Novels by Mika'el Ar

The orange glare of the burning Sanctuary lit the ravine. Shadows danced across the pines. Black smoke coiled into the night sky. It stank of burning oil, sulfur, and charred timber.Aren descended the shale embankment. His boots gripped the stone without a sound. Beneath his cloak, his shoulders moved with precision.Through his hunter's senses, the ravine mapped itself across a five-hundred-yard radius.Fifty yards ahead, behind an outcrop of black granite, Sister Elena and the five rescued children waited. Lily sat on a flat boulder. Elena's gray shawl wrapped her legs. Her linen-wrapped fingers held the silver pendant Aren had given her on her birthday."Aren," Lily whispered.She did not cry. She scrambled off the boulder. Her shoes crunched on the grit. She ran into his arms. Aren dropped to one knee and wrapped his arms around her. He shielded her from the wind."You're safe, Lily," Aren said. His voice was low.Lily looked up into his face. Her eyes were wide. "The men in the

The oak door to the upper laboratory wing splintered under Aren's boot.Air rushed down the spiral stairwell. It stank of boiling oil, phosphorus, and monster blood. Above, iron alarms clanged in rhythm. Dust fell from the ceiling.Aren did not hurry up the stairs. He walked with a balanced stride. His boots thudded on the damp steps. His shoulders stayed relaxed. His right hand rested on the hilt of his knife.Through his hunter's senses, the three upper levels of the fortress mapped themselves in his mind. He tracked fourteen mercenaries in dark coats converging on the central landing. He registered three alchemists in oilskin aprons smashing glass retorts in the main laboratory. They tried to burn their research manifests before the breach. Deep in the heating vault beneath the floor, iron boilers pumped superheated oil through the facility's pipes.A mercenary in a blood-iron coat leaped around the landing turn. He raised a cross-headed pike."Intruder on the stairs!" His voice ec

The ravine beneath the overlook smelled of wet soot, rotted hemlock, and iron. The rain had stopped. Fog clung to the granite boulders that guarded the approach to the Sanctuary.Aren led Sister Elena down the embankment. His boots made no sound on the frozen shale. Beneath his cloak, his shoulders moved with fluid balance. Every shift of weight was gone.Elena followed three paces behind. Her satchel pulled tight across her chest. Her breath steamed in the air. She trusted his footing along the ledge.They reached the floor of the ravine two hundred yards behind the loading docks.Above them, the forty-foot wall of black granite loomed. Watchtowers stood at fifty-yard intervals. Braziers cast yellow circles on the parapets.Aren stopped at the edge of a flooded drainage ditch.A culvert of black stone opened into the ravine. It poured runoff into the creek bed. Iron bars four inches thick blocked the mouth of the pipe. Lime crusted the bars.Elena stepped up beside him and shielded h

Wind came off the northern glaciers. It smelled of frozen pine, wet slate, and iron ore. The rain had stopped. Fine sleet rattled against the boulders lining the cliff trail.Behind Aren, the black doors of the boundary gate stood ajar. Faint embers of violet light glowed on them. Then they went dark. Ahead, the old mining road cut a jagged line along the eastern face of the ridge. It plunged into a gorge three hundred feet below.Aren stepped onto the rock ledge. His boots gripped the ice-slick granite.Sister Elena followed three paces behind. She wrapped her cloak tight against her chin. She held her lantern low. The flame flickered against the gale. Her satchel bounced on her hip as she climbed."The air here is different," Elena said. Her voice rasped against the wind. "It smells of ash."Aren did not turn his head. His shoulders balanced above his hips. He moved with stillness.Through his newly unlocked hunter's senses, the pass mapped itself in his mind across a five-hundred-y

The purple light from the interface did not just blind Aren's vision. It invaded his blood.A deep vibration rattled through his teeth. The kinetic magic of the cores in his chest ignited. The energy boiled like molten copper. It flooded his veins and rushed into the marrow of his bones.Aren clamped his jaw shut. His hands gripped the flagstones of the dais. The stone groaned under his fingers. He did not scream. He held his breath and let his lungs burn while the fire reworked his body from the inside out.Sister Elena backed away three paces. Her hands went to her mouth. Her lantern wobbled on the flagstones. Yellow light cast shadows on the archway.Heat rose from Aren's skin. The mountain air entering through the gate hissed when it touched his shoulders. It turned to steam. The steam coiled around his cloak. Beneath the cloth, his muscles twitched. They expanded and tightened as the system restructured his tissue.In his vision, the shattered remnants of the Iron Fang and Iron H

The golden sparks from the fallen Trial Beast dissolved into the stone dais. The boundary gate was quiet again. Wind came through the fifty-foot opening. It smelled of pine resin, wet slate, and mountain soil.Aren sat on his heels. His hands rested on his thighs. Sweat dripped from his chin. It splashed on his tunic. Across his chest, the successor crest throbbed with a slow pulse. It matched the beat of his heart.Sister Elena stepped to the edge of the dais. She held her lantern low. The yellow flame flickered in the wind off the valley. Her hair was wet from the mist. It stuck to her cheeks."Aren," Elena said. Her whisper barely carried over the draft. "Your skin was burning. For five minutes, you did not draw breath."Aren opened his brown eyes. He looked at his scarred palms. He flexed his fingers. He took a slow drag of mountain air. "I was in the forge.""Did you find what you needed?" she asked."I found three choices," Aren said. His voice was flat.In his vision, the viole

