Morgan Rice is the #1 bestselling and USA Today bestselling author of the epic fantasy series THE SORCERER’S RING, comprising seventeen books; of the #1 bestselling series THE VAMPIRE JOURNALS, comprising twelve books; of the #1 bestselling series THE SURVIVAL TRILOGY, a post-apocalyptic thriller comprising three books; of the epic fantasy series KINGS AND SORCERERS, comprising six books; of the epic fantasy series OF CROWNS AND GLORY, comprising eight books; of the epic fantasy series A THRONE FOR SISTERS, comprising eight books (and counting); and of the new science fiction series THE INVASION CHRONICLES, comprising four books. Morgan’s books are available in audio and print editions, and translations are available in over 25 languages.

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Select Acclaim for Morgan Rice

“If you thought that there was no reason left for living after the end of THE SORCERER’S RING series, you were wrong. In RISE OF THE DRAGONS Morgan Rice has come up with what promises to be another brilliant series, immersing us in a fantasy of trolls and dragons, of valor, honor, courage, magic and faith in your destiny. Morgan has managed again to produce a strong set of characters that make us cheer for them on every page.…Recommended for the permanent library of all readers that love a well-written fantasy.”

--Books and Movie Reviews
Roberto Mattos

“An action packed fantasy sure to please fans of Morgan Rice’s previous novels, along with fans of works such as THE INHERITANCE CYCLE by Christopher Paolini…. Fans of Young Adult Fiction will devour this latest work by Rice and beg for more.”

--The Wanderer, A Literary Journal (regarding Rise of the Dragons)

“A spirited fantasy that weaves elements of mystery and intrigue into its story line. A Quest of Heroes is all about the making of courage and about realizing a life purpose that leads to growth, maturity, and excellence….For those seeking meaty fantasy adventures, the protagonists, devices, and action provide a vigorous set of encounters that focus well on Thor's evolution from a dreamy child to a young adult facing impossible odds for survival….Only the beginning of what promises to be an epic young adult series.”

--Midwest Book Review (D. Donovan, eBook Reviewer)

“THE SORCERER’S RING has all the ingredients for an instant success: plots, counterplots, mystery, valiant knights, and blossoming relationships replete with broken hearts, deception and betrayal. It will keep you entertained for hours, and will satisfy all ages. Recommended for the permanent library of all fantasy readers.”

--Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos

“In this action-packed first book in the epic fantasy Sorcerer's Ring series (which is currently 14 books strong), Rice introduces readers to 14-year-old Thorgrin "Thor" McLeod, whose dream is to join the Silver Legion, the elite knights who serve the king…. Rice's writing is solid and the premise intriguing.”

--Publishers Weekly

Books by Morgan Rice

THE INVASION CHRONICLES

TRANSMISSION (Book #1)

ARRIVAL (Book #2)

ASCENT (Book #3)

RETURN (Book #4)

THE WAY OF STEEL

ONLY THE WORTHY (Book #1)

A THRONE FOR SISTERS

A THRONE FOR SISTERS (Book #1)

A COURT FOR THIEVES (Book #2)

A SONG FOR ORPHANS (Book #3)

A DIRGE FOR PRINCES (Book #4)

A JEWEL FOR ROYALS (BOOK #5)

A KISS FOR QUEENS (BOOK #6)

A CROWN FOR ASSASSINS (Book #7)

A CLASP FOR HEIRS (Book #8)

OF CROWNS AND GLORY

SLAVE, WARRIOR, QUEEN (Book #1)

ROGUE, PRISONER, PRINCESS (Book #2)

KNIGHT, HEIR, PRINCE (Book #3)

REBEL, PAWN, KING (Book #4)

SOLDIER, BROTHER, SORCERER (Book #5)

HERO, TRAITOR, DAUGHTER (Book #6)

RULER, RIVAL, EXILE (Book #7)

VICTOR, VANQUISHED, SON (Book #8)

KINGS AND SORCERERS

RISE OF THE DRAGONS (Book #1)

RISE OF THE VALIANT (Book #2)

THE WEIGHT OF HONOR (Book #3)

