Daughter of the Red Dawn (The Lost Kingdom of Fallada)

by Alicia Michaels

  The Lost Kingdom of Fallada

  Alicia Michaels

  Book One:

  Daughter of the Red Dawn

  Daughter of the Red Dawn

  Copyright 2012 by Alicia Michaels

  Published by Anchor Group

  Edited by Melissa Ringsted (There For You Book Editing)

  Cover Design by Larry Stephens (Imagine Images Photograph & Graphic Design)

  All rights reserved. Published by Anchor Group. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. Please respect the work of this author by not copying or reproducing their work.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, places, or people living or dead is coincidental.

  The author acknowledges the trademark status and trademark of products or people used in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication use of these trademarks is not associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  Dedicated To:

  Mary Ann Stephens, for introducing me to the wonderful world of fantasy fiction by sending me a box set of The Chronicles of Narnia when I was a pre-teen. Because of your encouragement regarding reading and education, I became a lover of books and the written word. When most aunts gave their nieces toys as gifts, you always gave me books and I will always remember you for that.

  R.I.P.

  Special Thanks to:

  Karen Luellen for your awesome encouragement and critiques.

  Prologue

  These are dark times in the land of Fallada and I fear that they will only continue to grow darker. When we erected the wall between our realm and the world of man, we could never have foreseen this. Had I known, I would have destroyed the evil that is Eranna when I had the chance. But alas, dear friend, she has grown too powerful and now only the return of those we have lost will even the score.

  Forgive me for allowing my thoughts to run away with me when we’ve only just met. My name is Adrah and I am Queen of the Fae folk of Fallada. I have lived for thousands of years, and during that time I watched our world fall into utter ruin.

  We lived in harmony with man once; it was such a wonderful and peaceful time. Endroth, our great king, was the perfect ruler. Born of a human man and Faerie woman, he understood both worlds well. All he ever really wanted was for both lands to exist together in peace, and for a time they did. This could not last, as the world of men began to change and evolve. Their greed and violent nature turned them into our enemies instead of our friends and we soon found ourselves in the midst of an unwanted war.

  King Endroth’s heart was heavy at the thought of obliterating the world of men. While it was certainly within the power of the people of Goldun, the northern region of Fallada where Faeries dwell, we were in agreement with Endroth that it went against our morals to do such a thing. We are a peaceful people, and wanted nothing to do with the destructive and corrupted legacy of man.

  And so, it was with a heavy heart that King Endroth charged me with a most monumental task. Instead of going to war with man, we settled on separating ourselves from them forever. For months we stood on the border between our world and theirs, our arms outstretched as we used our magic to create the enchanted wall that now bars them from entering, or even seeing, Fallada. As if that had not been hard enough, we were forced to strike our history from their memory, ensuring that contact between us and them could never again be achieved. This occurred in the year of 1868.

  My friend, I would love to tell you that this is the end of my story. I would love to tell you that Fallada continued on in peace and that our troubles were no more, but it is not so. Soon after the wall was erected, the stirrings of evil echoed through the West. Queen Eranna of the icy region of Mollac was its cause.

  Eranna has always been discontent with her lot in life. Being queen of Mollac was never enough for her, and she fancied herself above those who ruled the other three corners of Fallada, including myself.

  She is, I’ll admit, the most beautiful woman in all of Fallada, and well she knows it. Her vanity and discontent are, I believe, what drove her to an interest in black magic. It began innocently enough I suppose, for she only wanted to learn how to keep her youth and beauty. While the royals of Fallada are not immortal—unlike the Fae who have everlasting life--they have long lives reaching at least five to six hundred years. This was not enough for Eranna, and so began a life of covetousness. Once youth and beauty were attained, Eranna began dabbling in spells and witchcraft. She also spent years learning to manipulate and bring others under her will.

  She was not yet strong enough to overcome the mind of King Endroth, who she had always wished would take her for a wife after her own husband died of suspicious causes. The great King had always mourned the loss of his first wife and had vowed not to take another. In her conceit, Eranna thought that her beauty would be enough to turn the King’s head, but alas it was not. By then Eranna’s goal was clear; she wanted ultimate power and control. She wanted to be queen of all Fallada.

  Forgive me, I am running away from the point once again aren’t I? We Fae tend to take our time with things, as we are immortal and have all the time in the world to spare. But you have not, have you? You wish to know what this darkness is that I spoke of in the great land I call home. Very well, I shall tell you.

  Eranna wanted the high throne, and she wanted the adoration and worship of every man, woman, and child in Fallada as well as the human world. Her mind became more and more deluded for every year that she spent practicing the dark arts, until eventually she was flung completely into madness. She would not rest until Fallada, and Earth, were hers.

  When Endroth gathered the kings and queens of every region of Fallada to his council, Eranna was the most vocal against the building of the enchanted wall.

  “We need only to demonstrate our superiority over them!” she’d exclaimed. “We are strong enough to rule them, to make them our eternal slaves!”

