The Quest (Sanshlian Series Book 1)

  The Quest

  Sanshlian Series: Book 1

  by Dani Hoots

  The Quest

  Sanshlian Series, #1

  Second Publication © 2016 Dani Hoots

  Content and line edits by Justin Boyer of Bibliophile’s Workshop

  Cover Design Copyright© 2016 by Dani Hoots

  First Publication© 2015 Hear Me Roar Publishing

  Formatting and Cover Design first edition by Marcy Rachel

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system without the prior written permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this novel are fictitious and are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  ISBN for paperback: 978-1-942023-43-2

  ISBN for ebook: 978-1-942023-42-5

  Contents

  Prologue

  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

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Dedication

  To Faye and Veronica, who stuck by my side throughout the entire process, and really, really want to read more.

  Prologue

  Eleven Years Earlier

  It sounded like thunder, but I knew better. War had made its way to our tiny planet and nothing could stop it. I sniffed and wiped away the tears beginning to form in my eyes as I peered over at my brother Rik. All I could see was his shaggy hair as he peeked out the window, watching the flashes of light that echoed through the sky. I feared for my family’s safety, not knowing what we were going to do. Even at the age of six, I understood what was coming

  “It’s alright Arcadia, you don’t have to be afraid.” My father sat down on the edge of my bed. He always kept calm in every situation, no matter the difficulty. A smile never seemed to leave his face.

  “Father,” I began as I glanced out at the flashing lights, “will you tell us another story?”

  Father scooted closer and wrapped his arm around me, stroking my long brown hair. “I presume you want to hear another story about the legend of Sanshli?” Rik and I nodded our heads in unison, making our father laugh. He pulled out his pocket watch to check how late it had gotten. “Okay, I guess I can tell you one more story before you two need to go to sleep.”

  Rik climbed in bed next to me and our identical green eyes shone innocently as we eagerly waited for our father to start the story.

  “A long time ago, there was a planet full of people that looked just like you and me,” he began, stretching out his arm for dramatic effect.

  “But they weren’t like us, were they father?” my brother stated the obvious. I rolled my eyes at him. He always had to interrupt the story with obvious remarks.

  Father just smiled. “No Rik, they weren’t. They were special. Each person had a different power. Some could read minds, others could control different elements. But of them all, the most powerful were the illusionists. These illusionists could control anything they wanted, from the elements to the stars themselves. They could perform spells and, if enough of them came together, they could be unstoppable.

  “Then one day, the rest of the people decided they’d had enough of the illusionists and their spells. A war broke out. Even though the illusionists were more powerful than the rest of the Sanshlians, there weren’t as many of them and they were defeated. The others burned their spell books and left them powerless. The only things they could do were small illusions, like little magic tricks. All of the people looked at them with disgrace and the citizens banished them from the cities. The illusionists traveled around their planet putting on shows for those who wanted to see the simple tricks they could still perform.

  “Then, hundreds of years later, one of the illusionists by the name of Nygard found an old book in a cave. He brought it back to his small camp and found out it was one of the old spell books that were supposedly destroyed centuries earlier. He and his wife Violet got into a big argument as to what to do with the book. She wanted to destroy it and he wanted to use it to become powerful like their ancestors once were. He felt betrayed by her. Do you know what happened next?”

  “Nygard became powerful like the old illusionists!” I blurted out. Father chuckled and rubbed the top of my head.

  “Yes Arcadia, he became powerful. Very powerful. In fact, he became immortal. People feared him, even his wife Violet. She ran away and hid their daughter because she knew once her daughter became old enough, she would be the only one powerful enough to stop him. This angered him even more and that made his power grow, causing him to become unstoppable.

  “The people tried to defeat him but it was no use. He killed his fellow illusionists with his wrath and the whole planet turned into chaos. Some even tried to flee the planet, but they didn’t get far before Nygard found them and killed them too. He took over the First Republic and made it into the New Empire, declaring himself the Emperor.

  “It took many years for Violet to find the right spell to stop him. She tricked him into coming back to Sanshli and she cast her spell at last. Using a magical sword, she stabbed him through the heart, trapping him in statuesque form forever. All the chaos had finally come to an end.”

  Rik jumped up on the bed as Father finished. “But that’s not the end of the story, is it?”

  Father leaned in closer to us and whispered. “No. Now legend has it, that whoever finds Sanshli and takes the sword out of Nygard’s statue can change the past and make what was once wrong right again.”

  Rik jumped up and down on my bed, talking about how one day he was going to find Sanshli and save the universe. I lay there, a thought running through my mind.

  “What happened to the little girl?” I asked.

  Father looked at me with bewilderment. Neither of us had ever asked about her, at least that I could remember. I don’t know why I never thought to ask before that moment. “No one knows. It remains a mystery to this day,” he stroked my cheek. “I think she is still in hiding so that one day she will finish the story.”

