Nica's Legacy (Hearts of ICARUS Book 1) Read online

  Nica’s Legacy

  The Hearts of ICARUS Book One

  by

  Laura Jo Phillips

  Copyright © 2014 by Kathleen Honsinger

  Cover art/design Copyright © 2014 by Kathleen Honsinger

  All rights reserved.

  DEDICATION

  For my family.

  I love all of you, and appreciate each of you every single day.

  And, as always, for Mom, Grandma, and Great-Grandma---Thank you all for the creativity you passed along to me, as well as the heart to do something with it. There is a little bit of each of you in these books, just as there is a little bit of each of you in me

  Look for previews and coming release announcements at:

  Website:

  www.laurajophillips.com

  Facebook:

  facebook.com/laurajophillipsauthor

  Other Books by Laura Jo Phillips

  The Dracons’ Woman

  Book One of the Soul-Linked Saga

  The Lobos’ HeartSong

  Book Two of the Soul-Linked Saga

  The Katres’ Summer

  Book Three of the Soul-Linked Saga

  The Bearens’ Hope

  Book Four of the Soul-Linked Saga

  The Gryphon’s Dream

  Book Five of the Soul-Linked Saga

  The Vulpiran’s Honor

  Book Six of the Soul-Linked Saga

  The Falcorans’ Faith

  Book Seven of the Soul-Linked Saga

  The Tigrens’ Glory

  Book Eight of the Soul-Linked Saga

  Quest for the Moon Orb

  The Orbs of Rathira, Book One

  Quest for the Sun Orb

  The Orbs of Rathira, Book Two

  Quest for the Heart Orb

  The Orbs of Rathira, Book Three

  Secrets Kept

  Mixed Blood, Book One

  (Available under the name Kathleen Honsinger)

  Secrets Told

  Mixed Blood, Book Two

  Books by Harvey Phillips and Paul Honsinger

  To Honor You Call Us

  Man of War, Book One

  For Honor We Stand

  Man of War, Book Two

  Visit the home of the Soul-Linked Saga online at:

  www.laurajophillips.com

  or email Laura Jo at:

  [email protected]

  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

  Epilogue

  Eibhleann is pronounced Ayv-lynn

  Luagh is pronounced Luff

  Prologue

  Queen Eibhleann, Ruler of the Tuatha De for uncounted millennia, sat upon a throne of light, her oval, lemon colored eyes revealing nothing of her inner turmoil. The eighty-two members of the Seelie Court, all that remained of her people, gathered around her in the bough covered clearing at the heart of the Shining Isle, but she was barely aware of them. For the third time she carefully went over the day’s events in her mind, struggling to understand.

  First the spider people, the Xanti, had come, demanding that she use her power for their purposes. She’d politely declined, refraining from destroying them for their impertinence only because she hadn’t foreseen any of the events that followed. Not the Xanti’s first bomb that had inadvertently freed a Changeling from the Unseelie realm. Not the direct hit that the Udari had taken, causing devastating damage. And worst of all, not the unprecedented corruption of the protective barrier that surrounded her primary domain, the Shining Isle. The barrier that she’d thrown up in a failed attempt to prevent the escaped Changeling from leaving the island had been transformed into a wall that she could not break through, or remove. The Shining Isle, her sanctuary, had become a prison holding all of her people. A prison that would remain as such, frozen in time and place, until the Udari was repaired, a task she could not perform from behind the wall.

  How was it possible that she’d foreseen none of it? It made no sense.

  The only thing she’d done right was to place a protective shield around the human’s continent, Galia, to protect them from the Xanti. She hadn’t done it because she sensed trouble, though. She’d done it as a precaution, almost without thought, because she’d sworn long ago to protect them at all costs. She’d failed them once. Horribly so. She would not allow herself to fail them again.

  But the question remained. Why had her foresight not warned her that the spider people would attack? Or how destructive their attack would be?

  Finding no answers in her review of recent events, Queen Eibhleann rose and walked across the velvety carpet of new grass, effortlessly avoiding the tiny blue and green sprites that flitted around her bare feet. Her inky black hair flowed across the grass behind her like a bridal train as she strode to the edge of the clearing, where she stopped to kneel before a granite basin set below a trickling spring of clear water. Gazing at the blue sky reflected on the water’s surface, she raised one slender hand and slowly drew it across the water from one end to the other, then waited for the ripples to calm. Even though none of her fellow Tuatha De could possibly see what she saw, they averted their eyes anyway.

  Eibhleann stared into the water intently for several long minutes, then drew her hand across the surface again before rising. She returned to her throne, her eyes distant as she considered all that she had seen.

  “Mother?” Duhan asked worriedly.

