by David Wind
She followed the fresh, cool water and, rising with it, she sped upward to the surface of Nevaeh, where it opened into a woodlands river for a thousand yards before dipping back into the earth. The water’s path led her to mountains hundreds of miles away. When the churning and now raging river disappeared into the base of a large mountain, she was carried upward by the underground river to rise lava-like in a volcano shaft until she reached the snow covered peak and emerged into the moonlit night.
Bodiless yet fully aware of herself and everything around her, Areenna saw the edge of the world from the mountain top and the first bands of day beginning to chase the black sky away.
She floated calmly above the mountain, staring in the direction of Tolemac, and breathing in the feeling of wonder before her—until a hand fell on her shoulder.
The vision shattered, she gasped and spun, only to find herself face to face with Mikaal.
“Pardon, Princess, I meant not to startle you.”
Areenna took a slow calming breath. “I was…. It is all right,” she whispered.
“You were elsewhere,” Mikaal said, concern obvious in his gold-flecked gray eyes.
“I was…in the mountains,” she said and then let a low laugh slip from between her lips.
Mikaal smiled. “Was it a good trip?”
Areenna laughed. “A trip by mind only…but it was such a journey…” Her last words were barely audible.
“You were strong this evening. I have never seen such a thing before. What you did…”
“We, Mikaal. Without your willing help I could not—”
His brows knit. “You have no idea do you?”
“Idea?”
“I did not push myself to you, I…I wouldn’t know how. It was you. You brought me into your mind.”
“That’s not possible,” she whispered.
His eyes searched her face for a moment before he smiled. “Then the impossible has happened. Areenna, I am not unhappy by what was done. It felt right, and you took nothing for which I would have withheld permission.”
She closed her eyes and thought back to the moment she’d felt Mikaal’s presence. She replayed it within her mind’s eye and found the exact moment she thought he’d joined her in the battle. She had reached out to him and he had opened himself to her. It was not so much a matter of her taking from him; rather, it was a gift offered freely.
“I see it now,” she nodded. “We must be careful about this.”
Mikaal nodded. “Of course we must be careful not to show what is happening.”
Areenna shook her head, “No, it is more. We must be careful together. This is a dangerous thing we do. It can become a trap for us—a dependence that weakens us.”
“That would not be possible. You are too strong.”
Areenna held back a startled laugh. “Too strong? I am an eighteen year old novice—nothing more. We must be careful!”
“As you wish,” he said. He placed his hands on her shoulders. “But Areenna, what happened between us, twice now, I sense it is right. And your age has no meaning for what you do or who you are.”
She stared at him, his hands were firm and warm even through the material of her robe. “We must give ourselves time,” she said, turning from beneath his hands. “Will I see you at the morning meal?”
Mikaal smiled at her. “You may count on it.” With that he departed the garden, leaving Areenna alone once again. She sank to a carved stone bench and again gazed deeply at the fountain’s freely falling water.
What else have I gained from today’s battles?
<><><>
The southern coast of Nevaeh was warm this morning, the waves crashing against the high palisades echoed throughout the coast. Three thousand years after the fall of the nuclear bombs in Europe and South America, the Southern and Southeastern coastlines resembled nothing of their origins. There were no expanses of beach, rather the shifting of the earth’s plates from the massive explosions caused earthquakes thousands of miles from the explosions and had brought enormous changes to the coastlines, which now resembled the high palisades of the Northeastern coast.
And within the haze of the forbidden areas, which led to the palisades, were the wastelands where those who chose life without a dominion or who turned from the rule of Nevaeh and its domains came for shelter. They neither felt nor sensed the darkness that was part of this neglected land, nor did they feel the dark presence infiltrate their minds. If they had, they would have thrown themselves from the highest cliffs, for the creature dwelling there controlled all.
