“I could have taken them, no problem,” Vocho said, leaning against the cool throbbing blue glass of an upmarket tailor’s. “What does imbècil mean?”
Cospel hesitated, and his eyebrows didn’t know where to look. “Sort of… renowned. Infamous? Yes, that’s it.” His Ikaran was far better than either Vocho’s or Kass’s, though none of them was fluent yet.
“Renowned? Are you sure?” The way the lumberers had said it, Vocho wasn’t so certain.
“Er, yes. Pretty sure. Anyway, look what I got.” Cospel held up a clinking bag. “Once Dom got started, it was easy to pick up all the winnings.”
Vocho took a look in the bag. Not bad for a night’s work. “Cospel, have I ever told you that you’re a marvel?”
“No, but you can say it again if you like, preferably in cold hard cash.”
They made their way through the pulsing lights of the foreign city to the cramped rooms above a cobbler’s that were their current home. Kass was unnaturally quiet all the way, and Vocho got the feeling it wasn’t just because she was wearing a dress and sulking about it.
“Two things,” she said when they got home and Vocho broached the subject. “One, how did Dom know where we were? Two, if he knows, who else does, and do they want to kill us?”
introducing
If you enjoyed
SWORDS AND SCOUNDRELS,
look out for
SKYBORN
Seraphim: Book 1
by David Dalglish
The last remnants of humanity live on six islands floating high above the Endless Ocean, fighting a brutal civil war in the skies. The seraphim, elite soldiers trained for aerial combat, battle one another while wielding elements of ice, fire, and lightning.
The lives of their parents claimed in combat, twins Kael and Breanna Skyborn enter the seraphim academy to follow in their footsteps. There they will learn to harness the elements as weapons and fight at breakneck speeds while soaring high above the waters. But they must learn quickly, for a nearby island has set its hungry eyes upon their home. When the invasion comes, the twins must don their wings and ready their blades to save those they love from annihilation.
PROLOGUE
Breanna Skyborn sat at the edge of her world, watching the clouds drift beneath her dangling feet.
“Bree?”
Kael’s voice sounded obscenely loud in the twilight quiet. She turned to see her twin brother standing at the stone barricade that marked the end of the road.
“Over here,” she said.
The barricade reached up to Kael’s waist, and after a moment’s hesitation, he climbed over, leaving behind smoothly worn cobbles for short grass and soft dirt. Beyond the barricade, there was nothing else. No buildings. No streets. No homes. Just a stretch of unused earth, and then beyond that… the edge. It was for that reason Bree loved it, and her brother hated it.
“We’re not allowed to be this close,” he said as he approached, each step smaller than the last. “If Aunt Bethy saw…”
“Aunt Bethy won’t come within twenty feet of the barricade and you know it.”
Wind blew against her, and she pulled her dark hair back from her face as she smirked at her brother. His pale skin had taken on a golden hue from the fading sunlight, the wind teasing his much shorter hair. The gust made him stop, and she worried he’d decide to leave her there.
“You’re not afraid, are you?” she asked.
That was enough to push him on. Kael joined her at the edge of their island. When he sat, he sat cross-legged, and unlike her, he did not let his legs dangle off the side.
“Just for a little while,” he said. “We should be home when the battle starts.”
Bree turned away, and she peered over the edge of the island. Below, lazily floating along, were dozens of puffy clouds painted orange by the setting sun. Through their gaps she saw the tumultuous Endless Ocean, its movement only hinted at by the faintest of dark lines. Again the wind blew, and she pretended that she rode upon the wind, flying just like her parents.
“So why are we out here?” Kael asked, interrupting the silence.
“I was hoping to see the stars.”
“Is that it? We’re just here to waste our time?”
Bree glared at him.
“You’ve seen the drawings in Teacher Gruden’s books. The stars are beautiful. I was hoping that out here, away from the lanterns, maybe I could see one or two before…”
She fell silent. Kael let out a sigh.
“Is that really why you’re out here?”
It wasn’t, not fully, but she didn’t feel comfortable discussing the other reason. Hours ago