Heritage Unbound (Tales of the Misplaced Book 7)

Book summary

Twelve years after being frozen in stasis during Kartahn Zeg's war, Mira and Nora awaken to a world transformed by the revelation of magic. As the Daruidai police magical activity, Lilli and her gang uncover secrets crucial to Mira and Nora's past. Can they unveil the mysteries of their heritage in time?

HERITAGE UNBOUND is a thrilling fantasy adventure that concludes the Tales of the Misplaced series.

Excerpt from Heritage Unbound (Tales of the Misplaced Book 7)

Chapter One: Lili - Cupertino, California

The curfew was back in effect, so I had to take the long way home. There were too many lights on De Anza, so I had to stay off of it as much as I could.

Thinking about the curfew just made me angry. There was no reason for it. Why did they think they needed to control everyone? Why couldn’t they just let people live their lives in peace? Why were so many humans like this?

My family had come to Earth from Daoine about ten years ago, when I was six. They’d spent most of their lives as slaves in Pokorah-Vo. When travel opened up between worlds, they thought this would be a good chance for a fresh start. A lot of people came to Earth, and not just Ulané Jhinura, either. And a lot of humans had picked up and left Earth for Daoine, leaving their Earth lives behind.

Maybe if my parents had stayed on Daoine, they’d still be alive. Korashéna Ulané Sharavi was restoring the domain of Su Astonil. We could have been happy there among other Ulané Jhinura. Here, we were just sprites. Outsiders.

It made me wonder why the Earthers had let non-humans come here in the first place. Maybe the stories were true. Supposedly, someone had come from Daoine and used magic to heal some big politicians. The US had opened its arms at that point under Obama, at least for limited numbers. Then about a year after McCain had become president, some global plague had started and more healers were brought in to stop it.

Other illnesses and diseases that the humans hadn’t been able to resolve using technology were easily handled by magic. That had really been the clincher for allowing people in from the other worlds. At least, that was the story I’d heard, but I’d been pretty young at the time.

And, of course, there was Astéa Wairua and the help she had been providing in Ireland. Asha Kree had come to Earth from Danu in large numbers, and they proliferated quickly. Asha Kree could now be found just about anywhere in the world.

But people tended to hate and fear the races that were physically larger than their own. And the smaller ones, like us, they just treated with contempt. But there was fear and hatred for us, too. Sometimes, that resulted in violence. That’s why my parents hadn’t survived our first year here.

I’d prayed to Astéa for help, but she was busy in Ireland. One day, Mira would return. She would set things straight; I knew she would. I’d light some incense at her shrine when I got home. Some people said she had abandoned Earth because the humans weren’t worthy. But she wasn’t called the Blade of Justice for no reason.

She would come back.

She would save us.

Someday.

I made my way through the darkened residential streets as long as I could. But where we were staying, me and a few others, was an abandoned shop on De Anza. We’d moved in after the last curfew had been rescinded. Now that it was back in effect, we might have to move again.

I stepped toward the parking lot at the strip mall where we were staying, but ducked back around the corner to the side street when I saw the Monitor vehicle coming slowly down De Anza. If they had a revealer, they’d find me as a curfew violator. I crouched behind a shrub next to a wooden fence.

I was tempted to try a spell to hide my presence, but that was risky, too. A good revealer would sense the spell if it wasn’t done perfectly, and I wasn’t that good at it. It was easier to detect magic use than it was to identify that there were people out. It was pretty easy to sense a living creature, but it could be a dog or some other animal. It took the higher skills of a revealer to tell one type of creature from another. Hopefully, they only had basic spotters looking for magic use and I’d be safe if I just waited them out.

That was another restriction the humans had put in place, on recommendation of the Daruidai. You needed a permit to practice magic and you had to be registered with the government in order to get the permit. That didn’t really stop anyone, though. And that gave the government a reason to do things like this stupid curfew.

I rolled my eyes at myself when I realized I was holding my breath. Holding my breath wasn’t going to stop them from finding me. I just had to wait and hoped they passed me by.

I watched through a crack between boards as the hovering vehicle continued down the street. I waited for several minutes after it had gone before coming back out. I quickly crossed the parking lot and went behind the building. The backdoor to the shop was at the far end. I barely registered the familiar, faded letters on the door when I went through: Herbs, Antiques and Curiosities.

