Jennifer Fallon - The Immortal Prince (The Tide Lords Quartet)

Tor Books by Jennifer Fallon

THE HYTHRUN CHRONICLES

The Demon Child Trilogy

Medalon (Book One)

Treason Keep (Book Two)

Harshini (Book Three)

The Wolfblade Trilogy

Wolf blade (Book One)

Warrior (Book Two)

Warlord (Book Three)

The

IMMORTAL

PRINCE

JENNIFER FALLON

A Tom Doherty Associates Book

New York

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

Tide Lords 01 - Immortal Prince

Copyright 2007 by

Jennifer Fallon

Originally published in 2007 by Voyager, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers, Australia.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.

Maps by Russell Kirkpatrick

A Tor Book

Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

175 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10010

www.tor-forge.com

Tor is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Fallon, Jennifer. The immortal prince /Jennifer Fallon.-1st ed.

p. cm. - (Tide Lords; bk. 1) "A Tom Doherty Associates book." ISBN-13: 978-0-7653-1682-0 ISBN-10: 0-7653-1682-X I. Title. PR9619.4.F35I66 2008

823'.92--dc22

2008005174

First U.S. Edition: May 2008

Printed in the United States of America

0987654321

For the minions

The

IMMORTAL

PRINCE

PROLOGUE

As the last of the stragglers stumbled into the cave, Krynan looked back over his shoulder at the end of the world, wondering vaguely why he felt nothing. He grabbed for the rocky ledge above, ignoring the pain of his burned hands, and pulled himself up, collapsing with relief as another bolt of lightning streaked the blood-red sky, thick with volcanic ash.

Propping himself on his elbows, Krynan felt, rather than heard, the ground rumble again. It had been shaking like this for days now, making it difficult to stand, let alone flee the carnage. Blinking back stinging tears, he shielded his eyes and turned to stare into the distance. There wasn't much left to see. The city of L'bekken was gone, and many of the outlying villages buried under layers of pumice and ash. Those structures that weren't swallowed by the advancing lava had been burned away earlier by the lightning thrown around with such abandon by the immortals who had brought this down upon them.

It was impossible to tell where his farm had once prospered by the river; impossible to pick one landmark from another. The river had boiled away, the land buried beneath the molten rock pouring from what had once been the fertile slopes of Mount Iriggin.

How many were dead was anybody's guess, what would happen to the survivors almost too frightening to contemplate.

"Krynan?"

He turned, barely recognising the woman who spoke to him. His wife's face was blackened with soot and speckled with blisters gained fleeing the burning ash. Her fair hair was a dirty brown colour and her once-fine clothes in tatters.

She looked like a beggar.

We're all beggars now.

"What?" he asked, more harshly than he intended. It wasn't Alea's fault they were homeless, destitute and destined to die in this war between two gods who cared for nothing but their own desires.

"Your mother wants you."

Krynan sighed, knowing what his mother wanted of him; certain he wasn't ready for the thankless and probably futile task the Cabal had so desperately bestowed upon her only son.

"Tell her I'll be there shortly," he replied, turning to watch his world disintegrating before his very eyes.

Alea was silent for a moment and then nodded. "The Matriarch hasn't got long, Kry," she warned and then turned and headed back into the cave.

None of us have got long, Krynan thought, as another mountain farther to the east suddenly exploded, its peak boiling away in a ball of flame and ash, billowing into the sky like foaming ale spilling over the lip of a tankard. Still numbed by the magnitude of the destruction, he watched for a moment longer and then turned away.

His mother was lying on her side on a makeshift stretcher in the crowded cave. In the fitful light from the few torches they'd been able to salvage, he could see how badly she'd been burned. Her breathing was so laboured it was painful to listen to. Alea moved back when she saw him and allowed Krynan to kneel beside her.

"Mother"

"Krynan. You're still here."

"Where else would I be?"

With a blackened hand, his mother clutched at his tattered sleeve. "You have a job to do. . ."

"My job is to look after the survivors."

She shook her head painfully. "You are the Custodian of the Lore. Your job your only job is to protect the Lore. It's our only protection against the Tide Lords."

"Fat lot of good it's done us this time," he retorted bitterly.

"All the more reason to protect it, Krynan." His mother's face was etched with pain, but she seemed determined to ignore her own agony. For her, the Lore was everything; more important than any one person's fear or pain. "We might have failed, but future generations can they can build on what we've learned. The Cabal is relying on you. Form another Pentangle. Protect the Lore. It must survive."

Her request, although he was expecting it, infuriated him. "You want

me to walk away from my people? Let them suffer? Just to protect a few tattered pages of useless information?"

"Don't let your pain cloud your judgement, Krynan," his mother advised. Her voice was failing. She was fading fast. "You've known all along it might come to this."

That was the bitter truth. Ever since the Pentangle-the governing body of the Cabal of the Tarot-had appointed him Custodian of the Lore, Krynan had known it might come to this. But there was a vast difference between knowing you might be called upon one day to perform an onerous task, and the reality of being confronted by it.

He shrugged helplessly. "I fear the truth is that I never expected to survive."

"That you have is a sure sign this is your destiny, my son."

He shook his head. "I'm not strong enough for this, Mother."

"The Cabal thought you were, otherwise you would not have been made Custodian."

Krynan frowned, thinking he'd got the job because in the civilised parlours of L'bekken nobody really thought the Tide Lords would ever turn on each other so savagely. The humans weren't even sure what the fight was about, what altercation between the gods had escalated from a disagreement to the destruction of the whole world. Chances were they would never know, either, but like the countless civilisations before them who had suffered the same fate, it didn't really matter. All that mattered was saving the Lore, keeping it hidden out in the open, disguised as the Tarot. The Tide Lords were immortal but sooner or later, the Cabal believed, someone would find a way to destroy them. It was for that reason the Lore must be protected at all costs.

It just hadn't occurred to Krynan until now how high that cost might be.