King of Swords by Amy Kuivalainen EPUB & PDF – eBook Details
- Author: Amy Kuivalainen
- Language: English
- Formats: PDF / EPUB
- Status: Available For Free Download
- Series: None
- Price: Free
- File Size: 1 MB
2210 AD, All Saints Day, Present Day
SOME SAY that every good story begins with a death, others claim that it
begins with lovers meeting. As Providence would have it, this story begins
with both, which is only fitting as death and love have always walked hand in
hand in the Serene Republic of Venice.
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As our tale begins, the life of Alfonso Pisani comes to an end. The salty
wind blows off the lagoon, with the promise of winter in its bite, and the
doomed Alfonso is led up the wooden steps of the gallows constructed in
Saint Mark’s Square. It has been a place of public execution for as long as it
has existed, even with its deceptive beauty and reverent holiness.
Despite the miserable weather, the square is packed with Venetian
citizens. Everyone, from the Doge on his balcony above to the beggar boy
straining for a glimpse below, is present to make sure that Alfonso dies.
His crime, you ask? One of the most despised in all of the New Republic.
Alfonso has been caught making tarocchi, the tarot, and imbuing the cards
with magic in order to screw with Fate.
In the Republic, tarot cards are carried and consulted by the very poorest
to the very richest, and the making of them held as one of the highest
callings. To use magic to manipulate cards is the gravest of crimes.
Fate, like the Republic, doesn’t like to be screwed with, and to attempt it
is to surrender your life because no mercy will be granted by either. Alfonso
was caught in the act. There was not even a trial, and he didn’t defend his
innocence.
Fate fucked Alfonso Pisani before Alfonso Pisani could fuck Fate.
The Council of Ten had signed the execution paperwork before gathering
on the Doge’s balcony to watch Alfonso die. They know he can use magic, so
his guards are trained in battle spells and will be able to counteract any of his
attempts to flee.
Alfonso does not attempt it.
His guards carry hexed stiletto’s and artificer’s stun bombs to keep any
rogue stregoni in check.
Once the guards would have pointed guns to ensure compliance, but guns
were the brutish weapons for the non-magical and banned in the city of
Venice. They had a magical weapons trade to protect after all.
After technology failed two hundred years before, magic rose back up
and had reigned supreme ever since.
Industrious Venetian artisans had been the first to discover how to fuse
and capture magic in their finely blown glass, creating everything from
batteries to bombs.
Some of the old technology like lights and phones had also been restored
with magical adjustments, but the priority had been modified weaponry to
deal with magical threats.
Business had always been revered as much as any saint in Venice, and
magic is just something else to trade in.
The ancient blue and gold clock tower chimes to warn the crowds to
hurry into the square, for Alfonso’s last dance is about to begin.
Standing behind the Doge and slightly to his right, Domenico Aladoro
adjusts the black hood of his cloak of office to try and keep the misting rain
from his face.
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