  “I did not foresee the events triggered by the spider people because they’ve caused a tear in the natural order.”

  “Such a thing is not possible,” Duhan said, his eyes, a shade darker than her own, showing nothing of his inner shock.

  “No, my Son, it is not,” Eibhleann agreed. “And yet, that is what they’ve done. The Xanti are an aberration. They were never meant to venture beyond their own world, let alone leave their own galaxy.”

  “Then how did they?”

  “I cannot see that,” Eibhleann said, a crease in her brow revealing how troubled she was by that. “What I do see is that everything they touch becomes…chaotic.”

  “Can you see how to break through the barrier?” Duhan asked. “Or are we to spend eternity trapped here, on this island?”

  Eibhleann raised a slanted brow at this unseemly outburst and Duhan bowed his head contritely. She relented.

  “I must change the past.”

  Duhan paled, as did most of the other Tuatha De. Some even gasped aloud. “What good will change do in a realm of chaos?”

  “Even in chaos there are events that are immutable,” Eibhleann said. “One of those events is the escape of the Changeling from the Unseelie realm. He has fled Apedra by hiding within one of the Xanti who attempted to enter Galia, but he will one day return to Apedra. When he does, he will play a major role in our future.”

  “What role, Mother?” Duhan asked, voicing the question the rest of the Seelie Court wanted an answer to, but dared not ask.

  “How he returns, what role he plays, and the outcome, are all chaotic,” Eibhleann replied, her eyes unfocused. “He may be the key to our freedom, or he may murder every single human who lives on Apedra. One at a time.”

  Duhan’s eyes widened in horror and a shocked murmur filled the clearing. Most of the Tuatha De had descendants among the humans of Galia. It didn’t matter to them tha
t the humans were unaware of the connection. Or that all but a small handful of humans were unaware of the Tuatha De altogether. None of that changed the fact that those humans were descendants of the only offspring any of them would ever have, and they cared very much what happened to them.

  Eibhleann raised a calming hand. “All is not yet lost,” she said. “But it will be if I do not take this chance.”

  “What changes will you make?” Duhan asked.

  “It is best that I not say, specifically, but I will say that I must go very far back for the first one,” Eibhleann said. “I can touch nothing that involves the Xanti, or that the Xanti have touched, yet it must be something specific to our plight. That leaves just one small possibility.”

  “Will the change you make result in our freedom?”

  “It will result in the possibility of freedom,” Eibhleann said. “It is not much, I know, but it’s the only chance there is, and we must take it.”

  Duhan bowed low in acknowledgment and acceptance. “Please tell us, my Queen, how we may aid you.”

  “The wall has trapped not only us, but the power that existed here before it went up,” she said. “But if the Xanti return, or there is a break in the flow of power before I’m finished, there will be no further chances for us.”

  “Then we shall create a circle of power around you that cannot be broken,” Duhan said. At his command, all of the members of the Seelie Court gathered around their queen, and joined hands. Eibhleann closed her eyes and sent her thoughts to a distant past, where the tiniest seed of hope for their future lay.

  Eibhleann stood in a sacred oak grove, surrounded by the Seelie Court and the remnants of the Druids, offspring of Tuatha De and humans born with the spark of magic within them. Though her face was arranged in an expression of calm, her heart was shattered by the events of the past few days.

  “Filia, are you certain you wish to remain here?” she asked the young woman standing stiffly with her shoulders back and chin up, tears flowing unchecked from her turquoise eyes.

  “I must, Queen Eibhleann,” Filia replied. “I am sworn to aid my fellow man, and I cannot fulfill that vow if I do not remain.” She bowed her head, causing her long blonde hair to fall forward, hiding her face. “Besides, the souls of my children are now bound to this world. I will not leave them.”

  Eibhleann did not attempt to convince Filia to change her mind, did not remind her that every surviving Druid had lost loved ones during these past few days of darkness. She wanted to, very much, but she knew that Filia’s destiny lay here, on Earth. “You must never claim the title of Druid again, Filia,” she warned. “To do so would be a death sentence for you, and all who know you. The Druids and the Tuatha De must fade into legend.”

  “I understand,” Filia said. “I shall always remain true to all that it means to be Druid, and all you have taught me. But once you leave, never again shall the word Druid pass my lips.”

  A light breeze carried the scent of the funeral pyres into the clearing, and Eibhleann nearly sighed out loud, something she’d never done in all the eons of her life. There’d been so much violence, fueled by jealousy and hate. So much blood. So much death. So much heartbreak and sadness for Tuatha De and human alike. All senseless. All needless. She wished she’d foreseen it, but while she could foresee danger for the Tuatha De, she could not foresee human events without scrying.

