by James Erich
Then he was gone, leaving Sael holding empty air. Somehow the staff lying on the floor ten feet away from him had vanished as well.
Sael wiped at his eyes, trying to prevent the tears from spilling. He desperately wanted to respond, I love you too, but he knew Koreh could no longer hear the words. And speaking them to the emptiness that now surrounded him would be agonizing.
A man cleared his throat, and Sael spun to see his father standing near the stairwell that led down into the guard’s tower, Geilin at his side. Apparently Sael’s guard hadn’t dared block their passage. Both men seemed embarrassed, and Sael had no doubt they’d seen that last kiss good-bye and his attempt at holding back his tears. Good, he thought defiantly. Let them see, and let them be embarrassed!
But he knew it wasn’t Master Geilin his anger was directed at. He composed himself and faced the vek. “I was just coming down, Father.”
“Very well,” Worlen said, his voice oddly hesitant for the first time in Sael’s memory. “Then later this evening, when things settle down, we can talk about our next moves.”
“Is there another attack coming?”
“What do you think?”
Sael had already given the matter serious thought. He looked out at the Taaweh city and the dark clouds above it as he spoke. “Koreh assures me that the enemy army’s ömem were blinded just as ours were by the magic the Taaweh worked on the valley.”
“Several ömem were among the… sleeping… bodies we’ve relocated, along with forty-three mages,” Geilin offered. “We’ve brought them into the keep, where they can be detained more easily, should they awaken.”
Sael nodded. “There’s a chance that some of their people may have escaped to report back to the emperor about the defeat here, but the Taaweh would most likely have caught them.”
“Always assume the worst-case scenario,” his father said.
“We made the journey from the capital in seven days, with at least one day lost because Master Geilin was injured, and of course we slept at night. A scout could make it in four or five days.”
“But?” his father prompted.
“But,” Sael went on, “Mat’zovya can be reached in a couple days, and an ömem can report back to the royal court from there.”
“Correct.”
“If the emperor decides to send more troops, it will take them at least a day to prepare. Then the journey will take them the same amount of time it did this last time—about ten days.”
“Nine,” the vek corrected. “Or perhaps eight.” When Sael looked at him questioningly, he explained, “Had the troops set out from the city immediately after you left, they would have overtaken you the second night you camped. The emperor relied upon his assassins to take care of you and Master Geilin, and didn’t send the troops to lay siege to Harleh until two or three days later.”
That made sense. The ömem would know for certain, but it was unlikely they would tell Sael and his father anything, so long as they were being held prisoner. “So… eleven days, at the earliest,” Sael concluded.
His father gave him a wry smile and said, “It’s good to know your time in the royal court hasn’t dulled your wits.”
This was perhaps the highest praise the vek had ever lavished upon his youngest son, and Sael had to restrain himself from smiling. But his pleasure at the offhand compliment didn’t last long.
“So, dekan,” his father asked, “how will you prepare for this approaching army?”
This, of course, was a test. His father already knew how to prepare, and simply wanted to see if Sael was up to the task. Sael weighed his answer carefully. “Our stores haven’t been touched. We’ll keep loading more into them, but that isn’t critical.” He glanced once again at the Taaweh city, with its thousands of lights sparkling in the encroaching darkness. “Our topmost priorities are the fact that there is no daylight for the mages to replenish their magical stores—a circumstance that may continue indefinitely—and we have several thousand enemy soldiers nearby who may wake up at any moment. There is also the matter of appeasing the ömem. We cannot let them leave Harleh, but the longer we keep them imprisoned here, with their Sight cut off from them, the more dangerous they could potentially become. And the Sisterhood will eventually send the samöt to retrieve them.”
The assassins would be blind within the confines of the valley, just as the ömem were, but the thought of assassins descending upon the city was still an unpleasant one.
“A fair assessment.” The vek turned to descend the stone stairs leading to the walkway on top of the outer wall. “I will trust you to find solutions to these problems. I must return to Worlen tomorrow afternoon, after we’ve had a proper ceremony in the temple for your Rite of Ascension.”
