Duchy Unleashed Read online

  Duchy Unleashed

  Book 3 of the Dire Prophecy series

  By Zack Finley

  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  Copyright 2018 by Zack Finley.

  Author’s Introduction

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Author’s Notes

  Cast of Characters

  About the Author

  Copyright 2018 by Zack Finley.

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Author’s Introduction

  I have done my best to ensure a new reader to the series can pick up “Duchy Unleashed” and enjoy the story without reading the first two books in the Dire Prophecy Series. That said, I think most readers will enjoy them best in order.

  Dire Prophecy 1 (Book 1 of Dire Prophecy)

  Mad Toffad’s Keep (Book 2 of Dire Prophecy)

  Duchy Unleashed (Book 3 of Dire Prophecy)

  A mystery romance novel by Zack Finley:

  Mayhem in Mendocino (A Rascal the Cat mystery)

  ◆◆◆

  Chapter 1

  The Duchy of Toffad’s Keep was starting to feel real. Two weeks ago, we had only four people in the enterprise. Now we had more than 400. We banished the brakes on this incredible roller coaster ride trying to outrun a dire prophecy.

  I, Steve Finley, was the luckiest guy on the planet and not because I was the Duke. A month ago, I died on Earth from an IED explosion while leading a patrol in the desert. Then, I woke up on the planet of Jaloa with an alien body with pointy ears, leathery skin, retractable claws and, four fingered hands and feet.

  I refused to wonder about it anymore. It was either true, or it wasn’t. I was either brought to Jaloa in a last-ditch effort by a minor god to prepare for a dire prophecy, or I wasn’t. The prophecy predicted a period of tsunamis, volcanos, and massive earthquakes followed by a worldwide “nuclear winter.”

  My soulmate Argon and I had four partners privy to the complete prophecy, Tobron and Inoa, their eldest son Cleon, and his mate Alba. Together we were building a self-sustaining community of mages and mundanes to outlast this foretold end-of-the-world event.

  Our patron, Goddess Shala, charged us with surviving the extinction event so we could thwart the demon invasion she expected to follow. Argon had been Shala’s lead acolyte for years before I arrived on scene. She’d grown up with the prophecy.

  When I first heard the prophecy, I imagined the plight of the dinosaurs. A large meteor strike matched the prophesied scenario. Shala concurred. She neglected to mention the dark sect destroying Jaloan civilization in advance of the prophecy. Argon and I tripped over these villains on our own.

  Argon and I debated where the dark sect fit into the overall prophecy. Argon had faith in the gods. She believed they would eventually band together and either prevent the apocalypse or reduce its impact in some way. She feared the dark sect was an unanticipated wild card. Its assassinations and other destabilizing actions were destroying Jaloan society. The damage the dark sect caused might even make the societal impacts of a meteor strike moot.

  Argon never got an answer on this from Goddess Shala, so Argon and I still categorized this in the farfetched but possible column. Argon had more faith in the gods saving the planet than I did.

  The meteor or something else apocalyptical was prophesied to impact this generation of Jaloans. We were told it would come “soon.” To a god, “soon” could be tomorrow or 20 years in the future. While we hoped for 10 or more years to prepare, we were wasting no time.

  The pace of change in the past few weeks was mind-blowing. Our downtown Klee headquarters, which I was urging people to call HQ, was getting crowded. We were at a standstill, unable to bring any more people into our Duchy until we moved into Toffad’s Keep. We were on hold due to a little problem with ghost glappners and a death cult curse.

  Resolving those minor problems had stymied the move into Toffad’s Keep for the past week.

  Klee King Ruton of Klee had awarded Toffad’s Keep to Argon and me and created the Duchy a few weeks ago. Being declared a Duchy was a surprise but it gave us the independence we needed.

  I was still trying to encouraged dropping the Mad from Mad Toffad’s Keep, the name our new home had been called for at least 100 years. Toffad, a reclusive relative of a former Klee king, had the Keep built to his exacting specifications more than 100 years ago. Just as it was becoming a bustling new city, he vanished.

  Without Toffad’s driving spirit, the residents eventually abandoned the site. That was when the rest of the world began calling it Mad Toffad’s Keep. In Klee, Mad Toffad became the butt of jokes as he was used to illustrate folly in stories told to the young.

  At least they weren’t calling it Mad Steve’s Keep, yet.

  Eventually pirates and criminals moved into the Keep creating a major lawless problem for the Klee King’s Guard. About 50 years ago, a death cult moved in. After a huge battle which killed too many Klee Guardsmen, the Klee forces killed all the cultists. Wanting to prevent future criminal infestations, the Klee king paid the Klee Mage Guild to place and maintain a comprehensive magical ward around it.

  The site in the Keep where the bodies of the death cultists were burned now had evil spirits and needed to be cleansed.

  Argon was out this morning on goddess business, negotiating the final details of the purification ritual.