  King Endroth would hear none of it, though, and the wall was erected.

  Eranna retreated into the West quietly but seemingly defeated. I am ashamed to say that I did not see her next move coming. All of my strength and power were so focused upon building the wall, that I did not keep a watchful eye on her corner of the kingdom, which is one of my many jobs as the Fae queen. What I did not see was that Eranna had taken Witches and Sorcerers unto her and was gathering power. The vain woman wanted no barrier between herself and her ambitions; she would not tolerate any perceived threat to her greatness.

  Not long after the wall had been constructed, Eranna gathered all of Fallada’s princesses—there are seven in all—and sent them away into the world of men. Two there were from her own home of Mollac, one of them birthed from her own womb. Two more each were taken from the southern desert region, Damu, and the Eastern underwater kingdom of Zenun. The seventh was the only daughter of King Endroth and heir to the throne of Fallada. Not only were these children a threat to Eranna because of their beauty; they were a threat to her coveted power as well.

  Never has such a tragedy befallen Fallada; seven young girls, princesses, lost to us forever. King Endroth fell into a state of morning so severe that I fear he will never come out of it. The four regions have become distrustful of one another, each blaming the other for the loss of the royal daughters. Endroth could put an end to all if he would
only make the effort, but you must understand, my friend, that his sadness is great. It has fallen to me to see to the welfare of Fallada, as Goldun is the only region of Fallada not at war with the others. They turn to me for guidance and counsel; alas, there is only so much I can do.

  It is because of this that I have had to turn to the scribes known as the Brothers Grimm. Perhaps you’ve heard of them and their fantastic tales? Of course I am acquainted with them; why wouldn’t I be? Before the walls were built, they spent almost all of their time in Fallada, scribbling down tales of their encounters within our borders. It was their choice to remain in our land when the walls were built. King Endroth allowed this because he had quite a soft spot in his heart for the brothers and knew that their souls truly did thrive within the boundaries of our great kingdom.

  What have they to do with what’s happening now you ask? Well, I am just getting to that. When the princesses went missing and the Eastern, Western, and Southern corners of Fallada fell into chaos, I took it upon myself to bring Jacob and Willhelm to Goldun. Within the realm of the Faeries, they were each given a drink of the Elixir of Life, bestowing upon them immortality until such time as I supply them with the antidote. The men were old and feeble and I needed them alive and fresh. They alone hold the knowledge that is key to finding the girls.

  You see, when we created the wall, we also created a time gap that ensured even more separation between us and the human world. While the girls were taken from Fallada in the year 1868, I have estimated that they arrived in the world of men sometime in the 1990s. The girls, who had been between newborn and three years in age when taken, range anywhere in age from sixteen to twenty-one by now and will be hard to find.

  The Brothers Grimm are as dedicated to this cause as I am. They love Fallada as I do, and will not rest until it is returned to its former glory. For this to happen, they know, as well as I, the seven lost princesses must be found, returned to their homes, and Eranna must be destroyed.

  In the years since the disappearance of the girls, Eranna has grown in strength and power and has now captured King Endroth, whom she holds captive with her dark spells. She has erected a fortress impenetrable by Faeries and Fae magic and has partnered with her Witches and Sorcerers to create an army worthy of her vanity and conceit.

  Now, in our darkest hour, haste is needed. I have entrusted Jacob and Wilhelm with the task of finding the lost girls.

  How, you ask?

  Ah, we Fae are wise, perhaps because of the amount of time we have lived. While King Endroth did not ask it of me, I took it upon myself to install a portal within the wall. It is small and impenetrable to anyone that does not have the key. I myself wear this key upon my person at all times and have not let it from my sight in all of these years.

  Today is the first day that I will be making use of the portal, to send the brothers on their way. As they embark upon their journey I can only hope that all of my hopes aren’t for naught. The land of Goldun will never fall—the Fae are too powerful—but it would grieve me beyond all imaging if the rest of Fallada were lost to Eranna’s evil.

  And so, dear friend, we embark upon the dawn of our mission. Seven missing girls and not a clue to where any of them have been all this time. I can only keep my energies on shielding our comings and goings from the far-seeing eye of Eranna, and pray for an end to the blackness that is spreading out, even unto the far reaches of Fallada.

  ~*~

  Chapter One

  Twin Oaks, Texas

  Blades of tall grass swayed in the gentle Texas spring breeze. Wildflowers in shades of yellow, red, and orange blanketed the grassy field and bluebonnets covered the landscape in patches of deep lavender. The sun was high overhead in a cloudless sky, and the only movement besides the swaying grass was the figure of a lone girl wading through the foliage.

  Selena McKinley’s coppery red hair blew around her heart-shaped face. Her whiskey brown eyes, narrowed against the sun, gleamed from behind long bangs as she moved across the abandoned field she walked through every day on her way home from school. Selena always enjoyed her walks home because they were the only time she ever had to herself. Once at home she would have to endure her grandmother’s questions about school and Selena just didn’t feel like talking about that. Not today or any other day for that matter.

