Ajiwiak the wildfire cyc.., p.1
Ajiwiak: The Wildfire Cycle: Volume 3, page 1
PRAISE FOR KINGSHOLD
“This is a book that deserves to be recognized as not only one of the best self-published books of the year, but also as one of the best Fantasy books of 2018.”
OUTOFTHISWORLD BOOK REVIEWS
“Enchanting, thrilling, and funny…a refreshing departure from most cookie-cutter fantasy realms… characters are fresh and intriguing, instantly memorable…you are going to love this book”
WAYTOOFANTASY.COM
“Each time I thought the plot had thickened, it just got more interesting…Quick and light…I found myself smiling through a lot of it.”
THE WEATHERWAXREPORT
This is a novel which challenges definitions... a story told with wit, pace, exciting and well-defined characters and in a style that feels so wonderfully relaxed and easy to read. Wow."
PHIL PARKER, AUTHOR OF THE BASTARD OF FAIRYLAND
PRAISE FOR TALES OF KINGSHOLD
“If you're contemplating reading Tales of Kingshold, don't hesitate, just dive into it. It's a fantastic book...The last short story, "Circles", blew my mind”
BOOKNEST.EU
“It really is a continuation of book 1 that adds a lot to the story of Kingshold...I really appreciated how Woolliscroft crafted a collection of stories that felt vital to the larger narrative”
TRAVIS RIDDLE, AUTHOR OF BALAM, SPRING
“Woolliscroft managed to put together a wide selection of genres… Be it heartwarming tale, pirates, zombies, magical creatures or plenty of fights. Tales of Kingshold has them all”
ROCKSTARLIT BOOK ASYLUM
“Tales of Kingshold is a beautifully crafted series of novelettes and short stories that are both a blast to read and also the perfect way to add rich depth to The Wildfire Cycle series we've all come to know and love.”
FANTASY BOOK CRITIC / WHISPERS AND WONDER.COM
PRAISE FOR IOTH, CITY OF LIGHTS
“Woolliscroft's ability to write characters who don't behave predictably and are multi-dimensional in their makeup is the true strength of this book and series as a whole. You will be hard-pressed to find a better writer of characters and dialogue.”
OUT OF THIS WORLD SFF REVIEWS
“Ioth, City of Lights is a wildly emotional and compelling ride, and Woolliscroft's best yet. The foreshadowing throughout the book hints at something monumental, but let me tell you, it's so much more than I expected,leaving me utterly slack-jawed at the final page."
FANTASY BOOK CRITIC / WHISPERS AND WONDER.COMC
“I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Six months in to 2019 and Ioth, City of Lights, goes straight into my top spot of Favourite Booksof the Year...It establishes DP Woolliscroft as a first-rate fantasy writer who deserves wider recognition.”
PHIL PARKER, AUTHOR OF THE BASTARD OF FAIRYLAND
THE WILDFIRE CYCLE
(READING ORDER)
Kingshold (Book 1)
Tales of Kingshold (Book 1.5)
Ioth, City of Lights (Book 2)
Tales of Ioth (Book 2.5)
Ajiwiak, The Mother Tree (Book 3)
Tales of Ajiwiak (Book 3.5)
Nefoeddyr, The Stairway (Book 4) - release tbd
AJIWIAK
The Wildfire Cycle, Volume 3
D.P. WOOLLISCROFT
Copyright © 2021 by D.P. Woolliscroft
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Created with Vellum
For you, the reader.
That you made it this far, is reason enough for me to keep on going.
CONTENTS
The Story So Far – Volume 1
The Story So Far – Volume 2
Ajiwiak, The Mother Tree
Prologue
1. We are here, Pyrfew
2. Don’t count your cavvy
3. An unwanted liberation
4. An unexpected blessing
5. A parting of ways
6. Run
7. Raiding the larder
8. The sleeping wolf
9. Caravan of cowards
10. A first sight of home
11. A welcome song
12. Diplomacy
13. Babysitting
14. The wisdom of children
15. Time to leave
16. Clans on the move
17. Moody
18. Wolf’s Cleft
19. A lesson
20. Old enemies
21. Ship of the desert
22. On the doorstep
23. The council
24. Dancing
25. A new home
26. Life in Ajiwiak
27. The fold
28. Regaining a voice
29. Gathering the clans
30. Tainted
31. Desperate times
32. The Mother Tree
33. Logistics
34. Mousework
35. Waiting
36. A cup of tea and a chat
37. Gathering of the chiefs
38. Tattanoko’s disappointment
39. Answers
40. The Champion of the Wolfclaw
41. Left Behind
42. Hunting grounds
43. Infiltration
44. Above the fray
45. A debt partially paid
46. The Thunderbird
47. Reunion
48. Alarius
49. The Book of Pilgrims
50. Partners
51. One last night
52. The Wildfire
53. The ghosts walk
54. Street to street
55. A Job Unfinished
56. The Rise of The Wolfclaw
57. Settling debts
58. Escape
59. The Banality of Evil
60. A Mouse, a Bard and a Pirate
61. Asking for help
Tales of Ajiwiak
Author's Introduction
Even Pirate Kings Fall
True Tail
From the desk of Lord Marchial Eden
Excerpts from Flora and Fauna of the Wild Continent
Trees
Plants
Insects
Creatures
Call to Action
Glossary
Acknowledgments
About the Author
THE STORY SO FAR – VOLUME 1
To aid your memory, here is a summary of key events from Volume One of the Wildfire Cycle - Kingshold and Tales of Kingshold.
