Mountain and Fate

Azzadul, the god-king, the Lord of Light revered by many. When the darkness corrupted him, he became the Dark Lord, feared the world over. His magic, once a gateway to immortality for his people, delved instead into horrors as he sought ever deeper levels of mastery. Children were stolen from their beds, coveted for his blood-rites. When he vanished, it all ended, and the people of the world tried to forget, to move on…

Jak Fuller has learned to trust the dark magic he grew up with. All his life, he felt its call and though he's feared it, he cannot think of it as evil, not this thing that is bound to him as intimately as a lover.

He is ready to take the final steps, to pass into the Underworld itself and become something greater. And he will trust that this is not a mistake, that it is fate.

Here in the town called Darkhollow, intrigues gather tight as spider webs. Jak's long-lost sister, Laira, whispers to him of freedom. His master, Din Dellion, admonishes him about the weakness of the heart.

Dark choices lie before him, but Jak is not afraid. Darkness is his destiny, and he will embrace its call, as eagerly now as when he was a boy who first listened, and followed...

Mountain & Fate is the fourth part in the 5-part serial publication of A Thousand Roads.