A FORGE OF VALOR (Book #4)

A REALM OF SHADOWS (Book #5)

NIGHT OF THE BOLD (Book #6)

THE SORCERER’S RING

A QUEST OF HEROES (Book #1)

A MARCH OF KINGS (Book #2)

A FATE OF DRAGONS (Book #3)

A CRY OF HONOR (Book #4)

A VOW OF GLORY (Book #5)

A CHARGE OF VALOR (Book #6)

A RITE OF SWORDS (Book #7)

A GRANT OF ARMS (Book #8)

A SKY OF SPELLS (Book #9)

A SEA OF SHIELDS (Book #10)

A REIGN OF STEEL (Book #11)

A LAND OF FIRE (Book #12)

A RULE OF QUEENS (Book #13)

AN OATH OF BROTHERS (Book #14)

A DREAM OF MORTALS (Book #15)

A JOUST OF KNIGHTS (Book #16)

THE GIFT OF BATTLE (Book #17)

THE SURVIVAL TRILOGY

ARENA ONE: SLAVERSUNNERS (Book #1)

ARENA TWO (Book #2)

ARENA THREE (Book #3)

VAMPIRE, FALLEN

BEFORE DAWN (Book #1)

THE VAMPIRE JOURNALS

TURNED (Book #1)

LOVED (Book #2)

BETRAYED (Book #3)

DESTINED (Book #4)

DESIRED (Book #5)

BETROTHED (Book #6)

VOWED (Book #7)

FOUND (Book #8)

RESURRECTED (Book #9)

CRAVED (Book #10)

FATED (Book #11)

OBSESSED (Book #12)

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Copyright © 2018 by Morgan Rice. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior permission of the author. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

CHAPTER ONE

Kevin stared up in horror at the small ship dragging him and Chloe inside it, feeling completely helpless as it lifted them up with its beam of light. They dangled in the air, turning over helplessly as it drew them up.

It had seemed so certain that they would be able to stop the aliens using the virus they’d taken from the tar pits, but the aliens had sent the vial back empty, almost with contempt.

That wasn’t the worst part though. The worst part was that Luna was gone. They’d made Luna one of them, and that hurt more than Kevin had thought anything could.

Chloe screamed beside him as they rose, tumbling in air that no longer seemed to know which way was down. Kevin could hear the fear there, but also the anger.

Metal closed around them, and they tumbled together onto the floor of the small ship that had sucked them up. Kevin struggled to stand, bracing himself, half expecting to be attacked by some alien force.

Instead, he found himself standing in the middle of a large, round, white-walled room. There was a circular portal on the floor that looked as though it opened and closed like the aperture of a camera, and nothing else.

Chloe went over to one of the walls and banged a fist on it.

“Kevin, what are we going to do?”

Kevin wished he had an answer. But after everything that had happened down below, he didn’t think he had answers for anything anymore.

“I don’t know,” he said.

Chloe hit the wall again, the thud sounding dull against the interior.

“Chloe, that won’t—”

Suddenly, they were standing in thin air. The wall was now as translucent as glass, giving Kevin a clear view of Sedona falling away beneath him, and the larger ship above that they were rising up to meet.

This close, Kevin could see the door—more like a cavernous mouth—open to accept them, letting their ship into what must have been a hangar. There was a ripple of something as they passed into it, some shield or membrane that must have been there to hold its atmosphere in place.

“Incredible,” Chloe said with a gasp.

Kevin had to agree. The hangar was large enough for dozens of the ships, all connecting to walkways. Their ship connected to one.

They stopped abruptly, and a section of the wall slid aside, revealing an open doorway.

Kevin and Chloe stared at each other. Why weren’t they being greeted? Attacked?

“So they want us to just walk out?” Chloe asked. “Why haven’t they killed us yet?”

Kevin wondered that himself.

“Maybe it’s a trap,” he said.

She started to cry.

Kevin put a hand on her arm. He knew how bad things could get, and he found his thoughts caught between concern for her and worries about what might be happening here. Why were they alone? Why weren’t they greeted by the aliens’ equivalent of police or soldiers waiting for them?