  At school she was often alone, but not in the way she would like. The eyes of the other kids were always on her and their whispers always just loud enough for Selena to hear. It didn’t matter that she kept to herself and never bothered anybody. It didn’t matter that she hardly ever raised her hand in class or called attention to herself by appearing too smart or too dumb. Her grades might be high but she didn’t flaunt her intelligence and she didn’t strive to be popular.

  None of that mattered, because as long as Selena could remember she’d been different from everyone else. She’d never seemed to find a place to fit in. She wasn’t a beauty queen, she wasn’t a nerd, and she wasn’t a skater, stoner, Goth, or prep. She wasn’t the cheerleader type and she’d never had a boyfriend. She wasn’t artistic and she couldn’t play an instrument. She wasn’t the class president or school council type either. While all of the other kids seemed to fit pretty nicely into each of these categories, Selena had never really found her place.

  The only thing that had ever brought her solace was her spot on the track team. She was the fastest girl on the team and was always chosen to run third leg in the relay. But even her athletic abilities hadn’t earned her very many friends and Selena still found herself sitting alone at lunchtime and without dates to school dances. There was Zoe, her best friend since Kindergarten, but no one else really. Except maybe the girls from the track team, but even they were standoffish around her.

  It was as if they knew, just like Selena did, that something was wrong with her.

  Screw them, she thought to herself as she adjusted the one strap of her messenger-style backpack and walked on. Only a few more weeks of school and I’m done with ole Dirtpatch, USA.

  Living in such a small town only made Selena more aware of just how awkward and different she was. In a town where the kids drove tractors, wore Levi’s, and listened to Trace Adkins, a girl who preferred Converse’s over Cowboy boots stood out like a sore thumb.

  She couldn’t wait to graduate, just one week before her eighteenth birthday. Selena’s earnings from her part-time job at Dairy Queen had been going into her savings account for years, and now she had more than enough to move away from Twin Oaks, Texas forever. She was hoping to start over in a place like Dallas or Houston, a place big enough for a girl like her to get lost in the crowd. With so many people around it would be awful hard for someone to feel out of place or abnormal.

  A sleek apartment, a car of her own, a steady job, and the freedom to do what she wanted to do would be more than enough for her.

  Although, she thought as she paused at the center of the field, I will miss one thing about Twin Oaks: wide, open spaces.

  She glanced around her one last time to ensure that no one was watching before taking off at a run. The grass bent beneath her sneakers and the wind whipped at her hair and filled her expanding lungs. She pumped her arms and willed her legs to go faster, barely cognizant of the blur that was Twin Oaks whizzing past her.

  A flock of birds sensed her approach and scattered, beating their wings frantically in an attempt to escape the whirlwind breezing through the field. When she finally skidded to a stop, she felt as she always did after a good run—cleansed and free. She couldn’t even cut loose like that on the track, afraid that someone would know just how fast she could run and turn her into a science experiment. She wasn’t foolish enough to think that showing people what she could really do would make them like her more. If anything, it would brand her a freak for the rest of her life.

  Unless Professor X and the other X-Men decided to make an appearance and offer her a place in their crew, Selena was on her own and probably the only person in the world with such a bizar
re talent. Even her grandmother, who’d raised her from infancy, didn’t know the truth.

  As Selena contemplated taking another lap around the field, she turned and found the lone figure of a boy standing at the edge of the meadow, which was ringed by cedar trees. Her eyes widened as she took him in from head to toe: impossibly black hair falling into his eyes, stony features, long legs, and slender form. In his skinny jeans, Converse sneakers, black t-shirt, and sleek sunglasses, he was unlike any other guy she’d ever seen in Twin Oaks, where Wranglers and large belt buckles were the dress code.

  He raised his chin slightly in acknowledgement and Selena stood rooted to the spot, unable to move or even utter a sound as the boy stepped into the tall grass. The sun glinted off of his black hair, giving it a slightly bluish tinge, and his dark sunglasses mirrored her reflection to her as he closed the distance between them. The grass seemed to part to make way for him, and Selena couldn’t make her legs function as he approached.

  He is strange, she thought as he stopped in front of her with his hands in his pockets. But strange was good. It meant that she was now one of two people that didn’t belong in Twin Oaks.

  “Hey,” he said.

  One word, but Selena couldn’t help but notice the silky smooth tone of his voice. He smiled, showcasing a row of perfectly straight, white teeth. The canines were a bit on the long side but she liked them. She also liked his pale blue eyes, which he revealed by pushing his glasses up into his hair.

  “Hi,” she answered back breathlessly. She tried to smile, but her lips wouldn’t move. She fiddled with the strap of her backpack instead.

  “I’m Titus,” he said, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet.

  “Selena,” she answered.