Promise of Blood

Promise of Blood
Brian McClellan
Powder Mage #1

Promise of Blood Summary

Adamat is summoned to the Skyline Palace, the seat of the king in Adopest, the capital city of Adro. He finds that Field Marshall Tamas (military leader) has staged a coup and captured King Manhouch XII and killed his royal cabal of privileged (Sorcerers with elemental powers). All across the city nobles are being rounded up and being imprisoned or killed. Tamas wants Adamat to investigate why, as they were dying, all of the privileged kept saying “Don’t break Kresimir’s Promise”. Adamat returns to his home and sends his family away to a safe house since he knows the city will probably be crazy for a while following the coup.

Tamas is taken by one of his men, Sabon, to see a dying man. Tamas and his crew are all “Powder Mages”, able to consume gunpowder to increase their physical attributes, as well as detonate it at a distance or direct its force. One powerful privileged escaped their cull, killing several of his men in the process, so he assembles a team to hunt her down. Julene, a powerful mercenary privileged he has hired in the past, a mage-breaker (someone who can nullify magic in a small area), and his son Taniel, a powder mage who recently gained fame in a war in Fatrasta as Taniel Two-Shot. Taniel brings along a new friend Ka-Poel, a savage he saved with some magic who can track privileged.

Adamat is visited by Palagyi?, a gangster he owes money to. Adamat used to be a police officer so many members of the criminal world do not like him. Adamat has a big debt coming due soon so he is worried about that, and Palagyi threatens his family. Adamat starts his investigation by going to the college to read books about Kresimir, a god who founded The Nine (The nine kingdoms in this land). Adamat is a Knacked, a magic user with a specific ability, and he can remember everything perfectly, but he has never heard of Kresimir’s Promise aside from one street gang who named themselves that then were all butchered shortly after. In the college library all the books about Kresimir have been defaced and have pages ripped out, so he needs to look elsewhere.

Nila is a laundress in a noble house. The night of the coup she is working when Jakob, the son of the noble family (A sickly boy of 5) comes down and she gives him milk. When she hears soldiers breaking in she hides him in a laundry basket. Soldiers arrest the rest of his family and look for him but she hides him then escapes with Jakob when given the chance.

Tamas meets with his co-conspirators for the coup: Lady Winceslas (Owner of the mercenary company Adom’s Wings), Ricard Tumblar (Leader of the workers union: The Noble Warriors of Labor), Charlemund (An Arch-Diocel of the Church of Kresimir), Ondraus (An accountant), Prime Lektor (Chancellor of the university), and the Eunuch (A representative of The Proprietor, leader of the underworld in Adopest). Together they will form the new ruling council. Ondraus discovers the old king spent all the country's money so they need to change some plans and figure out how to fund themselves. A large part of the motivation for the coup was the upcoming signing of accords with the neighboring nation Kez, that would make them little more than a vassal state. Tamas hates Kez because they killed his wife.

Tamas meets his new bodyguard, Olem. Olem is a Knacked who does not need sleep. Tamas orders the executions to begin and the King and Queen are beheaded, followed by all the other nobles. Riots begin to break out in the streets, and the few remaining royalists, loyal to the old king, shore up a defensive area in the center of the city. Taniel comes back to report that while chasing the Privileged, they learned that general Westeven is in the city leading the royalist defenses. Westeven is a great general and friend of Tamas so they plan to meet in an effort to not destroy the city. Tamas eventually decides to hire a street gang, the Black Street Barbers, to assassinate a lot of the royalists to prevent extra bloodshed.