I wasn’t sure what had qualified as curiosities. Some said this shop was haunted. Others said it had been owned by some witches. I didn’t know about any of that, either, but I knew I felt safer there than anywhere else I’d stayed. It seemed like the place was abandoned, but the power was still on, so it wasn’t totally derelict.

“What took you so long?” Garth asked when I stepped into the office of the backroom.

“I found an abandoned house,” I said, swinging my backpack from my shoulder to the desk. “There was a lot of canned stuff. I can go back tomorrow and get more. And then the monitors were coming by and I had to wait until they’d passed.”

It was surprising how many people packed up and moved to Daoine or Danu and just walked out on their lives on Earth. The more people that moved to those worlds, the more farmers and workers were needed there to create more infrastructure.

On the other side of things, some areas on Earth were affected more than others by the exodus, but the Bay Area alone had reduced its population by at least a third over the last decade. A lot of businesses hadn’t survived the decrease in demand. The result was that a good chunk of buildings, both residential and commercial, stood empty. And a lot of those had been taken over by squatters. Even some banks had gone broke from so many people defaulting on loans.

Garth was looking through my haul and gave a nod.

“Good work.”

“Lili, did you hear the news while you were out playing house?” Richard asked me. He wasn’t a bad sort, but he could be annoying at times.

“What news is that, Dick?”

“Don’t call me that,” he glowered. “Call me Richard. Or Mooncrow.”

“Okay, Moonbeam,” I rolled my eyes. His name was Richard Murray. He was human, and he had dreams of becoming some kind of mage-assassin. “Are you going to tell me the news or not?”

He was caught between wanting to argue about his name or spill the goods. Finally, the news won out.

“People are saying they’re back,” he said. “Mira and Nora. And they’re on Danu helping get rid of the Risen.”

I just stared at him without saying anything.

“It’s true!” Richard insisted. “I’m not making this up!”

I looked at the other faces around the room. Olivia’s eyes sparkled with excitement. Garth just shrugged.

“It’s what folks are saying,” Garth admitted. “Supposedly, they were trapped in some cave all this time, and somebody found them a few weeks ago. I’ll believe it when I see it. Those two are probably long dead.”

I bit back my anger at his last statement. Garth was Urgaban, what humans called goblins, and he was pretty reasonable as long as you didn’t push him too much.

“They wouldn’t die so easily,” I said under my breath.

“They’re mortal, just like the rest of us,” he said. “They can die.”

“You know what they can do,” I started. “You—”

“Yeah, yeah,” he cut me off. “Everyone on the planet has seen that video. Of what The Three did when their mother was killed. Even if it’s real, that doesn’t make them immune to a knife in the ribs. Anyone can be killed.”

I suppose what he’d said was true enough, I just couldn’t believe they were dead.

“They’re alive,” Richard said. “That’s what everyone is saying now.”

“Maybe,” Garth shrugged again. “We’ll see. Use your head and your eyes! Don’t be stupid. Don’t be gullible.”

Richard narrowed his eyes at Garth. “You shouldn’t talk to me like that,” he said. “I may not be a very great friend, but you don’t want me for an enemy.”

“Whatever,” Garth rolled his eyes.

“Come on, Dickie-bird,” Olivia was eyeing the cans of food on the desk. “Let’s make some dinner.”

At nine years old, Olivia was the youngest among us, and she was Loiala Fé. Richard had taken on the role of her protector. It was probably his greatest redeeming quality.

From what Richard had told us, Olivia had somehow managed to escape from traffickers. The degenerates who used to force humans into slavery and prostitution had expanded their business to include people from the other worlds. Being so young just made Olivia more valuable to them.

I didn’t think the slavers had had Olivia for very long, but I didn’t know for sure. It wasn’t something she talked about. But she was very sweet and had become a little sister for all of us. It filled me with a deep rage whenever I thought about what those people had done to her and had planned to do to her. If Mira was really back, maybe she would do something about that kind of thing here on Earth, like she had for the Rorujhen on Daoine.

I glanced through the door to the shelf where I’d erected a small shrine to Mira. If she was back, maybe she’d hear my prayers, now.

There was a sound at the front door of the shop. We all froze where we were. Then Garth waved us all into the office and flipped off the light switch. We crouched behind the desk, waiting.

We heard voices getting closer from the front of the store but couldn’t make them out at first.