But now this evil entity, the body of which used to be a woman of power, was recovering from the battle she had fought in distant Tolemac. While she mentally licked the wounds inflicted by the two she had battled outside and then inside of Tolemac, her misshapen limbs—one of which was but a remnant of an arm—trembled with rage while she stood above the body of the King she had taken and replaced with the clone delivered by her masters.
She placed a twisted hand upon her breast as she continued to glare at Olrac’s body. She had spent years studying the King named Olrac, learning his mannerisms—the way he talked; the way he thought; and, when she was ready, she had awakened the duplicate and trained it perfectly.
Every bone in Olrac’s body was broken, shattered by the thing’s insane rage, for she knew her masters across the ocean would extract a terrible penalty for her failure. But until such an event happened, she was determined to succeed, no matter the cost. She had no choice, for she had been created with only one purpose in mind, to conquer and subjugate every living soul coming before her.
She turned from the dead king’s body to look north, toward Tolemac and the hated Roth. And then one of the last living remnants of the Circle’s dark powers in Nevaeh turned and went into the cave.
<><><>
The council ended at midafternoon when the Kings reaffirmed their treaties with each other and the rulers of the dominions prepared to leave. Only the delegation from Freemorn remained. After the other processions had departed Tolemac, Areenna, and Queen Enaid left the balcony and descended to the courtyard.
From there, they mounted their waiting kraals and departed the keep through the North gate, and rode toward a secluded place within the surrounding woodlands. Three quarters of an hour after passing through the gates of Tolemac, Enaid turned off the main roadway and onto a seldom used path. Areenna was taken by the beauty of the area.
A hundred yards further along the path their way was blocked by a solid and impenetrable wall of trees and vines so thickly interlaced, no light shone through. It was as if the vegetation had been painted upon a canvass.
Enaid halted her kraal and dismounted. Irii, her white gorlon came next to her. Taking the kraal’s reins, she tied it to the bole of a young pine and motioned for Areenna to do the same.
With their mounts secured, Enaid led Areenna to a spot a dozen feet away. She stepped forward and disappeared into the solid wall of vines and trees with Irii, at her side. Areenna stared at the living wall, drew in a breath, and followed, unsure of exactly what she was doing. The wall of vines stopped her.
“See yourself walking through the vines,” instructed Enaid in a gentle voice from the other side.
Closing her eyes and following her mentor’s instructions, she built a picture of herself walking through the vines and then followed her mind’s picture. One deep breath later she stepped through the barricade and opened her eyes.
And gasped. She stood in a field of grass and flowers, surrounded by a circle of trees, their branches and vines as thickly interwoven within as they had been on the other side. To her right was an oval pond, perhaps thirty yards across, its water sparkled iridescently in the midday sun. Gaalrie flew above the meadow.
“Wonderful isn’t it?” Enaid asked with a hint of a smile.
Arms outstretched, Areenna spun in a circle. For the first time since arriving in Tolemac, her mind and body were calm and relaxed. Both the evil she had fought and the hau
nting story of Roth’s origins were gone from her thoughts. Completing the circle, she faced Enaid and whispered, “Magnificent.”
“This used to be part of Brumwall, my father’s realm. When the ten agreed to be governed by a High King, I made sure Roth annexed this part of Brumwall into Tolemac’s region.” Enaid paused for a breath.
“When I was barely seventeen, my mother taught me how to create a haven. At first I didn’t understand why I would need such a place, but as time progressed and I found myself in deep battle at my mate’s side, I learned the true purpose of my haven.
Enaid reached out and stroked the younger woman’s cheek. She graced Areenna with a warm and maternal smile. “Its sole purpose is to renew oneself after battle, or when you are tired and weary of things weighing upon you from day to day life. It is the one place no man or woman can enter without permission, and not even a woman of power can enter here unbidden.”
“You will teach me?” Areenna asked.
“When we have the time, but for now I fear we will be much too busy. In the meantime, I have set my haven to respond to you should you need it.”