Adamat hires an old boxer friend of his, SouSmith, to serve as a bodyguard while he investigates everything. Together they sneak into the royalist controlled central section of the city, and find the privileged Taniel has been chasing, reading the same books Adamat wants. They have also been redacted and defaced. She tells Adamat to go to the Mountainwatch to meet with a privileged there, and also to give him the message “She is trying to summon Kresimir”. Tamas meets a fat man named Mihali who claims to be Adom (god/saint, brother of Kresimir) reborn, and also that he is a great chef and will now be cooking for the army. Taniel and crew trap the privileged they are chasing (Rozalia) at the university and attack her, but her and Julene get into a big sorcerous battle and destroy a bunch of stuff before Rozalia escapes. Tamas meets with General Westeven but then people start attacking and Westeven is killed and Tamas pushes to take the royalist area. Nila tries to protect Jakob but he is captured, so she plans to kill Tamas in revenge for his presumed death.

Adamat travels to the Mountainwatch, a city/fort at South Pike guarding one of the only passes between Kez and Adro. He is going to meet Privileged Borbador (Bo), an ex-royal cabal member and friend of Taniel. Bo tells him that Kresimir’s promise is an old myth that when Kresimir started the nine family lines that would rule their kingdoms, he said that if any fully died out he would return and destroy whichever country that was. When Adamat tells Bo the message about someone summoning Kresimir, he freaks out and leaves without sharing anything else. Adamat travels back to Adopest and reports to Tamas, who says good job. An ambassador from Kez arrives shortly thereafter but it turns out to be Duke Nicklaus, the man who killed Tamas’ wife, so he throws him in the water and they both declare war. Adamat also learned that any living royal cabal member has a geas on them to avenge the king, so Bo will eventually have to kill Tamas or die himself. Tamas sends Taniel to kill his best friend Bo.

When Adamat arrives home he finds a Lord Vetas waiting for him with Palagyi. Vetas kills Palagyi and says he is buying Adamat’ loan, and he wants any information he has on Tamas or he will kill his family. Adamat refuses at first, but later he is sent his sons finger so he tells Adamat what he knows. Tamas is relaxing in a secret room known only to his council when he is attacked by a Warden. Warden’s are humans turned into weird muscly monster people by the Kez privileged. Tamas manages to kill it but his dog Pitlaug dies in the process. He now knows he has been betrayed by a member of his council and rehires Adamat to find out who.

Taniel, Ka-Poel, and Julene have arrived at the mountain watch to hunt Bo. Taniel does not like Julene so orders her to wait here in case Bo gets past them, and hires Gavril, a big drunk, to lead them up the mountain to a cave where Bo waits. They find him and Taniel has a shot, but does not take it, instead choosing to go talk to his friend, but before he gets there a massive cave lion runs at Bo and tries to kill him. It takes the combined forces of Bo, Taniel, Gavril, and Ka-Poel newly unveiled power to fling it off the mountain, and as it falls it is revealed to be Julene. Bo says she is a Predeii, ancient privileged (Like Rozalia) who were so powerful they made themselves basically immortal. She is the one planning to summon Kresimir and they need to prevent this. As they return to the Mountainwatch they see a Kez army invading, and Gavril, who turns out to be the commander, takes charge and they prepare their defenses.

Adamat goes and investigates each member of the council, and the most likely traitor seems to be Ricard Tumblar, the union boss. Some other stuff: Vlora is another powder mage who returns to work with Tamas. She was engaged to Taniel but he caught her cheating on him so they broke it off. Ka-Pole (Pole) can not talk, and Taniel assumes she is a teenager (15ish). Taniel is addicted to snorting gunpowder, which seems to be something dangerous to a lot of powder mages. Nila now works for Tamas, doing his laundry, and Olem flirts with her a bit and asks her on some dates.