  Argon was the acolyte for our patron, Goddess Shala. A different goddess, Avia, claimed the entire Kingdom of Klee, which included our Keep. To avoid conflict between gods, Avia’s followers had to supervise the cleansing. This was complicated because Avia’s acolytes were too weak to conduct the cleansing on their own.

  Who knew gods had territorial issues?

  After much negotiation over the past week, Avia’s acolytes had finally agreed for Argon to lead the ritual with their assistance.

  The long-awaited ceremony was scheduled for dawn tomorrow.

  The other barrier for moving everyone to the Keep was the glappner infestation in the warehouses. Weeks ago, Argon and I tried removing glappners from the dockside warehouses. Our eradication methods proved ineffective and dangerous. This prompted Tobron, our partner and the Duchy chamberlain, to hire a magical exterminator.

  I was actually relieved, fighting glappners was not fun.

  Glappners were huge hairy spiderlike zombies with powerful stingers and deadly corrosive venom. They trapped prey with their sticky rope-like webs before stinging their victims to death. As members of the undead, they refused to die unless you decapitated or incinerated them.

  The zombies could remain dormant for years without prey. Once they sensed live meat, they hatched and grew quickly. The biggest glappner we fought was 10 feet across and more than four feet tall. They could climb and jump and had magic that made them hard to spot. Vicious things.

  We learned through Tobron’s retiree network the trick to controlling them was to expose their dormant form to seawater.

  Tobron estimated we probably had several hundred glappners infesting our warehouses and thousands of eggs when Argon and I declared there had to be a better way.

 
Tobron found an obscure extermination company. While most of that family-owned business involved the usual vermin and insect removal contracts, the family’s patriarch, Ronar, had a reputation for tackling hairier issues.

  Glappners were definitely hairier.

  Once Tobron hired Ronar, Ronar’s company set about making Toffad’s Keep glappner free. The company systematically employed proprietary spells throughout the vast warehouse complex to remove the pesky monsters. Ronar expected to wrap up today or tomorrow.

  Ronar refused to share the spells he was using, but he hinted he got them from his grandfather. Glappner infestations were very rare these days but according to Ronar were common in his grandfather’s day.

  Argon and I planned to inspect the warehouse with Tobron and Ronar before opening it up to the rest of the Duchy. Ronar reluctantly agreed to provide his glappner detection spell before he left, for a substantial fee.

  During glappner battles, Argon found none of her normal detection methods worked. With Ronar’s detection spell we hoped to monitor the situation and evacuate our personnel should a new infestation materialize. Ronar assured Tobron he guaranteed his work. There would be no re-infestation.

  While that was reassuring, having to tell some mother a glappner had killed her child wouldn’t cut it. It was mighty hard to prove something wasn’t there. Even though Ronar guaranteed his work, he wouldn’t be the one at risk.

  Tobron and I agreed to keep unneeded warehouse space closed up and to use Ronar’s detection spell liberally throughout the warehouse, at least for the foreseeable future.

  We were scheduling the warehouse inspection just after the dawn cleansing ritual concluded. Anticipating a clean bill of health, we gave our people staging assignments for tomorrow’s move.

  Captain Malek had his ship, the Malan, and four more leased ships ready to ferry our new residents and the tons of supplies needed to support them to the Keep. Malek expected to have the first batch of ships offloaded and back in Klee by nightfall tomorrow.

  Tobron and I were still debating the effort versus benefit of repairing the 40 miles of roadway between Klee City and the Keep. Today the only way to bring people and equipment to our Keep was by teleport or by ship.

  Teleporting was limited, in part due to the large amount of force magic it used, but also because we still had the mage guild’s ward in place around the Keep. The ward required a mind magic password to pass through the barrier to get into the Keep. The ward also magically prevented teleporting directly into the Keep. Any person, animal, or insect could exit through the barrier ward. It just locked down all entries unless accompanied by a mind mage with a password.

  As inconvenient as it was, the ward would remain in place for the foreseeable future. Replacing it was a low priority, for now. Keeping the guild ward intact gave us full control over who got into our Keep, while still allowing freedom of movement within the Keep grounds. We were now paying a monthly maintenance fee to the Klee Mage Guild who created and maintained it.

  The guild gave us password control when we began paying the monthly maintenance fee, but refused to supply any technical details about the ward. Tobron thought we could eventually negotiate a substantially lower payment from the guild. For now, we were stuck with the current ward’s limitations.

  While the ward effectively blocked unwanted visitors, it was aimed primarily at casual intrusions. A concentrated attack even by a small group would quickly deplete it. We would need more substantial wards on our Keep walls to thwart a real attack.

  But that was a worry for another day. Today we needed to prepare for the big move. First stop was breakfast. This morning I’d be accompanied by Allo for the first time.

  Allo nudged me toward the door, reminding me I had to get moving or be late to breakfast. Today was important for Allo, it was her first day of freedom. Just in time to relocate to the Keep in a few days. Allo, our feisty blue-furred fla, had been with Argon for years. She’d been confined to our suite in HQ for several weeks due to security concerns.