“Worlen?” Sael asked in a brief flash of panic.
“I cannot ignore my duties there, now that it has come to open war. “
“But the war is here,” Sael insisted, “at Harleh!”
“So I’m aware. I will be returning with reinforcements shortly.”
“When?”
Sael’s father gave an infuriatingly vague wave of his hand. “Before the emperor’s troops arrive. Meik will remain here to advise you in military planning. I trust you’ll want to appoint Master Geilin to the position of vönan-makek of Harleh?”
Sael saw an expression of surprise flicker over Geilin’s face and then quickly vanish. When he had stepped down as vönan-makek of Worlen, there had already been a chief mage at Harleh, so Geilin had sacrificed his position and a considerable amount of political capital to become Sael’s guardian.
“Of course,” Sael said, too embarrassed to look his old master in the eye.
“Very well. Then I trust he’ll be able to advise you on other matters. In the meantime—” Worlen looked pointedly at the Taaweh city. “—I suggest you find out what your ‘allies’ intend. Will they aid Harleh in another battle, or do they consider the alliance to be ended? And you might ask them if this valley will ever see daylight again.”
“With Koreh gone, I don’t know how to contact them.”
The vek scoffed. “Their city is right in front of you, in plain sight. Look for a gate.”
With that, he descended the steps, leaving Sael gritting his teeth in frustration. Master Geilin watched his former student with an amused expression on his face.
“He can’t just abandon me here!” Sael snapped. “I don’t have the faintest idea how to run a city, or how to prepare for a siege, or how to fight a war!”
“I’m afraid you don’t have much choice but to learn,” Geilin said practically. “And you’ve done well, thus far. I suspect you’ll do an admirable job.”
Sael wished he shared the old wizard’s confidence, but the tasks his father had set for him seemed immense. And without Koreh at his side, it all seemed meaningless.
Or almost. As Sael raised his eyes, he saw the people of Harleh gathered upon the walls, looking out at Gyishya and the eerie bluish sky that now covered the valley, fearful and uncertain about what all this meant, whether Harleh would survive this strange turn of events. He realized he couldn’t abandon them. He was their dekan, and he had a duty to these people to see them through whatever lay ahead.
And Menaük did not shirk their duty.
Epilogue
KOREH stood at the edge of the forest city, peering into the tangled snarl of roots and branches and undergrowth that surrounded it, unable to discern any kind of an entrance hidden in the shadows. He’d tried slipping into the earth and moving into it that way, but each time he grew disoriented and surfaced somewhere outside the city. He’d also tried to make his way through the tangled bushes and close-knit tree trunks in several places, but kept being compelled to turn back by impenetrable walls of vegetation.
Are they angry with me? he wondered. Perhaps the Taaweh had decided he was no longer suitable for whatever they’d chosen him to do. The thought saddened him, but if it meant he could be with Sael, perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad.
/> Not that his bastard of a father won’t try to prevent that.
He was contemplating the thought of returning to Harleh when Koreh became aware of a soft, barely perceptible sound, a bit like the rustling of leaves in the wind. As he listened more intently, however, he realized it was the sound of voices whispering. Koreh couldn’t make out what they were saying, but a feeling of calm came over him, accompanied by the feeling he’d been trying too hard. Getting into the city, he realized, wasn’t difficult. It was easy. So easy that the only way to do it was to allow it to happen without trying to make it happen.
Koreh stepped forward into the brush and continued walking without hesitation. Leaves brushed against his body and face, but strangely no branches or tree trunks hampered his progress. It wasn’t as if the brush and tree branches parted for him, exactly, but somehow he was going through them now, effortlessly.