Tamas goes on an annual hunt to start a festival season with his other council members, while there a man they trust leads them aside and then Brigadier Ryze, a member of the Wings of Adom mercenary company, kidnaps Tamas. He quickly warns Tamas that he is not the traitor but he needs to share something with him, before Duke Nicklaus blasts him with magic and Tamas is knocked out. Tamas wakes up with his leg shattered and trapped in a room. Nicklaus tells him when his leg was being repaired he inserted a nugget of gold in before sealing it. Gold negates a powder mage's ability to use his powers. Tamas is furious, but then the carriage they are in is attacked and Nicklaus flees, letting Olem save Tamas. Apparently Sabon trained Tamas’ other dog, Hrusch, to track him long ago so Hrusch led them to him. Nicklaus escapes but Tamas is now free. Tamas undergoes another dangerous surgery to remove the gold from his leg.

Tamas lets everyone know what Ryze revealed, that Brigadier Barat is the real traitor within the Wings of Adom and another member of their company, Brigadier Sebastenien, shoots Barat. Adamat and SouSmith get attacked by the Black Street Barbers in Adamat’s home (not supposed to happen), but they kill them. Tamas is furious and Sabon and Adamat go to their headquarters and kill most but question one enough to learn that a young priest, Siemone, who works for Arch-Diocel Charlemund hired them for it. This means Charlemund is the traitor. The barbers were also hired to kill Mihali, who is hosting the festival. Tamas has begun to believe Mihali is something special, since his food seems to be slightly magical and he can create food from nothing.

Olem takes Nila to see that Jakob is alive, just being kept in hiding until he can be sent to live in the country. She still does not forgive Tamas but some of her anger is gone. Tamas is observing everyone enjoying the festival food when the barbers attack, and Mihali seems in danger. Prime Lektor reveals he is a privileged, one of the predeii, and after Mihali vaporizes all his attackers, everyone believes he is actually the god Adom. He is working on some big spell to protect his country in case Kresimir returns. Adamat tells Tamas that Charlemund is the traitor and they plan to go arrest him.

Meanwhile, a bunch of battles have happened in defense of the mountainwatch and Taniel has killed a lot of Kez privileged, but they worry what Julene is doing. Bo is looking more and more spent and he is their only magical defense. They go to investigate one night and find there are tunnels leading behind the mountain watch and up the mountain. Bo, Taniel, Ka-Poel, and some others head after them. They find the monastery burned and many monks killed. They recruit one to guide them and continue to the ancient city of Kresim Kembra? on South Pike’s Peak. It is said this is where Kresimir lived when on earth 1,400 years ago, and is where Julene plans to resummon him. They get there and Taniel has the monk lead him to high ground so he can get a shot, but once there it is revealed the monk is a Kez privileged in disguise and Julene was ready for him. But Ka-Poel uses a ton of magic and her and Taniel fight back, killing a lot of the enemy, but then a man starts to descend from the sky. Before Kresimir can do anything, Taniel sights and fires two special bullets at him using a ton of gunpowder and hits him in the eye and heart, causing a massive earthquake and seeming to kill the god.

Adamat returns home to find that Lord Vetas is there with his youngest daughter held hostage, forcing Adamat to reveal Tamas’ plans. SouSmith and Adamat fight off the goons once Vetas leaves, and Adamat rushes to warn Tamas. Tamas enters Charlemund’s villa with some troops, but then Sabon gets shot in the head. They were prepared for him and Duke Nicklaus is there as well. Charlemund asks for Parlay so Olem and Tamas head inside trying to stall for backup. Once in they kill the guards and Charlemund flees. Tamas beats Nicklaus in a duel and severs his fingers and breaks his hands, making it so he can never use magic again. Adamat shows up around the back of the house and stalls long enough for Olem to duel Charlemund, but Olem gets injured as well. Tamas arrives in time to kill Charlemund but Nicklaus uses this chance to escape.

Tamas rides to the Mountainwatch and talks to Bo (Who is tied up so he can’t kill Tamas), and they learn what happened. Taniel and Ka-Poel are both in comas and no one knows if they will live. It ends with a discussion where Bo says that you can not kill a god, so who knows what will happen with Kresimir. Nila is about to kidnap Jakob when she finds someone beat her to it, and she agrees to go with them to watch over him. THE END.