Void Dancer

Table of Contents Blurb Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Keep Reading About the Author By Amanda Meuwissen More From Amanda Meuwissen Visit Dreamspinner Press Copyright Void Dancer ByAmanda Meuwissen A brilliant inventor, Enzo Dragonbane has plenty to hide, including his secret identity as the recently deceased king’s bastard son. But he’s not half as mysterious as Cullen, the man he finds in the caverns. Cullen has no memories at all. Cullen doesn’t know who he is or how he got there, and he certainly doesn’t know anything about his strange shadow powers. But he soon learns that memories or not, magic or not, the Ruby Kingdom stands on the brink of civil war. A lower-class group called the Ashen is poised to take advantage of the power vacuum caused by the king’s death to fight for equality. Soon Enzo and Cullen find themselves in the midst of a revolution. As they untangle Cullen’s past, they discover they have much in common. But if they’re to have any hope of a peaceful life together, they’ll have to discover the secret of controlling Cullen’s abilities, take sides in the coming fight, and face up to the truth of who they really are. Chapter 1 CULLEN LANDED with a soft thud of his feet finding purchase in the grass. He’d climbed the rocky crags from the basin of the Lilac Lake to a higher altitude than ever before tonight, but not quite high enough to see over them and take in the lands beyond the Gemstone Kingdoms. Someday he would, but he was not so foolish as to continue climbing when his footing had faltered and rocks spilled loosely out of place. He’d still descended by a different route to keep things interesting, sneaking toward the outskirts of the residential area and dropping from the cliffs into a citizen’s backyard. The hour was later than he’d anticipated. His father would be wondering why he hadn’t come home for dinner. Cullen wouldn’t admit the true answer—that his appetite had been sated by a different sort of meal, fed only by the thrill of adventure. ’Twas unbecoming of a prince to creep through the private property of his citizens, but opportunities to do as he pleased would be fewer and farther between once he wed. Wed. Cullen of House Ametista, the Amethyst Prince, was due to wed very soon. His father had been scrounging up betrothal offers for months, some royal, some noble, some simply from influential families here or in other kingdoms. Cullen had no interest in taking a queen, but he could have a prince consort or fellow king if he so chose. That wasn’t the problem. He’d never be free to seek out new lands and people and invention once he was tethered to the throne. At least the small adventures he could manage by exploring the borders of his kingdom distracted him from the unbearable weight of one day ruling it. No one noticed him appear out from between two houses, as he headed up the path toward the castle. He nodded at the few passersby he did meet, who recognized him as their prince and bowed their heads. Cullen loved the Amethyst Kingdom at night, with its dark sky dotted by a blanket of stars, even if he longed to see more of the world outside it. Once he reached high enough on the castle’s hill, he could look back and see the glow of the Amethyst itself in the center of the market square far below him, a beautiful pulsing purple, the same color as Cullen’s eyes. Another sign that he was destined to take the throne. Amethyst did not adhere to strict lineage lines for succession. Sometimes different families, different people could come into power, but whoever ruled found themselves bound to the Amethyst, and from that union their eyes glowed violet evermore. Such a deep connection between the gemstones and who ruled was true for all the Gemstone Kingdoms. Cullen didn’t know what color his father’s eyes had been before he became king, but because of it, Cullen had been born with violet eyes from day one, and such was often seen as the Amethyst having made its choice for the next person to rule. “My prince!” a guard announced upon Cullen’s entrance into the castle. “Your father just summoned me to look for you.” “How fortuitous, then, that your job is done,” Cullen said glibly, and then felt rude for having projected his annoyance onto someone merely doing their job. “Apologies, Yentriss. As you can see, I am perfectly fine. My father forgets I am no longer a child.” Yentriss was a proud and proper elf, with short dark hair, wearing the simple long-sleeved surcoat and trousers of the city guard. There was little need for guards in their mostly crime-free kingdom, other than running off the occasional highwaymen. Amethyst was the smallest of the Gemstone Kingdoms, made up of only their village that could barely be called a city, with little to no farmland. There were the cliffs, the lake, the forest, and the castle on the tallest hill to look down on it all, but they did not have the sprawling countryside of Sapphire, the massive city and farmlands of Emerald, the glorious expanse of Diamond that filled an entire valley, or the endless caverns of mountainous Ruby. Amethyst could sustain itself with what little they had, but they largely relied on imports, and Cullen shuddered to think what life would be like here if trade were ever cut off. There was also the nearby tower on an equally impressive hill with its fruitful gardens that had been inherited by Braxton, a young alchemist who Cullen was friends with. “Pardon my bluntness, Your Highness.” Yentriss bowed, posture statuesque and motions controlled. “But while I am