His short sword moved in a combination of thrusts and cuts that turned into backhands the second they were turned away. Lumence couldn’t keep up and stumbled back.
Being smaller, she didn’t sink as deep into the mud and turned this to her advantage. She circled him, trying to make him trip or slip. She could tell he was flagging. His breathing was labored, and red soaked through his leathers. There was a hiss and a thud. Her opponent dropped with an arrow in his side.
He rose to one knee. His left hand went out to support himself but sank past his wrist in mud. He looked up at her, blue eyes glaring. He fought to stand, knowing he was dead. Blood ran from the corner of his mouth. Lumence stepped back unsure of what he was trying to accomplish. He jerked an object from a chain around his neck and threw it at her feet. He said something in the rough Makoni language, and his arm gave out.
Lumence glanced down the road and saw her brother a hundred yards away accompanied by several other members of the band. She looked back at the Makoni. He almost looked satisfied. It just made her angry. She was robbed of a clean kill of a Makoni. How many people could say that they had beaten a Makoni in single combat? To make matters worse, this rippin’ ice-eater had the audacity to look peaceful even as his breathing became shallow and the mud around him turned red. She stepped towards him and neatly slit his throat.
“What did you do that for?” Jaks, the second in command yelled down the road at her. Lumence ignored him as Lucius came to the dead man.
“Why did you take my kill?” Lumence asked coolly.
Lucius just shrugged. “Dead is dead.”
“A fine shot too,” Lendon said. He was one of the youngest in the band and still old enough to be her father. “Musta been at least a hundred fifty yards out.” Lucius shrugged again.
“You have to keep more distance between you and them, Lumence,” Asharie said. “A man that size gets a hold of you, and he’ll split you in half vertically.” Asharie was as close to motherly concern as they got.
“Maybe you should try throwing those knives instead of trying to poke at folk all the time,” Lendon said. In a blink, Lumence had a knife out and tried to poke him, but he danced away, stopping within ten feet of her.
“C’mon, this isn’t so far. I won’t even be mad if you stick me,” he said. Lumence harrumphed and sheathed her blade.
“What’d he give you there, Lumence?” Jaks asked. Lumence looked at her hand. She hadn’t realized she had taken the ring the Makoni had thrown at her.
“Dunno. He must have thought it worth mentioning.” She tossed it to Jaks, touching the oversized stone setting in the process. It sent a shiver up her spine. She started for the wagon when she heard Jaks react.
“Drag the wagon and the log off the road and burn them,” he said abruptly. “Cut the horses loose and bring them with us. Luce,” he turned to Lucius. “Take this to Taverd and be quick about it!”
“We never keep horses,” Lumence said as her brother trotted down the road to the site of the ambush. “And shouldn’t we take a look at the wagon to see what’s in it?”
“In Makon, they don’t really have royalty,” Jaks replied, “but we just killed the closest thing to it.” People who were slowly going about their tasks understood the urgency, and the road quickly became louder with calls for help from those moving the bodies.
The band gathered, camped at the foot of a hill in the southern Tamblewood. The mood was dreary as what was supposed to be their first resupply since winter’s end turned into something much worse. Cleaning the site still required days of work. The bodies and their steel breastplates wouldn’t be so easy to erase.
“What do you suppose they’ll do now?” Jaks asked Taverd after Lumence finish retelling the events on the wagon. Taverd looked carefully at the stone and pulled it from the ring. It was as big as a knuckle of his thumb. If he felt the same chill she had at touching it, he showed no reaction. He held it to the firelight. It looked to Lumence like the light was sucked into it.
“I never thought to hold a Blackstone. Interesting thing, isn’t it?” he remarked absently. He shook his head and removed the stone from the light. “The Makoni have tolerated us here for the last ten years,” he continued. “But they don’t much care for people killing their own.”
Lumence felt a chill as he left the thought unfinished. She didn’t need to be reminded of the last time Makon had seemingly emptied into the Tamblewood. She and Lucius had been children then, but they knew it was only Kyta’s demand that the Makoni not burn down the forest that saved them from total annihilation. Their numbers had been around three hundred before, but now they were closer to sixty. They made it a policy not to rob Makoni any longer. In fact, after that they had made it a habit to offer a toll instead of just relying on highway robbery.
“We covered our tracks,” Jaks said hopefully. “They won’t know exactly where it happened. Maybe if we keep our heads down, they won’t remember we’re even here.”
Taverd shook his head. “The whereabouts of a group carrying a Blackstone will be known.”
“We’re far enough south. We’ll have time to move once we hear they’re coming,” Jaks said, pleading for his optimism to be granted merit. Taverd leaned against a stump and looked across the camp. Jaks hadn’t always been second in command just like Taverd hadn’t always been first.
“I fear this will be worse than the last time. They will force us out if they can,” Taverd said.
“Force us where?” Lumence asked.
Taverd looked at her like he had forgotten she was there. “There might be a way to avoid it,” he said suddenly. Jaks looked at Lumence, unsure of what Taverd meant. “If we can make it seem like the stone never made it here they’ll have no reason to suspect us and go razing the Kytan countryside instead.”
“What do I need to do?” Lumence asked.
“Simple,” Taverd said. “You and Lucius take it south as quick as you can. We’ve got horses to make it a faster trip. Then sell it, tides, give it away for all I care. Just make sure no one can trace it back to us.”
“It could work,” Jaks said, exchanging a look with Taverd. He didn’t sound confident.
“Only if you think you can handle it, Lumence,” Taverd said. “You’ve never seen the world beyond these woods.”
“Of course I can handle it,” Lumence scoffed. Taverd smiled and held up his hands.
“Just needed to be sure,” he said placatingly. “Go tell your brother. Say your goodbyes tonight. The sooner you’re moving south the better.”
Lumence faked a huff and left to tell Lucius. He was easy to find. He liked to sit on the edge where he could listen in on conversation and not be compelled to speak himself.
“Well baby brother, we’re going south.” She sat next to him. He raised his eyebrows in response. “Taverd just told me himself. We’ll be leaving first thing in the morning to get that stone as far away from here as we can.”
Lucius looked at their leader talking with Jaks but didn’t say anything.
“You’re not excited to see what’s beyond these trees?”
“I like the trees. Why would I leave?” Lucius asked.
“How do you know you won’t like what’s beyond them if you never go?” Lumence asked. She caught Jaks staring at them sadly.
Lucius shrugged and rose to say his goodbyes and Lumence followed. As usual, she did most of the talking with Lucius adding the odd grunt or shrug. She was excited for the mission, but the camp was reserved at best.
Most of their little band had acted as parent to them at some point in their lives, but most only managed a small smile or a quick word of encouragement at the news. Lumence’s exuberance drained away, and the weight of what was happening hit her. Their success was the only option for the survival of this small group of bandits.
Dylan F. Morgan grew up in a small coastal town in Washington state. His mother inculcated a passion for fantasy by reading him and his sister the timeless series of both C.S. Lewis and Lloyd Alexander. After graduating high school not at the top of his class, Dylan went to the University of Washington and studied biology before moving to Utah for Dental School. After a brief stint in the military, Dylan and his wife, Arianna, moved to Idaho's Treasure Valley. Keep up with Dylan’s work at dylanfmorgan.com. You can also read more of the Fallen Gods trilogy at his new Substack. Dylan tweets here.