Page 1 of Poisoned Empire

Prologue

I’mnotfastenough.

Nadia’s heart was sick at the thought. Babe cradled in one arm while the other hand gripped little Sylvester’s, she ran through the marble halls of a palace in flames. Still the child-devouring beast pursued her. Her baby wailed, jostled by the pace, while the tortured cries of soldiers rang out through the halls. Ashes of a thousand smoking tapestries choked her. The stench of burning flesh announced the grim tally of the dead and wounded. Neither she nor her child would have the strength to run for much longer. Even now she pulled on reserves she didn’t know she possessed, just to keep him from falling onto the blood-slick mosaic floors.

“Empress! Follow me!”

Nadia turned her head to see the young man she had recently selected to be her babe’s guard. Marduk was no more than a boy himself. She immediately turned to follow him, his dark, leathery wings and sharp horns a welcome sight. But her relief had slowed her. Already the beast was upon her, the heat like a dragon’s breath on her skin. Her palms were slick with sweat. This time when Sylvester tripped on the mosaic floors, his hand slid from hers. She was already steps away from him when she skidded to a stop. Before she could rush back to his side, Marduk grabbed her by the waist to drag her away.

A ring of flames trapped her boy. His screams tore the breath from her as his terrified hazel eyes vanished in a blaze of unbearable heat. Marduk pulled her resolutely, and she found she didn’t have the strength to resist him. He towed her along by her hand, his claws piercing her flesh.

Eudocia had been found first, her flesh cold to the touch, her sweet girl only just reaching her teenage years this past spring. As if hunting her babies like a sick countdown, the beast had taken Cyril next, just before the alarm could be raised. The twins, Xanthippe and Viktor, had died despite a heavy guard. Still the beast’s bloodlust had not been quenched. Even now, although it had torn Sylvester from her, it still coveted the very last of her children; her baby, Belisarius.

“In here, Empress!” Marduk pulled her through a heavy door to a storeroom, throwing it shut behind them.

She felt nearly outside herself as she watched the young, winged boy trying to fit himself through the opening of the small window. Thwarted, he ran towards the second exit to a set of servant’s stairwells. He threw himself against the doorway, but it wouldn’t budge.

“The escape is blocked. We must prevent him from entering.” Marduk looked to her, calm but resolute. “Can you make something sturdy to keep the door in place? We only need to hold out a little longer before the knights arrive.”

“I… Yes, I will try.”

Nadia’s hand shook as she placed it against the door. There was nothing living within the room but the three of them. She gave her crying baby to Marduk and used her bloodied hand to paint a line on the floor. Power flowed from her, and thick brambles rose up from her blood, engulfing the door as they grew. Vines had almost covered it when the plants stopped in their tracks.

“You cannot stop, Empress!”

“Something has happened! I cannot make it grow any further!”

Panic made her frenzied. She poured as much of her magic into the plants as she could, but they grew in fits and starts. All the while her baby wailed. Suddenly, an awful heat enveloped the room. Marduk pulled her from the door.

“Take him.” He handed her the baby then unsheathed his short sword, positioning himself between her and the beast at the door.

For a moment the heat seemed to disappear. Then it returned tenfold. Marduk gasped before turning himself towards her and throwing his body over hers, his wings outstretched to envelop her and the baby. Nadia heard the explosion and felt the searing heat in tandem. Marduk’s screams of agony rang in her ears. When she opened her eyes to the horror, she could see through the enormous, sizzling holes in his wings. His body slid from hers and fell to the floor, bloody and charred.

Nadia met the beast’s eyes—eyes as red as rubies and as cold as a winter storm. Eyes she knew too well.

“Hello, Mother.”

Chapter 1

Peoplewerescum.

It was the rule that only proved truer the longer Selene lived. It was a fact she exploited to pay her way in the world. It was the mantra she would chant to herself at night when the faces of her clients—battered, desperate, hopeless—haunted her.

Still, there was one person who was exempt from that rule—Iliana.

“What have you put in your porridge?” Iliana wrinkled her nose.

Selene smiled at her companion. The simple wooden stool scrapped across the warped boards of the floor as she pulled up a seat across from her.

“Never mind. I’m not sure I want to know.” Iliana leaned away, grimacing.

“It’s a very rare neurotoxin I ordered months ago from the Emerald Province. First, it—”

“No, we talked about this. No more gory descriptions at the dining table.”

Selene shrugged her shoulders and downed her porridge. The benefits of being a poison mage were extensive. She could conjure any poison she’d ever touched, tasted, been stung by or otherwise introduced into her body. The best part was that it would never truly harm her. The worst was that the first time around she would suffer through a very mild version of the toxin for a short while. Well, that and social stigma, but she had long ago stopped caring for the opinions of anyone not named Iliana.

“Crap—paralytic!” was all she managed to say before her body tensed up, her spoon frozen in mid-air.

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