Steel and Shadow: An Epic Fantasy by LaJonn O. Klein Page B

bastard said, we do all have our secrets,” George now sneered.  Devils were one thing, but his own grandfather had fought shadows.  And he recalled there was a more certain way to put paid to them.  You simply had to kill the mage that bound them to this world.
                  He’d let this guildsman Graves handle the other shade, and then he would slay Graves.  And he would end up with all.  For while most thought him mad, he was in fact obsessed.  His grandfather had carved the world into its current shape by his thirtieth year.  He had made Galdyn one of the nine great kingdoms, and kept it that way. 
                  His father had been content to rule what was handed him.  As George aged, however, he became less content, and wanted to be remembered like his grandfather, as a man of power and ambition.  He wanted to widen his reach, and turn Galdyn into the power of the known world.  Not just one of many.  By claiming Valdor, he would be more than doubling Galdyn’s size and power, and not any of the other kingdoms would dare strike at him then.  Nor would any mere shadow stop him.  Infernal shades should have just stayed in their mountains and barrens where they belonged.
                  Did they not realize the world of men did not need their kind?
     
     
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                  “The king’s bedchamber,” Harlock spat, eyeing the room.  “Why are we here?  I wanted…..”
                  The shadow spoke for the first time, his voice a basal growl of flesh and gravel that sounded eerily hollow.  “Even I cannot follow another shadow,” he told the guild mage that held his power as his own.  “I can, though, go where he has been recently.  By following where he has been, it is likely we shall soon be where he is going.”
                  Harlock glared, and grunted impatiently.  “Fine.  Just be quick.  I want this done, and my betrothal….  My grandson’s betrothal, confirmed by week’s end.”
                  The shadow only eyed him dourly, saying nothing to that as they vanished again.
                  “So, then, the rumors were true,” Harlock said a moment later as he studied the small chamber where he reappeared just inside the palace tower where none visited save the king.  “He must have had a secret mistress hidden here.  Which begs the question, who,” he murmured, eyeing his slave.
                  “The Valdoran queen lay here,” the shadow drawled in his low, gruff tone, knowing a command when he heard it by now.  “Thrice did she birth life in this room.  Until the young shade appeared, and carried her away.”
                  “He carried her…..  I would not think he could manage such a feat as yet.”
                  “He is young.  Still, he is stronger than you believe.  I sense his power.  He is young, but he is potent.  His is a darker shade than I have touched in many decades,” he admitted.
                  “Hmmmm.  Then mayhap we should learn his name, and turn him to our will rather than just destroy him,” Harlock smirked, ever eager to find and exploit whatever opportunity came his way.  As he did when he first learned the dark arts that gave him a shadow slave, and learned to attach his spirit to new flesh when his old body wore out. 
                  “Until I see him.  Until I face him.  I cannot discern his name,” the shadow told him.  “His passing is obvious, but his essence is…..fathomless.”
                  “Nonsense.  You just aren’t focusing.  Now, find him.  And stop dallying.”
                  “As you say,” the shadow murmured, and an instant later they were outside the palace, staring up at the palace walls. 
                  “So, he is clever.  He did not jump blindly, but somehow tracked, and followed