  Our father stood up, stretching his aging limbs. He worked as a farmer, harvesting fruits from our orchard and selling them at a shop in town. Rik, who was three years older than I, helped Father work in the orchard. I still wasn’t old enough, being only six. Instead I stayed in the house, keeping it clean and making some of the meals as I waited anxiously for them to return home each day. Father’s friend John would come by on some days and watch me, but most days I was alone. I didn’t mind; I always found something to do.

  Father pulled out two keys, each hanging from a separate string, out of his coat pocket and enclosed them in our hands. “I want you two to have these and keep them safe.”

  I examined the key closely. Nothing seemed special about it; it was just an old key. “What are these for Father?”

  “They are for the future, Arcadia. Promise me you will keep them safe,” he kissed me on the forehead and then did the same to Rik’s. “Now, go to sleep you two.”

  We nodded as Fath
er blew out the candles next to our bed and shut us in our room for the night. Rik climbed into his own bed and glanced out the window. We both knew we wouldn’t be sleeping much that night, not with the war slowly engulfing the planet.

  Our planet, Garvner, stood no chance against the Pandronan Empire in this war. The planet was once independent of the Empire, held together by treaties and trading contracts. But they wanted more. They wanted control over everything we did and they would have that control soon. Our father assured us that everything would turn out for the best but we knew deep-down things were going to change, that we all had a hard road ahead of us. So that is why he told us stories of Sanshli, to get our minds off the war that was happening all around us and to have hope that someone could change everything.

  Father loved his stories about Sanshli. Rik and I both knew he dreamt one day he would find the planet Sanshli and be able to change history so that the Pandronan Empire never came into existence. He wished for the Second Republic to still reign as it did so many years ago. But being a poor farmer and father, he knew that he couldn’t run off to find some legend. He had to provide for both Rik and me, especially after our mother died. So he filled our heads with the legends and hoped that one day we would find it for him.

  Hours passed as we lay in our beds trying to sleep with sounds of gunfire thundering through the city. It sounded like it kept getting louder and louder. Darkness still filled the skies when Father raced into our rooms.

  “Arcadia, Rik, wake up!” He pulled us up out of our beds. I rubbed my eyes and looked up at my grin-less father. I had never seen him so serious and at that moment I knew our lives would never be the same. The sound grew with time, each explosion shaking our windows. He grabbed the keys he had given us and stuffed them into our hands.

  “Don’t lose these, please,” he whispered, more to himself than to us.

  “Father, what is it?” I asked as we headed down the wooden stairs.

  “The war has made it through the city and into the forest. I hoped it wouldn’t come this far but I am afraid they have found us. We must go.”

  He rushed us towards the backdoor that led into our cherry orchard. The crisp spring night air filled my lungs and I watched as the pink blossoms danced in the wind like snow on a winter’s day. I always loved to admire their beauty, but now I didn’t have the time. Now fear captured my heart as I looked out at the dark abyss that lay ahead of me.

  “John is waiting for us on the other side of the orchard.” He knelt down next to me and handed me his pocket watch. “Arcadia, I want you to have this. Keep it with you at all times. Never forget everything I have told you. Rik is going to lead you to Uncle John and I will be right behind you. Now go,” he said as he hurried us outside.

  The three of us ran through the orchard, Rik in front of me and Father a few meters behind, keeping an eye on the Imperials that were now bombarding our home. We could hear shouts of men ordering the house and everything around it to be searched. Voices began to present themselves all around us. I inhaled deeply, trying to catch my breath as I ran harder and harder. The only thing that kept me going was knowing how badly Father insisted that I run for my life. I glanced behind my back to make sure he still followed. He did.

  The sound of gunfire echoed through the orchard, bouncing off tree after tree. Shadows loomed over us and my imagination started to get the better of me. The images looked like the monsters of all the bedtime stories Father had told us. I felt tears begin to form in my eyes as I followed my brother along what seemed like a never-ending trail. I didn’t remember the orchard being so big until that day. I watched as the bullets appeared like ghosts, raining upon objects around me; branches, roots, grass, but never me. They scattered in all directions. That’s when my worst fear happened. I heard my father let out an agonizing shout of pain. I turned back to find him collapsed on the ground.

  “Father!” I called out as I hurried to his side and watched a flood of red liquid soak his shirt around the wound.

  “Arcadia, leave me, go! Get out of here!” he tried to wave me to go.

  “No, I can’t leave you Father, I don’t want to leave you.” I felt tears run down my face.

  “We will see each other in another life, dear daughter. Please, follow Rik and go. Remember everything that I have taught you.” he coughed and clenched my hand for the last time. “Don’t forget I love you.”

  I nodded. “I love you too, Father. I will never forget.”

  Standing up, I started after my brother, but it was too late. I felt someone grab me. In the surprise of the moment, I dropped the key. I tried to grab for it but it was too late. I still clutched the pocket watch in my hand. I screamed and kicked but it was no use. I could see Rik coming back for me but I shook my head.