Areenna was overwhelmed by the gift. “I…”
“Hush, disrobe and join me in the pond,” Enaid said and stepped out of her clothing and walked to the edge of the pond where she dove into the waiting waters and disappeared. She surfaced in the center of the pond and treaded water while she watched Areenna follow her, observing her carefully.
The young woman was tall, her body muscular yet feminine with full breasts and gently flaring hips. Her thighs and calves were perfectly formed, the long muscles beneath her skin shifted smoothly with each step. Softly nut shaded skin gleamed in the sunlight, a stark contrast to her long pale blonde hair.
Is she ready? Enaid knew the answer, but wished it were not so. Areenna would be ready when the time came, not because of any training, but because there would be no choice. Without her, not just Tolemac, but all of Nevaeh would fall. Without her and Mikaal, Enaid amended, understanding the bond created between them yesterday, and she was afraid.
The instant she entered the cool water of the pond, Areenna felt a tingle race through her. When she broke the surface, she gasped for the second time in five minutes. The water affected her as much as the entrance into Enaid’s haven.
“I… This is the same water as the fountain in Tolemac,” she said, remembering her mind trip through the underground river to the mountain top in the north.
Enaid’s brow furrowed. “How could you know?”
“I could feel it. How did you call it here?”
“With a formula my mother taught me. It is called a divining. In times past when there was drought, this formula was used to find water and draw it to the surface.” Enaid paused to stare openly at Areenna. “I knew not where this underground stream came from, only that it was there.”
“It comes from north and west. I was there today.”
“I knew I was right,” Enaid whispered aloud without realizing it.
“About what?”
“I will explain, but not today. Come, we have much to talk about,” she ordered and swam to the edge of the pond, her toes digging into the smooth silt bottom. Turning to Areenna, she leaned her back against the moss on the side of the pond and said, “In the coming months much will be asked of you. I sense the evil from across the seas is readying to attack. Yesterday was a test of our strengths and weaknesses.”
“A test? If it was only a test, what more can we expect?”
Enaid’s eyes narrowed. “Everything! Anything! If you try to ‘expect’ something specific, you will not be prepared to face the reality. Rather than expect, be prepared. Be ready for anything at any moment of the day or night. Be ready awake or asleep. Allow your senses to become aware at all times. Roth once told me of an old soldier’s expression from where he came. ‘Expect the unexpected and be always prepared’.”
“I don’t understand. How can I be prepared when I sleep?”
“Have you never been awakened by a sense of something not right?” Enaid asked as she sat up.
Areenna nodded.
“Then you must remember the feeling and use it.” Enaid placed her forefinger on the very center of Areenna’s forehead. “Use your powers. Concentrate on my finger and remember the feeling of being awakened.”
Doing as Enaid asked, she thought back to a night a few weeks earlier and drew upon the feeling that had awakened her. Yes, Enaid whispered within her mind. Now hold onto that and build it thusly, she instructed, whispering a formula she used to set this sensory guard.
“Good,” Enaid said aloud. “And now we must speak of Mikaal.”
“Mikaal,” Areenna echoed, making a puzzled face, a slight shade of red deepening her tanned mocha skin.
Enaid laughed so suddenly her gorlon rose and growled at the trees before it. “Easy,” she whispered to it. The gorlon mewed gently.
“Why do you laugh?” Areenna asked.
“My apologies. I…” Enaid could not contain herself and started to laugh again. When she finished, and had taken several deep breaths. “You do not know, do you?”
“I don’t understand.”
Enaid drew Areenna to her. “I know you don’t, sweet one, but you will. We must train Mikaal,” she said as she released the younger woman, saying only part of what she knew would one day occur.
Caught off guard by Enaid’s statement, Areenna said, “Train him? How?”
A frown wrinkled Enaid’s brow. “I’m not sure. There has never been a man with abilities. You have seen into him. You will have to decide how.”
“That’s not possible. I’m not fully trained myself.”