  Something in that last thought caused her head to swim dizzily for a moment. She raised one hand halfway to her head, then lowered it, aware that the movement had captured everyone’s attention. She blinked slowly as new knowledge entered her mind. She was uncertain where it had come from, but she instinctively trusted it, and she never questioned her own instincts. It was because of those instincts that she and the Seelie Court still lived while the remainder of the Tuatha De, and their home world, Danu, had perished.

  She waved one hand slightly to dispel the smell of the pyres, then reached into a pocket concealed inside her cloak. She removed several small objects, stared at them for a moment, then selected one and put the others away. She clenched her fist around the object she’d chosen and began whispering softly in a language so old that only a few of her fellow Tuatha De understood it. When she opened her hand again, a simple gold ring set with an oval green stone rested on her palm.

  She held the ring out to Filia, who stared at it in awe. The stone was the size of her thumbnail, and so flawlessly clear that she could see straight through it. But the most astounding thing about it was a tiny spark of light deep in its center that caused it to glow, even in the light of day.

  “I could not accept such a gift, Queen Eibhleann,” she said breathlessly.

  “This is not a gift, Filia, it is a burden that I ask you and your daughters to bear on behalf of the Tuatha De. In a future so distant that even I can barely see it, a daughter of your line will find the one to whom this ring must be given. Until that day comes, your line must guard it, protect it, and pass it from daughter to daughter. I ask that you swear, on behalf of all who will carry your blood in their veins, that this will be done.”

  “I so swear, Queen Eibhleann,” Filia said without hesitation, then blanched as a thought occurred to her. “What if the ring is broken, or lost, or stolen? How can I ensure its future when I am no longer alive to guard it myself?”

  “This ring is protected, Filia,” Eibhleann assured her. “It can never be stolen, nor broken, nor altered in any way. Trust me in this.”

  “I trust you in all things, Queen Eibhleann,” Filia said. She held out her hand and accepted the ring. With trembling hands she slipped it onto her own finger, then clenched her fist as though to prevent it from slipping off. “I will miss you, Queen Eibhleann, and all of the Tuatha De, as well as my fellow Druids. I am grateful for all you have taught me.”

  Filia’s eyes strayed to the group of humans waiting behind Queen Eibhleann. They were all that remained alive from the Druid village, save herself. But she had already said her goodbyes to them, so she closed her eyes and bowed to the Queen of the Tuatha De one final time.

  Eibhleann raised her head and looked around at her people. Their faces were calm, but she could feel their tension as though it were her own. “It is done,” she said. She rose to her feet and went to the scrying basin. “Now let us see what can be seen.” This time the silence was filled with hope as Eibhleann waved her hand across the surface of the water. When she dispelled the vision a few minutes later, she stood up slowly and returned to her throne.

  “One who is not of our blood will come,” she proclaimed. “She will be fully human and outwardly frail, but with a bright and shining soul. Of all beings in the universe, only she will have a chance of healing Udari.”

  “What is the bad news?” Duhan asked, seeing the worry behind his mother’s eyes.

  “The bad news, my Son, is that her life will also be touched by the spider people’s chaos. It’s impossible to determine if what I see is a result of that chaos, or if what I see now will be altered because of the chaos.”

  “Is there anything else we can do to insure our future, Mother?”

  “Not now, Duhan,” Eibhleann replied. “Further tampering will only make things less stable than they already are. In time, I may be able to do more, but for now, we can only wait.”

  Chapter 1

  Monica Jean Vinia, Nica to all who knew her, sat before the Academy Director’s desk, her back straight, feet together, eyes straight ahead, hands folded neatly in her lap. She had no idea why she’d been summoned to General Christoff’s office, and she was actually a little curious about it. In an effort to pass the time while waiting, she tried to remember the last time she’d felt curious about anything, but couldn’t.

  A door whispered open behind her and the tall, lean figure of General Padriac Christoff entered the office. A gruff, no-nonsense man with short, iron gray hair and a bio-tronic left leg and arm, Christoff had fought in more wars across the Thousand Worlds than most people could name. Retired
from active duty, Christoff had served as the ICARUS Academy’s Director for three years now, and he took his job, and the ICARUS charter, very seriously.

  Nica started to rise, but he waved at her to remain seated as he walked behind his desk and took his own chair. Nica watched him, her stomach fluttering nervously as she took in the expression on his face. He wasn’t angry, but he wasn’t happy, either. She had no idea what she’d done to upset him, but it was clear that she was about to find out.

  “Cadet Vinia, I’ve been informed that you have a psychic talent,” General Christoff began, getting straight to the point as was his way.

  Nica blinked in surprise, but otherwise did not react. As the general appeared to be waiting for a response, she gave him one. “I did, once, Sir.”