The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume I: Volume I

from the current war with SeLenicca.
    He walked on. The tangle of alleys opened to a market square. In the center stood a proud Equinox Pylon decorated with the first greens and flowers of the season. As soon as the sun topped the horizon, citizens would be dancing and singing a welcome to spring. The celebration and fertility rituals would go on all day and well into the night. He should be with Mikka.
    The wind shifted once again, and new odors assaulted the king. Death.
    Recent death. And not a clean one. The hair on the back of his neck rose in preternatural fear. He cast about him for the source of danger, left hand reaching automatically to the short sword on his hip.
    “S’murgh it!” he cursed as an aching burn snaked up his arm and his hand grasped nothing. “I’ll never learn to fight right-handed.” With a conscious thought he grasped his weapon with his undamaged hand.
    “What is it, Your Grace?” Fred appeared at his left elbow, ready to guard his vulnerable side. Then he wrinkled his nose.
    A flicker of movement by the Pylon drew their attention. No one stood near the focus of celebration, but an ugly brown nest of twigs at the base crackled with new fire. Atop the fuel lay the gutted body of a cat, intestines and blood feeding the growing flames.
    Fred dashed forward to stamp out the fire before it spread to the Pylon and spring decorations.
    “Who would sacrifice a cat?” Darville asked the air. Painful memories of Krej and his coven sacrificing the body of one particular cat came to mind. Thanks to their efforts, there was no feline body to receive the alien spirit sharing Mikka’s human form.
    He’d heard about ritual slaughter of livestock around the country. This was the first report of the carcass being found at a Pylon. The action brought back childhood horror stories of the days before the Stargods when Simurgh, the winged god of death, had reigned throughout Kardia Hodos.
    Krej’s old coven had worked to restore that bloodthirsty religion. They’d had three years to restore their numbers after the death of Janessa, Krej’s mother, and Janataea, his sister. Krej himself had been locked into the tin statue of a weasel. And Zolltarn had deserted their ranks for the Commune. Had Krej broken free and restored the coven?
    Had a cat been sacrificed this time because they were the symbol of a witch’s familiar and fearful citizens targeted the poor animals? Maybe a malcontent chose a beloved pet to stir up fear of witches.
    Or had the coven sent a warning that they knew Mikka harbored the spirit of a cat in her human body? If that knowledge leaked to anyone, Mikka would be named witch and exiled or executed. He didn’t know if he had enough authority to save her.
    “Looks like the work of the coven. I heard there was a village up north that found a sacrificed child by their Pylon at the last Solstice.”
    “Unconfirmed rumors,” Darville said sharply, breathing through his mouth to reduce the stench. “I have to have hard evidence to confirm or refute these stories of human sacrifice. Remind me when we get back to the city. I’ll have to send out a trusted agent.”
    “We’d best hide this before anyone else sees it and panics,” Fred suggested. “The coven would love to involve you in suspicion of witchcraft, so’s the Gnuls would depose you or start a new civil war.”
    “I wouldn’t put it past the Gnostic Utilitarians to plant this fake sacrifice so I would lead a witch-hunt. When we get back to the capital, I’ll find a spy to infiltrate that group, too.” Darville found a sturdy branch among those gathered for the bonfire that would be lit at midnight.
    Together the two men scooped up as much of the grisly evidence as they could. “Throw it into the river, Fred. And not a word of this to anyone.”
    “Evil rumors have a way of starting without evidence.”
    “Rumors that must be squashed before they become fact. I’ll not fall victim to the plots of either the coven or the Gnuls. I have had enough of my citizens becoming vicious, prying spies. Those lavish rewards granted to informers by the Gnuls must stop. People invent evidence of magic against their neighbors, family, and business rivals for money.” And courtiers followed Queen Rossemikka, hoping she’d betray her rumored magic talent. Was that why the Council pushed him daily to put aside his queen?
    Darville set his jaw in determination. No one would make him set aside his wife. Not even Mikka