Barek jammed his pry bar into the lower latch of the first glass cylinder. He leaned on it until the seal popped with a wet hiss.Green fluid surged over the threshold, splashing across the concrete of Research Sub-level 2. Silas stepped forward and caught the first captive by the shoulders as her mask slipped off. Ira and Nomy moved to the other two vats.Ethan didn't help with the cylinders. He stayed crouched by the open iron cage, looking at the pile of gray ash between the dropped chains.Ethan reached out. His fingers hovered above the ashes. His passives read the dust, but neither ability could identify it. The ghoul had just burned out and collapsed into dead mineral with no energy left."The seals are broken on all three," Silas called out. He helped the second captive sit on a blanket. "Pulses are steady. They're breathing."Barek wiped green fluid off his forearms with a rag. He stepped up beside Ethan and glared at the empty cage. "The monster burned itself to the cinders

The four iron chains snapped taut against the concrete. Inside the cage, the ghoul held its head high.Blue arcs jumped from the floor manifold, running up the copper wires into the brass ring on its skull. Sparks hissed against its gray hide. The creature didn't flinch. Its pale eyes stayed locked on Ethan."You talk about a King," Ethan said. "What's his name?"The ghoul's lips pulled back. "We don't know his name. We haven't seen him either.""Then maybe you are lying." Ethan said. He put his boot on the lower iron bar. "Maybe you are trying to pull our legs. Drag us into a trap."The ghoul let out a sound that resembled a scoff. "I don't know what to tell you anymore."Silas took a half-step forward. "He's only asking for who's in charge."The ghoul glanced at Silas, then looked back at Ethan."Then you're asking about the First Gen.” the ghoul said. "Direct descendants sired by the king himself, they command the rabids and generations that come after them. Only they get to see th

Ethan held his breath by the observation hatch of Research Sub-level 2. His eye was pressed to the glass.“What’s inside?” Silas whispered.“Vats,” Ethan said. “And an iron cage.”Ethan put his palm flat on the steel door and pushed the latch up. The lock disengaged with a thud. The door swung open.They stepped into the vault.Blue lamps hung from the ceiling. On the west wall, three living survivors floated in glass cylinders filled with green fluid. Copper cables pulled pale blue threads from their chests into a brass manifold.Across the room was the cage.Inside the steel bars sat a ghoul. Four thick chains bound it to the floor. A brass ring was locked around its skull. Its dark hide was covered in bone plates.When they entered, the creature raised its head. Its pale eyes burned with a cold, sharp alertness as it evaluated them.Barek stepped forward. His grip tightened on his iron pry bar. “It’s a monster. We have to kill it before it breaks loose.”Barek raised the bar over h

Ethan stepped onto the iron spiral staircase that wound up through the ceiling of the Sub-station.Silas stayed close, blade out. Below them, Captain Thorne and his scouts stayed by the fire. Behind Ethan, Ira and Barek helped Nomy up the metal steps. Nomy kept the wool blanket tight around her shoulders. Her shoes scraped softly on the iron treads.The stairs ended at a steel hatch in the ceiling.Ethan pushed it open and climbed into the upper vent level. Cold night air blew through the grates. Pine needles. Wet granite. Wood smoke from the ridge above.The corridor was empty. Thick copper lines ran along the walls, humming with the settlement's power. Caged yellow bulbs lit the walkway every thirty yards.Silas climbed up last. He pulled the hatch shut. The clatter echoed down the shaft. "We're right under the outer wall. Staging blocks are two hundred yards east. Research wing goes north into the mountain."Ethan walked to the middle of the corridor. His boots made no sound. In hi

Nomy lay still on the dusty concrete floor of Sub-station 5. Her wrists were bound behind her back with coarse hemp rope.Ethan watched her through the gap in the iron door. The yellow firelight from the metal drum caught the bruise on her cheekbone. Ten feet away, three boundary scouts sat on wooden crates. Long iron-tipped spears leaned against the rusted switching banks.Beside Ethan, Silas pressed his back to the damp wall. Barek held his pry bar ready. Ira stood two paces back, hiding her oil lantern behind her so the glow wouldn’t spill through the crack.“Where’s Leon?” Barek whispered.Ethan focused Situational Awareness through the gap. No other captives by the fire. An arc torch casing lay near the northern exit ramp, its battery housing cracked open. Empty.“He ran, I guess,” Ethan said.Inside the chamber, the lead scout stood up. A broad man with a scarred jaw and a copper-edged brass badge on his collar. He picked up his spear and spat into the fire pit.“This girl’s use

The strange person vanished into the dark ventilation shaft sixty feet above.Ethan stood near the central pillar. His eyes stayed on the empty girder. Beside him, Silas was scanning the shadows. Behind them, Barek and Ira stood on the rail bed. Their lanterns shook, casting shadowy beams over the four dead ghouls."It moved without a sound," Barek whispered. "That's no rabid. It could be an intelligent""Or an awakened hunter," Ethan said.He walked to the fourth ghoul near the exit arch. He crouched, weight on the balls of his feet, and looked at the fresh cut over the sternum. The blood hadn't congealed. It leaked in thin red streams onto the gray silt. The heart was taken minutes ago.Ethan focused Situational Awareness on the incision. The two-inch blade entered at a forty-five degree angle between the ribs. No fractured bone. Whoever held the blade knew exactly where the cartilage was thinnest."It didn't kill them to defend itself," Ethan said. He stood up. "It killed them to t