Hand of Mars, Book Two in the Science Fiction Fantasy Saga Starship’s Mage Series, part of the Starship’s Mage universe, release date: September 25, 2015.
A loyal world torn apart by corruption
The Protectorate’s shield cracked by treason
Their only hope: a rogue mage turned royal envoy
Three years ago, as Ship’s Mage of the starship Blue Jay, Damien Montgomery was pursued to the edge of human space by both the agents and enemies of the Mage-King of Mars — before being brought in from the cold.
Now, trained in new skills by the Mage-King himself, Damien has been sent to the planet Ardennes alongside Alaura Stealey, Hand of the King. A rebel movement there has destroyed cities fighting a Governor seemingly lost to corruption.
But not all on Ardennes is as it seems. As allies become enemies and an entire world comes apart in chaos around him, Damien will find both his skills and integrity tested to the utter limit.
ISBN: 978-1-988035-61-1
Paperback $13.99
Related Titles
Chapter 1
Mars shrank in the window as the starship got under way. Unlike most apparent ‘windows’ aboard the vessel, this one actually looked out onto space, an observatory tucked away on one corner of the immense white pyramid.
If Damien Montgomery stepped right up to the glass and turned his head just right, he could see the star-white plume of reaction mass blazing out from the battleship’s matter-antimatter engines. He couldn’t feel the acceleration as the magic woven into the runes under his feet provided an artificial gravity that countered the force of the ship’s thrust.
His gaze was focused on Mars. The massive peak of Olympus Mons, visible from low orbit, had just rotated over the horizon. Over the last three years, the mountain capital of the Mage-King of Mars’ Protectorate had become home.
He hadn’t left Olympus Mons since arriving on the terraformed world. He’d arrived not quite a prisoner, having demonstrated a rare gift with magic and an even rarer gift for causing trouble.
Now, after three years of being the Mage-King’s direct student—when and if Desmond Alexander had time around his duties and responsibilities—he was leaving again.
“My lord Envoy?” a voice said from behind him.
Damien turned around to find himself facing a young man in a navy blue uniform with narrow gold cuffs. If memory was correct, the single narrow cuff marked the man as a Lieutenant. The man didn’t wear the same gold medallion at his neck as Damien, so he was not a Mage—‘just’ one of the many mundane officers that kept the Navy running.
“Yes, Lieutenant…?”
“Lieutenant Keller, my lord,” the young man replied, and a slight shiver ran down Damien’s spine. Keller was, at most, five years younger than his own not-quite-thirty. The uniform and the sidearm the man carried should have marked him as Damien’s superior in most circumstances.
The fact that Damien was the only person on the fifty million ton battleship Righteous Guardian of Liberty not wearing a uniform said something different. The crackling parchment in the inner pocket of his perfectly tailored black suit told the rest of the story: he bore a Warrant directly from the Mage-King of Mars as His Envoy, empowered to speak on His behalf for a specific mission.
“Mage-Captain Adamant requests your presence for dinner with the senior officers in her quarters this evening,” the Lieutenant told him quickly.
Damien smiled, trying to put the younger man at ease. He quickly realized that, faced with a man who spoke with his King’s Voice, clad all in black with skin-tight gloves, the young Lieutenant was never going to be at ease.
“Let Captain Adamant know I will be there,” he finally told the Lieutenant. “Thank you.”
With a perfectly crisp salute that Damien wasn’t entirely sure his current status even required, Lieutenant Keller all-but fled the observatory.
Damien waited until the youth had left, and rested his gloved hand on the pocket of his suit jacket. The archaic parchment of his Warrant crinkled under his fingers and he sighed.
How had he gone from wanting to jump starships between the stars to this?
#
He was early for dinner, and only Mage-Captain Janet Adamant was in her dining room when he arrived. The room was easily large enough to seat all of Adamant’s officers, with a table made from an Old Earth oak tree.
Despite living in the Sol system for three years, the table was still a luxury to Damien’s eyes: he’d been raised on the MidWorld of Sherwood, almost a month’s travel from Earth. At home, anything from Earth had been a barely affordable luxury for even the wealthy.
“Welcome, my lord Envoy,” Adamant greeted him. She was a tall woman, with the slightly Asian features of a Martian native.
“Please, call me Damien,” he told her. “The ‘my lord’s are confusing—I keep looking around for the actual important person.”
“The third adult Rune Wright in the galaxy, personally trained in politics, magic and law by the Mage-King himself, and the man who brought down the Blue Star Syndicate,” Adamant replied calmly. “Unimportant, huh?”
“I didn’t bring down the Syndicate,” Damien pointed out. “I killed Azure—a lot of hard work by people wearing your uniform finished the job.”
Mikhail Azure, onetime leader of the largest crime syndicate in the Protectorate, had chased Damien to the end of the galaxy. Eventually Damien had been forced to carve a dangerous rune into his own flesh, allowing him to destroy the crime lord’s personal warship and save his own friends.
His ‘reward’ for that had been to be drafted by the Mage-King.
“Most people would kill for three years of training under the Mage-King,” the Captain pointed out, responding to what he hadn’t said as much as what he had.
Damien shrugged.
“It wasn’t a reward,” he pointed out. “As you said, I’m one of three adult Rune Wrights in the galaxy. Given that our very existence is classified enough we couldn’t have this conversation with your staff in the room, they couldn’t exactly let me roam free.”
Adamant chuckled and shook her head at him.
“Fair enough,” she admitted. “Have a seat. Wine? The food should be ready shortly.”
Damien gratefully took a glass of wine and a seat, nodding gracefully as each of Adamant’s senior officers entered and was introduced. He wouldn’t be aboard the warship long, so he only peripherally registered the names and faces.
“I can’t believe they pulled a freaking battleship to play courier for the pipsqueak,” someone muttered halfway through the soup.
Looking up, Damien met the focused gaze of the Commander who served as the Righteous Guardian’s tactical officer, in charge of all of the many and varied weaponry she carried. The man was easily ten years his senior, but had the grace to look embarrassed when he realized he’d been overheard.
“I’m quite grateful that the Righteous Guardian was going my way, actually,” Damien told him. “As you say, I’m not a very large package, and I suspect they’d have found me a box on a mail courier if you’d been heading a different way!”
That got a laugh from everyone, including the tactical officer. Damien was a small man, easily the shortest person in the room and definitely the lightest. Spending three years studying magic, law, and politics had left him little time to bulk up.
“What’s it like studying in Olympus Mons?” another officer, this one wearing the gold medallion marking him as a Mage along with his Commander’s uniform.
“Intimidating,” Damien said dryly. “Believe me, when Desmond Michael Alexander assigns you homework, you find the time to do it!”
“What’s bringing you to Tau Ceti, Envoy?” another officer asked, and Damien realized that he was going to be the center of attention tonight.
“I’m joining Hand of the Mage-King Alaura Stealey for a mission,” he replied. “More than that I can’t say.”
That put enough of a damper on the questions that he could, at least, finish eating. It also helped avoid mentioning that even Damien himself wasn’t entirely sure what he was heading to Tau Ceti for.