As he continued walking, the leaves over his head gradually gave way and the sky seemed to open upon stone spires and towers, so high above him that it made Koreh dizzy to look up at them. Thousands of windows, each glowing warmly from within, made the towers sparkle in the bluish night. Closer to the ground, the buildings were so thickly covered in vines it was hard to distinguish them from the trees and bushes that flanked the stone walkways between them. Here and there he could see fountains of water erupting from the ground to fall into stone basins, and waterfalls tumbling down the sides of some of the buildings.
But the Taaweh were nowhere to be seen. The city appeared to be empty, though it didn’t feel empty. Koreh could sense the city was alive despite its outward appearance.
There was an elegantly carved stone archway in front of him that seemed to have no functional purpose other than to mark an entrance to the city, perhaps. It wasn’t part of a surrounding wall, but simply stood by itself along the path. Yet once Koreh stepped through, it was as if something in his vision cleared, and suddenly the city walkways were teeming with men, women, and children, moving more quickly than Koreh had ever seen the Taaweh move before, apart from in battle. It wasn’t as if they were anxious or panicky, just… purposeful.
“Iinyeh,” a man’s voice said, and Koreh turned to see one of the Taaweh approaching him. “You have been expected.”
“I wasn’t sure I was still welcome,” Koreh replied self-consciously.
The man smiled at him. “All are welcome here, in their own time. That you are here before your time is unusual, but the Iinu Shaa has requested your presence. Please, come this way.”
The Taaweh turned and headed into the heart of the city. Koreh once again found himself baffled by his hosts, but he followed, wondering when his “time” was supposed to be, and what would happen when it did come.
He caught up to his guide and asked, “What is everybody doing?” He gestured to indicate the unusual level of commotion around them.
The Taaweh replied, “Gyishya has been reborn, and the Taaweh have been called to return to it. It is time to prepare for war.”
“War?” Koreh asked. “With the Stronni?”
“Yes.”
Koreh pictured Harleh Plain being ravaged by fire hurled from the heavens, as the Stronni struck at their ancient enemies; he saw Harleh Keep engulfed in flame. And his mind rebelled at the thought of Sael in the midst of it. Could the Taaweh protect him—protect Harleh—from that? Had Koreh, and through him, Sael, chosen their side of this battle wisely?
Having no answers to these questions, and knowing his host could not provide them, Koreh remained silent and followed the Taaweh into the city. His fate, and Sael’s, would be revealed soon enough.
Perhaps too soon.
Coming Soon from JAMES ERICH
A thousand years ago, two rival factions of gods, the Stronni and Taaweh, nearly destroyed the Kingdom of Dasak in their war for power. Then the Taaweh vanished and the Stronni declared victory.
Now, tensions between the human emperor and his regent are at an all-time high. The regent’s son, apprentice mage Sael dönz Menaük, has fled the capital with his master and united with a vagabond named Koreh, but assassins dog their footsteps. The future is more uncertain than ever.
Since the Taaweh city of Gyishya reappeared, the mages of Harleh have weakened, cut off from the source of their power. Sael and his father struggle to keep their respective cities from crumbling under the strain or being destroyed by the gods. Then Koreh learns of a dangerous Taaweh plan to rescue their queen from the Stronni—a plan only Koreh and Sael can execute.
But they may not get a chance. In Harleh Valley, a young man named Donegh pieces together what happened. Intent, he makes his way through an increasingly alien landscape to carry out his mission: assassinate the Dekan of Harleh, Sael dönz Menaük.
http://www.harmonyinkpress.com
JAMES ERICH has had a passion for young adult fiction since he was a teenager himself. In his high school and college years, he was saddened to see how few positive stories with gay protagonists there were, but is delighted to see that changing. James lives in the wilds of Raymond, New Hampshire with his husband and their black Lab, Kumar, the Mighty Duck Hunter (who has never actually caught a duck, but has high hopes).
Visit James on his blog: http://jameserich.com/.
From HARMONY INK PRESS
http://www.harmonyinkpress.com
Table of Contents
Copyright
GLOSSARY
NOTES
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
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 21
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Epilogue
Coming Soon from James Erich
From Harmony Ink Press