“Should we walk out?” Kevin asked. “Or stay in here?”

She looked at him.

“Neither option seems safe,” she said.

Chloe stepped to the opening, to Kevin’s surprise, and he followed. But suddenly she stopped, walking right into something. It was an illusion—a translucent wall that stopped her from walking but allowed her to look out.

Then their small ship starting moving again, slowly, through the massive hangar.

Kevin stepped up beside her and looked out in awe. The hangar was huge and rounded, looking as much grown as built, the walls seeming to pulse faintly with power. But other than the rows and rows of ships, the space was empty.

There were no captured people, no machines working on things, and no aliens.

“Where is everyone?” Chloe asked, echoing his thought.

Kevin didn’t answer, because he was too busy looking back at Earth. Sedona sat below them, seeming so close, yet so achingly far.

“Why aren’t we falling down toward it?” he wondered aloud.

Chloe frowned at him, looked around, and then shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe the gravity works differently here. I’m kind of glad we aren’t, though.”

Kevin was glad too, because it would have been a really long way to fall. It took him a moment to realize that it seemed to be getting further with every passing moment, receding little by little, the buildings growing smaller until Kevin could no longer make them out.

“We’re still moving!” he said. “We’re going up into space!”

In spite of everything, in spite of the horrors that had been inflicted on the world, and the danger they were probably in, in spite of the fact that they’d failed to destroy the aliens, Kevin had to admit a part of him was excited. The idea of actually going into space was almost too incredible to believe.

“It would be cool except for where we’re going,” Chloe pointed out.

Kevin could hear the fear there, and he could even feel some of it himself. If they were heading up, then there was only one place where they could be going, and that would be a dangerous place for them both. The world ship hung above, its rocky surface punctuated by spike-like towers, but almost blank aside from that.

It was frightening, yet the thing was, it might also be their best opportunity to actually do something about all of this.

“I know you’re afraid,” Kevin said. “But there’s nothing we can do to stop it. And look at the bright side: we had no way of stopping them back on Earth. Maybe up here we can.”

Chloe scoffed. “How?”

Kevin shrugged. He didn’t know yet. There had to be something. Maybe there would be some way to shut down the things the aliens were doing. Maybe there were ways to drive them off, or fight back against them, or even kill them.

“We have to try,” Kevin said.

He couldn’t help thinking about Luna. What had happened to her was a lot worse than being transported in some alien ship.

They stood there quietly, watching as the Earth grew smaller and smaller beneath them. Soon, it was the size of a watermelon, then a baseball, then a marble against the night sky.

Kevin turned and looked at the mother ship. He hadn’t realized quite how big the alien world was before, and it was only as the craft turned and shifted in space that he got a real sense of how large it was.

“It’s an actual world,” Kevin said, unable to keep the awe out of his voice.

“We knew that,” Chloe said. “It’s been up in the sky.”

“But an actual world…”

There was a big difference between seeing something far off and being there. Like the moon, Kevin could have covered up the world ship with the palm of his hand from Earth, but now that they were here, it stretched out as far as he could see in every direction. There were structures on the surface, although most of it looked barren and empty, with only giant towers sticking up from it like the spines of a sea urchin. There were also mouthlike apertures, big enough that even a ship like the one they were on could fit into them without touching the sides. Kevin couldn’t imagine what might have carved gaps like that into a world, but right then they had bigger things to think about.

“I think we’re going into it,” Kevin said. Not just to a world, but inside it, down past the outer shell of its surface.

Chloe didn’t look happy about that. “We’re going to be trapped. We’ll never find our way out.”

“We will,” Kevin reassured her.

He had to believe that. The alternative was that they were heading down to their deaths as the ship that carried them descended into the surface of the world…

…and through it.

Kevin stared. The entire interior of the world ship was like a hollow shell, and inside it there was everything Kevin might have expected on the surface of a planet. There were oceans and landmasses, vehicles moving back and forth, and cities so huge they seemed to take up almost every scrap of available land, turning the whole great ship into one giant hive of activity. Spires stood out from different spots on the vast city, golden and gleaming, looking like palaces set against the rest. A great reddish-gold orb pulsed at the heart of the planet, giving off heat and light.