  “Rik, run!” I shrieked.

  Stopping for a moment and examining the trouble I had gotten into, he finally turned around and kept running.

  A guard checked over my Father’s body. “Yes, this is Ben Archer, the resistance leader that the men revealed to us. You two, go after that boy, he is probably his son. We have his daughter.”

  A couple of the men chased after Rik into the darkness as I struggled with the soldier that carried me off towards the city.

  Chapter 1

  Present Day

  I slammed my fist into the bag that hung before me. Sweat dripped off my face and soaked my dark brown hair as I struck at it again and again. My hands and feet felt hot with every hit I made. I didn’t like letting myself go while traveling on a ship so I made sure to keep up some sort of rigorous fighting exercise. Nothing less would be expected of me, not by my Emperor. That, to me, was all that mattered.

  Punching the bag, I let scenes from the last mission flash through my mind. A mission on the crime-infested, businessman-ruled Recar, a planet I found myself on more often than not. Not that I complained. A job was a job and, as usual, it involved my specialty of causing chaos for any resistance movement that stood in the way of the Pandronan Empire.

  I’ve executed thousands of men under the Emperor’s orders and caused pain to thousands more. Some considered me like a creature from a nightmare, coming in and out from the shadows like a monster. Then again, I tried not to listen to what people said about me. They just exaggerated the stories to make me seem fictitious. If they only knew the truth behind the simple stories they heard.

  I sensed something move behind me. Without hesitation I spun around, grabbed the man that stood there and wrapped my arm around his neck. The poor officer never saw it coming. He didn’t even resist, knowing I could snap his neck with just a little more pressure.

  Realizing I overreacted to the situation, I released the officer. “You shouldn’t sneak up behind me like that.”

  He rubbed his now sore throat. “I’m sorry, ma’am, it won’t happen again,” he straightened up to a more proper posture. “I was ordered to tell you we are landing on Anosira soon. We should be in the capital in less than two hours’ time.”

  I nodded. “Thank you for keeping me informed; you are dismissed.”

  The man saluted and then left. I thought of how he must have drawn the short straw to come to inform me. None of the soldiers liked coming near me unless ordered. The rest of the men probably will give him a hard time for a while.

  I moved back to the bag, punching it one last time. The fabric tore at the impact and the sand came pouring out of it. Leaving it for someone else to clean up, I grabbed my things and left for my quarters to freshen up before I reported to the Emperor himself.

  Men saluted me as I passed them in the corridors of the ship. I nodded to each one of them, not caring whether they saluted or not in return. I hated being recognized as a superior officer by men who didn’t know who I was, just that I was someone important. I tried to remember it was their duty and not to let it bother me.

  The Class Three ship I found myself on was one owned by Sir Lain Colate, the representative of Katemm, a planet in the Maltar system. Most of the of
ficers on board were from his own security detail and the rest were from New Capital City, sent by Emperor Neil Valym to make sure the representative’s journey was safe. The ship stopped by Recar, the other planet in the Maltar system.

  I would have flown myself but the Emperor didn’t trust me. He thought I would try to make any detours necessary so I wouldn’t arrive at Anosira when he wanted me to. Now knowing why he wanted me back so soon, I probably would have. The Emperor needed me back for the Representative’s Ball that was to be held that evening. If I had known before coming on the ship, I would have made any excuse to stay on Recar. Any excuse. I didn’t though and now here I was, just where the Emperor wanted me.

  As I came around a corner of the corridor, I caught a glimpse of Sir Colate. I quickly let myself wince before I turned my lips into a polite smile, as was ordered of me.

  “Sir,” I slightly bowed.

  “Ah, Miss Ryetirf,” he glanced nervously down the corridor to make sure some of his men were still present. “How are my men treating you?”

  “Fine,” I answered.

  We stood there in awkward silence. Lain kept looking around, fidgeting with his expensive suit. I kept up my smile.

  “Well then, I guess I will leave you to wherever you were heading. Good day,” he rushed away from where I stood.

  I let out a long suppressed sigh. I hated being a guest on a ship, especially one that held a representative of Imperial rule. If I ran into one of them on the ship, I was obligated to perform small talk. It was something the Emperor swore me to do, to make sure the representative felt comfortable. So I tried to stay away from them as best as I could, not that the representative wanted to talk to me anyways. They always felt as if I was going to execute them on the spot. As if I would waste time to perform small talk before executing someone.

  Making it to my quarters at last, I let the door shut behind me as I threw my things on the bed. I took a gander at yet another ship’s quarters I found myself in. They were all the same: grey, bleak, and small. Not that it mattered much to me; I was always on the move, executing another wish of the Emperor. I never found myself staying anywhere permanently and I learned to live with that. It was the only way I could keep myself sane.