In Kingshold.
Jyuth, the ancient wizard and driving force behind the throne of Edland, executes the King and Queen after discovering a series of depravities; the most serious of which is enslaving dwarves from neighboring Unedar Halt and selling them to the nation’s enemy, Pyrfew. Tired of replacing the royal line every time it inevitably succumbs to corruption, Jyuth calls for an election to find a Lord Protector. Lord Hoskin, Chancellor of the Realm, is temporarily placed in charge.
Mareth, a washed-up bard with a storied past, is inspired by the election to document the momentous event. Lord Hoxteth, common-born Treasurer of Edland, intends to stand as a candidate. After a fortuitous meeting, Mareth agrees to help him, writing songs that denigrate his political opponents, such as Lord Eden.
Alana is a servant at the palace who is given the unenviable role of attending to Jyuth, but the wizard recognizes her natural intelligence and a friendship is formed.
Neenahwi is Jyuth’s adopted daughter. She is from the Wild Continent; she fled her home as a child when it was destroyed by Pyrfew, and she was briefly held captive by Llewdon, God Emperor of Pyrfew, before Jyuth rescued her and her brother. We meet the wizard as she is on a dangerous quest to retrieve a demon-stone, eventually besting a panther demon to do so. Returning to Kingshold, she struggles to tap into the magical gem’s power; but her rage at her father’s exploits lead to terrible visions and an unconscious explosion of power.
Meanwhile, a trio of adventurers—or thieves, depending on your perspective—arrive back in Kingshold. Motega, brother of Neenahwi; Florian, famed swordsman; and Trypp, former thief; are soon captured and imprisoned by the most prominent of Kingshold’s crime syndicates, the Twilight Exiles. They take on a burglary job in order to clear their debts, but the job quickly turns to trouble when the occupants, Lord Hoxteth and his wife Lady Grey, return home early. When they discover that Lord Hoxteth is being assassinated, the trio give chase; they catch up with the assassin, who they find is Lady Chalice, leader of the Hollow Syndicate, and she escapes.
Through his propaganda, Mareth has managed to make enemies. Hoxteth hires a bodyguard for him, Dolph, and they are both set upon by supporters of Lord Eden. They discover their sponsor has been assassinated, and Mareth is injured in the ensuing fight. During his convalescence, he develops feelings for his nurse, Petra; she is a barmaid at the Royal Oak, Alana’s sister, and she convinces Mareth that they can find a new candidate themselves.
Alana devises a way in which the districts and guilds can be organized into voting; she explains her plan in a meeting between the district supervisors. Upon leaving the meeting, Alana is attacked by one of those attendees, who is secretly working for the realm’s spymaster, Aebur. She is rescued and returned home by Florian, Motega and Trypp, who are then convinced b y Mareth to join their cause.
Aebur is taken into custody when Jyuth and Lord Hoskin discover he was behind the attack on Alana. They learn that he has been working for Pyrfew; he was behind the former King and Queen’s slave trade, and eventually he confesses that the Pyrfew fleet currently under construction in the city of Ioth is much further along than previously thought. The navy is immediately sent to blockade the entrance to the Sapphire Sea, and Aebur soon vanishes.
Lady Grey, Lord Hoxteth’s widow, learns of the plans to mobilize the people of Kingshold into voting. Hearing that they are having trouble finding a candidate they can support, she reveals to the group that Mareth is actually the third son of Lord Bollingsmead and a Lord in his own right. He reluctantly agrees to stand as the new candidate, and Lady Grey offers to finance the campaign and lend assistance in gaining the support of various merchants and nobles.
Alana, growing in confidence in the campaign, asks Jyuth if she might be permitted to work on it full-time. Neenahwi, present for the conversation, is interested in this new candidate as she too has been looking for somebody to stand behind. She discovers that her brother has been back in the city and helping the campaign, but has neglected to visit her. Alana takes Neenahwi to meet Mareth and orchestrates a surprise reunion for her and her brother. The campaigners realize the numbers are against them, but Neenahwi points out that, by the rules of the election, the dwarves of Unedar Halt are eligible to vote.
Neenahwi takes Mareth, Dolph, Motega, Florian and Trypp to meet with the Forger, leader of the dwarves. She agrees to help him deal with his rebel child, in exchange for his support for Mareth. Dolph and Mareth return to the surface and the campaign. Following a successful rally, Mareth is attacked in the night by an assassin. Alana saves his life but is gravely injured, and Dolph kills the assassin, returning the body to the Hollow Syndicate in a wheelbarrow.