Kevin thought he could see figures down below, but they were too distant to make out the details yet.

“Aliens,” Chloe said, staring down. “Not people controlled by them, not messages, not their voices… aliens.”

Kevin knew what she meant. All this time, they’d had only hints of the aliens, seen only the effects of what they could do. Now, here they were on the aliens’ world, and there was so much of it.

They felt the clunk as the ship that carried them locked into place on the world, steadying their view of a city beyond in which creatures of every impossible shape and size walked at strange angles, seemingly held in place sideways and upside down in defiance of gravity, or maybe they just had control of the gravity, so that any direction could be “down.”

This time, the door opened for real. Kevin could feel the slight breeze on his face, warm and balmy, smelling unlike anything he’d ever experienced.

What surprised him the most, though, was what lay waiting on the other side.

A trio of figures stood there, waiting to greet them.

They were almost identical, which in this place seemed like an impossibility to Kevin. They were tall and hairless, pale-skinned, with eyes that reminded Kevin of a wasp’s, except that they were a pure, milky white. They wore long robes over pale jumpsuits, and each seemed to have an assortment of metal, and occasionally fleshy, devices set around its body.

The one standing at the heart of the trio spoke. Its words came out in English from a translator on its arm, but Kevin didn’t need it to translate the flat monotone. His brain did that for him.

“Welcome, Kevin McKenzie. We have been waiting for you.”

CHAPTER TWO

Kevin stared at the alien who had spoken, horror flooding through him.

The alien stared back at him with those large pale eyes, and it spoke again while the two others beside it stood silent, the words translating in Kevin’s head before the device it held could do it.

“This one is Purest Xan of the Hive,” the alien said. “The two beside this one are Purest Ix and Purest Ull. And you are Chloe Baxter and Kevin McKenzie, ape things of the planet Earth.”

Kevin was stunned. It took him several moments to collect his thoughts.

“We’re humans,” Kevin said, wanting to correct them, to talk to them, even to persuade them. After all, they were talking to him in a way that they hadn’t bothered talking to anybody else.

“As I said,” Purest Xan replied, “ape things. Lesser things, but perhaps things worth learning from.”

There was no emotion to the way the alien said it, but there was something about the way it talked about learning from them that sent a shiver down Kevin’s spine.

“What do you mean?” Kevin demanded. “What are you going to do to us?”

“Our world ships travel to gather resources,” Purest Xan said. “Technology, minerals, minds, bodies we can reshape. We will test you and understand you until you prove worthless. Then we will discard you.”

Kevin saw Chloe’s face turn pale, and he could share that fear. The thought of being ripped apart for study and then discarded was terrifying.

“We aren’t afraid of you,” Chloe said, struggling to put a defiant note in her voice.

“Yes, you are,” Purest Xan said. “You are a lesser being, with fears and needs, weaknesses and flaws. You are not of the Hive. You are not of the Purest. We have no such weaknesses, only the improvements of our flesh shapers.”

“You think you’re perfect?” Chloe demanded. “You think looking like that, you’re perfect?”

“Not yet,” Purest Xan said. “But we will be. Enough speaking to lesser orders.”

The alien turned to the others with it, and Kevin knew that the next thing it would say was grab them.

“Run!” he yelled to Chloe, and they spun away from the aliens, starting to sprint as fast as they could from the square. Kevin ran as hard as his body would let him, ignoring the pain and effort, ignoring the way his illness tried to drag him down with every step and hoping that, if he and Chloe could make enough ground, they might be able to lose Purest Xan and the others with it in the chaos of the world ship.

“Where are we going?” Chloe demanded.

“I don’t know,” Kevin said. He had no plan right then, no idea what they were going to do next.

He kept running, risking a quick look back to see if the aliens were chasing them. They just stood there, apparently concentrating. One of them touched something on its arm.