  Allo shared a substantial mental bond with Argon and me. Inoa feared someone could exploit that bond, using Allo to attack our minds. This kept Allo locked in our suite until Inoa could confirm we were safe to proceed. Inoa finally checked over our mental defenses last night and gave us the green light to let Allo out of purgatory.

  Today, I’d introduce Allo around, and she could finally roam free all over HQ. Tobron even installed an Allo-door in our suite so she could come-and-go from the apartment at will.

  The Allo-door opened for her as expected. She stalked out into the hallway with me. She then whirled around and dashed through the door back into the suite. The new door handled even this surprise attack without a problem. I continued walking to the communal dining room, not surprised to see Allo trotting beside me within seconds.

  I sent Ellte a message telling her I was on duty and heading for breakfast. Ellte was in charge of our communication’s switchboard. She kept track of where people were and when they transitioned between tasks. I imagined a wall somewhere with my name on it and some kind of status symbol switching from off duty to on duty. I made a mental note to ask Marfo for a tour of Ellte’s domain at some point. I knew the number of people assigned to the switchboard had grown steadily over the past weeks as more and more recruits arrived.

  Argon wasn’t the only person up before dawn in HQ. I walked in, and the food court was a sea of red as everyone was wearing their Duchy livery.

  I waved at several recent recruits, already meeting over an early breakfast. I liked to see top-level managers meeting together over meals. We all had to eat, and I personally had little patience with long meetings. The more informal networking we could do over meals, the better.

  Having the managers visible and available to listen to the concerns of their troops kept small irritations from growing into big ones. It also gave me numerous opportunities to see how well our rapidly expanding chain-of-command was working. This command-by-walking-around took time away from killing monsters, but I expected it to pay dividends going forward.

  By now everyone should have received their staging assignments.

  Allo took one look at a group of younglings and left my side like a rocket. So much for introducing her around.

  “Get your breakfast and join us,” Tobron sent. “Loma and I have a breakthrough in your quest for batteries.” I could feel the excitement vibrating within him. I almost got out of the food line to join him. Only almost.

  I continued chatting with those in line with me. Mostly just small talk about how they were adjusting, whether they had their staging assignments, and the like. I was surprised to see everyone in line was dressed in their battle-dress Duchy livery. Only a few days ago everyone was wearing patrol dress. The battle dress fit loosely and was ideal for combat. Patrol dress looked more like business attire.

  “Did someone post a uniform-of-the-day somewhere?” I sent Tobron.

  “No, but once they saw how great Argon looked in battle dress, almost everyone switched. I’m still wearing patrol dress because I prefer it. But if people want to look like Argon, how can I complain,” Tobron sent. Argon had skin the color of rich maple and blond fur on her head. She usually painted her claws ebony. She was tall and muscular but was all female. And she did look good in battle dress.

  I could feel the Tobron’s chuckle in my mind as he added, “I’m afraid it doesn’t improve your looks any, though.” I couldn’t argue, my skin was a dark leathery color, except on the chest where it was still scarred from my encounter with a magic spear. I didn’t paint my claws and my fur was red and usually flattened from wearing a helmet. I really liked my pointy ears, though.

  Despite this dig from Tobron, I was happy nearly all of the food staff were dressed in Duchy livery. That meant Duchy personnel were handling all meal preparations.

  I wondered if Allo wanted something to eat. I glanced at her playing with the younglings, and I saw her needs were in good hands. Since most of the youngl
ings were rescued from slave camps, seeing them play with Allo lightened my heart.

  Breakfast was a raucous affair. Tobron was holding court at the main table. As the Duchy chamberlain, his job was to make sure everything got done. And he loved it. I occasionally wondered how someone with his drive was ever satisfied with semi-retirement as a librarian.

  Loma, his sister-in-law, was seated beside him but her attention was focused on something Marfo, her niece and Tobron’s daughter, was saying. Marfo headed up recruitment, communications, purchasing, and was Inoa’s back up for mind shields.

  Over the past weeks, Loma lured several mages away from her old appliance company. She now had them managing our ever-increasing supply of magical appliances while she worked on my secret project, batteries.

  I was eager to hear about her breakthrough but the way Tobron was acting I suspected they wanted to talk to me privately, before sharing with the rest of the team.

  Weeks ago, Loma and Tobron experimented to learn the best types of conjured stone for storing magic. Tobron then conjured huge blocks of battery stones under the HQ for her use. Loma placed a rudimentary magical harvesting app on each mage as they became citizens of the Duchy. These apps collected any excess magic the mages generated. It was similar to a spell Argon created to charge our oso-hide armor. Loma assured me no one complained once she told them I was by far the largest magic donor in the community pool followed closely by Argon.

  Magic had a lot in common with blood. Jaloan bodies create new magic at a slow, steady trickle. The type and quantity they produce is a matter of genetics.

  Mages generate and store magic. To launch a fireball, or to teleport, or to conjure or banish stone, one’s body needed enough of the right magic.