Motega, Florian, Trypp and Neenahwi defeat the rebel dwarves; in victory, the heads of the dwarven houses follow them to the palace in Kingshold in order to cast their votes on behalf of Mareth, who expresses his gratitude for their help. Lord Eden argues the dwarves are not eligible to vote, but his complaints go unheeded. Earlier that day, Mareth held a speech in which he told the people about the attempt on his life during the night. Trypp sensed there was something magical about the way in which Mareth’s voice enthralled people to listen; he believes it will lead to trouble.
That night there are riots and parts of the city burn. The following day, Sir Penshead tries to hold Mareth accountable for the riots. A fight is imminent, until alarm bells ring out across Kingshold—the city is under attack by pirates. Ships of the North Sea Corsairs swarm the harbor along with a pirate town perched on the back of a great Draco-Turtle. Mareth, revealing his past as a pirate, develops a plan in which they laden boats with flammable liquids and use them to set the pirate fleet ablaze.
As Neenahwi and Jyuth rush to the harbor, Neenahwi is shot down and confronted by Gawl Tegyr, the ambassador of Pyrfew. He is there to take her back to Llewdon. In the ensuing fight, he almost bests her, but using the last of her power she kills him. His body erupts and in its place a demon stands before her—the same that destroyed her tribe. Using her own blood as a connection, she is finally able to draw upon the power of the demon stone and uses it to defeat the demon.
At the harbor, Jyuth is facing off against the giant Draco-Turtle; he sends Motega and Florian to the pirate town to find what is controlling the great beast. Infiltrating the town, they find the pirate king, Kolsen, as well as a tower in which a young alchemist is controlling the Draco-Turtle. Once they put a stop to the alchemy, the Draco-Turtle returns to its senses and tries to leave the harbor. The two friends are attacked by pirates but manage to escape with the alchemist.
After a long night of fighting, Mareth is called to an assembly the following morning. Lord Hoskin praises Mareth, Motega and Florian for their bravery in saving the city. He calls out Lord Eden for not joining the fray, and Mareth calls him a coward. Taking offence, Lord Eden challenges him to a duel. Florian defeats Lord Eden’s champion; Eden is stripped of his titles and banished from the realm.
On the summer solstice, the votes are finally tallied for the election. Mareth is declared the winner; he asks Lord Hoskin to stay on as Chancellor, but Hoskin is assassinated by Lady Grey, his death made to look like suicide.
Jyuth prepares to take his leave of Edland, and in his parting with his daughter he gives her an amulet in which to house her demon stone, his old journals on magic, a letter which she is not to open until he has left, and a bow made of dragon bone for Motega. Jyuth slips away under the cover of darkness, taking with him the many thousands of gold coins paid as deposits by the voters. As he is about to sail away, he finds the demon Neenahwi battled at the start of the story walking out of the waves in search of her. He ties the demon in chains, deposits her in the sea, and sails away to his retirement.
In Tales of Kingshold
From Father to Daughter: Neenahwi reads the letter that Jyuth left her, discovering that in the days long ago before he acquired his own demon stones, he would steal the life force of others, people and magical creatures alike, to extend his own life. Additionally, he shared that he was taught by another wizard called Myank, who in his day was friends with Llewdon. Jyuth says he does not know what Llewdon has planned but he wonders if the elf’s obsession with Redpool was as a result of it being Myank’s home. Jyuth counsels Neenahwi to quickly discover Llewdon’s intentions as he senses that events are unfolding fast, and that she should keep her brother close by.
Twin Lies: This tale explains how Florian ended up in the army, in an elite squad called the Ravens, and how he obtained the nickname Twins. Hint, it’s because Florian has a twin sister called Aiola.
All That Shimmers: A young dwarf called Kyle accidentally frees an ancient evil creature called a Spectre from a dark hole deep underground. Neenahwi meets Kyle as he is trying to research how to kill the creature to get to a seam of Granthium—a very rare ore with magical properties—and she offers her help as she thinks there is a chance that the Spectre was once a normal purple worm corrupted by a demon stone. They defeat the Spectre with the help of a deep drake juggernaut and a pair of juvenile purple worms, but there is no sign of a demon stone.
Of Buccaneers and Bards: Vin Kolsen is a pirate, abandoned by his own crew mates in a two-bit jail when he is joined by a drunk bard named Mareth. The town is raided by another band of pirates and the pair are taken as galley slaves. When their ship is attacked by the Pienza navy, they escape with a boy called Karr only to be picked up by another band of pirates. The three of them join the crew and prove themselves until Kolsen, Mareth and Karr are entrusted to be part of the skeleton crew to sail a captured ship to port. Mareth hatches a plot with Kolsen to escape by singing the crew to sleep, but Kolsen double crosses the bard so that he can take the ship for his own. Kolsen is killed by the first mate and thrown into the sea where a selkie, who he discovers to be his aunt, brings him back to life to wreak havoc against all humans who sail the seas. Kolsen takes control of the ship, eventually buying it once they get back to port. Mareth is left behind but as Kolsen sails away on his first steps to becoming the pirate king, Mareth reads a note saying that Kolsen owes him a favor.