Without warning, the world felt heavier. It felt as though heavy weights were pressing down on top of Kevin, too solid to lift. He struggled to keep standing, and saw Chloe doing the same, pushing up against it as if she could lift the sky above her. It wasn’t the air, though; it felt as though Kevin’s own bones and muscles were too heavy, gravity dragging him down toward the floor many times harder than it should have.

“It’s the stuff that lets them stick to the walls,” Kevin called out, thinking of the way the aliens had been able to walk sideways and upside down through the interior of their world ship. If they could control gravity well enough to do that, of course they would.

Chloe shouted back, “It’s dragging me down. We’re trapped!”

She sounded on the verge of panic, just as she’d been back in the spaceship.

The gravity pulled him down to his knees, the pressure making it hard to breathe. He fell forward, feeling the weight of his own body pinning him down to the floor.

A scream of frustration from Chloe told him that the same thing must have happened to her. It took everything Kevin had just to be able to roll over onto his back and look across to where she lay, pinned in the same way.

“No, let me go! Let me go!” she screamed. Kevin could see her crying as she tried to thrash her way clear of the force holding her in place.

The three aliens were there then, and they must have sent some signal to others, because two hulking creatures with carapaces like armor walked out from the golden spire carrying what looked like two large metal frames. They set them down near Kevin and Chloe, standing them upright so that Kevin could see the glasslike sheets set inside them, making them look like two windows standing up on their own.

“Attempting to run was foolish,” Purest Xan said. The alien gave a signal to the two armored creatures, and they reached down to grab Chloe from the floor. As soon as they lifted her, she started to thrash and twist, struggling to get free, but they held her as easily as a feather while she cried.

“Stop it,” Kevin said. “Leave her alone!”

It didn’t seem to make any difference to them. The creatures were as implacable as machines, moving with the kind of strength that said they could have easily torn Chloe and Kevin apart. They took Chloe and lifted her against one of the clear plates, and one of the Purest pressed something on its arm again. Chloe stuck to it as surely as if they’d glued her there, still fighting against it, and still crying when nothing happened.

They came for Kevin then, and big hands clamped around Kevin’s arms, lifting him and pressing him against the second glass panel without giving him any chance to fight. Kevin kicked at them, but his foot just bounced off their armored hides. Then the alien with the device touched it, and Kevin was stuck to the glass just like Chloe.

It didn’t feel like being glued to something, though. There was no stickiness to it. It was more like lying down, except that he couldn’t hope to get up because of the gravity pressing him into place. It wasn’t as strong as on the floor; it was even quite comfortable if he didn’t try to fight it, but Kevin couldn’t hope to pull his way clear of it.

“Kevin,” Chloe said, looking absolutely distraught as she hung there on her own frame.

“I’m right here, Chloe,” he said. He didn’t try to promise her that it would all be okay. That didn’t feel like a promise he could make then. “I’m not going anywhere.”

It turned out that they were both going somewhere though, because the large, armored aliens lifted the frames, carrying them like builders moving panes of glass into position. Weirdly, Kevin had no sensation of being lifted, because for him, down still felt as though it was toward the frame.

“Where are you taking us?” Chloe demanded. “Let us go!”

“Try to stay calm,” Kevin said, hoping that none of the fear he felt in that moment crept into his voice. He was afraid of what might happen to both of them, but he was really afraid for Chloe. With how much she hated being trapped, this was the worst possible thing that could happen to them.

Except that it wasn’t, and Kevin knew it. There were still plenty of worse things that could happen. Would happen, if they didn’t figure out a way out of it.

The aliens carried them toward a golden spire, through a large door that opened automatically to admit them. The interior was everything that the rest of the world ship was not: clean and bright and comfortable looking, so that to Kevin it looked like a very expensive hotel might have, or perhaps a palace. There wasn’t the huge variety of different angles and directions here, either; unlike the rest of the ship, everyone seemed to have agreed on which way was up.

They carried Kevin and Chloe up to a room where dome-shaped banks of machinery stood, looking half-built, half-grown. A section of the wall flickered with an image of the Earth below, and Kevin didn’t know if that had been done simply to stop the walls from being featureless, or as a kind of additional cruelty.