“Ah, dear Areenna, now you know the true secret of us women. None of us is ever fully trained. We learn as we age. We find our abilities and our boundaries—as you will one day. After a certain point only you can train yourself.”
Areenna held her mentor’s gaze for several seconds before lowering her eyes and saying, “You need to know I can not only sense his powers.” She raised her eyes to Enaid. “But when we combine, it…it is unlike anything I have ever experienced. I have merged with Mikaal twice and each time my power…”
Enaid waited for perhaps a dozen heartbeats, but when Areenna did not finish, and with no little trepidation, she asked, “What happened to your power?”
“It became stronger. Not just during the fight, but it has stayed so.”
Enaid stared at the young woman, whose hair rippled in shining waves across her shoulders and young breasts before it dipped into the water. Enaid’s heart began to pound as her mother’s words came back to her. ‘One day there will be child who will be so powerful nothing will be able to stand in her way. But before this can be, there must be another child, a complement to the first.’
Enaid had struggled for years with this, wondering and questioning who the complement would be. She had known at the moment of Areenna’s birth that she was the child her mother had spoken of, but she had never expected the complement to be Mikaal. How could I have been so blind? Yet, from deep within her subconscious came the awareness of what she had always known.
“Your power grew as it should,” Enaid whispered. Then she shook off of her thoughts and smiled. “Come.”
When they climbed out of the water, Enaid led them to an area of thickly carpeted grass, where she lay down and motioned Areenna to do the same. With the sun drying them, Enaid closed her eyes and told Areenna to do the same.
“You have done much these past few days,” Enaid said. “How feel you about what happened?”
Areenna’s breath slid from her on a long sigh. “Yes, a lot has happened. I feel…good about what was accomplished. But for those things, the clone, the first wraith and that…that flying monstrosity, I feel only disgust.”
“It is natural, but it is also one of their defenses—to make you not want to touch their minds. Yet you must delve deeply into the feelings you had when you fought these things because within them
are the keys to defeating those who will follow.”
“What worse could there be?” Areenna asked. A second later she was answered by a mind picture of a twisted, ugly shape in horrendous and sickly proportions. The revulsion and disgust she’d felt in her earlier battles returned, only worse this time.
“No,” she whispered fiercely, shaking her head and fighting to cast the vision from her mind.
“Yes!” Enaid half shouted. “This is part of what you will be facing—a small part! Stop fighting and see the pictures in your mind or you will be ill prepared to do battle with this black hearted she-snuck, this…this slithering poison fanged bitch!”
Areenna stopped fighting and let Enaid’s mind settle within hers. ‘Feel it, smell her rotting flesh, listen to her insane thoughts and learn who this enemy is—watch!’ Enaid commanded.
Areenna was sucked into the scene Enaid created. She began to experience strange and dreamlike sensations. Instinctively, Areenna knew she was seeing something from the past. Then, all thought faded and the picture formed into a smooth flow of Enaid’s memories.
“Yes, child,” came Enaid’s far away whisper.
Lost in the memory, Areenna watched Roth stand at the head of his army, splendid in his unusual armor and holding his sword in a two handed grip, fighting as many of the enemy as he could reach while his troops engaged the dark army. The fighting was intense and the darkness was pushing the Nevaens back. She watched the dark army move in a pincer-like attack in an effort to cut Roth off from the main body of his army.
Then she saw Enaid, who had been standing off to the side, walk calmly through the fighting mass, her hands weaving patterns in the air, sending formulas outward and closing in toward her king. Areenna saw silver streams of light emanate from Enaid’s palms, pulsing bands flowing in ever changing patterns, and watched the dark army part before her even as their soldiers surrounded Roth.
Enaid reached him and together they fought the black horde. Piles of the black dead grew about them, rivers of blood flowed. Roth’s sword never slowed as it met armor, slicing through it as if into flesh and bone. Enaid’s streaming light was no different than Roth’s sword, cutting through the enemy troops, three and four at a time until the fighting ceased.