Purest Xan followed them into the room, standing between them, by one of the dome-shaped devices. It took tiny, squid-like things from an opening within the dome one by one, each no bigger than the tip of the alien’s finger. Purest Xan placed them on Kevin’s head, where they stuck, feeling warm and slimy all at once.

“What is all this?” Kevin demanded. “What are you doing to us?”

“We are going to examine you,” Purest Xan replied. “We will see what use you are to the Hive. There will be pain.”

It said it as though it was nothing, or at least as though it didn’t care. Kevin could hear Chloe crying again now, and he wanted to say something, wanted to comfort her. Then the pain hit, and there was no time to do anything but cry out with it.

It felt like cold fingers rummaging around in his thoughts, picking things up and putting them back again, or maybe it was the tentacles of the things stuck to Kevin’s head. He tried to push them out, concentrating as hard as he could, but it made no difference; it just brought more pain.

Kevin could feel other presences now, dozens of minds, hundreds, connected in a kind of silent communion, their collective presence pressing into him and exploring every corner of his being. He heard himself scream, and he heard Chloe too, suggesting that exactly the same thing was happening to her.

Kevin saw images then, flooding into the forefront of his mind and flickering there. There were images of friends, of family, of everything that had recently happened. Kevin saw images of the Survivors jumping into his mind, and he tried to think about something, anything else, so that the aliens wouldn’t know where they were. He could feel their lack of interest though; it seemed to make no difference to them.

He started to see other things, the visions flickering through the rest of it, although the truth was that he couldn’t tell whether they were real visions or something flowing back along the connection to the Hive’s collective. The images filled his mind, blotting out the pain, the sensation of being pinned in place, even the fear of what was happening to Chloe.

He saw a planet floating in space, huge and dull. Moons spun around it, but even as Kevin watched, he realized that they weren’t natural moons, but more world ships. He saw one move out of orbit, the space around it bending and shifting as it moved impossibly fast for something that size.

He felt his consciousness being pulled down toward the surface of the planet, and as he reached it, he saw that the surface was blasted and ruined, polluted and inhospitable. There were towns there in spite of that, filled with hunched figures who looked similar to the Purest, but hunched over and changed, their flesh twisted to live in the ruined environment. Kevin found it hard to believe that anyone would want to live in a place like that, but through the connection to the Hive he knew that these figures didn’t get a choice. They were the ones not chosen for the world ship.

He saw other things there. He saw the camps of creatures stolen from world after world. He saw the flesh factories where they were tested and reshaped, tortured in way after way, with electricity and fire and more. He saw creatures dissected while alive, or forced to breed with one another in combinations that produced monsters. Among the desolation of the wasted planet, he saw small green domes too, like islands of perfection among the horror of the rest of it. Kevin wasn’t surprised to see golden towers standing at the heart of each one.

He came back to himself, gasping, feeling as though every scrap of energy had been pulled out of him. Kevin lay on the platform, looking around and seeing only Chloe in the room now. It felt as though the visions had only lasted seconds, but it must have been longer, to give Purest Xan enough time to leave the room.

“Chloe?” Kevin said.

He heard her groan, her eyes opening as she looked over at him. They were red with crying now as she stared over at him.

“I saw… I saw…”

“I know,” Kevin said. “I saw it too.”

“They’re going to kill us,” Chloe said. “They’re going to pull us apart to see how we work. They’re going to experiment on us like some little kid pulling the wings off flies.”

Kevin would have nodded if he could have pulled his head away from the frame enough to do it. That was the problem, though: they could talk about how much they needed to get out of there, they could see everything that was going to happen, but they still couldn’t move. All they could do was stay there, staring at the screen in front of them, and the Earth rotating slowly upon it.

It took a second or two to realize that it was getting smaller.

It was gradual at first, the planet shrinking away a little at a time. Then it started to move faster, and faster still, receding until it was just a dot. Then it wasn’t even that as the space around the world ship folded around it and it shot away through space.

Kevin stared at the screen in horror. He didn’t know where they were going, or why, but whatever could persuade the aliens to move their whole world ship from the Earth, he knew that it couldn’t be good for him and Chloe.

Or for Luna.